147-427: Myst Online: Uru Live is an open source massively multiplayer online adventure game developed by Cyan Worlds . The game is the multiplayer component to the 2003 video game Uru: Ages Beyond Myst . Like Uru , Myst Online takes place in 2000s New Mexico , where an ancient civilization known as the D'ni once thrived. The D'ni had the ability to create portals to other worlds or Ages by writing descriptive books of
294-636: A Mach kernel and BSD foundations, a virtualization layer for old Mac OS apps (codenamed Blue Box), and an implementation of NeXTSTEP APIs called OpenStep (codenamed Yellow Box). Apple open-sourced the core of Rhapsody as the Darwin operating system. After several developer previews, Apple also introduced the Carbon API, which provided a way for developers to more easily make their apps native to Mac OS X without rewriting them in Yellow Box. Mac OS X
441-517: A Primetime Emmy . In the 2000s, Apple continued to use successful marketing campaigns to promote the Mac line, including the Switch and Get a Mac campaigns. Apple's focus on design and build quality has helped establish the Mac as a high-end, premium brand. The company's emphasis on creating iconic and visually appealing designs for its computers has given them a "human face" and made them stand out in
588-444: A shared universe . Others have copies of their starting game world put on different servers, called "shards", for a sharded universe. Shards got their name from Ultima Online , where in the story, the shards of Mondain's gem created the duplicate worlds. Still, others will only use one part of the universe at any time. For example, Tribes (which is not an MMOG) comes with a number of large maps, which are played in rotation (one at
735-520: A store-within-a-store that would better showcase Macs and their software and peripherals. According to Apple, the Mac's share of computer sales in those stores went from 3% to 14%. In November, the online Apple Store launched with built-to-order Mac configurations without a middleman. When Tim Cook was hired as chief operations officer in March 1998, he closed Apple's inefficient factories and outsourced Mac production to Taiwan. Within months, he rolled out
882-522: A "masterpiece." Before the Macintosh, high-tech marketing catered to industry insiders rather than consumers, so journalists covered technology like the "steel or automobiles" industries, with articles written for a highly technical audience. The Macintosh launch event pioneered event marketing techniques that have since become "widely emulated" in Silicon Valley , by creating a mystique about
1029-522: A "tick" schedule usually daily. All orders are processed, and battles resolved, at the same time during the tick. Similarly, in Darkwind: War on Wheels , vehicle driving and combat orders are submitted simultaneously by all players and a "tick" occurs typically once per 30 seconds. This allows each player to accurately control multiple vehicles and pedestrians in racing or combat. Some MMOGs have been designed to accurately simulate certain aspects of
1176-469: A 58% share of the subscription MMOG market in 2009. The title has generated over $ 2.2 billion in cumulative consumer spending on subscriptions from 2005 through 2009. Within a majority of the MMOGs created, there is virtual currency where the player can earn and accumulate money. The uses for such virtual currency are numerous and vary from game to game. The virtual economies created within MMOGs often blur
1323-460: A Mac program, HyperCard , whose cards store any information—text, image, audio, video—with the memex -like ability to semantically link cards together. HyperCard was released in 1987 and bundled with every Macintosh. In the late 1980s, Jean-Louis Gassée , a Sculley protégé who had succeeded Jobs as head of the Macintosh division, made the Mac more expandable and powerful to appeal to tech enthusiasts and enterprise customers. This strategy led to
1470-426: A close, Cyan is still a very valued partner of GameTap, we are on excellent terms, and we look forward to continuing our relationship in the future." Various explanations for Uru Live ' s continuing troubles were given. Game designer Ernest Adams stated that "An important part of Myst ' s atmosphere came from being alone in a very strange place." Adams stated that the realities of online play distracted from
1617-558: A crowded market. Apple has long made product placements in high-profile movies and television shows to showcase Mac computers, like Mission: Impossible , Legally Blonde , and Sex and the City . Apple is known for not allowing producers to show villains using Apple products. Its own shows produced for the Apple TV+ streaming service feature prominent use of MacBooks. The Mac is known for its highly loyal customer base. In 2022,
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#17328015438051764-569: A display cutout incorporating a 1080p webcam. The Mac Studio with M2 Max and M2 Ultra chips and the Mac Pro with M2 Ultra chip was unveiled at WWDC 2023, and the Intel-based Mac Pro was discontinued on the same day, completing the Mac transition to Apple silicon chips. The Mac Studio was received positively as a modest upgrade over the previous generation, albeit similarly priced PCs could be equipped with faster GPUs. However,
1911-454: A last-ditch attempt to fend off Windows, Apple yielded and started a Macintosh clone program, which allowed other manufacturers to make System 7 computers. However, this only cannibalized the sales of Apple's higher-margin machines. Meanwhile, Windows 95 was an instant hit with customers. Apple was struggling financially as its attempts to produce a System 7 successor had all failed with Taligent, Star Trek , and Copland , and its hardware
2058-486: A location, the D'ni created a link to that world. The D'ni had their own number system and language distinct from the humans dwelling above them. According to the story, archeologists much later discovered the caverns and teamed with a development studio (Cyan Worlds) to produce educational video games based on their findings; thus, the story in the Myst games is canonically findings from the caverns. New content and additions to
2205-402: A magnetic latch that secures the lid elegantly. The design language of consumer Macs shifted again from colored plastics to white polycarbonate with the introduction of the 2001 Dual USB "Ice" iBook . To increase the iBook's durability, it eliminated doors and handles, and gained a more minimalistic exterior. Ive attempted to go beyond the quadrant with Power Mac G4 Cube , an innovation beyond
2352-813: A merger of NeXTSTEP and Mac OS as the foundation of Apple's new operating system strategy. At the time, Jobs only served as advisor, and Amelio was released in July 1997. Jobs was formally appointed interim CEO in September, and permanent CEO in January 2000. To continue turning the company around, Jobs streamlined Apple's operations and began layoffs. He negotiated a deal with Bill Gates in which Microsoft committed to releasing new versions of Office for Mac for five years, investing $ 150 million in Apple, and settling an ongoing lawsuit in which Apple alleged that Windows had copied
2499-415: A miniaturized design with a glossy dark gray cylindrical body and internal components organized around a central cooling system. Tech reviewers praised the 2013 Mac Pro for its power and futuristic design; however, it was poorly received by professional users, who criticized its lack of upgradability and the removal of expansion slots. The iMac was refreshed with a 5K Retina display in 2014, making it
2646-508: A new ERP system and implemented just-in-time manufacturing principles. This practically eliminated Apple's costly unsold inventory, and within one year, Apple had the industry's most efficient inventory turnover. Jobs's top priority was "to ship a great new product". The first is the iMac G3 , an all-in-one computer that was meant to make the Internet intuitive and easy to access. While PCs came in functional beige boxes, Jony Ive gave
2793-745: A new standardized computing platform, which led to the creation of the PowerPC processor architecture, and the Taligent operating system. In 1992, Apple introduced the Macintosh Performa line, which "grew like ivy" into a disorienting number of barely differentiated models in an attempt to gain market share. This backfired by confusing customers, but the same strategy soon afflicted the PowerBook line. Michael Spindler continued this approach when he succeeded Sculley as CEO in 1993. He oversaw
