You're right. Here in North America, the active player base has dramatically increased from 4 to the astronomical number of around 6 in the last 2 years!
I really don't understand this attitude. If you want slow development go and check out how long NetKar fans have waited for a patch that just fixes a few bugs.
It is impossible to compare LFS to iRacing because of the size of investment gone into both.
I wouldn't be surprised if iRacing is still working at a loss. LFS on the other hand can not afford to hire 50+ staff to push the development of the sim. In fact I wouldn't be surprised to find that financially LFS is in a much stronger, and more stable position. If the iRacing team goes under you won't even be able to play it anymore, LFS can be enjoyed on your HD for the rest of your life.
Of course you can want everything fast, and demand everything be pushed through but this just doesn't happen. Just look at the fast profit nature of the banking system to see that it's FLAWED!
I don't play LFS too much at the moment because of netKar commitments, but to somehow right-off LFS because iRacing has arrived is silly.
In one way, that could be a good thing. Companies like that think they are all that, so soon they end up putting in stuff they won't care about, all for making more money. One example - EA making NFS. in the old NFS games (pre Underground 2) it used to stand for Electronic Arts, nowadays, Exceptionaly Abysmal (marketing.)
While the 3 devs have open time. They can work on the game whenever they like, and no-one else can tell 'em what to do. They have the freedom to perfect their game.
Having someone like owner of Manchester United as the financial backer for LFS and that person being also genuinely interested in virtual motorpsort, would definitely mean unstable position...
no, its so big cos theres too many very bad downloads. i downloaded a lot of stuff cos anything wasnt really good in it, i only liked the corvette alot in it. and the good thing in erasing it was i got my computer running alot faster
As I wrote in my last post - The slow developing is not the biggest problem for me. LFS becomes boring since there were no proper public racing servers. I havent got time for a league races and now without CTRA there is a huge amount of cruising/drifting servers and thats killing or already killed LFS for me. Things were different in the past and maybe its just a problem of my self. Hope it will change someday
Anyway, iRacing didn't kill LFS. LFS isn't even dead, it's just having a slight pause in development time which is understandable if you know the reasons.
Besides, maybe now would be the ideal time to take a 'break' from LFS, with CTRA gone, and no patch for the moment, it may be a refreshing experience for some people to try other sims instead of trolling the forum asking for the Scirocco/other cars/tracks etc.
Yes, so I can work on Beating you at XFG while you're away mwhaha.
iracing isn't the only rival to LFS, there are games out there beyond the world of racing simulation and out beyond the Galaxy of PC land that could steal LFS's thunder, e.g. being blown out of the sky repeatedly in IL2 1946 can be quite fun.
I'll never forgive the iRacing team though, Nascar 2003 was beginning to have quite a serious proper modding community, and Kaemmer (or however you spell his name), showed up and started suing anyone who tried to release a good quality, non-profit mod for N2003, bastards.
iRacing did the same for me, it was such an effort just to enter one race, and you had to spend too much money to get into the better cars and series. I played iRacing for 2 months, got bored of it and started playing LFS again. LFS has not been killed, some people are dissapointed at the pace of development and stopped playing, but you know they will be back the next time we get a big update. The pace of iracing development is no better, they tell people things are planned and there will be new cars and tracks, but have they actually released many of them? They also forget to mention the cost of having to buy the car, then buy all the tracks you need to race with that car, you could buy a lot of S2 licenses for that money.
So no iRacing has not killed LFS, LFS is just having a nap and when it wakes up it will resume pounding the other simulators into submission.
The RSRadicals server tonight proved to me why LFS at it's core is still very alive. As scawned as pick up and play online racing is, it's still fun racing 30+ guys for a few hours without waiting around for a race to come along, and then worry about SR etc...
The actual fact that LFS doesn't pack the same graphical might means MORE people can race, and can handle 30+ cars. That to me is a MASSIVE bonus.
OK some of the drivers moaning about a little rubbing is frustrating, but over all massive fun!