I think the reason your results where not announced Hollywood, is that your driver names are handles and therefor not pronounceable. Giving a little bit of video footage also helps, but mostly I suspect its the real names issue.

If any league wants coverage, you have to make it easy, you basically write the article for them. Tell them what to say, give footage if you can, and dont have names with letters made up of symbols.

Google some tips on how to write a press release, that might help

This Week In Sim Racing - awesome idea...but I would change the title song; sounds like music from Battlefield 2142.

The announcer is cute too and yes, she may pronounce names incorrectly but in all fairness she's probably never heard alot of them...SEAT: (say-at), not "seet".

And yes, wheres the STCC coverage!?

If anyone is looking to get articles written, I write race reports for a local motorcycle racing club: article one and article two. Ive written many more that have been published in news papers, but I am the web master/designer of their website and hadnt put any old ones up. Email me at info at mediadirex.com if anyones interested.

Great work SRT!

fallout cup, theres one, all drivers have to use real names and as for more stuff speak too dru

We do not not require (or will require at this time) the use of real names (or initials, etc.). Besides some real names are worse than the "LFS handles" that most people use in and around the forums and online. The "LFS handles" are those that our drivers normally race online with, so by using them they are more easily recognizable when out and about. Names people are familiar with like Forbin, Banshee, rcpilot, DeadWolfBones, Tweaker (back in the F08 series), Burnsy, Zolt, etc. Use the <F. Last name> nomeclature and no one would make the connection. So in a way its a publicity move.

And really if you check on the list (http://www.lfs-lota.net/index. ... a=series;sr=drivers;id=20) of drivers you get the following names that are easily said and pretty much get the following:

PeterLaan (happens to be real name), CWMax, Stu, BigTime, Banshee, Daniel, Jose, A.Terrahe (real name too), sweetchop, Mischief, G, Danke, NightHawk, Pacman, cannonfodder, Zolt (me), Jose, Merc, Spinjack, Burnsy... and so forth.

Of those I'd say A.Terrahe is the worst one to say, heck I'm not even sure exactly the appropriate Dutch pronuncation of it is.

So if there was an issue with the submitted material, especially when they are asking for help from the community and more specifically leagues, they need to commnunicate back and let the submitter(s) known.

Quote from Becky Rose :

I think the reason your results where not announced Hollywood, is that your driver names are handles and therefor not pronounceable. Giving a little bit of video footage also helps, but mostly I suspect its the real names issue.

Actually I'd like to see them put together a 'submit league/series results document' that describes what they are looking for; not just be vague about it. Do you want top 5 results only? Do you want all results? Season results only or season and last race? Do you want us to write up a race report? Do you want produced footage or raw footage, etc.

Quote from Becky Rose :

If any league wants coverage, you have to make it easy, you basically write the article for them. Tell them what to say, give footage if you can, and dont have names with letters made up of symbols.

The big issue with real names is not pronounciation. The problem is we are trying to bring across Sim Racing as a viable professional sport and nobody is going to take it seriously if they hear/see "look there goes $IS"(?~#) in his (insert vehicle here)" It just doesn't sound right.

STCC uses real names and it just sounds so much better and helps get rid of the "pimpley teenager geek" attitude towards gaming.

This is not the case, but there is a steriotype thats being fought against here and having N00bzor racing is not going to help matters.

Mmms... well, Viper, I can honestly say that LOTA has no such aims. We are attempting to create a league racing platform for LFS in the western hemisphere (and hopefully spreading the word about LFS a little bit in the process), but we have no illusions about professional sports.

I personally, its not really something that's an aim of mine so when discussing new things concerning LOTA I don't think of it that terms.

That being said.. go check out the cyberathletics arena and see what names are being used there, and they already are "professional" with lots of corporate sponsors running around. Anyone using a "Fatal1ty" motherboard? If so, guess where that came from? That's right, the "cyberalthetics" and a "handle" used in FPS games (and others).

So I think that relative success of the FPS/RTS cyber athletics sets a trend for a "professional" venue to sim racing.

Does SRT have a mission statement that says they want to promote professional sim racing? I don't recall that from the first installment, and they don't have an "about us" or "mission statement" on their website either, so hard to say.