2940-622: A personal computer. Beginning in 1994 with the Power Macintosh , the Mac transitioned from Motorola 68000 series processors to PowerPC . Macintosh clones by other manufacturers were also briefly sold afterwards. The line was refreshed in 1998 with the launch of iMac G3 , reinvigorating the line's competitiveness against commodity IBM PC compatibles . Macs transitioned to Intel x86 processors by 2006 along with new sub-product lines MacBook and Mac Pro. Since 2020, Macs have transitioned to Apple silicon chips based on ARM64 . In
3087-492: A player's inability to aim and think tactically. Massively multiplayer online real-time strategy games, also known as "MMORTS", combine real-time strategy (RTS) with a persistent world . Players often assume the role of a general, king, or other types of figurehead leading an army into battle while maintaining the resources needed for such warfare. The titles are often based in a sci-fi or fantasy universe and are distinguished from single or small-scale multiplayer RTSes by
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#17328015438053234-552: A popular theme, featuring games such as Mankind , Anarchy Online , Eve Online , Star Wars Galaxies and The Matrix Online . MMOGs emerged from the hard-core gamer community to the mainstream strongly in December 2003, with an analysis in the Financial Times measuring the value of the virtual property in the then-largest MMOG, EverQuest , to result in a per-capita GDP of 2,266 dollars, which would have placed
3381-511: A problem with stuck keys and letters being skipped or repeated. iFixit attributed this to the ingress of dust or food crumbs under the keys, jamming them. Since the Butterfly keyboard was riveted into the laptop's case, it could only be serviced at an Apple Store or authorized service center . Apple settled a $ 50m class-action lawsuit over these keyboards in 2022. These same models were afflicted by "flexgate": when users closed and opened
3528-509: A program to repair affected keyboards free of charge. Higher-end models of the 15-inch 2018 MacBook Pro faced another issue where the Core i9 processor reached unusually high temperatures, resulting in reduced CPU performance from thermal throttling. Apple issued a patch to address this issue via a macOS supplemental update, blaming a "missing digital key" in the thermal management firmware. The 2019 16-inch MacBook Pro and 2020 MacBook Air replaced
3675-414: A result, Myst veterans uninterested in plugging through Uru ' s content again will be left with a dearth of things to actually do, shifting the onus of gameplay creation to the community." Onyett continued that the only reason to subscribe to the game was the dedicated fan community and the potential for the game to expand. Sarah Borger of GamesRadar noted that most puzzles could be completed without
3822-416: A single game world, and all of those players can interact with each other at any given time. Popular MMOGs might have hundreds of players online at any given time, usually on company-owned servers. Non-MMOGs, such as Battlefield 1942 or Half-Life , usually have fewer than 50 players online (per server) and are usually played on private servers. Also, MMOGs usually do not have any significant mods , since
3969-425: A smaller time commitment than other game types. Other popular casual games include simple management games such as The Sims Online or Kung Fu Panda World . MMOPGs, or massively multiplayer online puzzle games, are based entirely on puzzle elements. They are usually set in a world where the players can access the puzzles around the world. Most games that are MMOPGs are hybrids with other genres. Castle Infinity
4116-484: A strengthened hinge instead of a mechanical latch to keep it closed, ports on the sides rather than on the back, and the first laptop with built-in Wi-Fi . It became the best selling laptop in the U.S. during the fourth quarter of 1999. The professional-oriented Titanium PowerBook G4 was released in 2001, becoming the lightest and thinnest laptop in its class, and the first laptop with a wide-screen display; it also debuted
4263-460: A tentative outline, which started with Cyan running MORE servers, the restructuring of the MystOnline.com web site, the release of MORE tools to players, and the delegation of approving fan-made content given to groups known as "Guilds". The ultimate goal was a continuation of the storyline and new content, with or without fan aid. MORE was postponed after revenue to Cyan was disrupted and
4410-480: A thinner "Butterfly" keyboard, and replaced function keys with the Touch Bar . The Touch Bar was criticized for making it harder to use the function keys by feel, as it offered no tactile feedback. Many users were also frustrated by the need to buy dongles , particularly professional users who relied on traditional USB-A devices, SD cards , and HDMI for video output. A few months after its release, users reported
4557-410: A time). In contrast, the similar title PlanetSide allows all map -like areas of the game to be reached via flying, driving, or teleporting. MMORPGs usually have sharded universes, as they provide the most flexible solution to the server load problem, but not always. For example, the space simulation Eve Online uses only one large cluster server peaking at over 60,000 simultaneous players. It
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4704-420: A unique mixture of online and real-world play that usually does not involve a persistent world , and are not necessarily multiplayer, making them different from MMOGs. Massively multiplayer online music/rhythm games ( MMORG s), sometimes called massively multiplayer online dance games ( MMODG s), are MMOGs that are also music video games . This idea was influenced by Dance Dance Revolution . Audition Online
4851-404: A working virtual economy within an MMOG is increasing as they develop. A sign of this is CCP Games hiring the first real-life economist for its MMOG Eve Online to assist and analyze the virtual economy and production within this game. The results of this interaction between the virtual economy, and our real economy, which is really the interaction between the company that created the game and
4998-480: Is Linden Lab's Second Life , emphasizing socializing, worldbuilding and an in-world virtual economy that depends on the sale and purchase of user-created content. It is technically an MMOSG or Casual Multiplayer Online (CMO) by definition, though its stated goal was to realize the concept of the Metaverse from Neal Stephenson 's novel Snow Crash . Instead of being based around combat, one could say that it
5145-567: Is a family of personal computers designed and marketed by Apple since 1984. The name is short for Macintosh (its official name until 1999), a reference to a type of apple called McIntosh . The current product lineup includes the MacBook Air and MacBook Pro laptops, and the iMac , Mac Mini , Mac Studio , and Mac Pro desktops. Macs are sold with the macOS operating system, which is not licensed to other manufacturers and exclusively bundled with Mac computers. Jef Raskin conceived
5292-422: Is a title where players can compete in some of the more traditional major league sports, such as football (soccer) , basketball , baseball , hockey , golf or American football . According to GameSpot , Baseball Mogul Online was "the world's first massively multiplayer online sports game". Other titles that qualify as MMOSG have been around since the early 2000s, but only after 2010 did they start to receive
5439-463: Is another casual massively multiplayer online game and it is produced by T3 Entertainment. Just Dance 2014 has a game mode called World Dance Floor, which also structures like an MMORPG. Massively multiplayer online social games ( MMOSG s) focus on socialization instead of objective-based gameplay. There is a great deal of overlap in terminology with "online communities" and " virtual worlds ". One example that has garnered widespread media attention
