Mac Client

powersurge1982 · March 2013

Kick me if I am dumb and have missed it but has anyone heard anything about this also being designed for Macs also?
My friend who I have gamed with for many years of now only owns a Mac. I have been super excited about this game since hearing about it, and excited that we have a new game that we can branch out to.

I was telling her that because it's free to play, that it might just take awhile til they branch out to see if their investment recoups it's costs.

viaxus · March 2013

Doubt it will ever be officially supported on macs. There are ofcourse ways around this I guess, and I am fairly sure I read somewhere that people have been able to play it on macs using Bootcamp.

aescleal · March 2013

I have not heard that is has been tested on anything but a Windows PC yet, but viaxus is right, some time ago this topic came up and it was suggested that this game should play in Wine just as other Cryptic games do.
I am a Mac user, and I use bootcamp to play windows games like DDO, and the game runs perfectly. Bootcamp is not for everybody since you still have to own a valid Windows license. So upon release, I'll be trying to put the NWO client into a Wine-bottle. There are how-to's already out there for the games like Star Trek Online.
Another way may be to use virtualization, such as Parrallels or VMWare Fusion. I hear that is getting better and better with each revision.
Good luck to you and your friend powersurge1982.

the1tigglet · March 2013

You know I've often wondered why people think these things wouldn't improve the success of the game on multiple platforms, that's a very 2004 attitude. Everyone in the industry keeps talking about the sheer success of the elephant in the room and of course that's the goal to become as profitable as Blizzard has become, but one of the major reasons for their success is that from day 1 they've supported the two most popular computer platforms. I find it odd that people in the industry seem to have forgotten this little fact.

Even Arenanet has learned from this and many of the indie producers producing games this year alone are coming out with their titles on not just macs but on 2 forms of Linux. It would seem to me from a business standpoint that they would benefit greatly from supporting Mountain Lion even if it was shortly after launch. It's always better to have a wider customer base in business.

jedidethfreak823 · March 2013

the1tigglet wrote: »

You know I've often wondered why people think these things wouldn't improve the success of the game on multiple platforms, that's a very 2004 attitude. Everyone in the industry keeps talking about the sheer success of the elephant in the room and of course that's the goal to become as profitable as Blizzard has become, but one of the major reasons for their success is that from day 1 they've supported the two most popular computer platforms. I find it odd that people in the industry seem to have forgotten this little fact.

Even Arenanet has learned from this and many of the indie producers producing games this year alone are coming out with their titles on not just macs but on 2 forms of Linux. It would seem to me from a business standpoint that they would benefit greatly from supporting Mountain Lion even if it was shortly after launch. It's always better to have a wider customer base in business.

While true in general, you're overstating the actual success this brings in - remember that Windows has almost a 94% of the marketshare worldwide. Apple's only got 4-5%, with all of the Linux distros making up the rest. Considering the fact that those remaining six percent have ways of getting the game running pretty well WITHOUT an official client, there really is no reason to make one in the first place.

Would it be nice for people with those systems to have an official client? Sure. Is it necessary in any way? Nope. Should it be a priority? Not by a long shot - at least, not with the very long backlog of promised features of CO and STO still have to put in those games, along with everything NW won't launch with that they've promised (and there will be stuff not coming any time soon they promised, just you wait and see).

And Blizzard did NOT support Macs from day One.

ambisinisterr · March 2013

The game should be compatible with WINE but they are not working on a Mac Client.

As much as the convenience would be nice for Mac/Linux Users it does take a lot of additional development time and support that could be easier handled by supporting WINE.
Sounds selfish but truly Mac OS Game support mac a huge minority of game demand. Macs are becomming bigger in the world due to their success with iPods and later the iPads but PC Gaming is still the complete domain of Windows and direct client support has become less and less frequent with more complex video games coming to the market.

If anything now companies start with Windows and WINE support and only implement a direct Mac Client years later. Those following another MMO should know that it took them three years to decide to dedicate a team to developing and supporting the Mac Client and get it released.

powersurge1982 · March 2013

Thanks everyone for the replies. I figured Wine was the route she would have to attempt.

jedidethfreak823 · March 2013

powersurge1982 wrote: »

Thanks everyone for the replies. I figured Wine was the route she would have to attempt.

According to the CO and STO forums, WINE works excellent in those games. Since the basic code base will be the same with NW, there's no reason to believe it won't here, too.

pwnhammer40k · April 2013

+1 for a Mac client, from a new Hero of the North Founders' Pack purchaser.

Almost every major MMO has at least a beta Mac client now, so why not?

warpet · April 2013

cryptic game engine is windows based they said that somewhere ,can they make to works on mac maybe but it would cost them a lot for nothing since everyone who have mac and wish to play will use WINE

aescleal · April 2013

I'm totally fine with playing in Wine, but I really hope if that's the route Cryptic wants to go, that they will provide support for people playing from Wine. My guess is that Wizards of the Coast would want every possible opportunity to play NWO, and experience their IP.
(hoping)

angrysprite · March 2014

Star Trek Online just released their Official Mac Client today.
(http://community.arcgames.com/en/news/star-trek-online/detail/3037203-sto-mac-is-officially-live_)

Since the underlying systems are very similar, here's to hoping Neverwinter's Mac Client isn't four years away. granted, the Developers of Neverwinter still have a long way to go with higher priorities right now (I figure Neverwinter to hit it's "stride" this year, perhaps late Summer or in the Autumn) - that's when they'll be able to take a bit of a breather and start looking more at straight content, new features, and things like OSX clients and such.

I'm just posting this update for the OP, who obviously would enjoy playing Neverwinter from an OSX platform, the purpose of my update is simply: have the faith (and patience) - it's coming. We just don;t know when.

gridwarden · March 2014

If there are no immediate plans to port Neverwinter to Macs, we really would like a forum section for those of us WINE (Mac and Linux) users.

I'm sure there are many non-Windows people wondering if and how they can get into this great game.

tornnomar · March 2014

WINE is getting much better with each release and products like Crossover are also being used to play games succesfully in Linux and Mac environments.

A section, or sub-forum would be cool for people to share tips and tricks for getting the game to run in non Windows OS's. Mac, Linux, the BSD's

Another interesting project that is slowly being developed is ReactOS. It is being built using the NT structure, meaning it will be completely binary compatible with windows and windows based programs. Right now its pretty bland and mimics XP in look and feel, but it is Alpha, but shows promise.

Mac Client

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