If the Fanatec BMW pure GT3 was released in 2019 would the comments have read differently?
The downfall of sim racing is in its popularity and new found acceptance!!
I have not been on race department for a few months now. On my return I am shocked to see how negative and ungrateful this community has got. I expect this kind of negativity on the common forums like YouTube and the likes but not here. This forum used to be full of people who appreciated the finer points of the industry.
Yes we were also the first to point out faults and downfalls in equipment and software, but we accepted that this was a small part of the gaming industry and we were always trying to help with asking for patches and product fixes. But we were always trying to help out the small number of suppliers to improve their product and improve our experience.
With this in mind, the recent up rise of sim racing into the main stream and in some cases the dizzying heights of the professional Motor Sport arena has felt like a massive step forward in unlocking this industry. Going some way to Forging the way in breaking down the barriers to force the big brands to come begging with their tails between their legs after shunning our industry for so long.
Now who would have thought in 2019 that the big wigs at the likes of F1, Porsche and yes even Ferrari would be all fighting for a seat at our small table? Just remember it was not too long ago that Ferrari wouldn’t even acknowledge F1 e sports as a legitimate advertisement platform, shunning it as just a game and not a positive outlet for their brand.
Now with this recent interest, comes investment. This is great for the “real fans” as it pushes the software and hardware developers to break new ground and raise the bar on what was previously acceptable. This should be welcomed but instead it is being met with negativity and criticism for the sake of it.
I take the condemnation of the new Fanatec BMW pure GT3 rim as case in point for pivoting my argument. I believe if this product would have been released in 2019 the comments would have read something like this,
“WOW take my money NOW!!!! who has the latest version of the drivers please”
But today they read like a symphony of ungrateful kids on Christmas morning who unwrapped socks rather than a new PlayStation.
For how many years now has this community been begging out for full size fully working replicas of real motorsport equipment? Team that with the rise in native 4K graphics realistic damage modelling and for the lucky few rig motion, G simulators and VR tech. The emersion factor I can only imagine must be on par with some track day experiences now. This tech is no longer in the realms of supper high-end bespoke and one offs made by the Gucci garage building arm. Not to mention trying to get it to work out of the box was impossible and we accepted it would take days and a computer programming degree to get it all to work together. This is somewhat history now with off the shelf solutions available for every hardware solution and all games have to have full market hardware compatibility of they will not be used simple as that.
Now to the point of this rant! This all comes from a place of love and admiration for what was a nice community, I feel the people that started this off are still her and are singing from the rafters to be seeing affordable realistic tech but their voices are being drowned out. I believe this is being done by “the new bread” who have made the step from there console lobbies into the proper sim community. You know the guy, he usually plays GT sport and complains that he cant get into the “good lobbies” because he would rather punt off a rival than race them, and he thinks sportsmanship is an old old wooden boat used in the colonising of America. This is the type of person I believe who is polluting the sim community conversation.
We need to take a stand on how they are being received. Criticism used to drive change and improvement towards making the industry better and this needs to return. I will be making a conscious effort to add to the conversation and not be dragged down but the current of negativity for what is ground breaking tech for all of us frustrated racing drivers to love and enjoy, if we have a spare grand or so in the bank.
So, I urge all the OG sim community to stand up and sing from the rafters hailing this next generation of tech, and to drown out the naysayers and positivity vampires that always seem to be on here at the moment.
I would love to hear if I am alone in this view or I am just looking at this still through my 2019 rose tinted glasses?
The downfall of sim racing is in its popularity and new found acceptance!!
I have not been on race department for a few months now. On my return I am shocked to see how negative and ungrateful this community has got. I expect this kind of negativity on the common forums like YouTube and the likes but not here. This forum used to be full of people who appreciated the finer points of the industry.
Yes we were also the first to point out faults and downfalls in equipment and software, but we accepted that this was a small part of the gaming industry and we were always trying to help with asking for patches and product fixes. But we were always trying to help out the small number of suppliers to improve their product and improve our experience.
With this in mind, the recent up rise of sim racing into the main stream and in some cases the dizzying heights of the professional Motor Sport arena has felt like a massive step forward in unlocking this industry. Going some way to Forging the way in breaking down the barriers to force the big brands to come begging with their tails between their legs after shunning our industry for so long.
Now who would have thought in 2019 that the big wigs at the likes of F1, Porsche and yes even Ferrari would be all fighting for a seat at our small table? Just remember it was not too long ago that Ferrari wouldn’t even acknowledge F1 e sports as a legitimate advertisement platform, shunning it as just a game and not a positive outlet for their brand.
Now with this recent interest, comes investment. This is great for the “real fans” as it pushes the software and hardware developers to break new ground and raise the bar on what was previously acceptable. This should be welcomed but instead it is being met with negativity and criticism for the sake of it.
I take the condemnation of the new Fanatec BMW pure GT3 rim as case in point for pivoting my argument. I believe if this product would have been released in 2019 the comments would have read something like this,
“WOW take my money NOW!!!! who has the latest version of the drivers please”
But today they read like a symphony of ungrateful kids on Christmas morning who unwrapped socks rather than a new PlayStation.
For how many years now has this community been begging out for full size fully working replicas of real motorsport equipment? Team that with the rise in native 4K graphics realistic damage modelling and for the lucky few rig motion, G simulators and VR tech. The emersion factor I can only imagine must be on par with some track day experiences now. This tech is no longer in the realms of supper high-end bespoke and one offs made by the Gucci garage building arm. Not to mention trying to get it to work out of the box was impossible and we accepted it would take days and a computer programming degree to get it all to work together. This is somewhat history now with off the shelf solutions available for every hardware solution and all games have to have full market hardware compatibility of they will not be used simple as that.
Now to the point of this rant! This all comes from a place of love and admiration for what was a nice community, I feel the people that started this off are still her and are singing from the rafters to be seeing affordable realistic tech but their voices are being drowned out. I believe this is being done by “the new bread” who have made the step from there console lobbies into the proper sim community. You know the guy, he usually plays GT sport and complains that he cant get into the “good lobbies” because he would rather punt off a rival than race them, and he thinks sportsmanship is an old old wooden boat used in the colonising of America. This is the type of person I believe who is polluting the sim community conversation.
We need to take a stand on how they are being received. Criticism used to drive change and improvement towards making the industry better and this needs to return. I will be making a conscious effort to add to the conversation and not be dragged down but the current of negativity for what is ground breaking tech for all of us frustrated racing drivers to love and enjoy, if we have a spare grand or so in the bank.
So, I urge all the OG sim community to stand up and sing from the rafters hailing this next generation of tech, and to drown out the naysayers and positivity vampires that always seem to be on here at the moment.
I would love to hear if I am alone in this view or I am just looking at this still through my 2019 rose tinted glasses?