5586-400: Is challenging to develop the database engines that are needed to run a successful MMOG with millions of players. Many developers have created their own, but attempts have been made to create middleware , software that would help game developers concentrate on their games more than technical aspects. One such piece of middleware is called BigWorld . An early, successful entry into the field
5733-448: Is different depending on the player's tastes. In public areas, any action a player takes is persistent and remains part of that world — kick a stone in one player's game, for instance, and the stone will be moved when any other player enters the area. Myst Online takes place in fictitious caverns below Earth's surface. Thousands of years ago, a race known as the D'ni practiced a craft known as The Art. By writing special books describing
5880-578: Is free of toxic chemicals like mercury , bromide , and PVC , and with smaller packaging. The enclosures of the iMac and unibody MacBook Pro were redesigned with the more recyclable aluminum and glass. On February 24, 2011, the MacBook Pro became the first computer to support Intel's new Thunderbolt connector, with two-way transfer speeds of 10 Gbit/s, and backward compatibility with Mini DisplayPort . Due to deteriorating health, Steve Jobs resigned as CEO on August 24, 2011, and Tim Cook
6027-623: Is no specific limit to where an online multiplayer online game is considered massive , there are broad features that are often used as a metric. Garriott's famed 1997 definition referred to the fundamental architecture shift required to support tens of thousands of concurrent players, which required shifting from individual servers to data centers on multiple continents. Games may have MMO features like large worlds with online persistence but still not generally be considered an MMO, such as Grand Theft Auto V ' s online play, while other games like League of Legends have small individual sessions but
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6174-424: Is quite viable, especially in what is called 'player vs environment' gameplay. This may result in the player being unable to experience all content, as many of the most significant and potentially rewarding game experiences are events that require large and coordinated teams to complete. Most MMOGs also share other characteristics that make them different from other multiplayer online games. MMOGs host many players in
6321-508: Is the massively multiplayer online role-playing game (MMORPG), which descended from university mainframe computer MUD and adventure games such as Rogue and Dungeon on the PDP-10 . These games predate the commercial gaming industry and the Internet, but still featured persistent worlds and other elements of MMOGs still used today. The first graphical MMOG, and a major milestone in
6468-488: Is the world's largest MMO racing game and holds the world record for "Most Players in a Single Online Race". Although Darkwind: War on Wheels is more combat-based than racing, it is also considered an MMOR. Many types of MMO games can be classified as casual , because they are designed to appeal to all computer users (as opposed to subgroup of frequent game buyers), or to fans of another game genre (such as collectible card games ). Such games are easy to learn and require
6615-472: The Mac transition to Intel processors , because the operating system had been developed for both architectures since the beginning. PowerPC apps run using transparent Rosetta emulation, and Windows boots natively using Boot Camp . This transition helped contribute to a few years of growth in Mac sales. After the iPhone 's 2007 release, Apple began a multi-year effort to bring many iPhone innovations "back to
6762-462: The Macintosh 512K with improved performance and an external floppy drive. The Macintosh is credited with popularizing the graphical user interface, Jobs's fascination with typography gave it an unprecedented variety of fonts and type styles like italics, bold, shadow, and outline. It is the first WYSIWYG computer, and due in large part to PageMaker and Apple's LaserWriter printer, it ignited
6909-533: The Rosetta 2 translation layer, and iOS and iPadOS apps distributed via the App Store . These Mac models come equipped with high-speed Thunderbolt 4 or USB 4 connectivity, with speeds up to 40 Gbit/s. Apple silicon Macs have custom integrated graphics rather than graphics cards. MacBooks are recharged with either USB-C or MagSafe connectors, depending on the model. Apple sells accessories for
7056-643: The SD card slot. On March 8, 2022, the Mac Studio was unveiled, also featuring the M1 Max chip and the new M1 Ultra chip in a similar form factor to the Mac Mini. It drew highly positive reviews for its flexibility and wide range of available ports. Its performance was deemed "impressive", beating the highest-end Mac Pro with a 28-core Intel Xeon chip, while being significantly more power efficient and compact. It
7203-533: The StyleWriter printer and the Newton PDA. These changes were meant to refocus Apple's engineering, marketing, and manufacturing efforts so that more care could be dedicated to each product. Jobs also stopped licensing Mac OS to clone manufacturers, which had cost Apple ten times more in lost sales than it received in licensing fees. Jobs made a deal with the largest computer reseller, CompUSA , to carry
7350-436: The ambient sounds and music. The world that persistently changes depending on player actions was also lauded as more sophisticated than other MMOs. Complaints from Uru: Ages Beyond Myst carried over to Myst Online ; for example, Robert Washburne of JustAdventure found that the interface was still clunky. Charles Onyett of IGN said that those who had played through the previous Uru content would not find many changes: "As
7497-457: The computer tower in a professional desktop far smaller than the Power Mac. The Cube failed in the market and was withdrawn from sale after one year. However, Ive considered it beneficial, because it helped Apple gain experience in complex machining and miniaturization. The development of a successor to the old Mac OS was well underway. Rhapsody had been previewed at WWDC 1997, featuring
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#17328015438057644-418: The desktop publishing market, turning the Macintosh from an early let-down into a notable success. Levy called desktop publishing the Mac's "Trojan horse" in the enterprise market, as colleagues and executives tried these Macs and were seduced into requesting one for themselves. PageMaker creator Paul Brainerd said: "You would see the pattern. A large corporation would buy PageMaker and a couple of Macs to do
7791-463: The iPhone 4 . iPhone-like multi-touch technology was progressively added to all MacBook trackpads, and to desktop Macs through the Magic Mouse , and Magic Trackpad . The 2010 MacBook Air added an iPad-inspired standby mode, "instant-on" wake from sleep, and flash memory storage. After criticism by Greenpeace, Apple improved the ecological performance of its products. The 2008 MacBook Air
7938-405: The iTunes Store , iPod , iPhone , iPad , and the 2007 renaming from Apple Computer Inc. to Apple Inc. By January 2007, the iPod was half of Apple's revenues. New Macs include the white "Sunflower" iMac G4 . Ive designed a display to swivel with one finger, so that it "appear[ed] to defy gravity". In 2003, Apple released the aluminum 12-inch and 17-inch PowerBook G4 , proclaiming the "Year of
8085-595: The iWork office suite. Serlet and Tevanian were both initiating the secret project asked by Steve Jobs to propose to Sony executives, in 2001, to sell Mac OS X on Vaio laptops. They showed them a demonstration at a golf party in Hawaii , with the most expensive Vaio laptop they could have acquired. But due to bad timing, Sony refused, arguing their Vaio sales just started to grow after years of difficulties. With PowerPC chips falling behind in performance, price, and efficiency, Steve Jobs announced in 2005
8232-403: The personal computer , video game console , or smartphones and other mobile devices. MMOs can enable players to cooperate and compete with each other on a large scale, and sometimes to interact meaningfully with people around the world. They include a variety of gameplay types, representing many video game genres . The most popular type of MMOG, and the subgenre that pioneered the category,
