June 5, 2006

We are proud to announce a new e-zine dedicated to sim-racing and sim-racers. The inaugural issue of VirtualMotorsports is scheduled for June 28, 2006. The e-zine’s co-founders, Christoph Schirmer and Bruce Saltzman, have vast experience in the professional publishing arena and have for many years been actively contributing to the community-based development of sim-racing.

Christoph is co-founder and president of FILSCA, the global association of online racing leagues and the home of FMI, the first and most comprehensive automated league system. In addition to being a co-founder and the publisher of AUTOSIMSPORT, he has also been its occasional author.

Bruce Saltzman is a graphics and publishing professional with almost 20 years of industry experience and also has an extensive background in advertising and marketing. Since 2001, he has been a member of Team McPherson Racing. He took over the design and production of AUTOSIMSPORT in July 2005. He was responsible for the development of the e-zine’s classic layout which contributed highly, not only to its current visibility, but also to its standing with industry partners. In May 2006, both Christoph and Bruce resigned from their positions with AUTOSIMSPORT.

While the plan is to continue with the tradition of reporting on the issues that you want to read about, we are planning somewhat of a departure from the usual format. This will include tight integration between the e-zine and a companion web site, which is planned to be launched soon. We will do our best to offer you a format which brings you all the knowledge and information fit to publish about sim-racing.

For those that would like to participate in building an exciting new environment for sim-racing as news or feature contributors, please let us know by using the contact info below.

VirtualMotorsports Sim-Racing E-Zine

Publishers and Co-founders:
Christoph Schirmer
Bruce Saltzman

For further information, contact:
[email protected]
[email protected]

I'm curious how you plan to succeed in this arena. From all indications, magazine subscriptions are on a decline and have been for several years. Especially hard hit have been magazines related to the tech field because things change so quickly and because so much information is freely available online. It would seem that virtual racing would be a double-whammy - a very small user (subscriber) base AND a technology related field. Also, because both of you formerly worked at ASS and now will be competing directly against it, what can you offer that they do not?

Not trying to rain on your parade. Just genuinely interested.

Congratz Bruce,

Wish you the best of luck in this new Magazine.

Thanks for the replys guys. We welcome your questions and concerns.

Just to clear this up, this will be a freely downloadable publication integrated with a companion web site. Thus, this is intended to be an online source of information.

As stated, our publishing model will be somewhat of a departure from that of Autosimsport. Our intention is to more closely focus on the individual and varied communities of the different major simulations. Like yours for instance. Therefore, there should be enough of a variety to entice readers to download both magazines. We feel competition is a good thing and as such welcome it.

VirtualMotorsports LLC will have more then one facet to it. One indeed is the distribution of racing hardware. In those cases, you will not find us submitting reviews on hardware we distribute. Will we accept reviews of the brands we distribute from outside contributors, even if the review is not completely favorable? Absolutely we will. The magazine, published by VirtualMotorsports LLC, should be and is independent of the distribution business with regard to sphere of influence.

Other then the items distributed by the hardware division, there really isn't any other areas of perceptible conflict with the magazine division. However I guess that will be for us to prove by our actions, correct?

Sounds intersting. Good luck with this new magazine.

FILSCA doesn't seem to be too supportive of LFS though. Why?

LFS is alpha, its not a full finished product as yet, thats how i understand FILSCA operating policies at the moment.

so is it an e-magazine or a paper one!? your 1st post could be a little clearer...

Fair point, but imo (and i am no "fanboy") LFS in it's alpha stage is as good, if not better, than other sim's out right now. (not including nkpro or RBR, which i havent tried yet)

Totally agreed there, (though i have a soft spot for what NKp could be), but I read on the FILSCA site that they only accept games in thier finished state. I think LFS should be accepted as as a product, im sure S1 was "finished", and S2 cant be too far off.

Quote from mkinnov8 :

LFS is alpha, its not a full finished product as yet, thats how i understand FILSCA operating policies at the moment.

I see, so their policy is to not include LFS but an EA arcade game that in it's finished form isn't even a tenth of a sim is ok? Maybe it would be better for them to show an interest in LFS before associating their magazine with a website that seems to ignore LFS.

