RaceRoom Competitions and events

[Daniel Monteiro]

In my opinion, this should be advertised on RD's front page, as an article.


RD is one of the biggest simracing communities, yet this competition (as well as the WTCR and the GT3 ones that recently took place at the Nürburgring track, with live streaming) is barely mentioned here on the website and forum?

I just found out about it one week ago, told a friend in Germany about it, and luckily I got some cheap plane tickets and managed to go to the Nürburgring, enjoy the whole 24h-race atmosphere, and even have a go at entering the WTCR competition. I did a couple of hours of practice at home, and this was the first time I properly turned any laps on R3E, so I had few hopes... and guess what, my friend and I managed to qualify! We got to participate in three races, with all of them being streamed live from the arena (for divisions 1 and 2), it was quite an experience!


But still I am baffled at how low envolvement there was from simracing communities...


Alright, not everybody plays simracing games to compete, but surely some people do, by looking at the level of some of the championships that exist nowadays online.

Not everybody likes to drive touring cars or GT3 cars, but surely some people do, as these seem to be the most popular cars in club races and championships.

And not everybody (like me) drives or likes R3E, but surely some people do, and this forum is a good example of that.

And of course not everybody has the time/money to fly to Germany on a Friday morning and stay there until Saturday evening/Sunday morning, but surely some people do, as the weekend cost me around €100 including flights and food, but of course I will not go further on this point as money is relative depending on every person's situation.

And did I mention that even the last placed driver of the last division (almost me) still had prize money to win?


The venue was the Nürburgring Arena; a place full of seats and well set up with a giant screen in the middle, two very good commentators in my opinion, and there was "big" prize money to be won (the winner took home more than €3000). Yet, the arena was almost empty. Only simracers participating were there, plus a few other people, and occasionally some people passing by, that were taking a break from watching the real Nürburgring 24h or any other activity at the track.

I must say that on site, RaceRoom could have advertised the event a bit better, as it seemed not to attract many "muggles" either. But I can only imagine that this arena, if it were full of simracing enthusiasts, would have been a day to remember - and I probably would not have qualified! The competition was amazing on all streamed races, and with a last race finish that gave intense flashbacks of Massa's family's despair in 2008, it could only have been more exciting if there were more people there watching.


This is positive criticism, as we all want simracing to grow because it means more entertainment in many ways to all of us, therefore bigger investment and bigger growth of the sims themselves. Let's all contribute to our passion

 

[Case_]

I just found out about it one week ago, told a friend in Germany about it, and luckily I got some cheap plane tickets and managed to go to the Nürburgring, enjoy the whole 24h-race atmosphere, and even have a go at entering the WTCR competition. I did a couple of hours of practice at home, and this was the first time I properly turned any laps on R3E, so I had few hopes... and guess what, my friend and I managed to qualify! We got to participate in three races, with all of them being streamed live from the arena (for divisions 1 and 2), it was quite an experience!

Oh, I completely missed this part in the other thread. Great stuff, must've been awesome Just watching all the photos in my Twitter feed was great.

 

[UMC 22]

Since RD has it's own events, clubs and leagues, we do not advertise the events of other communities on our website or forums. It's not like any of them would advertise ours. Not good for business to promote your rivals.

Besides, this particular competition is advertised all over the R3E hub and within the game itself, so anyone that has a genuine interest in R3E should already know about it. Their competitions are regular, after all.

 

[Case_]

Since RD has it's own events, clubs and leagues, we do not advertise the events of other communities on our website or forums. It's not like any of them would advertise ours. Not good for business to promote your rivals.

Edit: Nevermind. Sorry, the urge to respond to this was stronger than my resolve not to comment on RD decisions and policies anymore.

 

[Lars Hansen]

Not to mention that nothing is stopping S3 from advertising the event on the RD forums themselves.
Which they did: https://www.racedepartment.com/threads/nürburgring-24h-2018-esport-events-at-the-ring-arena.149508/

 

[Daniel Monteiro]

Oh, I completely missed this part in the other thread. Great stuff, must've been awesome Just watching all the photos in my Twitter feed was great.

Even a young spanish guy that is still in school managed to come, and he was combining it with another FIFA tournament he had, and he made it and even got on the top split

Since RD has it's own events, clubs and leagues, we do not advertise the events of other communities on our website or forums. It's not like any of them would advertise ours. Not good for business to promote your rivals.

I guess I failed to see the bigger picture, thank you for having enlightened me!

Not to mention that nothing is stopping S3 from advertising the event on the RD forums themselves.
Which they did: https://www.racedepartment.com/threads/nürburgring-24h-2018-esport-events-at-the-ring-arena.149508/

Which I missed (by poor level of searching, to be honest), and which apparently got not much feedback, so I guess it all makes sense.

 

[tlsmikey]

E-sports is so overused right now and everyone seems to be latching on to it as a way to drive revenue either through advertising or competition that i'm completely turned off by the mere mention of it.