8379-561: The Afterburner card for faster video encoding. Almost every part of the new Mac Pro is user-replaceable, with iFixit praising its high user-repairability. It received positive reviews, with reviewers praising its power, modularity, quiet cooling, and Apple's increased focus on professional workflows. In April 2018, Bloomberg reported Apple's plan to replace Intel chips with ARM processors similar to those in its phones, causing Intel's shares to drop by 9.2%. The Verge commented on
8526-529: The Age. Players uncover clues and solve puzzles together; plot developments were added via episodic content updates. Uru ' s multiplayer segment was delayed and only shipped with the single-player component initially; in February 2004 the multiplayer was scrapped entirely. Dedicated fans kept an unsupported version of the game alive through Cyan-maintained servers. Online game distributor GameTap resurrected
8673-805: The American Customer Satisfaction Index gave the Mac the highest customer satisfaction score of any personal computer, at 82 out of 100. In that year, Apple was the fourth largest vendor of personal computers, with a market share of 8.9%. Apple outsources the production of its hardware to Asian manufacturers like Foxconn and Pegatron . As a highly vertically integrated company developing its own operating system and chips, it has tight control over all aspects of its products and deep integration between hardware and software. All Macs in production use ARM -based Apple silicon processors and have been praised for their performance and power efficiency. They can run Intel apps through
8820-400: The Apple silicon-based Mac Pro was criticized for several regressions, including memory capacity and a complete lack of CPU or GPU expansion options. A 15-inch MacBook Air was also introduced, and is the largest display included on a consumer-level Apple laptop. The MacBook Pro was updated on October 30, 2023, with updated M3 Pro and M3 Max chips using a 3 nm process node, as well as
8967-501: The Internet's appeal to consumers, 32% of iMac buyers had never used a computer before, and 12% were switching from PCs. The iMac reestablished the Mac's reputation as a trendsetter: for the next few years, translucent plastic became the dominant design trend in numerous consumer products. Apple knew it had lost its chance to compete in the Windows-dominated enterprise market, so it prioritized design and ease of use to make
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#17328015438059114-418: The Mac Pro, Apple executives admitted in 2017 that the 2013 Mac Pro had not met expectations, and said that the company had designed themselves into a "thermal corner", preventing them from releasing a planned dual-GPU successor. Apple also unveiled their future product roadmap for professional products, including plans for an iMac Pro as a stopgap and an expandable Mac Pro to be released later. The iMac Pro
9261-519: The Mac became a "digital hub" and centerpiece with several new applications. In October 1999, the iMac DV gained FireWire ports, allowing users to connect camcorders and easily create movies with iMovie ; the iMac gained a CD burner and iTunes , allowing users to rip CDs, make playlists, and burn them to blank discs. Other applications include iPhoto for organizing and editing photos, and GarageBand for creating and mixing music and other audio. The digital lifestyle strategy entered other markets, with
9408-420: The Mac more appealing to average consumers, and even teens. The "Apple New Product Process" was launched as a more collaborative product development process for the Mac, with concurrent engineering principles. From then, product development was no longer driven primarily by engineering and with design as an afterthought. Instead, Ive and Jobs first defined a new product's "soul", before it was jointly developed by
9555-512: The Mac", including multi-touch gesture support, instant wake from sleep, and fast flash storage . At Macworld 2008, Jobs introduced the first MacBook Air by taking it out of a manila envelope, touting it as the "world's thinnest notebook". The MacBook Air favors wireless technologies over physical ports, and lacks FireWire , an optical drive , or a replaceable battery. The Remote Disc feature accesses discs in other networked computers. A decade after its launch, journalist Tom Warren wrote that
9702-499: The Mac's interface. In exchange, Apple made Internet Explorer the default Mac browser. The deal was closed hours before Jobs announced it at the August 1997 Macworld. Jobs returned focus to Apple. The Mac lineup had been incomprehensible, with dozens of hard-to-distinguish models. He streamlined it into four quadrants, a laptop and a desktop each for consumers and professionals. Apple also discontinued several Mac accessories, including
9849-492: The Mac's transition from Motorola 68000 series to PowerPC and the release of Apple's first PowerPC machine, the well-received Power Macintosh . Many new Macintoshes suffered from inventory and quality control problems. The 1995 PowerBook 5300 was plagued with quality problems, with several recalls as some units even caught fire. Pessimistic about Apple's future, Spindler repeatedly attempted to sell Apple to other companies, including IBM, Kodak, AT&T, Sun, and Philips. In
9996-519: The Mac, the Apple M1 , and a series of Macs that would ship with the M1: the MacBook Air , Mac Mini , and the 13-inch MacBook Pro . These new Macs received highly positive reviews, with reviewers highlighting significant improvements in battery life, performance, and heat management compared to previous generations. The iMac Pro was discontinued on March 6, 2021. On April 20, 2021, a new 24-inch iMac
10143-472: The MacBook Air had "immediately changed the future of laptops", starting the ultrabook trend. OS X Lion added new software features first introduced with the iPad , such as FaceTime , full-screen apps, document autosaving and versioning, and a bundled Mac App Store to replace software install discs with online downloads. It gained support for Retina displays , which had been introduced earlier with
10290-477: The Macintosh project in 1979, which was usurped and redefined by Apple co-founder Steve Jobs in 1981. The original Macintosh was launched in January 1984, after Apple's "1984" advertisement during Super Bowl XVIII . A series of incrementally improved models followed, sharing the same integrated case design. In 1987, the Macintosh II brought color graphics, but priced as a professional workstation and not
10437-509: The Macintosh project. Conceived in 1979 by Jef Raskin , Macintosh was envisioned as an affordable, easy-to-use computer for the masses. Raskin named the computer after his favorite type of apple, the McIntosh . The initial team consisted of Raskin, hardware engineer Burrell Smith , and Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak . In 1981, Steve Jobs was removed from the Lisa team and joined Macintosh, and
10584-483: The Macintosh to lose its chance at becoming the dominant personal computer platform. Though senior management demanded high-margin products, a few employees disobeyed and set out to create a computer that would live up to the original Macintosh's slogan, "[a] computer for the rest of us", which the market clamored for. In a pattern typical of Apple's early era, of skunkworks projects like Macintosh and Macintosh II lacking adoption by upper management who were late to realize
10731-526: The Notebook". With the Microsoft deal expiring, Apple also replaced Internet Explorer with its new browser, Safari . The first Mac Mini was intended to be assembled in the U.S., but domestic manufacturers were slow and had insufficient quality processes, leading Apple to Taiwanese manufacturer Foxconn . The affordably priced Mac Mini desktop was introduced at Macworld 2005, alongside the introduction of
10878-459: The Void . Typical MUDs and other predecessor games were limited to about 64 or 256 simultaneous player connections; this was a limit imposed by the underlying operating system, which was usually Unix-like. One of the biggest problems with modern engines has been handling the vast number of players. Since a typical server can handle around 10,000–12,000 players, 4000–5000 active simultaneously, dividing
11025-400: The ability to drag and drop files, double-click to launch applications, and move or resize windows by clicking and dragging instead of going through a menu. However, hampered by its high price of $ 9,995 (equivalent to $ 33,000 in 2023) and lack of available software, the Lisa was commercially unsuccessful. Parallel to the Lisa's development, a skunkworks team at Apple was working on
