Mac users have long bemoaned the scarcity of current, popular video games. Despite the fact that heavy-hitters like Blizzard Entertainment and Maxis develop games for both platforms simultaneously, the fact remains: most publishing and development houses make games for the PC only.

Though there are more games becoming available to Mac users than ever these days, thanks to third-party companies whose sole function is to port titles over from the PC, there may never be a time when the majority of game houses develop their games for both platforms at the same time. Why is this? The answer seems to be partly an issue of perception.

When the Macintosh first hit the market, its greatest strength was its graphical user interface, which completely changed the face of personal computing forever. No longer did running an application require a familiarity with command-line syntax just to launch the program; the new way was to move the cursor around on the screen and click on an icon. To promote this new method as being superior to the old way of doing things, Apple Computer focused on advertising the Mac as a computer for creatives, as opposed to PCs, which were targeted as being merely good for business functions.

However, once Microsoft Windows arrived, with its Mac-like GUI -- though some would call it an inferior copy -- the larger mindshare of the pre-existing PC would ensure that the public's apprehension of the kind of person who would use a Mac resembled out-there radicals and bohemians, dilettantes who would rather spend their time goofing around than getting down to serious business. This perception continues in some form even today.

It's ironic, then, that the PC has come to be seen as the place to be when it comes to "serious" gaming. Certainly, the Mac has had its share of Mac-only games -- Bungie's Marathon series is an excellent example -- but by and large, Microsoft's deep pockets managed to lure developers to its side. The relatively larger population of PC owners made that platform a more attractive target to game developers, and the subsequent development of the DirectX 3D environment and tools clinched the deal.

To be completely fair, it has been said that Apple is not an easy company to work with. There have been stories of game developers offering their services to Apple -- Valve's Gabe Newell has had something to say on this topic -- only to be rebuffed or forgotten and ignored.