Quote from danowat :

The statement is actually fact, it was stated by staff members during posts that I was involved with during the beta period.

Without any quotes from the discussions, I can't understand how on earth such an issue would be a major factor in choosing a subscription model instead of a more traditional boxed-sim model when there are lots of much more compelling reasons to go with the subscription route.

I believe they definitely had that issue in mind, too, when choosing the subscription system, as to a small extent it's a natural consequence of it, but implying that it was the main reason or even a significant one for doing it sounds totally unconvincing.

Also, what makes such a statement ridiculous is that the cheapest monthly subscription price for World of Warcraft is the same as the cheapest for iRacing. $13 a month isn't nearly enough to provide any kind of exclusivity and does very little in keeping riff-raff out.

OK, here's my opinion.

iRacing provides a very well organised system for creating races and strong statistics. It's like LFS with all the GFC stats that I started to create but never finished.

The standard of racing on servers is far higher than in LFS public servers. It's in a completely different league. I have now completed 5 races and not made contact with any other racers at all yet. On one occassion, in warm up two guys ahead of me tangled and I had to hit the brakes hard to avoid hitting the back of one of them. I just stopped in time and the fella who was close behind me also managed to stop before hitting the back of me. Very impressive!

Physics are superior to LFS. The behaviour of the car under braking is far better than in LFS and you can feel the tyres more. When the car finally lets go, the way it spins is far more realistic than LFS.

I don't know how crash detection compares to LFS as I still haven't crashed into another car yet. Although behaviour when hitting tyre barriers seems spot on to me.

All in all iRacing is a superior product to LFS although it is way too expensive and I am unlikely to buy more than the one month of membership.

Quote from spanks :

I've lost my mojo

it happens every new season.

Iracing depression

I can't figure out what to race so I spend minimal time with everything (if I race at all) and I suck when I do.

I've 7 tenths off my PB at summit point from last season and I'm just not finding the time back.

Oh well, off to race and hopefully snap me out of it a bit.

I give up...I'm 2nd and am following right behind the leader. He's all over the place...I could have pressed the issue many times, but no I was staying behind him like someone who didn't want to crash would

2nd lap last corner he loops it right in front of me yayyyyyyy

time for a break from iracing...maybe I'll come back strong in the 2nd half of the season like I did last time. For now, screw this I'm not having fun anymore.

I might be heading in the same direction, although I really hope it doesn't come that far. The races I have are usually incredibly intense and I'm still improving a lot in comparison to last season, but somehow I'm reluctant to enter races now with more 'at stake'

I've been dumped into Division 1 for all my active road-racing classes, and although I'm fast enough to be there (I think), I'm not fast enough to compete for top positions just yet. It leaves me a bit short on goals to achieve; I usually had Samuli to hunt down and (sometimes) beat, but he's taken a break and I haven't found a new sparring partner yet

All I have now is the goal of raising my iRating to the highest I can, but that alone won't keep me going. I like hunting for PB's and checking where I am in the charts more than racing, but without being able to content for championships it's all a bit meh

Quote from Gentlefoot :

OK, here's my opinion.

iRacing provides a very well organised system for creating races and strong statistics. It's like LFS with all the GFC stats that I started to create but never finished.

The standard of racing on servers is far higher than in LFS public servers. It's in a completely different league. I have now completed 5 races and not made contact with any other racers at all yet. On one occassion, in warm up two guys ahead of me tangled and I had to hit the brakes hard to avoid hitting the back of one of them. I just stopped in time and the fella who was close behind me also managed to stop before hitting the back of me. Very impressive!

Physics are superior to LFS. The behaviour of the car under braking is far better than in LFS and you can feel the tyres more. When the car finally lets go, the way is spins is far more realistic than LFS.

I don't know how crash detection compares to LFS as I still haven't crashed into another car yet. Although behaviour when hitting tyre barriers seems spot on to me.

All in all iRacing is a superior product to LFS although it is way too expensive and I am unlikely to buy more than the one month of membership.

Nice evaluation mate. Add me on iRacing and let's go do a practise together sometime and I'll nudge you to test out the collision system SR does'nt count in prac mode.

send me a message to Andy Kirschetorte

Quote from Jertje :

I've been dumped into Division 1 for all my active road-racing classes, and although I'm fast enough to be there (I think), I'm not fast enough to compete for top positions just yet. It leaves me a bit short on goals to achieve; I usually had Samuli to hunt down and (sometimes) beat, but he's taken a break and I haven't found a new sparring partner yet

Have you checked your Division in the time trials for the road area too. YOur TT division can be different from your race division. All mine are... just a thought for where you might be able to get to the top

Yes, I seem to be a bit bugged in the Mazda divisions. On my career page says division 2, and in the series standings page it says "Your division: 2" - but I don't show up in that list, however if I click on "show all" it'll display my name, under division 1

Maybe I was right on the edge when the divisions were created, and it messed up in some way.

