You are probably right, but I do like the idea of a monthly PDF, maybe not just about LFS, maybe about the whole sim scene, wouldn't be very at all biased would it.........................
Speaking of ASS, I notice that the new issue actually has some LFS coverage in it for a change. Glad to see that Becky Rose is getting some recognition for all of her work with the STCC too. I was surprised to read that there are currently 5000 licensed drivers in the series. That's a metric crap-tonne of people.
I don't really see the point of publishing to PDF when web documents are a lot less bloated, and if you're going to use your browser to download the thing why not just view it instead?
Or of course you could publish to XHTML and then if anyone wants a PDF they can do the transformation to PostScript and republish it themselves.
You really have no chance to make something like this, it just isn't possible. The sim scene is always very biased... you really cannot go and judge a game without any kind of comparison with something else. Because we all kind of set a standard in our own eyes and judge any game 'as if' we weren't being biased. There is competition in the sim scene, without a doubt. One could make note of so many things that are supposedly 'good' in LFS, but many would disagree and it would just sound too fanatical about one simulation.
The thing people need to do when comparing sims is give it an honest yet reasonable evaluation, and not downplay so many things as if their one true simulation is a superior lifeform of sorts --- much to the likes of RSC and many of its members. I have not heard one LFS player that honestly gives ANY simulation an unbiased evaluation, and one that can accept the downsides of LFS at the same time.
That said, I don't think the LFS Magazine should be about the simulation completely. It could be informative, but nothing too lengthy (save more info for later issues)... but it should cover other aspects of the game... like the community, player interviews and their life other than LFS (if they even have one ), league news, etc. There are many other things you report and have good reads about, and it CAN be only about LFS. LFS should have its own mag, but it takes a lot of work and dedication... and GOOD WRITERS that have the time to write. (as well as the designers and such). A much easier way of doing it all would be to have an E-Mag online rather than a downloadable file. Much easier to distribute with just a link, and becomes a lot easier to make new articles and format things. (less time involved).
Well in a way there are 5k people. Thats just all the public server entries which theoretically are trying to participate in the league. Sounds great on paper but in reality it's just people wanting to have some fun pick-up races with a very minor minority actually wanting to join the league and participate =)
Ok, it ain't never gonna happen, just a thought..........
On to this months ASS, I think I am going to give up at page 19, after a good article about LFS by Magnus Tellbom, I turn to an article about rF, Magnus, quite rightly, stated that LFS netcode is arguably the best around, and having tried various sims, I agree, but according to page 19, and I para-phrase, "Here at autosimsport, though, we were immediately convinced that rFactor's slogan-the future of race simulation-was a pretty accurate way to describe image space incorporated's new product: with a online code unmatched by any other sim (and still by far the market leader to this day).
All of ASS's content is like that. They make it sound like every sim-affiliated individual in the world is continuously thrusting dollar bills into their writers' pockets as they type. In fact they probably are, if only to stop them bollocking on about themselves for five ****ing minutes and write something interesting.
I love these excerpts from Eric Alexander's 'The Future' article on pp84:
"I hope 2007 sees sim-racers supporting all developers of quality racing simulations by purchasing their products. This means dropping the sim vs sim argument and supporting all top-line sim-racing titles." (emphasis added).
Yet, two paragraphs later:
"I hope Gjon and everyone at ISI continue to push the limit of developer support and update rFactor to even greater heights of sim-racing benchmarking. And if they 'were' to charge for a future update, I'd gladly pay as rFactor already is the best value ever in the history of sim-racing." (emphasis added).
Hey, good job dropping the odious sim comparisons there, Eric!
The problem with ASS is, many people do not have this view, and all authors have a mixed bag of things to say about sim vs. sim.... kind of trying to make ASS appear less biased, but then go read another article and see how it can completely contradict that notion.
When i came up with the Battle Of The Teams Magazine
i thought it would bbe good to have something different then the usual
video or website.
I was also thinking i should make a Live For Speed Magazine incorporating BOTT and all other leagues and all the news around the community.
but thats what www.lfsnews is for
LFS news is a great idea but there is something missing, not content wise but link wise with the community. It should be the number one source for all LFS news but with only a few articles written per month it's easier to find news on the forum. Maybe if somebody would want to take the time to write more articles for it? News like the unoffical sound editor or somthing like that, anything that pertains to LFS community discussion wise about the game could be put in? I donno, there is a link to the community IMO thats missing in LFS news. I am not being critical it's a great news site, just not alot of news being posted, and I am not the type of person to be writing articles =)
:edit: the articles are slowly picking up, thats great to see =) it's been dead for so long maybe it's going to take time for more peopel to read it =)
I think what you will find with Eric Alexander's column or the editor's prose in an interview with ISI's Gjon Gamaj, is that they are offering their opinions as writers, much like Chris Harris might bang on about Porsche 911's being great in AutoCar, or Nigel Roebuck celebrate's Gilles Villeneuve's talent.