Quote from mkinnov8 :

Totally agreed there, (though i have a soft spot for what NKp could be), but I read on the FILSCA site that they only accept games in thier finished state.

If this is true then neither rFactor and its various mods nor netKar PRO should be eligible to be used in FILSCA races. Yet the FILSCA website is full of race reports where rFactor features prominently.

Is LFS, to FILSCA, what McLaren is to F1?

Take a look at thier site, there is a link to register a game, followed by terms and conditions. Now back on topic perhaps...

The topic doesn't seem to be about LFS.

Good luck with your magazine!

One thing I really hope to see is alot more objectivity than ASS articles, which were notorious of being triple sugar coated and to me seemed a bit brown nosed. Especially the nKP "affair" made this stand out, where the released product looked like a pile of poo compared to the ingenious racing simulator the articles praised.

Quote from christoph schirmer :

c) FILSCA and LFS is a sad matter indeed. I would very much welcome leagues to FILSCA and provide service. But there is one problem: we do not have a script for uploading the results, nor do we currently have the man-power to develop one. That script is actually everything needed. FILSCA is a community-powered endeavor, and as such depends on the engagement and commitment of its members. Maybe some one who is skilled in php would be interest to code a parser?

Sorry but what!? If you had mentioned that earlier then you'd probably already have had that script in the S1 era.

Quote from christoph schirmer :

c) FILSCA and LFS is a sad matter indeed. I would very much welcome leagues to FILSCA and provide service. But there is one problem: we do not have a script for uploading the results, nor do we currently have the man-power to develop one. That script is actually everything needed. FILSCA is a community-powered endeavor, and as such depends on the engagement and commitment of its members. Maybe some one who is skilled in php would be interest to code a parser?

We have several experienced LFS community programmers, and an interface to extract the info from LFS in real time. I guess you will get some help with this if you make a post in the programmers section of this forum and just describe what info you need uploaded.

http://www.lfsforum.net/forumdisplay.php?f=9

Quote from Gunn :

The topic doesn't seem to be about LFS.

It may not be Gunn, like a lot of things here. It stays till someone notices it then it will be move to some far corner of the forum to fight out its last days.

I think the people who made the announcement are (and have been for a while) trying to include LFS more in thier venture.

Therefore making the topic related to LFS. Shall we give this thread a chance for a good discussion?

Quote from mkinnov8 :

Therefore making the topic related to LFS. Shall we give this thread a chance for a good discussion?

It has been a good discussion. Maybe even some good may come of it now that certain issues are being discussed. It's the squeaky wheel that gets the oil.

Maybe this isn't the best place to ask this but...
Being a writer for ASS, I would like to know why no info on this matter came out on the main ASS home page? If two of the more important people leave a mag and go into buisness of their own, the June issue of ASS being delayed and no one hears about it, there has to be something shady going on.
I had to write Alex and tell him people was wondering about it, and then he sent out a proper statement to the subscribers. I myself didn't know about it, which I think I should since I expect my articles, and more important the news I gather, to be published on time.

I also hear other stuff which makes me distrust this new magazine before it has even seen the light of day.

Quote from X-Ter :

...I also hear other stuff which makes me distrust this new magazine before it has even seen the light of day.

Perhaps you could enlighten us as to why you feel the way you do. I personally have felt all my life that there are always two sides to every story, and as such have reserved judgement until both sides are heard. However, to keep this topic from going off track, perhaps you'd like to PM me for further discussion of your feelings. Otherwise it would seem to me unfair to judge us based on the comments of what could be a higly biased party.

Of course there is two sides, and of course I don't judge without knowing it all, or at least much enough to base judgement on. That's why I'm asking and that's why I don't accuse and don't judge... Yet

PM already sent to Bruce...

Quote from nikimere :

so is it an e-magazine or a paper one!? your 1st post could be a little clearer...

??

Quote from nikimere :

so is it an e-magazine or a paper one!? your 1st post could be a little clearer...

Quote from nikimere :

??

Quote from Bruce Saltzman :

[...]Just to clear this up, this will be a freely downloadable publication integrated with a companion web site. Thus, this is intended to be an online source of information.[...]

HTH

Serp.