Quote from StableX :

Nice evaluation mate. Add me on iRacing and let's go do a practise together sometime and I'll nudge you to test out the collision system SR does'nt count in prac mode.

send me a message to Andy Kirschetorte

will do mate. Might be on tonight.

Could be but I messaged support on a similar issue. Their response was:

Quote :

Divisions for Time Trial and Racing may not be the same. You can be in Div 5 in Racing and Div 10 in Time Trailing. Divisions are set by iRating.

Quote from Jertje :

Yes, I seem to be a bit bugged in the Mazda divisions. On my career page says division 2, and in the series standings page it says "Your division: 2" - but I don't show up in that list, however if I click on "show all" it'll display my name, under division 1

Maybe I was right on the edge when the divisions were created, and it messed up in some way.

The stats page is a bit buggy for me as well. Seems like the division for season standings is somehow wrongly carried over to TTs. When looking at TT results or Season TT it still says "My division: 3" when in fact I am in div. 2 for TTs (that's skippy only).

Quote from StableX :

Could be but I messaged support on a similar issue. Their response was:

I know, but my divisions are different for the same category; my actual Mazda racing division is 1, but on the stats page it says I'm in division 2.
Its a bit hard to explain, but I'll take a ss later and then post the same thing in the feedback forum. Oval race now though

Edit:

Quote from Jertje :

I know, but my divisions are different for the same category; my actual Mazda racing division is 1, but on the stats page it says I'm in division 2.
Its a bit hard to explain, but I'll take a ss later and then post the same thing in the feedback forum. Oval race now though

Edit:

I've been trying all week to get a decent average time with the legend advanced on Lanier... not a chance!!! I get a 16.00 average and need a 15.6/7

any setup?

I don't know, I haven't really raced the advanced legends yet

Quote from Jertje :

(...) somehow I'm reluctant to enter races now with more 'at stake'. (...) All I have now is the goal of raising my iRating to the highest I can, but that alone won't keep me going.

I see this attitude very often.. seriously, what's up with everyone being so super-cautious and nervous about racing?? I'm going to try a one-month subscription after Christmas, and when I do my focus will be entirely on having fun. Close racing and good fighting is all that I'll be looking for. What's the point of racing if you're not having fun, and just worrying about stats?? It just seems like a completely wrong attitude if you ask me.

(Yes, I understand how iRatinga and SR works!)

It's not that I'm not having fun in races, or in iRacing! It's just that, once I see a shiny iRating or championship position I want it, and if I believe I can achieve it then that becomes my priority. The excitement and the tension of racing makes it fun for me, but it's the same kind of excitement I get from gambling, not the kind of excitement I get when playing multiplayer games

To each their own; everyone has different reasons to race and different ways of 'generating' fun whilst doing so.

Personally I race when I want, I have never not raced because it would hurt my championship points. But then again I take pleasure from starting at the back and racing through the fields so obviously the championships are totally meaningless for me .

The sad thing is though, it is very likely that you will hurt your championship points if you race more than once per week. That's because the points are averaged. And it is a bit non-encouraging when you are put into first division with the true aliens to compete for the "division win". How do you compete against someone who's just as quick as Huttu, Mclean or Towler?

Watkins glen on nov 26th!!!!111222290

Quote from Gnomie :

I see this attitude very often.. seriously, what's up with everyone being so super-cautious and nervous about racing?? I'm going to try a one-month subscription after Christmas, and when I do my focus will be entirely on having fun. Close racing and good fighting is all that I'll be looking for. What's the point of racing if you're not having fun, and just worrying about stats?? It just seems like a completely wrong attitude if you ask me.

(Yes, I understand how iRatinga and SR works!)

Its because iracing has the ability to knock the wind out of your sails without warning. Win the last 4 races, then out of nowhere run in the premier field and run around in last place for the whole race.

Also there are people waiting for the race where the strength of field will be high enough that they will earn lots of points for their first race, and then not race again the whole week.

I personally don't follow championship points. I do like to get my lap times down as low as possible and see how I compare. I'm normally around like top 10 in division two when I don't suck. All the futzing around in the solstice, the mazda, the radical and late model really hurt me though.

