Sigh... Every time we think Apple's managed to get its act together on this whole games issue, something happens to show just how far the Mac has to go before it reaches critical mass as a gaming platform. Last week the controversy surrounded a couple of games developers who had reversed their earlier decision to port to the Mac due to a lack of communication from Apple's end; now that Apple's finally paying them some attention, it may be too little, too late. But the real ickiness just exploded today. Have you heard of Half-Life? It's apparently an excellent game, and one which yours truly was very much looking forward to purchasing once the Macintosh version was released. The last we'd heard, the port was very far along-- almost ready to box up and ship. But then it came to light that some features from the PC version, most notably the "Team Fortress Classic" expansion, wouldn't be included in the Mac version. And when Mac gamers heard that Mac-vs.-PC netplay had been working but was intentionally disabled, things got really ugly. (Just check out last week's messages in comp.sys.mac.games.action if you're running a bit low on bile.)

And yet that's nothing compared to what happened on Tuesday. Suddenly an open letter from Gabe Newell, the CEO of Valve Software (Half-Life's original developers) appeared on the 'net announcing that, since Mac gamers would never be happy, the Mac port of Half-Life has been cancelled. The baffling letter has been plastered all over most games sites, including Inside Mac Games, and it's chock full of delightful non-sequiturs such as, "At this point we've spent a bunch of money on the Mac product and have spent a lot of time thinking about what we need to do to make sure Macintosh users are happy with it when it ships. Which is why we are canceling the Macintosh version of Half-Life." Uh-oh-- looks like Steve unloaded the rest of his bad acid on Gabe Newell.

Apparently, the logic is this: since a vocal minority of Mac gamers complained loudly when they discovered that features were being cut, we're obviously all a mean, spiteful lot who will never be satisfied, and therefore, rather than release a crippled port, everyone will be better off if Valve just flushes its investment down the toilet and scraps the whole project. Huh. Now, maybe it's just the voices in our heads causing trouble again, but does anyone else get the feeling that Valve might be bluffing? After all, those same people who complained about the lack of features might suddenly be very happy to get a limited Mac port after hearing that the entire game had been scrapped. Just another conspiracy theory to throw in the mix.

Anyway, we know that many of you couldn't care less about Mac games in general, much less one specific title, but this is important to the overall health of the platform. Games drive sales of computers; that's a hard fact. Steve Jobs knows that, which is why he's trying to make the Mac a better games platform. Sadly, the Half-Life cancellation shows exactly to what degree Mac gamers are still second-class citizens-- and other developers are going to see how Valve invested money and then lost it all. That's not exactly the kind of story that will encourage future Mac games development. If you're interested in trying to persuade Gabe Newell to rethink his decision, DemandMac has a petition you can "sign" simply by visiting the page. There's no guarantee it'll help, but it definitely won't hurt.