Uglypimp

@djblewis It isn't that huge of a deal to re-write Direct X calls to Open GL. Direct X provides hooks into common functions that Open GL provides as well. The main pain-in-the-rear is bug regressing the new calls and ensuring you removed all previous hooks to Direct X.

Bioware, of course, could take the easy route and just emulate Direct X, but the performance will be dismal considering the system requirements of SWTOR.

@Riseyra You can use Bootcamp, however, the drivers Apple provides are old and sometimes incompatible with patches/updates. This occurs on the Mac as well but the developers are generally more cognizant of this issue and tend to build around these issues.

There is also a huge group of Mac owners who simply don't know about Bootcamp or how to install/use it (despite the ease-of-use).

@emperorzeroxx Macs account for 23% of the PC market. That is nearly 1 out of 4 computer users. Not all are gaming capable, but people tend to forget most PCs aren't either. That is a large market that is growing at an incredible rate (read any Mac sales forecast and you'd be hard pressed not to agree).

@claytondora Dragon Age 2 and Jade Empire would like a word with you.

@(Unverified) Shhh. Pointing out Massively's flavor of the month, bandwagon writing practices is likely to get you shunned by the regular posters who fully support the practice as long as it's the game they're playing at that particular moment. If it's not then more power to you!

But really, there is no other site on the planet that milks a subject like Massively. Considering the extreme lack of interesting news in the MMORPG world though you can hardly blame them. Still, it makes you wonder if this site is even worth reading each day considering their often microscopic viewpoint on whatever is going to generate views/flamewars.

Listen, this isn't a Call of Duty or some other game where we can easily judge each others' performance by Kill/Death ratio or scoreboards. Effectiveness lies obscured by dice rolls. It may not matter for a dungeon/flashpoint group (honestly, I think parsers should be disabled for anything other than raiding or practicing) but it absolutely will matter for a raid experience where a boss has been tuned to be beaten by a specific DPS minimum.

That minimum is set by the DEV TEAM, NOT the players. If you're going to complain about anything try aiming your disgust at the developers rather than the player-base who are simply enforcing the DPS minimums the devs implement.

If you don't like having your DPS judged in raids, complain to the developers about adding some encounters which don't enforce set DPS minimums (i.e. LFR in WoW). This will at least allow people who can't meet those minimums a chance to see the content.

@John Z You've got to understand every single game through any console owner (Microsoft, Sony or Nintendo) must be submitted to an internal testing team run by the manufacturer.

If game breaking bugs are found the title is rejected and must wait a certain duration to be submitted. If you fail this certification multiple times (due to "show stoppers") your game is refused a release, which incentivizes developers to get it right the first time.

Nintendo is in the stone age with this stuff. Patches rarely are issued to address game stopping bugs when it comes to third or first party titles as most of this stuff is caught before release. The true reason Nintendo doesn't allow patches is because they did not want to invest in the infrastructure to support it. It costs money, man power and time to do it right (e.g. Microsoft & Sony) and Nintendo has very little incentive. Considering their core audience is people who don't care about patches/DLC to begin with it's probably a wise move on their part.

@(Unverified) RIFT has no where near that player population. Last estimate was 100-200k, which is still respectable.

@(Unverified) I think real id is one of the things they really needed in the game from the get-go. People have tons of alts and being able to contact them at any time just to chat or join up to queue is great.

@jimr9999us I wish it was the same for me. Lucas has completely trashed the entire series with the prequels. Star Wars died to me as a franchise as soon as the Phantom Menace hit theaters :(