Valve announced on Monday that Steam, Left 4 Dead, Left 4 Dead 2, Team Fortress 2, Counter-Strike, Portal, and the Half-Life series will be coming to the Mac in April. This statement has left me stunned, unclean, and queasy. In 1995 when Windows 95 came out I got my first PC after having Macs since I was born in 80’s. From that point on in my life, I have never looked back at the Mac. From a gaming standpoint, PC’s rule over all else that is gaming. I understand the allure of Console games, but console hardware becomes old and outdated fast. Now I understand that some Macs now have decent graphics cards and that there is OpenGL which is used in graphic and video applications like After Effects. There is a reason why Valve originally dropped OpenGL support as soon as they could. Only in recent years has Open GL been actively worked on since the late nineties. This decade of OpenGL silence could relapse just as quickly as the first. OpenGL is "OK" for some games but for most you need the power of Direct X and the graphics cards that make in roar.
While I understand that Valve moving their entire catalog over to the dark side is a good way to make money, it will leave a new generation of gamers without the ability to play most third party modifications. According to ModDB, there are over two-hundred twenty released mods for Half-Life and over two-hundred and ninety mods for Half-Life 2 not to mention the troves of mods not listed on the site you are looking at upwards of seven hundred modifications for the Half-Life series. Most of these will never the light of day on Apple Hardware (well unless they run boot camp). Take for instance Science and Industry, one of the oldest Half-Life mods still around and still played at least every week. While it still has most of the developers around, it is highly unlikely that it will ever be ported over to the Mac. Third-party modifications are the life-blood that keeps the Half-Life franchise alive and thriving. By alienating these older mods and most current ones, Valve is essentially blocking new gamers from a part of Half-Life’s core history and heritage. For those who don’t know, Counter-Strike was a third party mod that got purchased by valve. I know understand that there are workarounds for this, but it is not supported and still requires installing windows or using Darwine or crossover.
Many like the simplicity of Apple’s design with their hardware; I am not here to debate that their designs are clean and elegant. But this clean philosophy has lead simplifying even the most basic of hardware…the mouse. Apple’s latest mouse the "magic mouse" has ONLY ONE DAMN BUTTON (It’s actually not a physical button). Now while having one button may be fine for casual computing such as visiting YouTube or editing documents in Microsoft Word, it is not conducive for gaming applications. All first person shooters require you to have at least two buttons plus a scroll wheel. I know that command + click is the same as a right click but with your fingers already on W, A, S, D, shift, and space, you will need a sixth finger to just use the keyboard. This will mean that most people purchasing these games will have to go out and purchase a new Mouse (Ironic since one of the most popular mice for the Mac is from Microsoft).
Apple’s mentality of "One size fits all" cannot coincide with most gamers’ personality of tinkering and exploring the unknown. Apple’s culture is that of control and restriction. If you even breathe a though of not liking a Mac or want change, you are immediately slapped down by incessant Mac Fanboys and Fangirls. Even if you present a logical argument and undisputable facts, these people have been brainwashed by one of the most effective cults and advertisement companies of the twenty-first century.
Back to what I said about some Macs have decent hardware but most systems have low end mobile processors installed which will barely run these games. For their price point, you are looking at spending more money on an already overpriced system to get decent results
On a lighter note, Macs should be able to support server plug in such as MetaMod and AdminMod since OSX is built off of a Linux core. This I feel would be the best position for OSX. An easy to install and administrate dedicated server.