Quote from Viper93 :

The big issue with real names is not pronounciation. The problem is we are trying to bring across Sim Racing as a viable professional sport and nobody is going to take it seriously if they hear/see "look there goes $IS"(?~#) in his (insert vehicle here)" It just doesn't sound right.

STCC uses real names and it just sounds so much better and helps get rid of the "pimpley teenager geek" attitude towards gaming.

This is not the case, but there is a steriotype thats being fought against here and having N00bzor racing is not going to help matters.

No, but by using SRT you are putting LOTA into that arena and handles are not welcome

I am purchasing a Fatality soundcard. I almost DIDN'T buy it for that exact reason of having fatality on it, but the specs on it are too good to pass up. I thought to myself WTF is Fatality, must be some pimpley teenager who made it big sitting in front of CS for eons

Really, says who? Where's a mission statement and rules and regulations for this "arena" that states explicitly that handles are not welcome?!

But anyways, doing so smacks of exclusionary practices and isn't cool. In order to grow, if its your bent, any "professional sporting" out of simracaing, you have to grow the community. By being exclusionary, then you aren't helping to grow the community.

In a related example, ripping on other sims really isn't in the best interest of the overall sim racing community. Maybe they aren't "your" cup of tea, but someone else likes them.

Likewise, I may not, personally, find much attraction for CTRA, cruising or drifting, but they grow the LFS (and by extension the sim racing) community which can only be a positive thing if there are folks out there that want to see "professional sporting" events happen.

Quote from Viper93 :

No, but by using SRT you are putting LOTA into that arena and handles are not welcome

Quote from Viper93 :

some pimpley teenager who made it big sitting in front of CS for eons

I'm gonna stand up for all pimpley teenagers and go why does it haffto be some pimply geek that did that, who says it couldn't be a normal, totally fugly geek with huge glasses?!

(Take that Mr. Raemisch )

Holly, the SRT guys have stated several times that they prefer to use real names. Banshee even sent around a PM on the LOTA forums asking drivers if they'd be comfortable using their first initial-last name combo for SRT results announcements. It's not really a big deal, IMO.

Quote :

I thought to myself WTF is Fatality, must be some pimpley teenager who made it big sitting in front of CS for eons

I think Quake is his game, and he's not pimply. Although he fullfills other aspects of the stereotype .

Myself and others who have and are working to promote sim racing are aiming more at motor racing than Quake when trying to promote the sport, hense real names is preffered. Even CTRA public servers tries to use them (on a voluntary basis).

Gaming is big business, but a simulator will never be a big racing 'game' and cant compete against the likes of Project Gotham Racing, Forza 3, or Gran Turismo in those markets.

Well, I have (hopefully) sent enough information into SRT for inclusion into the next broadcast (RSSC2), we have used real names for the last round, and hopefully this will go someway into making the upcoming RSWC more "marketable".

IMO ANY and ALL coverage by any media is good for LFS and sim racing in general, and hopefully I'll do my part in this.

If I can get SRT to cover the last rounds of RSSC2, and subsequent RSWC rounds, then it should mean big(ger) things for RSC competitions in the future.

Watch this space.......

Sadly you are right, it doesn't. Although I do drool at the thought of someone with the budget of say a Forza 3 making a cross-platform high-end racing simulator (with included arcade mode of course.)

Quote from Becky Rose :

Gaming is big business, but a simulator will never be a big racing 'game' and cant compete against the likes of Project Gotham Racing, Forza 3, or Gran Turismo in those markets.

Quote from Hollywood :

high-end racing simulator (with included arcade mode of course.)

come again?

Quote from Hollywood :

Sadly you are right, it doesn't. Although I do drool at the thought of someone with the budget of say a Forza 3 making a cross-platform high-end racing simulator (with included arcade mode of course.)

Never, ever gonna happen I'm afraid...

Look at Richard Burns Rally for example, an absolutely fantastic rally SIM. Unfortunately it got many poor reviews on account of its difficulty and was shunned by the game playing public in favour of Colin McRae Rally series.

With budgets for games skyrocketing, publishers can't afford to take risks, therefore you will not see them making a full on simulation for the mass market.

