I debated whether or not to join this topic, but succumbed in the end.
What will LFS be in 10 years?
Not very far from what it is now.
For me (and I can speak only for me), LFS is the only racing sim I play because I won't rent it like iRacing demands.
The only problem is... I don't play it anymore. Oh, I've tried. I stopped playing regularly in (I think) Nov 2008, and in November or December this year I set my wheel up again, thinking a year's abstinence would've re-ignited my fire.
But it didn't.
I didn't recognise any of the servers, other than the always-reliable (and superbly clean) Dead Men Racing, but that isn't always populated. I didn't recognise any of the racers, the regular names I used to see when I was racing actively weren't to be seen. Worst of all, it felt as though everyone around me was a complete liability based on some of the racecraft I saw. Instead of relishing a battle when side-by-side with someone, I would find myself dreading getting too close to someone. I didn't know them, I didn't trust them, regardless of how fast they were or what team colours they were dressed in.
The other big downer was that I'd lost my collection of setups since 2008, and one thing it taught me is that you can drive on the absolute tyre-cooking limit, but someone with a locked diff will cruise right past you.
I hunted around for some interesting combos where my lack of setup library would be less of a hindrance, and in the process reminded me of LFS' other significant flaw. The only thing you're guaranteed to be able to choose from is either cruise, drift, or GTR@AS3. Pass me the tylenol.
I tried a few different servers, but my, insim controlling apps have profligated an awful lot whilst I've been away. On some more popular servers I even had messages flashing up telling me my stats weren't going to be aggregated on that server because I was too slow compared to the server record. Yeah, sorry, I probably forgot to weld my diff up. I know the reason I was slow, but what about the new player who genuinely is slow, even if he gets given a fast setup? How is that going to encourage them?
In the end, I ended up on the [TC] Montana cruise server a few times, just for the fun of throwing an LX car around. Then I got bored of driving with people half my age who can't even drive a real car, and haven't played LFS since.
Some "comeback". Why didn't I feel the magic again?
Part of the problem is that it's nearly 2010, and apart from some subtle physics revisions, LFS still largely feels, looks and sounds the same as the title released in 2005.
Another is that as the community has grown, it seems to have got younger, by a far greater margin than what I've got older by. I think this is evident both on the forum and on the track.
There are people who say, "if you're bored with it go play something else", I believe this includes the devs. Well, I've tried that. I've not just played something else, I've spent countless hours tied up with work, with friends, with family, doing photography, following other interests, and still felt decidedly non-plussed after coming back to LFS. Besides, I've been around since S1 days. What will it do to the LFS community if everyone that has supported and experienced LFS for several years just buggers off until something significant happens? Truth be told, I think the extent to which that has already happened has damaged public pick-up racing a fair bit in LFS.
I'd like to blame it on the devs for not communicating their plans and current positions, but Scawen recently gave a (very informative, genuinely welcome) status update and yet now at Christmas we have a flurry of bitching threads, bemoaning the lack of progress and VWS. I'd like to blame it on the lack of content, but we have plenty that the public pick-up racing community never touches - i.e. anything outside it's comfort zone. I'd like to blame it on the community, but many of the older, more experienced, mature guys that were here from the start are only doing what Scavier asked them to do - go away and stop complaining until they feel like coming back.
If there's one thing the devs can do (other than the obvious: get the updates, advances and new content coming sooner rather than later. And as a patient customer I really don't want to start hearing about house moves, renovations, families and suchlike. We were told to expect some great releases this year, but I haven't seen any yet) it's to re-engage with the community. At the moment they seem very... distant. In the past we've had LX month with the associated skinning competitions and officially run servers. We've had teaser pictures and promotional sites. It felt like there was a genuine passion and excitement about these new things. I don't sense that vibe any more. Now it feels like there's so much more could be done by which the devs could re-engage with the game at the community's level.