I noticed something today that I've noticed before. It never really sank in until I saw it happen to someone I have a huge amount of respect for. I call it LFS Raceism.

Now, you may not know much about me, so here's a quick rundown. What I am looking for in the perfect driver is consistency. Someone you can count on. Attitude, style, line, aggression, speed, conduct... motor racing is a gentleman's sport. Sure, LFS is a video game and there really is nothing at stake. But it is a simulation of motor racing, where EVERYTHING is at stake. I prefer to imagine we are really racing real cars. So my hero, is of course, someone of like mindset. Let's call my hero Racer #1.

My personal LFS hero showed up at a full server and jokingly proclaimed, "Can someone help me get into the 1:03s here? I'm stuck in the 4s."

This is a track where 1:01 is the mark in the marque of the day. Racer#1 is fully capable of running 01s until the cows come home. The race starts and the first message is, "Racer#2 - Racer #1 is a Spanish idiot."

A squabble ensues with the typical, "No I'm not." "Yes you are." "I'm not even Spanish." "You're still and idiot." Bleh...

Now I know it's football season and patriotic tempers are flairing, but we get to the meat of the situation at this point. Racer #2 exclaims that Racer #1 has to be an idiot because 1:04s are all that Racer #1 can manage.

WHAT!?!?!

I've seen this soooo much online. The slow driver is dragged over the coals for that, and only that. It is predjudice. Plain and simple. Bigotry of the lowest form. (If bigotry has a lower form than it's base self.) Then a large group of people on the server started bashing Racer #1 and voting to kick based on the assumption that Racer #1 must suck because anyone doing 1:04s deserves no consideration. People started blaming Racer #1 for incidents that were a half a lap away from Racer #1.

What makes this situation so absurd are that facts that Racer #1:

• Is not Spanish.
  
• Is blindingly quick.
  
• Is bogglingly consistent.
  
• Can drive cleanly in the most insane situations.
  
• Has the ultimate respect for every person racing LFS. (At least that I've seen. And since stalking seems to be the sublect of the day, I will admit that I do stalk Racer #1 a bit. I'm messmerized by Racer #1s performance at ALL TIMES. I've never seen anything short of the highest conduct.)
  
• When you are on track with Racer #1 there is never even a hint of unseemly conduct. Racer #1 makes legitimate moves. You quickly learn that this driver will not knock you out. Ever. When moves are good, Racer #1 advances. When they don't go as planned Racer #1 backs out safely and attacks at a more opportune moment.
  
• Racer #1 will clean your clock on a regular basis.
  
• You will smile when you see how gracefully it's done.

Yeah, I guess in the end it's a laughable situation.

...and since I'm on a rant. Here's my usual:

Voting to restart during a race is a show of weakness. Oh... boo hoo... things didn't go as you planned. Start over so they can go poorly again... and again... and again...

Why not be strong? Drive a proper line. Drive with respect of the leading cars position. Take your opportunities when they are realistic.

Face it, the more time you spend on track trying to not hit other people, the better you will get at just that. Restarting every thirty seconds teaches you nothing. Restarting at the very moment you slip from your favored position teaches you one thing. It teaches you to be weak. To give up the fight. To take advantage of chance only.

Be strong. Fight cleanly for your position. When things don't go your way, lower your head and run like the wind. PBs will follow. You may come in 10th. But you will be stronger for it.

...or you can just vote to restart. Too bad LFS doesn't have a "race to T1" mode. You'd all be winners.

The answer is definitely... maybe. What was the question?

I enjoyed reading your post but I don't really understand what point you're trying to make. (edit: seems like Spanky didn't get it either!)

And: Racing requires everybody's cooperation, including the slowest guys on the server. That's why when a slower car lets me lap him smartly and safely I'll always thank him for it. They say it's easy to be nice - well, it's even easier with chat macros!

quit stalking on me (lol )

Quote from george_tsiros :

quit stalking on me (lol )

I thought you liked the attention.

But I haven't been racing online for ages!

It seems you've been hanging around too many British people; we tend to ramble on, and then pause eventually expecting a coherent response from other people. Apparently.

In all seriousness, its a bit of a disease which put me off the whole online racing thing recently. Theres not much that you can do about it tbh. I call it the counterstrike syndrome. The more popular it gets, the more idiots you get, the worse the experience.

Quote from george_tsiros :

quit stalking on me (lol )

lol

We have had a quick discussion about the restart thing recently in our forum, the guy still thinks we were in the wrong for not restarting though, honestly.

Quote from the_angry_angel :

In all seriousness, its a bit of a disease which put me off the whole online racing thing recently. Theres not much that you can do about it tbh. I call it the counterstrike syndrome. The more popular it gets, the more idiots you get, the worse the experience.

Trut so pur.

That's why LFS should be an even more hardcore simulator, so it'll scare the dummies away.

Quote from the_angry_angel :

I call it the counterstrike syndrome. The more popular it gets, the more idiots you get, the worse the experience.

Is it that the idiot quotient actually increases, or is it that the increased anonymity afforded by a larger community turns normal people into unbearable dickheads?

