...How many people drove the Nissan's, Morgan's, etc? No instead it was F550 only, bleeeeeh. I am happy we have a nice balanced field of different cars instead in Evo
That is in part a problem with the (virtual) race organizers...
Long post alert, jump below to the finish to avoid.
Centering the discussion in GTs and endurance races.
In RL GT/endurance racing we have class mixing, and this has been part of this type of races for more than 40 years. Different paces within the same race are an integral part of racing being originated by different cars, classes or skills. For instances there are race drivers who are considered "very good", just because they are reliable when overtaking slower paced cars, not because they are the fastest. So the all concept of an entire field fighting for 1st is flawed…
Without going much into detail, there are basically two types of fans, the ignorant and the knowledge one.
Being an ignorant fan/enthusiast is a good start and many people are happy staying like that (and there is no problem with it). The knowledge fan is another step, some want to take it, others don't.
Examples
- Even marketing we see in races is directional for certain targets; for instances the main car advertising in F1 is targeted for the masses (ignorant type); a brake pad advertisement in a dirty bike is targeted for the knowledge fan/user.
- When there was no “wining” Spanish racer at F1, F1 races in Spain were empty (most were knowledge fans), even lorry racing attracted more fans. When Alonso showed up, the racetracks were suddenly full of fans (most are ignorant type).
I don’t want to offend anyone, I myself am an ignorant fan in many sports and I’m just have no interest in becoming knowledge in them.
But many people who come here are spending a considerable extra time regarding improving their enjoyment of a race based game, so I think many are and many more have the potential to be knowledge fans of races.
So the club who is different in some way of so many others in the INET (a mature and international community), could give an extra step in helping people improving the knowledge of the sport they seem to like (helping them in going from one type to the other if they wish to do so).
I know that Race07 doesn’t help in some ways in this task…
For instances it completely ignores the independent championship within the wtcc series themselves.
Even the pit dude tells “you win”, “you failed to score….” (You damn scumbag how did you dare to fail to score), I even remember how in GTR2 I :rotfl: when with a GTN Porsche in a mixed class 2hrs race I came in 9th (winning the class) and the dude said I “failed” (next time I will attach a rocket engine to the roof so I can overtake those F550). So I admit the dominant culture of “we all must absolute win” is present in many parts of the game (pushing the things to the ignorant side). But there is also the contrary; the Evo expansion like pointed above has some classes that are far from balanced (GT club or even GT pro) or only become “balanced” if we go to 120 mins simulated races.
Ideally people should always be incentive to do the best with what they have, not to “kill themselves” in order to be 1st above all.
So all this rambling for what… just to base what is being typed below.
Championships should incentive people to use different cars.
There are several ways... separate classification, random car selection, car permutation or whatever.
People should be happy to give their best with what they have… it is virtually impossible for everyone to be 1st, we all have sufficient brain to acknowledge that the best/quickest driver doesn’t win in F1 (for instances), it’s the all package… F1 drivers are all good, some have the right material and others just don’t.
I must say also that I’m lucky that in some public servers there are several mixed class races (many times too mixed), so I’ve the opportunity to race GTsport mixed with GTclub for instances, racing a Z4 vs. a “badly” driven M3 at the Nordschleife, has an extra interest to me, seeing the M3 going away on the straights, and catching it on the turns gives that extra interest and feeling of giving it all, which to me is better than strictly being 1st.
Also don’t get me wrong, sprint, trophy (one make) races have room, a big room even (to please its big crowd)… but a more “real deal” should have its space too (I think there are no championships currently in RD who have mixed classes, although there is a GT championship who within the classes has some unbalancing).
Sorry for the long post