Having an opinion is no bad thing for journalism, it just makes it more interesting, what AutoSimSport NEEDS is for people in THIS community to do less complaining about a lack of LFS content, but rather to "get amongst it" and provide the content that they want to see.
Fact is, AutoSimSport is run by a very small team, and that team simply cannot be playing and involved in every sim in the market. Sure, LFS has alot of players, but so does N2003, GPL, GTR2, RACE, rFactor, NASCAR Heat, netKar Pro, RBR, etc, etc... When there are so few of us we can only cover so much, lest we forget that producing a 100 page magazine every month is not the work of a moment.
The fact that AutoSimSport has shown lots of rFactor coverage of late is mostly a reflection of the large amount of high quality mods being produced for that sim recently, it is something that we are trying to address and through Becky Rose we have more LFS coverage this month and hopefully more on the way in the future.
If any of you want to submit articles to us, or have ideas for LFS coverage or would like us to do something for this community then get in touch, we are not paid by ANY sim developer and we are completely independant, but the fact is that some sim communities are interested in talking to us and when we get offered content are we supposed to turn it away?
So, Danowat, or any others, if you want articles about LFS why not write them? We would be delighted to cover LFS in a serious and concerted way that pleases the LFS community, and all of us can work together to make this happen.
Email me at [email protected] if you are interested or have any ideas on this subject.
Ezines and downloadable mags would be best served if no evaluations were done, no comparisons were made and no reviews were published.
I'd prefer writers to just tell me about their experience without offering their ratings or comparisons based on their meagre or biased experiences in other sims or games and free from the blatant brown-nosing towards devs, publishers, and manufacturers.
I might even take him up on his offer. How about "Notes from a Laptop racer" Although I would be hideously biased towards LFS because it's the only thing that will run on an ageing laptop and a half inched wireless connection.
He laid down the gaunlet gents. I think it's only fair that we step up and show him just how organized, witty, clever, eloquent, and savvy us LFS'ers are.
*Edit* Bum. Not Gunns reply. Although quite good and has it's value in it's own way, I meant from matey boy above Gunn. That was a good reply. Sigh.
Apologies for the snips below - I'm not trying to twist your words, I just want to respond to these bits:
Surely you must be aware, though, of how emphatically positive the mag's coverage of practically everything is? A key example that soured a good number of mouths around here was your pre-release review of netKar-Pro, which inevitably came loaded with a mountain of signature-ASS superlatives.
When you can happily heap such high praise on an obviously fundamentally broken product, you must surely be aware that you appear more like a cheap industry shill than a respectable independent periodical. And how do you feel about all the people who pre-ordered netKar-Pro on the strength of your review, only to find it was (and still is) only half-finished?
In short: Yes, opinion is interesting, but when it's routinely the same opinion regardless of the subject not only does it become tiring, but it also begins to look decidedly dishonest.
Then it comes down to the old adage, if you think you can do better, go do it better. I don't know how professional these guys are or whether they take a stipend or salary from this magazine. I for one don't hugely rate reviews. I like entertaining reads, I like PCZone for that reason. I think I can generally cut through the crap to get to the game but even then my perception will still be completly different from the reviewers. Thats human nature. The only person who can decide whether a game is any good or not is me. And I can only go and do that if I go out and buy it. But then I'm not particularily a games whore. I like what I likes and I get what I likes. If the game doesn't end up being all that then so be it. Such is life.
I don't think it's a bad idea to set up an LFS mag. But you need someone dedicated and reliable to keep it going and to pester contributers and to keep it lively, up to speed and interesting. I don't see LFS providing that month in month out. Other content would be needed. Prehaps an expansion into the community. There must be so many differenet lives out there. But you still need a figure head, a man in charge. Someone to shout and make it happen. anyone?
Yes, I am aware of this, and it is another issue that is in the process of being addressed. However, if a given author likes something, we are not (as editors) going to tone down his writing to indicate that he does not!
We are placed in a very difficult position sometimes, obviously we need to maintain good relations with as many sim developers and modders as possible, when interviewing for a pre-release sim or mod the overall position will generally be positive. This is true of all computer gaming press, read PC Gamer previews and try to find one that says "This game will suck!"
