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Tuesday, September 14, 2010

The ultimate horor of gaming - games no longer compatable with Windows machines

Ok. I know there are a lot of gamers who use Macs, and I know I will be spammed, flamed, and smeared by Mac fanboys, but I don't care, because I now have comment moderation and if you can't be reasonable, it's better not to comment at all.

Now... Back on topic.

What I'm about to say will both enrage and excite Mac fanboys and sadden traditional PC gamers. When I say PC, I'm referring to both Windows and Linux powered computers, more often called IBM compatible PCs. I'm including Linux in this because the only way I know that Linux users can gain access to non Linux games is through WINE (WINE Is Not an Emulator).

I was playing Team Fortress 2 on my Windows 7 AND Ubuntu 10.04 powered Gateway PC when the server I was on, HKCentral TF2 Newbies Only #2, "crashed". I use crashed in quotes because in reality, the server was still online but most of the users clients crashed. I was lucky enough to disconnect before my computer was damaged, but others were not. Two members were still online. I can confirm that they were not bots. HKCentral doesn't use bots on empty servers. I logged back in. The two users left had the earbuds unlockable - the one thing that shows that a player is a Mac user. there were only two players on the server who had them before the server crashed.

Why would the PCs experience the effects of a server crash when the Macs didn't? I know TF2, CS:S, and other source based games are undergoing an experimental phase during which players are the captive beta testers, but if they weren't due to compatibility issues, wouldn't they be global and non-platform specific?

I have a theory. I know it sounds crazy, but it's just a theory and I can't prove it yet. I'm not saying it's fact.

These experimental updates might be designed to cause the game to crash on systems other than Mac OS X, in order to make the myth that Macs never crash seem true.

I know two Mac users, and they swear by their Macs blindly. I asked one of them to try Ubuntu, but she refused, saying that it would be too hard to learn how to use and that it would get viruses. I use Ubuntu myself as a backup OS, and I have had fewer issues with it than even the tried and true Windows XP, and it feels easier to navigate than even Windows 7.

I worry that Valve has been enthralled to the monopolistic entity known as Apple.

As I said before, is it really capitalism without competition? Can you call it a free market if there is only one supplier in an industry, whether if it is the government or not?

As I write this, I add yet another enemy to my "book of grudges", as it would be called in Warhammer.

I hope to resolve these grudges before the end of my life.

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About Me

Sean McCartin, or 40KEndgame as he is known online as and perfers to be called on the internet, is a High School Senior with more than enough experience in science and engineering and a talent for debate and negotiations. He has also competed in two national level RC racing events, the most recent being the Futaba Nitro Challenge. On 7/28/2010, he caught a 7 foot Sailfish while fishing on a charter boat named the Whipsaw off the coast of Wrightsville Beach, NC.