I've seen it pretty much every time I load R3E. It's pretty well documented already.

 

[natedogg1867]

Since RD has it's own events, clubs and leagues, we do not advertise the events of other communities on our website or forums. It's not like any of them would advertise ours. Not good for business to promote your rivals.

This doesnt make any sense. Sector3 and the official competitions arent 'rivals' whatsoever to RR's club events. How would a time trial even rival a RD league?

Beyond that, why discuss/advertise the Vegas e-race for rF2 then? Not sure if there were other staff threads from before the event, the search function is letting me down.

And to your second point in the quote... Sector3/RR does advertise other leagues... Most of what is on their twitter and facebook accounts is heavily advertising leagues and events in the community when they arent talking about development of RR or teasing future content/fixes.

What RaceRoom does with competitions is pretty cool imo. RR along with iRacing are the only 2 Im aware of that actually have real competitions with prizes. Isnt one of the purposes of RD to build support for sim-racing and garner more community involvement? Why would there be any policy against increasing awareness for events like that?

 

[UMC 22]

This doesnt make any sense.

It makes perfect sense. RD isn't here to promote others, it's here to promote itself. But the bigger picture is that the moment you start advertising one thing on the front page, everybody will expect the same. Then you get people that are more of a rival to RD wanting to be able to advertise their own events. Then when you tell them they can't, they start pointing at other examples where we have and claim unfair treatment. We have no response to that because they're right... it would be unfair to advertise one thing and not another. So, to avoid that entire minefield and a whole host of complaints, we have a blanket policy that covers the whole area.

At the end of the day, those that are truly into sim-racing and e-sports will find out about these things from other sources regardless.

 

[natedogg1867]

It makes perfect sense. RD isn't here to promote others, it's here to promote itself. But the bigger picture is that the moment you start advertising one thing on the front page, everybody will expect the same.

What you are saying still isnt logical. A time trial does not compete with an organized league event run at RD. A competition you can set a leaderboard time in at any point of the day does not compete against a scheduled MP race that starts at a specific time.

To the 2nd part of that quote... to be a bit cheeky here... Wouldnt that be a good thing? More games offering cash prizes, real life seat time in race cars, etc. will only mean more opportunity for people to win and experience that stuff. I know I would be all for rF2, AC, AMS, Pcars, etc. offering real life prizes, and rightly so if they did... they would deserve an article about it too.

And maybe this wasnt clear enough, but the point of an article would be to draw awareness to it in the broader community. Each game has their set userbase as you know... So why would someone that only plays rF2 know about an official competition in RR if they dont play the game frequently?

Then you get people that are more of a rival to RD wanting to be able to advertise their own events. Then when you tell them they can't, they start pointing at other examples where we have and claim unfair treatment. We have no response to that because they're right... it would be unfair to advertise one thing and not another. So, to avoid that entire minefield and a whole host of complaints, we have a blanket policy that covers the whole area.

It's perfectly reasonable to decline advertising another league so you can keep participation for yours at a decent level. That's not the argument I am making whatsoever here

At the end of the day, Im just saying that bringing awareness to serious competitions is a good thing, as it will get more people excited about the prospects of trying something new.

 

[metaDp]

I guess we probably see each other, I was qualified for the Endurance Team the friday night.

Managed to finish in front of Williams eSport and FA Racing G2, feels good. One of my teammates take his chance at the WTCR event (personaly I couldn't, I had to get back home in France...) He finished 3rd of the Div 3.

 

[Daniel Monteiro]

I guess we probably see each other, I was qualified for the Endurance Team the friday night.

Probably!... And this is exactly what I mean. This event in general should have been more advertised, both by the organizers themselves and by the simracing community as well across all forums and websites.

I visit RD almost daily, but I don't read any other simracing websites and I guess I should from now on. I just came across this event on youtube when I was watching the Blancpain races from Brands Hatch. The first thought that came to mind was: "I have to go; surely I will not qualify, but surely there will be so many simracers that I have raced with or read about!"

And there were quite a few recognizable names, but I was hoping to see at least 5 times more people, and I even thought that some RD representation would be there.

Personally I am all for the unity of simracing, and believe that sharing is caring. I have a small challenge question: There has been huge hype about the upcoming title from Kunos Simulazioni (ACC), and RD jumped in with extensive interviews with members of the company. So what will happen once the game is released and their online competitions start taking shape? Will RD suddenly enforce total silence about ACC-organized events?...

Creating a window of visibility for others can benefit both parts, so my opinion is "make the most of it". It's just my opinion and advice, that's all

 

[Lars Hansen]

Knowing Kunos, I seriously doubt there'll be any lack of advertising, even without the help of RD.
My guess is that the events will be incorporated into the game itself, showing upcoming events as soon as you boot it up.
But I digress....

And I'm not out to nitpick anyone, but this line struck a chord.

Personally I am all for the unity of simracing, and believe that sharing is caring.