Watkins is an awesome announcement..I wonder if we really won't see another car until the end of the season though :| I hope they release the DP sooner as I need a different driving experience to make it new again.

Quote from Gnomie :

I see this attitude very often.. seriously, what's up with everyone being so super-cautious and nervous about racing?? I'm going to try a one-month subscription after Christmas, and when I do my focus will be entirely on having fun. Close racing and good fighting is all that I'll be looking for. What's the point of racing if you're not having fun, and just worrying about stats?? It just seems like a completely wrong attitude if you ask me.

(Yes, I understand how iRatinga and SR works!)

My answer to that is because this is actually trying to be like a SIM rather than what I call an arcade-sim.

They are introducing what is virtually pick up racing for 24 hours every Saturday. Races every 30 mins. Road racing one week, Ovals the next. About time too.

Quote from The Moose :

They are introducing what is virtually pick up racing for 24 hours every Saturday. Races every 30 mins. Road racing one week, Ovals the next. About time too.

and from what it sounds like they're going to experiment with combos that haven't been done before...should be neat

Quote from Hyperactive :

Watkins glen on nov 26th!!!!111222290

Well... at least something could brighten up my day. I have waited enough for Watkins Glen and the 24 hours of "fun" racing should be interesting as well.

Quote from spanks :

Its because iracing has the ability to knock the wind out of your sails without warning. Win the last 4 races, then out of nowhere run in the premier field and run around in last place for the whole race.

Also there are people waiting for the race where the strength of field will be high enough that they will earn lots of points for their first race, and then not race again the whole week.

See, that's exactly what I don't understand. If you "cherry pick" races where you'll have a good chance of improving your iRating a lot, and then don't race again for the whole week, you're not fooling anyone but yourself. An artificially high iRating will make for boring races where you're pitted against racers who are so much faster that there won't be any close racing. And close racing is what it's all about for me in terms of fun.

Oh well... I'll try a monthly subscription after Christmas and see for myself.

Well, racing once a week isn't done to boost iRating, it's done to achieve an artificially high championship position, which I've never been too fond of, but it is a severe limitation in the system at the moment. It never appealed to me anyway. If a track is fun I'll race until I get bored of it, on a track like LRP next week I might decide to race only once or twice though, since I just don't have a good time going around there.

However on the subject of inflating iRating... it's a bit of a misnomer actually. Once you go over a certain iRating barrier (which is around ~2300 I think) you will almost always end up in the top field. You'll never end up in a second tier field unless 12 people with higher iRatings have signed up, which rarely (~ never) happens with the current amount of subscribers unless the top drivers decide they want to have a battle royale or something.

So, if you can race in a competitive series and your iRating keeps going up, it's all fair game imo. The higher you go, the harder you get punished for a mistake, so you'll level out eventually unless your luck is endless - eg by having aliens crash out in front of you every single race. It currently takes me 3 wins/2nd places (in ~2200-2400 strength fields) to make up for a race where I crashed out and ended up 12th. If I can actually sustain that and my iRating keeps climbing, then I don't feel like I'm inflating anything really. Someone like Volker Hackmann pretty much needs to win to gain iRating, if he's in an average field and ends up on the second step, then he'll actually even out in iRating, (last race on 2nd place in a ~2100 strength field, he gained 2 iRating ) does that mean his iRating is inflated? I don't believe it is, since he actually wins ~80% of his races right now.

It's a tricky subject, but iRating is not easy to inflate unless you can already win reliably. Championship points however, are quite easy, as all you need is one good race a week and for others to have one bad race a week. If people race regularly, that's almost always the case

Quote from Linsen :

Not sure, what you're doing with your internet connection, but I know that mine will always 'only' be an internet connection and not suddenly turn into something else.

The beauty of an internet connection is that it is quite general purpose. You can use for (almost) whatever you can come up with and most likely a boatload of other things you wouldn't have thought.

But e.g. you can look for a job or work online. iRacing will always stay a racing sim

Again it's a value-for-money argument, out there some people are spending more money on a couple of fancy drinks with gold foil in them, which is more expensive then the complete 1y iRacing package. Those will never be me, though

Quote from Electrik Kar :

What leaves a bad taste in my mouth is that apparently it's priced so high as to actually keep people out.

I don't think it's only to keep people out but...

Quote from Electrik Kar :

Having to spend truckloads of cash on a sim doesn't automatically make people better racers. The people at iRacing would have you believe otherwise though, it seems.

...while I agree with you 100%, it's also a very common pricing strategy and it works well with some groups of buyers. Though I don't like it, I'm more concerned with the possible effects of the lock-in on the simracing community.