11172-410: The company newsletter. The next year you'd come back and there would be thirty Macintoshes. The year after that, three hundred." In late 1985, Bill Atkinson, one of the few remaining employees to have been on the original Macintosh team, proposed that Apple create a Dynabook , Alan Kay's concept for a tablet computer that stores and organizes knowledge. Sculley rebuffed him, so he adapted the idea into
11319-591: The company was forced to lay off all but seven employees in November 2008. The company has since announced that Myst Online ' s source code and tools would be given to the fans, making MORE an open-source project . On April 6, 2011, Cyan Worlds released the client and the tools under the GNU GPL v3 license on the OpenUru.org website. On February 8, 2010, Cyan Worlds announced the return of Myst Online under
11466-526: The company's profit margins, and Macintoshes were priced far above entry-level MS-DOS compatible computers. Steven Levy said that though Macintoshes were superior, the cheapest Mac cost almost twice as much as the cheapest IBM PC compatible. Sculley also resisted licensing the Mac OS to competing hardware vendors, who could have undercut Apple on pricing and jeopardized its hardware sales, as IBM PC compatibles had done to IBM. These early strategic steps caused
11613-569: The company, he launched the Think different ad campaign, positioning the Mac as the best computer for "creative people who believe that one person can change the world". The campaign featured black-and-white photographs of luminaries like Albert Einstein , Gandhi , and Martin Luther King Jr. , with Jobs saying: "if they ever used a computer, it would have been a Mac". The ad campaign was critically acclaimed and won several awards, including
11760-529: The creation of the genre, was the multiplayer flight combat simulation game Air Warrior by Kesmai on the GEnie online service, which first appeared in 1986. Kesmai later added 3D graphics to the game, making it the first 3D MMO. Commercial MMORPGs gained acceptance in the late 1980s and early 1990s. The genre was pioneered by the GemStone series on GEnie, also created by Kesmai, and Neverwinter Nights ,
11907-417: The current version is not quite a true simulated world, it is very complex and contains a large persistent world. The MMOG genre of air traffic simulation is one example, with networks such as VATSIM and IVAO striving to provide rigorously authentic flight-simulation environments to players in both pilot and air traffic controller roles. In this category of MMOGs, the objective is to create duplicates of
12054-599: The decisions to switch to fragile Butterfly keyboards, to make the Mac Pro non-expandable, and to remove USB-A, HDMI and the SD card slot from the MacBook Pro were criticized. The long-standing keyboard issue on MacBook Pros, Apple's abandonment of the Aperture professional photography app, and the lack of Mac Pro upgrades led to declining sales and a widespread belief that Apple was no longer committed to professional users. After several years without any significant updates to
12201-500: The development of their virtual economy, as they most likely have a higher priority to the games viability via adequate funding. Games with an enormous player base, and consequently much higher sales and subscription income, can take more drastic actions more often and in much larger volumes. This account banning could also serve as an economic gain for these large games, since it is highly likely that, due to demand, these 'gold farming' accounts will be recreated with freshly bought copies of
12348-484: The endorsements of some of the official major league associations and players. MMOR means massively multiplayer online racing . Currently there are only a small number of racing-based MMOGs, including iRacing , Kart Rider , Test Drive Unlimited , Project Torque , Drift City and Race or Die . Other notable MMORs included Upshift Strikeracer , Motor City Online and Need for Speed: World , all of which have since shut down. The Trackmania series
12495-408: The fantasy setting. When asked about the game's commercial failure, Miller responded: I'm always going to fall back on 'we were ahead of our time,' because it's easy. The biggest thing we did was an all or nothing proposal from an entertainment point of view. It's not like you can start up a new TV network and give one show a month and expect it to be successful ... We couldn't quite pull that off with
12642-470: The first such game to include graphics, which debuted on AOL in 1991. As video game developers applied MMOG ideas to other computer and video game genres , new acronyms started to develop, such as MMORTS . MMOG emerged as a generic term to cover this growing class of games. The debuts of The Realm Online , Meridian 59 (the first 3D MMORPG), Castle Infinity (the first kid-focused MMORPG), Ultima Online , Underlight and EverQuest in
12789-422: The game as Myst Online in 2007, but this version was canceled due to a lack of subscribers despite generally positive reviews. Cyan received the rights to Myst Online from GameTap and announced its intention to bring the game back. In 2010, Cyan Worlds released the game free of charge, under the name MO:ULagain . It is currently hosted on Cyan-maintained servers. In 2011, Cyan Worlds and OpenUru.org announced
12936-610: The game content was downloaded through GameTap, which was subscribed to for a monthly fee. A major reason for the resurrection of the game was the fan support. According to GameTap's vice president of content Ricardo Sanchez, "One of the reasons [GameTap was] so attracted to Uru Live is that it had this persistent group that kept it alive during the dark days of it not being a product." Closed public beta testing of Myst Online: Uru Live began in August 2006. A period of semi-open beta testing lasted from December 12 to 18, 2006, with an open beta beginning on December 20. On January 18, 2007, it
13083-437: The game into several servers has up until now been the solution. This approach has also helped with technical issues, such as lag , that many players experience. Another difficulty, especially relevant to real-time simulation games, is time synchronization across hundreds or thousands of players. Many games rely on time synchronization to drive their physics simulation as well as their scoring and damage detection. Although there
13230-559: The game must work on company servers. There is some debate if a high head-count is a requirement to be an MMOG. Some say that it is the size of the game world and its capability to support many players that should matter. For example, despite technology and content constraints, most MMOGs can fit up to a few thousand players on a single game server at a time. To support all those players, MMOGs need large-scale game worlds, and servers to connect players to those worlds. Some games have all of their servers connected so all players are connected in
13377-500: The game. MMOFPS is an online gaming genre which features many simultaneous players in a first-person shooter fashion. These games provide large-scale, sometimes team-based combat. The addition of persistence in the game world means that these games add elements typically found in RPGs, such as experience points . However, MMOFPS games emphasize player skill more than player statistics, as no number of in-game bonuses will compensate for
13524-423: The game. The practice of acquiring large volumes of virtual currency for the purpose of selling to other individuals for tangible and real currency is called gold farming . Many players who have poured in all of their personal effort resent that there is this exchange between real and virtual economies since it devalues their own efforts. As a result, the term 'gold farmer' now has a very negative connotation within
13671-544: The game. The virtual goods revenue from online games and social networking exceeded US$ 7 billion in 2010. In 2011, it was estimated that up to 100,000 people in China and Vietnam are playing online games to gather gold and other items for sale to Western players. While this 'gold farming' is considered to ruin the game for actual players, many rely on 'gold farming' as their main source of income. However, single player in MMOs