Which is admirable. Unfortunately simracing is anything but unified.
Setting aside the interminable 'my sim is better than your sim' discussions that will still take place 20 years from now, there's also the fact that simracers are anything but a homogeneous group.

Take this competition for example.
You saw it and thought 'Wow, I gotta be a part of this!'
Which is great, and I'm happy that you're passionate about your hobby.
Me, I couldn't care less.
First, there's the fact that I wouldn't be fast enough to get anywhere in the first place, meaning a 2-day travel with nothing to show for it. Except possibly meeting other simracers, which I can do online.
Second, I don't simrace for the competition. Yes, I'll race to the best of my abilities, but in my case MP racing is much more of a social thing than a competition.
I don't do open servers, nor do I have much interest in e.g. iRacing, for the simple reason that I don't find it particularly satisfying to race against people I don't know.
And this is just me, who live alone.
Throw in people who have wives, kids and careers, and the prospect of someone dropping their lives for 2 days to play a computer-game become pretty slim.

The point I'm trying to make here is that the competitions are pretty niche in the first place.
For every hardcore simracer who take part in the competitions, I guarantee you there'll be at least 50 simracers with a more casual approach to the hobby, who have no particular interest in joining.
Competitions that require you to show up in a different country will obviously attract even fewer people.
Which goes some way to explain what I can gather you thought was a rather lackluster turn-out.
It's just that all simracers may not necessarily share your view on the competitions.

And that's totally fine as well.
It's a big hobby, plenty of space for everybody.

 

[Case_]

The point I'm trying to make here is that the competitions are pretty niche in the first place.

We are still talking about one of the biggest simracing events of the year. And at the same day we started discussing the lack of mentions about this event here at RD (while a big part of simracing internet was busy talking about the event, sharing videos and stuff), RD featured a post on worst hair styles in F1 instead. Priorities, I guess.

 

[natedogg1867]

We are still talking about one of the biggest simracing events of the year. And at the same day we started discussing the lack of mentions about this event here at RD (while a big part of simracing internet was busy talking about the event, sharing videos and stuff), RD featured a post on worst hair styles in F1 instead. Priorities, I guess.

Yeah, I suppose I just find it a bit odd that a sim racing news site doesnt cover one of the biggest sim racing events of the year.

It's further perplexing that articles about a minor update for an arcade game gets published instead...

A big event like this Mercedes esports event is only good for the genre as it increases awareness not only here, but with people who might not yet be into sim racing. And it still seems to me that most people on RD are here because they are passionate about sim racing and would like to see it continue to grow.

 

[Lars Hansen]

We are still talking about one of the biggest simracing events of the year. And at the same day we started discussing the lack of mentions about this event here at RD (while a big part of simracing internet was busy talking about the event, sharing videos and stuff), RD featured a post on worst hair styles in F1 instead. Priorities, I guess.

We're talking about two different things.
I can't tell you how RD decides on what news gets published. Not even sure RD can tell you that, given that it's based on volunteers.
I was merely pointing out that there's a large user-base who have very little interest in coverage of or participation in the competitions.

 

[Case_]

Sure, but...why even point it out in this context? Yes, some people are interested in these things, some are not. I couldn't care less about all the F1 news and "discussions" (even when it's not a useless article like "the worst hair styles in F1" that only serves as a somewhat elaborate click bait to get people arguing about something), and yet I still understand that on a site that claims to "blur the line between real motorsport and simracing", such news articles are inevitable. Same goes for many different topics I don't care about. In fact I don't even care about competitions that much myself (though certainly more than in IRL F1 stuff). But I would absolutely expect coverage of a big simracing event like that, simply because RD is a major site dedicated to simracing. So why point out a fairly obvious thing that not everyone is interested in it? That goes without saying.

And the whole thing makes no sense to me anyway. So apparently competitions outside of RD are not being reported on because it's bad for your "business" to report on other events if you also run your own. OK. I don't agree with that (my opinion is that if you're confident in what you're offering, you don't have to actively avoid mentioning others), but I can see the supposed logic in that. But by not reporting on these things, people that are interested in them are basically (well, I guess literally, in this case) told to go get their news elsewhere. So what incentive do they have to keep coming back here in the first place?

Like I said, doesn't make sense to me at all.

 

[Lars Hansen]

Because it wasn't an answer to why RD did or did not advertise the event.
It was an answer to Daniel who apparently couldn't understand why there were so few people attending.

I'm not touching a discussion on RD policy with a ten-foot pole.

 

[Case_]

(Yeah, I know. The so-called definition of insanity - doing the same thing over and over, expecting a different result... )

 

[Yetch]

Don't want to ruffle feathers but both the Mclaren and World Sim racing championship in Vegas were both covered on the News page, how is that any different to RR's competition?
News either means Sim racing News or should be renamed to "selective News" or "some of the News", personally I stumbled across RD years ago on Google, when first getting back into Sim racing, I stayed believing I was getting a balanced, unbiased site, covering all aspects of Sim racing (UK based), is this not the case then?
I don't mind, my pole's 12 foot.