The thing with this issue on the whole, and netKar Pro was a classic case in point, is that when you are looking at (Not reviewing, PRE-viewing) pre release code there will always be problems with it, because it is not finished! But a press preview cannot say "Well, it was buggy and this bit did not work, etc, etc..." mainly because at the time the developer promises you that these issues will not be present in the release copy. When the product is released and issues are still there, you're left taking the flack because you gave such a positive impression.
As to our post release review of netKar Pro... Well, it was given a mark that was too high, on the basis that patches were promised, as none of that has materialised I personally think we should re-review it, or re-score it... Then again, doing that would not prove much and would probably only chuck more flack our way.
At the end of the day, we get flack from some direction, no matter what we say or do!
The issue of being positive about alot of things is part due to wanting to keep people happy, but it is also because some of our writers are just very positive people, they like things and quite often do not carry the apathetic Englishness that I do in many things. If we had more people and more time for proofreading and additional levels of editing then these things could be picked up on more, I hope to put more time into that this year.
Of course, alot of the time the only reason an author wants to write an article on a given subject, is because they like it! I found having to review "RACE" and play test it for at least 35 hours, a massive bore, mainly because I did not like it much! But reviewing something I like, or previewing a beta that I am enjoying, is great fun... Things that are great fun move me to write about them.
Fact is, we have been doing this for three years now, and it is ALOT of work, if we got paid for it and did not have to do day jobs as well it would be great. If devs gave us anything other than the odd free copy of a sim (ironically not in the case of nkpro!!) that would be fantastic, I would love to drive a Lamborghini courtesy of ISI, but I don't! I would love to have more time to put into writing for and improving the magazine, but as it stands we do the best with what we have, and what we know, not everyone can like it but those that don't are welcome to talk to us and bring their thoughts to the table. We welcome new writers all the time, new blood brings new ideas that can only improve our product and help the whole commmunity.
I read that one in my Bumper Book of Crap Old Adages That Don't Really Make Any Sense.
I also believe that Phil Collins makes rubbish records, John Reid is a rubbish Home Secretary, Eastenders is the least-entertaining tripe I've ever seen and my TV remote was designed by a man who had no intention of ever using it. So I suppose while I'm re-writing ASS I should record a few albums, sort out the prison system, produce a TV soap opera and find out where the TV remote designer man lives and pay a tramp to break his legs? It seems like a lot to fit in, on a Thursday.
Jon: It's nice to know that at least someone involved in the production of the monthly ASS is aware of some of the issues. I do appreciate that it's a labour of love, but y'know, we're the public. We're supposed to bitch at you for it.
I'd also have to say, while the soapbox is out: I just plain don't like the lengthy self-referential introductions that seem typical of the style of the mag. That might just be the fact that I don't find the humour particularly funny, but I think it's more that 500 words of waffling preamble per article suggests to me that someone somewhere should be getting busier with the scissors and sparing less egos.
Touche . . .I think thats French. For nice arse. Or something.
But it still kinda stands. I do see mateys viewpoint. They don't get paid, they do need to be fairly positive most of the time becuase otherwise they get jack shit from the Dev's and the reputation for being spoil sports.
You can't rip into something (Unless it's inflammitory, derogitory, liablous (God knows how you spell that) or something else thats long and hard to spell.) that you havn't paid for or don't have a moral highpoint on which to look down on your lesser plebians from your ivory towers on Mons olympous.
Matey said he has a full time job and still edits this e-zine thing. You where just saying that you don't have the time (I think). So I just shrug my shoulders at you really. What would you like? Pay, complain. Don't pay, you've lost nothing. Didnt' like the review or bought badly on the back of it then you've learnt a lesson and move on. Find some reviewer who shares your own viewpoints.
Still reckon your the man though. Step up friend. Step up and be counted. Shout to the centurians 'I'm Sparticus!' and see how many of us join you. . . . . . . Actually . . . . Never mind.
To be honest I put in an all-nighter at work, having spent countless hours trying to get the Inland Revenue's website to submit my tax return the night before. No sleep plus giving all my money to the tax man doesn't put me in the right frame of mind for thinking about things logically. Luckily I've plenty of experience of arguing without the benefit of logic, thanks to the miracle that is girlfriends.
, can't be any worse than ASS........can it? 
), league news, etc. There are many other things you report and have good reads about, and it CAN be only about LFS. LFS should have its own mag, but it takes a lot of work and dedication... and GOOD WRITERS that have the time to write. (as well as the designers and such). A much easier way of doing it all would be to have an E-Mag online rather than a downloadable file. Much easier to distribute with just a link, and becomes a lot easier to make new articles and format things. (less time involved).
