Lockdown good or bad for sim racing???

[graham123]

Guys as you know I'm quite newish to serious sim racing, and i have been thinking about the impact the lockdown has had on our hobby.

Good Points:-
lots of time to play
many more people trying the sim racing hobby
more exposure on tv live races etc.
hobby being seen more than just a Geek escape
league racing expanding
sim racing games get more support in the way of bigger selling base

Bad points:-
Cost of kit seems to be going up
2nd user stuff getting harder to find at decent prices
could this be a 3month bubble?
many more first corner hero's in on line racing
harder to get into online severs

These are just my opinions and would like to hear yours

 

[AndrewBo]

Please stay HEALTHY. All the best for ALL people out there.

​

 

[BrightCandle]

The introduction of racing drivers into the mix has been pretty mixed. On the one hand, they have clearly brought a big audience to sim racing and are also making contributions in regards to car feel and all sorts of other aspects. But their racing etiquette is setting a clear bad example and a lot of newly introduced racers are seeing their behaviour and assuming it is normal introducing a lot of badly behaved new racers into the mix.

Obviously gear is an issue. I got to do a great masterclass training with driver61 the other day but it showed I clearly need to upgrade my wheel and rig/chair but it just can't be done right now. Its good that more racing is getting done and there are a lot of cool events to watch but the races you can participate in as not one of the top 100 racers in the world is not really all that different, just with the addition of all these novices brought via real racing drivers trying to win races in the first lap and ramming people off the road.

Its been a mixed bag in my experience so far.

 

[Alex Townsend]

For me its no different, I still log in to work and do a full day, and then some...
Still have my family at home too so it's pretty much BAU without much time to race...
But I've seen a lot more sim racing online, which is great while I'm working. Jenson Button racing in an old McLaren F1 car against Jacques Villenueve using a laptop with an Xbox controller is something you would never consider seeing during your lifetime for starters...

When I have had time to race, I've seen a lot more first corner dive bombs to the point where more and more of the front runners that bothered to qualify are now pulling over and letting the field through, knowing what is going to happen.

I've not found it harder to get into online lobbies as I'm based in Malaysia and I
think a lot of the main racing goes on in Europe and America for ACC.
I don't even try to race rF2 online as it's always low numbers and usually AI filled lobbies which suck...
I would try Raceroom but it doesn't feel right since the last major update and I've not gotten around to finding out what the issue is...