True sim racing will remain a niche market, sustained by a small and dedicated development base, not unlike LFS IMHO.

First off.. Becky and everyone else defending SRT.. Thanks so much..I was out of town until today so I didn't have a chance to come by here.

Hollywood.. If you watched the show, in episode 2 we talk about what our mission is.. We never say "We want to report REAL names only" but come on man..

We're not reporting on the LFS league racing community to the LFS community.. We want to report on it to the world.. We are trying to legitimize sim racing as a true form of motorsports (which we say in one of the episodes) .Im sorry if I offend, but in my 15 years of sim racing, I have ALWAYS used my real name. Im proud of my name and heritage and I also want people to know when I beat them.. It's Darin Gangi..(when I beat them of course hehe)

I think you refered to a plimply faced teenager playing quake.. Well.. some of the handles here are quake / Battlefield like.. I admit when going out to kill people, Im not Darin Gangi.. I play as something else..

But this is racing man ! This is no game..

In regards to not using your material.. If you get us something for the next "This week in Sim Racing" with real names, I'll make sure it's in there !

Someone mentioned us covering STCC.. hehe.. I think becky does a fine job of it and we promote her show every opportunity we can and will continue to do so.. No need for us to report on Becky standings etc when you can watch her cool show.

Anyway.. Hope you now understand our mission.. The ONLY thing we discriminate on at SRT are the use of real names..

I also thought of an idea for the LFS leagues that use handles and that want us to report on them.. I think on your license plate you can have them use their names abbrievated like - D Gangi and doesn't that come up on the results ?? I think that would be a fair compromise.. or vice versa.. Have them use their real name and and use the handle on the license plate..

Quote from Becky Rose :

I think Quake is his game, and he's not pimply. Although he fullfills other aspects of the stereotype .

Hehe steriotype matched Does he wear glasses? Single? Living with Mom and Dad (before he made tons of cash) from the basement playing in low light conditions?


When's the next broadcast coming out?

Hi Darin, here's a little thought i've had rattling through my aging and slightly potty brain for a while now.

For many a year the name Gregor Huttu has been well know as probably the best sim racer on the planet. As far as i know he and almost all of the quickest guys from GPL migrated into GTL/GTR and Rfactor. But since i moved to LFS and raced against some of the quickest guys here, i've always wondered how our "Aliens" would compare with the likes of Gregor Huttu et al.

You seem to have both contacts and influence in most of the popular racing sims out there, kinda like middle men if you will. So, do you think it would be possible to arrange some sort of Inter-Sim Championship ? i.e a round at an LFS track, then another at an Rfactor track, GTR, GTL etc. Obviously it would take a tremendous amount of cooperation and time from the drivers and organisers etc.

Perhaps if each sim has some kind of playoff to find maybe 3 or 4 guys to represent their sim and then all come together to race in a "World Sim Championship". I can imaging the viewing figures would be quite high if SRT ran the races live.
Granted there will be problems with familiarisation and a driver not having such and such sim. But, if i knew one of my guys were competing and in a sense representing me and my game, i would'nt mind giving a few quid to buy him another sim (hopefully others would feel the same way to).

It's just a thought, don't be afraid to say it's a crap idea, and feel free kick me back under my rock.

Mazz, it definitely sounds like a fun project on the face of it, but I think the net result of even trying to do it at the moment would result in lighting the "my sim is more real than your sim" fire - the closest thing to in-fighting that we could get, in the simracing world.

In order to further sim racing as a real sport, and seen by everyone as such - a goal shared by all those who are reaching out to the wider world with our simracing presentations - we all need to become aligned. Head-to-heads between sims are a real possibility for the future, but we have to establish a basis of mutual respect and recognition, and we have to have that "feeling" ingrained in us, so that nothing can tear our sport assunder. We're not there yet, but it's achievable. It's more important that people recognise our sport (and participate, if possible) than it matters in which sim they do it.

SRT has the formula that best suits this goal. To quote Shakespeare, "The play's the thing". SRT is where everyone can go, regardless of their sim of choice, and recognise the simracing sport as a sport in its own right. Everything's there

In the end though, will there need to be one 'sim of choice' for sim racing to be taken seriously as a sport?