13818-453: The games and their communities. This slander has unfortunately also extended itself to racial profiling and to in-game and forum insulting. The reaction from many of the game companies varies. In games that are substantially less popular and have a small player base, the enforcement of the elimination of 'gold farming' appears less often. Companies in this situation most likely are concerned with their personal sales and subscription revenue over
13965-670: The global infrastructure requirements often allow for classification as an MMO. The term is often used differently by players who tend to refer to their play experience versus game developers who refer to the engineering experience. MMO game developers tend to require tremendous investments in developing and maintaining servers around the globe, network bandwidth infrastructure often on the order of terabytes per second, and large engineering problems relating to managing data spread between multiple computer clusters. There are several types of massively multiplayer online games. Massively multiplayer online role-playing games , known as MMORPG s, are
14112-452: The help of other players, making the game "a pretty chat room ". Massively multiplayer online game A massively multiplayer online game ( MMOG or more commonly MMO ) is an online video game with a large number of players to interact in the same online game world. MMOs usually feature a huge, persistent open world , although there are games that differ. These games can be found for most network-capable platforms, including
14259-444: The highest-resolution all-in-one desktop computer. The MacBook was reintroduced in 2015, with a completely redesigned aluminum unibody chassis, a 12-inch Retina display, a fanless low-power Intel Core M processor, a much smaller logic board, a new Butterfly keyboard, a single USB-C port, and a solid-state Force Touch trackpad with pressure sensitivity. It was praised for its portability, but criticized for its lack of performance,
14406-467: The iMac a radical and futuristic design, meant to make the product less intimidating. Its oblong case is made of translucent plastic in Bondi blue , later revised with many colors. Ive added a handle on the back to make the computer more approachable. Jobs declared the iMac would be "legacy-free", succeeding ADB and SCSI with an infrared port and cutting-edge USB ports. Though USB had industry backing, it
14553-469: The last. Apple acquired NeXT on December 20, 1996, returning its co-founder, Steve Jobs. NeXT had developed the mature NeXTSTEP operating system with strong multimedia and Internet capabilities. NeXTSTEP was also popular among programmers, financial firms, and academia for its object-oriented programming tools for rapid application development . In an eagerly anticipated speech at the January 1997 Macworld trade show, Steve Jobs previewed Rhapsody ,
14700-729: The late 1970s, the Apple II became one of the most popular computers, especially in education. After IBM introduced the IBM PC in 1981, its sales surpassed the Apple II. In response, Apple introduced the Lisa in 1983. The Lisa's graphical user interface was inspired by strategically licensed demonstrations of the Xerox Star . Lisa surpassed the Star with intuitive direct manipulation , like
14847-732: The late 1990s popularized the MMORPG genre. The growth in technology meant that where Neverwinter Nights in 1991 had been limited to 50 simultaneous players (a number that grew to 500 by 1995), by 2000 a multitude of MMORPGs was each serving thousands of simultaneous players and led the way for games such as World of Warcraft and EVE Online . Despite the genre's focus on multiplayer gaming, AI -controlled characters are still common. NPCs and mobs who give out quests or serve as opponents are typical in MMORPGs. AI-controlled characters are not as common in action-based MMOGs. The popularity of MMOGs
14994-439: The lines between real and virtual worlds. The result is often seen as an unwanted interaction between the real and virtual economies by the players and the provider of the virtual world. This practice ( economy interaction ) is mostly seen in this genre of games. The two seem to come hand in hand with even the earliest MMOGs, such as Ultima Online having this kind of trade: real money for virtual things. The importance of having
15141-413: The machine's low performance, single floppy disk drive requiring frequent disk swapping, and initial lack of applications. Author Douglas Adams said: "But what I (and I think everybody else who bought the machine in the early days) fell in love with was not the machine itself, which was ridiculously slow and underpowered, but a romantic idea of the machine. And that romantic idea had to sustain me through
15288-444: The machine, they would risk progressively damaging the cable responsible for the display backlight , which was too short. The $ 6 cable was soldered to the screen, requiring a $ 700 repair. Senior Vice President of Industrial Design Jony Ive continued to guide product designs towards simplicity and minimalism. Critics argued that he had begun to prioritize form over function, and was excessively focused on product thinness. His role in
15435-422: The major issues with Myst Online that while a different kind of adventure game, Myst Online was not accessible to players other than the "hardcore faithful". The authors suggested that the franchise needed "to try something more dramatic than slapping an online architecture onto a game that already released, then periodically putting out small content updates." After several months of negotiations, Cyan regained
15582-515: The marketing, engineering, and operations teams. The engineering team was led by the product design group, and Ive's design studio was the dominant voice throughout the development process. The next two Mac products in 1999, the Power Mac G3 (nicknamed "Blue and White") and the iBook , introduced industrial designs influenced by the iMac, incorporating colorful translucent plastic and carrying handles. The iBook introduced several innovations:
15729-532: The mobile phone market. The first, Samurai Romanesque set in feudal Japan , was released in 2001 on NTT DoCoMo 's iMode network in Japan. More recent developments are CipSoft 's TibiaME and Biting Bit's MicroMonster , which features online and bluetooth multiplayer gaming. SmartCell Technology is in development of Shadow of Legend , which will allow gamers to continue their game on their mobile device when away from their PC. Science fiction has also been
15876-463: The money we had." GameTap parent Turner Broadcasting 's product development vice president Blake Lewin added that he did not believe any budget would have worked, due to the difficult content production pipeline. Lewin compared the game's production to the television series Lost , which had difficulties producing a full season. In an article discussing the current state of the adventure game genre, IGN writers Steve Butts and Charles Onyett considered
16023-584: The most common type of MMOG. Some MMORPGs are designed as a multiplayer browser game in order to reduce infrastructure costs and utilise a thin client that most users will already have installed. The acronym BBMMORPGs has sometimes been used to describe these as "browser-based". Many games are categorized as MMOBBGs, , Massively Multiplayer Online Bulletin Board Games, also called MMOBBRPGs. These particular types of games are primarily made up of text and descriptions, although images are often used to enhance
16170-553: The need to use adapters to use most USB peripherals, and a high starting price of $ 1,299 (equivalent to $ 1,700 in 2023). In 2015, Apple started a service program to address a widespread GPU defect in the 15-inch 2011 MacBook Pro , which could cause graphical artifacts or prevent the machine from functioning entirely. The Touch Bar MacBook Pro was released in October 2016. It was the thinnest MacBook Pro ever made, replaced all ports with four Thunderbolt 3 (USB-C) ports, gained
16317-448: The new title Myst Online: URU Live Again . The game is now being advertised as entirely free to play. In August 2020, fan-led development of the game led to the release of the first fan-created Ages. Myst Online was generally well received by critics. The game has average critic scores of 77% and 83% at aggregate sites Metacritic and GameRankings , respectively. The Ages' varied visuals and strong aesthetic design were praised, as were
