Hello. I dunno maybe it's the scotch, maybe its the actual question that bangs in my head.
I don't know. But ask yourself, "Why do you play LFS?" Most people I see on the forums have been licensed since 2009. That's ten years. Which is a long time in game years. Are there other folks that play other games like this? Besides Total Annihilation and Quake...... Not many.
This particular game is multi-generational as far as my family goes. What about yours? I know a big chunk of y'all are in your early thirties at least. If not older.
My son uses it as a benchmark for other titles. (he does crap for some company called Chromus) And my grand daughter plays a little too. That's three generations of people..... using the same license...... oops. Well you just don't see that that sort of thing with very many titles, regardless of game genre. I think the only other racing game that can claim to have the cult following LFS has is an even older title: Grand Prix Legends. I mean who plays Need for Speed anymore? The other "sims"? Uh remember everyone going off about GTR or something in the S1 days.... Whatever happened to them? Yeah. LFS is more like "The Rocky Horror Show" More than it is a video game, I think.
LOL I've kept LFS cars around longer than I have real cars! You know, If there was such a car as the RB-4, I would probably own one.
Y'all take care.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=umj0gu5nEGs

Because it's worth it

I've probably owned 6 different PCs since I first purchased LFS 14 years ago.
It's always the first thing I install on a new build.
I rarely play it nowadays, yet it's still there.
And I follow it's glacial development with interest.
Weird.

I would've said nostalgia, but, thankfully, nostalgia isn't what it used to be

I just like the no BS philosophy of this game. It's very easy to come back whenever you want. "Plug-and-play" is not something you see a lot in PC gaming anymore. Many racing games/sims feel very awkward after a long break. LFS' old tyre physics feel very predictable no matter the car. The FFB really does a good job at replacing the "seat-of-the-pants" feeling. It makes it very welcoming on a come back. Few updates means not a lot of time passed on downloads/getting used to new features.

I wouldn't say that activity on old games is that rare these days, many 1990/2000s games have big speedrunning scenes, some RPGs like old school Runescape still have a decent amount of life in them. Maybe racing games don't pass the test of time so well, that's true.

Don't play anymore, but I'm still here because I want to drive the VWS with new physics.

Btw, where are the May and June progress reports???

Ah ****, here we go again!

I had two dreams as a kid: Rock star guitarist and/or racing driver. I've always played racing games but only ever for entertainment, being poor had ruled out 'serious' motorsport and I was putting my spare time effort into music. One day, after the 2nd band had become all work and no fun, I found LFS and realised that there is such thing as a racing simulator as opposed to racing game, and that it is possible to learn to race without being in a racing car. Whoop whoop, lifelong dream unfaded

My guitars get a quick noodle every now and then, but as of that day my spare time focus is racing. If I'm not on the track, making a track or coding up an insim then I'm probably planning it for my next bit of spare time. (You'd think PiranMOTO might have had a few more features by now, given this... but a couple of laps is pretty tempting when you can't find the latest bug.)

I've tried other sims, but they all felt off. I can't put my finger on what it was in the closer ones, it could well be confirmation bias, but they just didn't immerse me, I couldn't feel the car with them like I can feel it in LFS.

Quote from Bose321 :

Btw, where are the May and June progress reports???

They're not monthly any more, they're going to be "as and when" now (https://www.lfs.net/forum/post/1948686#post1948686)

Quote from Racer Y :

But ask yourself, "Why do you play LFS?" Most people I see on the forums have been licensed since 2009. That's ten years. Which is a long time in game years. Are there other folks that play other games like this? Besides Total Annihilation and Quake...... Not many.
This particular game is multi-generational as far as my family goes. What about yours? I know a big chunk of y'all are in your early thirties at least. If not older.
My son uses it as a benchmark for other titles. (he does crap for some company called Chromus) And my grand daughter plays a little too. That's three generations of people..... using the same license...... oops. Well you just don't see that that sort of thing with very many titles, regardless of game genre. I think the only other racing game that can claim to have the cult following LFS has is an even older title: Grand Prix Legends. I mean who plays Need for Speed anymore? The other "sims"? Uh remember everyone going off about GTR or something in the S1 days.... Whatever happened to them? Yeah. LFS is more like "The Rocky Horror Show" More than it is a video game, I think.

I think you overestimate LFS, I remember time when online reached 2,000 or 3,000 people, now around 200, maybe even Need for Speed UG2 have more players.. the game is essentially half dead, but it depended heavily on updates and simrace game competitors, and those who lacked graphics, cars and tracks, left in AC, Forza and who lacked physics there are left in irace. Now there no significant updates, therefore are no reasons for players to return. .
Just your scotch.

When you get a good race in this game, even after many years it's still a great feeling. Which is why I play.I won't ever be great at this game but that's maybe good for me in terms of getting fun out of it because it'll always be a challenge.

Mainly because it takes like 15 secs to get into a race, and is the only one that allows to play properly with M&K. I bought rF2 a couple weeks ago since it was on sale, but being on a 15'6 laptop, playing with the wheel is less than ideal because I can barely see the turns.
If I'll ever get a proper PC, or at least a bigger monitor, I will probably quit LFS. It's getting boring using always the same cars and tracks (inb4 "yOu HavEn'T trIed alL combOs!!1!), not to mention the AI is simply embarassing, the worst on the market. So until then, I stick with LFS.