Can there ever be just one all encompassing simulation that provides a constant platform throughout the sim racing world? I doubt it, but it seems everything may be a bit too fragmented for the public as a whole to take sim racing seriously.

Quote from Origamiboy :

In the end though, will there need to be one 'sim of choice' for sim racing to be taken seriously as a sport?

Can there ever be just one all encompassing simulation that provides a constant platform throughout the sim racing world? I doubt it, but it seems everything may be a bit too fragmented for the public as a whole to take sim racing seriously.

There doesn't need to be a single platform. Sim racing can happen on multiple platforms - rF, LFS, NASCAR2003.. any and all of these platforms are platforms in their own right, but all can claim simracing as their mission.

Tennis exists as a sport, recognised by everyone as a sport. People have their preferences.. some like lawn tennis, some prefer asphalt, some prefer indoor and some prefer red shale.. some favour Wimbledon, some favour the US Open.. some enjoy singles, some doubles, some prefer women's and some men's.. but everyone recognises tennis as a sport. The best chance we have, as simracers, is to promote the sport over the sim

Sam is right, we must leave the SIM VS SIM arguments out, for Sim Racing's sake. Join forces.. We here all know LFS is 'da shiz' but we don't need to tell everyone... not JUST yet..

Quote :

In the end though, will there need to be one 'sim of choice' for sim racing to be taken seriously as a sport?

Actually the opposite is true. In Europe broadcast regulations are preventing me from airing the STCC as a show in its own right on television because it would constitute a half an hour advertisement for a single commercial product, namely LFS. I can do a one off, or a program that includes STCC as well as other sims, but I cannot make a "Sim Touring Car Cup" program, unless I can get recognition from the olympic commission that sim racing is a sport (need 20k CTRA registered drivers (names & email) just for a start) - not an olympic one, but just recognition as a sport. Dealing with the olympic commission isnt easy, their bribe level is higher than the FIA.

Diversity is a marvellous thing, and it's something i've been forced to look into in order to get sim racing being recognised as a sport. Unfortunately the rFactor doesnt allow me to make a CTRA like operation within that community, but I do have plans to try and build bridges in other ways.

For sim racing to reach a wider, larger market, we have to use more than one sim in order to proove the point that commercial interests are not what matters. The sport has to be stronger than the "computer game".

One thing i've been planning is to get all the broadcasters in to the same team speak for a conference which I hope to do in a few weeks time, unfortunatley - like all sim racers - i've been dealing with my own RL issues recently and havn't got much done. (Car vandalised for 3rd time this year, but I do now have a job).

If there's one thing i'm not interested in any more it's promoting just one sim. It doesnt make sense, because my choice would be LFS and frankly it's not graphically rich and commercially it's unsupported. ISI doesnt support Microsoft wheels out of the box, and most of the community is using mods rather than actual licenced content anyway and I cant broadcast "illegal" mods - and when it comes to broadcasting on linear channels (TV) a whole new set of licences are needed...

The future of the sport definately lies in inter-sim collaboration, as far as I am concerned.

hehe.. well, we can all favour an individual sim over all others. I'm well-known for my LFS fanboyism but recently I've come to realise that the sport of simracing is bigger than just "our corner of the market". Sure, I'm only happy when I'm racing in LFS, but it doesn't *have* to mean that I hate all other sims, or that I must criticise them at every opportunity. Though I have done, and often, I gotta stop doing that. Sim racing as a sport is now very important to me.. and it's something I want to help get recognised in the real world. It's a bit of a paradigm shift, but I really think it's worth doing

[edit] and what she said ^^^

Great replies.

So, what you are all effectively saying is that all sims should be taken seriously, and seen as various component parts of sim racing as a whole?

My next question however is this.. With the current culture of 'my sim is better than your sim' amongst racers, how easy do you think integration between sims will be to achieve? For example, if sim racing becomes a recognised sport, there will eventually become 'top drivers'.. If the various sim racing 'celebrities' all use differing sims, how will they be judged against each other?

Will differing sims be thought of in the same way as differing forms of motorsport (eg F1 vs Nascar vs Touring Car etc) ?

It will be interesting to see what happens.