And what is that supposed to mean? They offer the same old obsolete offline-only 1.2.0.0 version of iRacing as well as a torrent of NR2003 with some mods installed. I fail to see any connection with the post you were quoting.
Hehe, thinking about driving a lazer scanned version of that track gives me goose bumps. due to the size, it'd probably be 25 bucks, maybe they'll give us the config w/ out the chicanes too then. I'd be nice to have a porsche in the game too maybe a class below the corvette?
I believe this behavior was only reported by one racer, and not confirmed by anyone else. Can't be bothered to test whether it's true or not myself... It's easy to see that tires lose grip when they lift off the ground, so I don't see why they would have any grip when the car is upside down, either.
You must have misunderstood me. What I meant to say was simply that the illegal offline-only torrent that is distributed on several sites is based on an old, outdated version 1.2.0.0 of the software. The current version is 1.4.0.0. One of the main points of the subscription model is that the service can be both updated and expanded constantly.
Actually... you kinda have a point. Normally I'm strictly against piracy regarding small/indie/niche software, but forcing you to spend 20$ just to be able to try if the game even works is making it hard for me to sympathise.
Well, I don't think these cases are that similar, as the iRacing torrent is based on a public release, not beta version, and was only released after the service had been public for a while. In its outdated state it wouldn't serve any purpose in testing or promotion either, in my view.
It is a torrent of Nascar Racing 2003 with some mods installed. That's why it's called NASCAR2003_with_mods. In reference to that torrent, there is absolutely nothing else to "get", and the whole thing has no relevance whatsoever in this discussion. Have a look at the description if you still think otherwise.
iRacing isn't less of a permanent alpha/beta version than LFS, so any of their public releases are at the same time beta BTW did they finally fix the issue with autoclutch that I'd read about some time ago? Sheesh, selling such an expensive subscription service and getting all pissed off if someone called it 'game' and then clutch wasn't even working in a realistic way... not to mention brake lights
However my point was that for quite long periods of time, people use to try out MS stuff the iRacing way because there was no demo, no timed trial etc. Long after they became established market leader for that specific segments they would start their war against piracy - and made available timed trials.
E.g. think of Windows, XP was the first version of the OS with an activation process. Now Vista even has reduced functionality mode. Office was more or less the same.
Anyway, I was basically joking (see the "" at the end), because I don't think the iRacing guys are consciously following into Microsoft's footsteps.
I guess the reason they don't offer a demo is likely because they want to avoid people trying it a couple times and walking away completely underwhelmed. Having people spend some money on a trial, is a way to inject a bias towards having to like it.
It would make sense if iRacing was not quite the revolution their marketing people wanted it to be
I'm sure they purposely decided to go in this direction. Sure, iRacing is not going to be welcomed by the major community, but it's aimed at those that demand the absolute best sim racing on a computer so far, and have the ability to pay for it.
They have less customers, but each and every customer brings a whole lot more money in the till than just a one-off payment for a licensed copy of the software, like with other sims.
With a relatively small community, I'm sure they have already made more money than the LFS developers in all these years.
Yeah, it can get very expensive if you buy everything in one shot along w/ a years subscription. But you get 60 iracing dollars spending money each time you (re)subscribe for a year, and there's bonuses for doing really well that will be coming soon, i think.
Nah, I think that speculation doesn't work too well, actually. For grown-ups with a steady income 20 bucks for a trial isn't that big of an investment for anyone to create a bias other than getting slightly pissed off if they didn't get what they expected.
Whether or not different aspects of iRacing are better or different from other sims has been dealt with extensively in this thread many times over. There are several major aspects in the service that no-one has tried to do before, and most of the essential components of a sim are done better than in any other game, in my opinion. It's up to everyone to decide for themselves if that is revolutionary or not.
After all that drumrolling and attempts to pass it as the biggest thing after the wheel itself, players would sit down with the highest expectations and take a look at the plasticky graphics, the lack of polishing, the not-so revolutionary FFB, the clunky half-web interface and the restrictions imposed upon gameplay by the half-league system.
If, as they say, they invested years and millions to coming up with just that, they absolutely want you to believe what you wrote, and those players to try as hard as they can to like that half-baked revolution.
The more I think about it, the more it looks to me like the mountain has ever brought forth anything that much bigger than a mouse.
And everyone is selling things for those x99.99$ prices instead of going round, because they are kiddies?
It seems to me you are underestimating the power of expectations and psychology.
Hey, I actually agree with you on everything except the first point: with a top-end graphics card the game looks fantastic. Still, the things that matter most to me, the quality of non-league racing, realism and feel, are the best there is, so for me it was a very easy choice.
Also, there is a sense of continual, rather quick progress both with the sim and the service around it that is totally unique within the sim-racing scene. The monthly subscription model makes that possible.
No. It's just that $20 is nothing when it comes to the amount of money people spend on everyday entertainment. Based on that kind of logic everyone would judge cd's and movies etc. much higher because they had to pay $10-20 for them. And based on my experience, if anything it works just the other way around for the average working person.
Music and movies are quite different from a racing sim, anyway there has been a boom in digital downloads exactly because people download the one song they like for little money instead of blowing 20 € on a CD with 2 good songs and a bunch of filler tracks.
We're straying off topic now, we have different opinions on iRacing and that's fine with me. As long as you're happy with iRacing I can only wonder why you bother dwelling on LFS forum with a demo account
Given the current shortcomings in their offering, I will let them go ahead at their 'quick pace' and see if they eventually come up with something I might be more keen on trying
The reason why I have been dwelling on the LFS forums is that years ago I used to be very excited by the promise of LFS, until it soon became apparent to me that the development speed was reduced to a snail's pace. I kept on checking out the progress every now and then, but when iRacing came out I saw it as a sim with true potential for progress (and delivering it, too) and decided to offer some alternative views to the sometimes irrational iR-negativism.
playing iracing on my old, 19 inch (nonwidescreen) lcd isnt so bad. I'd imagine most people who would like iracing already have a wheel. I've talked to a handful of people who's first sim is iracing. Most are auto-sport fans or race in real life, so spending 80 bucks or so on a lower class wheel, or 200 or more on the better isnt too much to ask along w/ a subscription. It seems like almost everyone i talk to in the chatrooms is a member of some real life race series except me.
Not that anyone could blame you for that - unlike iRacing which you buy once for 24£ and then play how much you want with free updates along the way, LFS is really much more expensive with its annual subscription plan and then add insult to injury, having to buy every car you want to try!
Oh wait... So in 5 years your LFS investment would have theoretically to the fabulous sum of 5£ per year, every year of LFS allowed you to drive the Solstice for... what? 10 days?
I regard this community as very lucky to have such an affectionate and objective member who even spent his precious time to stop by and warn us against irrational negativism