Mac Forums

[Wiglaf]

What's the deal over there? Why are they gasping for air?

Civ2 and Alpha Centauri are multi platform games, sold well on apple machines, etc. So why is the discussion in the mac forums close to non existant? Sure there are MANY more PC apolyton users, but I'm sure a few hundred own a mac...by that logic, shouldn't the mac forums get more than a few posts a day?

Civ2 and alpha centauri on the pc are very close to their mac counterparts, but that's not to say mac'ers don't have their own thing to talk about. Apple Glitches, patches, release dates, and just the sense of a community that runs the same general OS are all things unique to the mac sections. What gives? And I sure hope the mac userbase on Apolyton isn't ten people...

[heretk]

I hear ya. As a Mac owner, I have to surf the PC gaming community to find quality (and active) forums. Most of the issues are the same, but Macs do have specific issues. I think the reason that the Mac forum is so slow is that most of them are where I am.

Just curious, how many Mac SMAC-heads are out there??

[Wiglaf]

Hmm

Not many.

Heretk and other potential macers, please don't boycott the apple forums because they're slow. Bringing up topics in a quiet forum may seem pointless, but you'll find many latent posters are there to help - smack, myself, macuser, smash, etc.

Even PCers could ask the occasional question - differences, etc. That forum needs a jumpstart. If it doesn't get it now or soon, it's gone for good.

[Smash]

Generally speaking,we don't need any help,thus, we have no questions

..and we don't encounter many of the tech problems that pc people have to life with

[TCO]

I've played civ2 on both platforms and they're amazing similar...and who says Macs don't crash? What are you smoking? I've been there, had that happen about once per day...

[Rasputin]

why separate???

do we still need separate places for PC users and Mac users to go, wouldnt it be better just to post together in one place.

[Wiglaf]

Mac users clogging up the pc forums with questions pc users can't even answer would be pretty annoying, wouldn't it? Although, if the mac forums stay as quiet as they are now, combining the two sections wouldn't be a bad option.

I'm more interested in whether or not the mac forums are so slow because of the lack of userbase, or the hesitation to post in a less frequented forum.

[MacUser]

It's not a bad as it seems.

You have to remember what prompted myself and others to beg MarkG and DanQ for a Mac CivII Forum. Back in the days of the MGE 1.0, there were NUMEROUS problems, goofy crashes and a horrible void were news of Patches should be! Initially, I hasseled Romulo (the initial "web master" for the Mac pages and Beta Tester for MGE (he's in the credits!) - note: my perspective) to post news and updates about the patches, but in his own words "...I really lost interest in Civilization."

Not long after the first Patch, the Mac Forum was born with me as Mod and wanna-be web master. I should note that there was some opposition in the General CivII Forum because the bulk of all posts will apply to either platform. The arguement for the Mac Forum was for Mac specific issues, ie bugs and Mac OS specific problems. Due to to the valiant efforts of Brian Neese (former MacSoft coding god) who wrote the patches for MGE, there are no longer any serious bugs left to cry about (well, none that could be patched without scuttling Windows compatiblity)! So in one sense, the lack of posts is testament to the patches and current stability!

What about the Mac-Civ ACS Community? Well, I think that there are a lot of Mac folks out there who are active posters on the other CivII Forums. To increase the visibility of Mac users, we could try some kind of tournment with Mac users, but really anyone could play; the game isn't platform dependent - thus the issue.

edit that incredibly illiterate last sentence (I really don't know what the hell I was trying to say )! GAWD! IT WAS QUOTED!!!

[Wiglaf]

Re: MacUser

So in one sense, the lack of posts is testament to the patches and current stability!

Good point. Still, bugs aren't the only differences. Questions about other mac games relating to civ, chatter about Aspyr, Macsoft, Westlake, etc, release dates..all belong in a separate forum.

To increase the visibility of Mac users, we could try some tourniment times things of Mac users, but really anyone could play; the game isn't platform dependent - thus the issue.

New users almost never come to the mac forums, yet Apolyton gets 30-40 of them a week. I think the answer lies in convincing new posters to check out applicable sections, whether by email, announcements, news items, links, I dunno. I'm not the brains here. I am convinced, though, that if every reasonable option were exhausted, the forum would get more traffic.



And why don't pc users check it out a little? Why not a pc vs mac players tournament? That could work. Sure the game's similar, use it to your advantage. One thing's for sure, though, a jumpstart would be just the thing macers need to have a posting environment somewhere on the net, as heretk alluded to.

[MacUser]

I'm continuing this discussion in theMac/PC Apolytoners Thread in the (surprize ) Civ2-Macintosh Forum. I figure we can do a little brainstroming there!