I call for restarts when there was a major pileup at the start (by a guy not pulling off or something like that), even the rare time I get ahead, and I know there was a crash behind me, I'll vote restart, because I think everyone should get an even chance at winning. I know I mostly will lose my position anyways, I can drive fast, but I spin out a lot and I suck at close racing. I like close racing though, but I'm always too scared to accidently hit the guy in front, so I start braking too soon, and I lose him.

I hope I gave an answer to the hidden question somehow

me for myself try to restart when in first-place with few seconds gap between me and the second place. (or the field)
if more people agree ok, if not, then it's "heads-down-time" and they'll have to fight for better pbs.
I don't say that i'm a good driver but i follow the rules (mostly... )
in the meantime i don't want to restart, i like the idea of a race to the end.
but i don't mind restarting if i'm far away in first place.
because it's quite booring when online-hotlapping.


reagrds

TAA - but now you're compounding the problem, since when the idiots piss the proper racers off, and the proper racers leave, that means there are comparitively more idiots online, pissing off more serious racers, until there is only idiots left, who finally get bored, and then there's no bugger online, until the game is found 5 years later, and a brief resumption occurs, but then the cycle repeats, and it all dies quickly for dead.

Or at least that's one scenario.

stupidity is increased geometricaly and smarts arithmeticaly. that is, if you have 10 clever people and 10 stupid people, the 10 stupid people drown out the smart. Each stupid has stupidity S1 to S10. the total stupidity is S1*S2*...*S10 while the total cleverness is C1+C2+...C10 which is far far less than the aforementioned product of stupid.

"I don't know if they did a lot of drugs or their mothers did their brothers, because these guys are f*cking retarded!" - Engineer, Battlefield 2 Pwned Life.

There really was no hidden question. I was just flabbergasted when people started in on a racer that I know is top of the heap. Based solely on a statement that indicated high lap times. LOL

Restarts? Yeah. Every time I post anywhere on the internet, music forums, private emails, here... I always have the urge to shout:

NO RESTARTS!

It's just a thing I have stuck in my head. illepall

My first online experience was with GPL. (Well, actually, it was a few before that, but GPL is where I really cut my teeth.) If anyone remembers, GPL did not have restarts. Not voted, anyway. It was a hassle to invoke one. I raced with a league that did 45 minute to 2 hour races only. We all learned to drive in a certain mindset. I guess I'm an old fart stuck in my ways.

At L1 T1 I'm still only thinking of the checkered flag. Which, for all intents and purposes, is a long way off.

And as far as having a point goes... Does every post have to contain a coherent idea? For crying out loud, every one's a critic....

Preach on, Brother Slarty!

Good post. It touches on some of the points brought up in the "Overtaking" thread. This "hotlapping" mentality is largely a product of the sprint races run in most (all?) public servers, I believe. I think the answer is joining a well run league, if you don't want to deal with the inherent problems of public servers. Maybe we can develop some kind of Evolutionary Theory of Online Racing:

Demo servers -> Public servers -> Leagues -> ? (Professional sim racing?)

Now I just need to find a grumpy old farts' league.
--
Rob

Quote from thisnameistaken :

Is it that the idiot quotient actually increases, or is it that the increased anonymity afforded by a larger community turns normal people into unbearable dickheads?

Whilst I'd normally say "smart arse", I actually agree with your eloquently put point.

Quote from Bob Smith :

TAA - but now you're compounding the problem, since when the idiots piss the proper racers off, and the proper racers leave, that means there are comparitively more idiots online, pissing off more serious racers, until there is only idiots left, who finally get bored, and then there's no bugger online, until the game is found 5 years later, and a brief resumption occurs, but then the cycle repeats, and it all dies quickly for dead.

Or at least that's one scenario.

:doh: So its my fault! I knew I was doing something wrong. To be honest, I know you're right, but in all seriousness, I barely have time to play these days Getting a few forums posts in is about as good as I can get atm

Quote from the_angry_angel :

but in all seriousness, I barely have time to play these days Getting a few forums posts in is about as good as I can get atm

You could allways pay someone to play for you.
I hear lfs gets good after level 60...


Slartibartfast; a good scatter gun ramble , lots of half points!
A man after my own heart.

Anyone for tea?

Another retarded thread.

Quote from bahrain :

Another retarded thread.

Then don't post.

Quote from partyboat :

D O N T C A R E

Then don't post.




Morons are spreading.

Quote from PartyBoat :

D O N T C A R E

You should read "Trolling for Dummies", there are good tips for your kind.

Quote from spankmeyer :

The answer is definitely... maybe. What was the question?

you're such an ignorant...the answer is 42!!!!!!!

So retarded you have to post in it to verify the retardation of it and thus yourself for reading and noticing the retarded thread.

Now, wasn't that retarded?

And Ignore bahrain and partyboat (EDIT: and Party on Dood), they are both (EDIT all) him, set out to defend himself in the Stalking in LFS thread, he created party boat so it'd seem like it wasn't him vs all, its now actually him + him(EDIT: him+him+him) vs all... amazing how different it is...

Quote from Party On Dood :

I respect your point of view.

At least, I did until you put a comma before the 'and'.

Retard.

At least I use comma's, unlike a vast majority of the internet.

Erm? No it isn't? What evidence have you to back this up? Oh, none.