Quote from Aleksandr_124rus :

I think you overestimate LFS, I remember time when online reached 2,000 or 3,000 people, now around 200, maybe even Need for Speed UG2 have more players..

Eh, many AAA games fall into triple-digit simultaneous player counts after a couple years. Triple-digits after 18 years is allright. Many things to do in this wacky world, it's hard maintaining a decent player-base on the long term. Especially in racing games where maintaining half-decent servers is hard work(I'm sure Nim Cross will attest). The problem with LFS is that it has virtually no offline mode, so once the community is toast, it's toast. And no, 200-simultaneous is not toast.

Hate to break it to y'all but there's never going to be a big return. People move on with their lives. The rare big updates we get we see a couple old faces for a week then they're gone again. Anyone building hope for a massive tabula rasa update is setting themselves for a massive disappointment.

I'm a long time lfs player. I just bought oculus drift today, and i laughed out loud for like one minute when i first tried lfs VR. It's so well done! I tried dirt rally and assetto corsa but the immersion is nothing like LFS. So i just wanted to thank Scawen for making the VR-experience so awesome, And for support of your great work, i bought myself S3 lisence today.

LFS is in my eyes still best online sim. Not much online lately (enjoying myself to much in wreckfest )

And waiting for the big update.

But every time I hop in my XRG I Always love the feeling I get.

Quote from UnknownMaster21 :

Because it's worth it

Because it's LFS, and I'm worth it.

lightweight so not much time lost on copying or running it, and top keyboard and mouse support for those who are too lazy or can't afford steering wheel.

And hassle free pickup (or what left of) online racing.

You don't play Live for Speed, Live for Speed plays you!

And I bet half of LFS userbase stumbed upon it randomly when searching NFS back in 2000's.

Is that a good thing or bad?

Quote from Evolution_R :

Is that a good thing or bad?

If confusion brought us some players, I vote for "why not".

Because it is worth betting on Live For Speed, because whoever passes by knows that this is in fact the best current simulator in terms of physics.

Quote from Racon :

I had two dreams as a kid: Rock star guitarist and/or racing driver. I've always played racing games but only ever for entertainment, being poor had ruled out 'serious' motorsport and I was putting my spare time effort into music. One day, after the 2nd band had become all work and no fun, I found LFS and realised that there is such thing as a racing simulator as opposed to racing game, and that it is possible to learn to race without being in a racing car. Whoop whoop, lifelong dream unfaded

My guitars get a quick noodle every now and then, but as of that day my spare time focus is racing. If I'm not on the track, making a track or coding up an insim then I'm probably planning it for my next bit of spare time. (You'd think PiranMOTO might have had a few more features by now, given this... but a couple of laps is pretty tempting when you can't find the latest bug.)

I've tried other sims, but they all felt off. I can't put my finger on what it was in the closer ones, it could well be confirmation bias, but they just didn't immerse me, I couldn't feel the car with them like I can feel it in LFS.


They're not monthly any more, they're going to be "as and when" now (https://www.lfs.net/forum/post/1948686#post1948686)

Pretty much my story also besides the programming insim

The thing with LFS is that many may not notice but their is a small but steady flow of new players but many get scared off or put off from buying a license due to negativity they hear about on the forums

Quote from joaopaulopt :

Because it is worth betting on Live For Speed, because whoever passes by knows that this is in fact the best current simulator in terms of physics.

That's clearly biased, we can't ignore the amount of work other developers are putting into their physics engine just because LFS happened to be our platform of choice, dynamique track temperature and rubber deposit, aquaplaning or tyres flatspots etc are just few things that are clearly result of recent efforts into making more realistic simulation.

Competition is a good thing even in a niche market like simracing.

LFS is great game that team ScaViEr has created over these years... At least my life would have been quite a lot more boring without LFS (of course LFS is not whole my life though..). There are many many great guys in this LFS community, nice to drive/race with you always.

Quote from lfsrm :

That's clearly biased, we can't ignore the amount of work other developers are putting into their physics engine just because LFS happened to be our platform of choice, dynamique track temperature and rubber deposit, aquaplaning or tyres flatspots etc are just few things that are clearly result of recent efforts into making more realistic simulation.

Competition is a good thing even in a niche market like simracing.

NO matter the work put into it, the physics in lfs are better than R-Factor 2 and assetto corsa and pcars, thats from experience with spending as many hours in each but where LFS falls behind is graphics if that is something that someone cares about

What makes a game physics better or worst in comparison to others? I think different people prefer different things. To me, if the game is consistent and predictable, lap after lap, I can get into a zone where I play to the limit almost by instinct, like disconnected from any rational decisions. It is a really nice sensation. LFS is the only game that takes me to that nirvana state

Apart of that, I love how quickly I am racing after starting the game from the desktop. It is so lightweight and easy to use compared to the complex ui's in current games.

-- EDIT: wow, I can't believe that was my first post because I feel I've been here forever