Ok, who has to play the mage this time?, why magical support is hard to find Options

[Yum Donuts]

I just came to the forums to play some SR, and it seems like everyone needed magical support in their groups, and I thought "well I CAN play it, but I'd rather play something else." then I realized that's probably what everyone else had thought.
so my question is: why do people prefer not to play mages.

If I had to guess, I'd say it's because mages are at their weakest when they're first made. they have to put high points into magic and resources to buy spell points. this leaves them with lessened atributes and skills, as well as a barely sufficient arsenal of spells.
Now make a gunbunny, or a tank, or a physad, or a decker, or a rigger. you can make them into a powerhouse right at chargen.
Mages take alot of karma to get going, and so you don't want to play a mage if you're only going to do a one-shot run.
Many GMs make this problem worse by not allowing any change over between cash and karma. lets say the group gets 50,000 :nuyen: and 8 karma each (a big run). the Samies go for getting new cyber and some custom guns, and maybe a skill up. mages get a spell, and then... sit on 50,000. sure they could buy a couple elementals (thousands of nuyen which will have no lasting effect, unlike the sammie's new cyber). they could buy a focus, but they have no karma to bind it. They don't need much gear, so they sit on the money, or find ways to burn it uselessly.
So while everyone else is increasing their gear and going up, the mage is barely able to keep up.

Now of course, the mage keeps going up long after the sammie and the decker plateau out, but really, how many people know when they go into a game that they're going to be able to keep playing that long?

Just a thought