16464-437: The number of players and common use of a persistent world, generally hosted by the game's publisher, which continues to evolve even when the player is offline. Steve Jackson Games' UltraCorps is an example of an MMO turn-based strategy game. Hundreds of players share the same playing field of conquest. In a "mega" game, each turn fleets are built and launched to expand one's personal empire. Turns are usually time-based, with
16611-427: The product and giving an inside look into its creation. Apple took a new "multiple exclusives" approach regarding the press, giving "over one hundred interviews to journalists that lasted over six hours apiece", and introduced a new "Test Drive a Macintosh" campaign. Apple's brand, which established a "heartfelt connection with consumers", is cited as one of the keys to the Mac's success. After Steve Jobs's return to
16758-536: The projects' merit, this once-renegade project was actually endorsed by senior management following market pressures. In 1990 came the Macintosh LC and the more affordable Macintosh Classic , the first model under $ 1,000 (equivalent to $ 2,300 in 2023). Between 1984 and 1989, Apple had sold one million Macs, and another 10 million over the following five years. In 1991, the Macintosh Portable
16905-554: The real world for people who cannot or do not wish to undertake those experiences in real life. For example, flight simulation via an MMOG requires far less expenditure of time and money, is completely risk-free, and is far less restrictive (fewer regulations to adhere to, no medical exams to pass, and so on). Another specialist area is the mobile telecoms operator (carrier) business where billion-dollar investments in networks are needed but market shares are won and lost on issues from segmentation to handset subsidies. A specialist simulation
17052-564: The real world. They tend to be very specific to industries or activities of very large risk and huge potential loss, such as rocket science, airplanes, trucks, battle tanks, submarines etc. Gradually as simulation technology is getting more mainstream, so too various simulators arrive into more mundane industries. The initial goal of World War II Online was to create a map (in northwestern Europe) that had real-world physics (gravity, air/water resistance, etc.), and ability for players to have some strategic abilities to its basic FPS/RPG role. While
17199-402: The realities of actually working on the 128K Mac." Most of the original Macintosh team left Apple, and some followed Jobs to found NeXT after he was forced out by CEO John Sculley . The first Macintosh nevertheless generated enthusiasm among buyers and some developers, who rushed to develop entirely new programs for the platform, including PageMaker , MORE , and Excel . Apple soon released
17346-485: The release of Myst Online' s client and 3ds Max plugin under the GNU GPL v3 license. Myst Online ' s gameplay is a massively multiplayer online game , where players interact with others to solve puzzles and advance the story. Players communicate with others using a "Ki", an artifact which provides a special interface. Each player has their own personal Age, called Relto; unlike in public areas, each player's Relto
17493-440: The rights to Myst Online for no charge. Miller stated that Cyan was committed to resurrecting Myst Online once again, giving fans the chance to interact with and create content. The new version of Myst Online was dubbed the " Myst Online Restoration Experiment" or MORE , and Cyan planned to reopen the game on their own servers without new content; instead, tools would be released for fans to create new content. Cyan put forward
17640-514: The rumors, that such a decision made sense, as Intel was failing to make significant improvements to its processors, and could not compete with ARM chips on battery life. At WWDC 2020, Tim Cook announced that the Mac would be transitioning to Apple silicon chips, built upon an ARM architecture, over a two-year timeline. The Rosetta 2 translation layer was also introduced, enabling Apple silicon Macs to run Intel apps. On November 10, 2020, Apple announced their first system-on-a-chip designed for
17787-607: The simulation, any one team can win. Also to ensure maximum intensity, only one team can win. Telecoms senior executives who have taken the Equilibrium/Arbitrage simulation say it is the most intense, and most useful training they have ever experienced. It is typical of business use of simulators, in very senior management training/retraining. Examples of MMO simulation games include World of Tanks , War Thunder , Motor City Online , The Sims Online , and Jumpgate . A massively multiplayer online sports game
17934-552: The standard M3 chip in a refreshed iMac and a new base model MacBook Pro. Reviewers lamented the base memory configuration of 8 GB on the standard M3 MacBook Pro. In March 2024, the MacBook Air was also updated to include the M3 chip. In October 2024, several Macs were announced with the M4 series of chips, including the iMac, a redesigned Mac Mini, and the MacBook Pro; all of which included 16 GB of memory as standard. The MacBook Air
18081-505: The story were revealed through "episodes". After completing Riven —the sequel to the bestselling Myst —in 1997, developer Rand Miller and his company, Cyan Worlds , began development of what would become Uru: Ages Beyond Myst . Initially, the game was to have been called Myst Online and have been a multiplayer-only title, but game publisher Ubisoft pushed for a single-player dimension. The online component, called Uru Live , did not ship with Ages Beyond Myst ; in 2004, Uru Live
18228-490: The successful 1989 release of the Macintosh II , which appealed to power users and gave the lineup momentum. However, Gassée's "no-compromise" approach foiled Apple's first laptop , the Macintosh Portable , which has many uncommon power user features, but is almost as heavy as the original Macintosh at twice its price. Soon after its launch, Gassée was fired. Since the Mac's debut, Sculley had opposed lowering
18375-448: The third-party companies and their customers defend, is that they are selling and exchanging the time and effort put into the acquisition of the currency, not the digital information itself. They also express that the nature of many MMOGs is that they require time commitments not available to everyone. As a result, without external acquisition of virtual currency, some players are severely limited to being able to experience certain aspects of
18522-416: The third-party companies that want a share of the profits and success of the game. This battle between companies is defended on both sides. The company originating the game and the intellectual property argue that this is in violation of the terms and agreements of the game as well as copyright violation since they own the rights to how the online currency is distributed and through what channels . The case that
18669-586: The unreliable Butterfly keyboard with a redesigned scissor-switch Magic Keyboard. On the MacBook Pros, the Touch Bar and Touch ID were made standard, and the Esc key was detached from the Touch Bar and returned to being a physical key. At WWDC 2019, Apple unveiled a new Mac Pro with a larger case design that allows for hardware expandability, and introduced a new expansion module system (MPX) for modules such as
18816-539: The virtual world of EverQuest as the 77th wealthiest nation, on par with Croatia, Ecuador, Tunisia or Vietnam. World of Warcraft is a dominant MMOG with 8-9 million monthly subscribers worldwide. The subscriber base dropped by one million after the expansion Wrath of the Lich King , bringing it to nine million subscribers in 2010, though it remained the most popular Western title among MMOGs. In 2008, Western consumer spending on World of Warcraft represented
18963-844: Was VR-1 Entertainment, whose Conductor platform was adopted and endorsed by a variety of service providers around the world including Sony Communications Network in Japan; the Bertelsmann Game Channel in Germany; British Telecom's Wireplay in England; and DACOM and Samsung SDS in South Korea. Games that were powered by the Conductor platform included Fighter Wing , Air Attack , Fighter Ace , Evernight , Hasbro Em@ail Games ( Clue , NASCAR and Soccer ), Towers of Fallow , The SARAC Project , VR1 Crossroads and Rumble in
19110-413: Was able to gradually take control of the project due to Wozniak's temporary absence after an airplane crash . Under Jobs, the Mac grew to resemble the Lisa, with a mouse and a more intuitive graphical interface, at a quarter of the Lisa's price. Upon its January 1984 launch, the first Macintosh was described as "revolutionary" by The New York Times . Sales initially met projections, but dropped due to
19257-441: Was also released for Mac OS X , the first GameTap game for the platform. In February 2008, GameTap announced that Myst Online was canceled. Sanchez released a statement that "The decision was a very difficult one and was made for business reasons rather than due to any issues regarding the design and vision of the amazing world that Cyan Worlds and Rand Miller have brought to us. Despite the great Myst Online experience coming to
19404-406: Was also upgraded with 16 GB for the same price. The original Macintosh was marketed at Super Bowl XVIII with the highly acclaimed "1984" ad, directed by Ridley Scott . The ad alluded to George Orwell 's novel Nineteen Eighty-Four , and symbolized Apple's desire to "rescue" humanity from the conformity of computer industry giant IBM . The ad is now considered a "watershed event" and
19551-401: Was announced that a Macintosh port of the game was being developed by TransGaming ; a beta became available soon after. This coincided with the release of the first new Age, Eder Delin. GameTap brought Myst Online: Uru Live online in February 2007. On May 19, 2007, Myst Online made the move to episodic content releases, with each episode adding new Ages, puzzles, and a plot continuation. It
19698-533: Was based around the creation of virtual objects, including models and scripts. In practice, it has more in common with Club Caribe than EverQuest . It was the first MMO of its kind to achieve widespread success (including attention from mainstream media); however, it was not the first (as Club Caribe was released in 1988). Competitors in this subgenre (non-combat-based MMORPG) include Active Worlds , There , SmallWorlds , Furcadia , Whirled , IMVU and Red Light Center . Macintosh Mac
19845-522: Was developed by Nokia called Equilibrium/Arbitrage to have over a two-day period five teams of top management of one operator/carrier play a "wargame" against each other, under extremely realistic conditions, with one operator an incumbent fixed and mobile network operator, another a new entrant mobile operator, a third a fixed-line/internet operator, etc. Each team is measured by outperforming their rivals by market expectations of that type of player. Thus, each player has drastically different goals, but within
19992-478: Was introduced alongside the Studio Display , and was meant to replace the 27-inch iMac, which was discontinued on the same day. At WWDC 2022 , Apple announced an updated MacBook Air based on a new M2 chip. It incorporates several changes from the 14-inch MacBook Pro, such as a flat, slab-shaped design, full-sized function keys, MagSafe charging, and a Liquid Retina display, with rounded corners and
20139-609: Was mostly restricted to the computer game market until the sixth-generation consoles , with the launch of Phantasy Star Online on the Dreamcast , as well as the emergence and growth of the online service Xbox Live . There have been a number of console MMOGs, including EverQuest Online Adventures ( PlayStation 2 ), and the multi-console Final Fantasy XI . On PCs, the MMOG market has always been dominated by successful fantasy MMORPGs. MMOGs have only recently begun to break into
20286-583: Was named as his successor. Cook's first keynote address launched iCloud , moving the digital hub from the Mac to the cloud. In 2012, the MacBook Pro was refreshed with a Retina display, and the iMac was slimmed and lost its SuperDrive . During Cook's first few years as CEO, Apple fought media criticisms that it could no longer innovate without Jobs. In 2013, Apple introduced a new cylindrical Mac Pro , with marketing chief Phil Schiller exclaiming "Can't innovate anymore, my ass!". The new model had
20433-507: Was publicly unveiled in January 2000, introducing the modern Aqua graphical user interface, and a far more stable Unix foundation, with memory protection and preemptive multitasking . Blue Box became the Classic environment , and Yellow Box was renamed Cocoa . Following a public beta , the first version of Mac OS X, version 10.0 Cheetah , was released in March 2001. In 1999, Apple launched its new "digital lifestyle" strategy of which
20580-450: Was ready to abandon Microsoft Office for Mac, which would have slashed any remaining business appeal the Mac had. Gil Amelio , Spindler's successor, failed to negotiate a deal with Gates. In 1996, Spindler was succeeded by Amelio, who searched for an established operating system to acquire or license for the foundation of a new Macintosh operating system. He considered BeOS , Solaris, Windows NT, and NeXT's NeXTSTEP , eventually choosing
20727-459: Was replaced with the smaller and lighter PowerBook 100 , the first laptop with a palm rest and trackball in front of the keyboard. The PowerBook brought $ 1 billion of revenue within one year, and became a status symbol. By then, the Macintosh represented 10% to 15% of the personal computer market. Fearing a decline in market share, Sculley co-founded the AIM alliance with IBM and Motorola to create
20874-529: Was revealed at WWDC 2017, featuring updated Intel Xeon W processors and Radeon Pro Vega graphics. In 2018, Apple released a redesigned MacBook Air with a Retina display, Butterfly keyboard, Force Touch trackpad, and Thunderbolt 3 USB-C ports. The Butterfly keyboard went through three revisions, incorporating silicone gaskets in the key mechanism to prevent keys from being jammed by dust or other particles. However, many users continued to experience reliability issues with these keyboards, leading Apple to launch
21021-452: Was revealed, featuring the M1 chip, seven new colors, thinner white bezels, a higher-resolution 1080p webcam, and an enclosure made entirely from recycled aluminum. On October 18, 2021, Apple announced new 14-inch and 16-inch MacBook Pros , featuring the more powerful M1 Pro and M1 Max chips, a bezel-less mini-LED 120 Hz ProMotion display, and the return of MagSafe and HDMI ports, and
21168-479: Was stagnant. The Mac was no longer competitive, and its sales entered a tailspin. Corporations abandoned Macintosh in droves, replacing it with cheaper and more technically sophisticated Windows NT machines for which far more applications and peripherals existed. Even some Apple loyalists saw no future for the Macintosh. Once the world's second largest computer vendor after IBM, Apple's market share declined precipitously from 9.4% in 1993 to 3.1% in 1997. Bill Gates
21315-466: Was still absent from most PCs and USB 1.1 was only standardized one month after the iMac's release. He also controversially removed the floppy disk drive and replaced it with a CD drive. The iMac was unveiled in May 1998, and released in August. It was an immediate commercial success and became the fastest-selling computer in Apple's history, with 800,000 units sold before the year ended. Vindicating Jobs on
21462-535: Was suspended entirely. In 2006, Cyan developed a stand-in for Uru Live , called Until Uru ; this replacement was hosted by players in servers known as "shards", and did not have content updates or official support. On May 9, 2006, Cyan Worlds and GameTap announced at the Electronic Entertainment Expo that Myst Online: Uru Live would be returning in the holiday season of 2006. The GameTap version did not require any physical purchase: all
21609-488: Was the first MMOG developed for children. Its gameplay falls somewhere between puzzle and adventure . There are also massively multiplayer collectible card games: Alteil , Astral Masters and Astral Tournament . Other MMOCCGs might exist ( Neopets has some CCG elements) but are not as well known. Alternate reality games (ARGs) can be massively multiplayer, allowing thousands of players worldwide to co-operate in puzzle trials and mystery solving. ARGs take place in
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