The Future of Sim Racing - Mixed Bag or Single Series?

[Paul Jeffrey]

For those of us old enough to remember, sim racing used to be a very straightforward game - namely a sole focus on a single series or cars.

Casting the mind back to yesteryear, many of us will remember such classics as GP Legends, GTR1 & 2, Microprose Grand Prix series and of course the wonderful Race07 WTCC game. These titles, created by very different developers, all shared one pretty glaring similarity - they each represented in virtual form a single racing series, Formula One, the FIA GT Series, and the FIA World Touring Car Championships respectively (ok Race07 added a few expansions later, but you get the point...).

As sim racing and computer technology in general developed in the following years it would be noted that this trend took a dramatic turn, started by the legendary rFactor title from ISI, becoming more of a mixed bag collection of first and third party content from a variety of racing disciplines and performance road cars the world over. Gone would be the days of replicating a real series in all of its complicated glory, replaced instead by an eclectic and often disjointed selection of cars and tracks that did, and often did not, complement each other in the virtual gaming environment.

With Assetto Corsa Competizione now picking up the baton of the single series license once again, thanks to the official partnership with the Blancpain GT Series, and with the long awaited GTR 3 constantly lurking in the background, sim racing could be about to see another change in direction, returning to its roots as developers look to leverage the prestige of an official real world series onto our gaming screens.

Of course the likes of rFactor, Project Cars, RaceRoom Racing Experience and Assetto Corsa often hold something of interest for everyone, especially thanks to the wonderful modding community that has been active for some many years, but has the hunger for such diverse titles dimmed slightly in the sim racing community, and is a return to a more focused simulation that diverts its considerable attention to just a single series the future the majority of players would like to see?

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 Let us know your opinion below!

 

[davewilliams000]

Bit of both I think. Depends how successful ACC is, if other developers will take a risk on a single championship specific game. I'm not sure there are other championships (thank SRO/Blancpain) that would have a big enough appeal, as people were saying in the Touring Car thread earlier.
It seems doubtful at this rate that we will ever get to see GTR3 as they've been talking about it for years now.

 

[Óscar Melero]

Enjoyable physics make any content enjoyable.

 

[Leonardo Chaves]

This is tough for me, what i love the most is F1... and the F1 license falls to Codemasters...

Let's just say i've learned to live with scraps, AC giving me a couple of Ferrari's, Automobilista and it's fake F1's.

 

[Hoksu]

I would like to see mixed bag as in several fleshed out classes of different types of racing cars.

Not mixed bag as in random and incoherent selection of anything and everything, with more one-offs with nothing to race against (that is of course excluding cars that are one-make race IRL) than fleshed out classes. As we've seen in a number of games.

 

[Terry Rock]

How about this...within the same title, they release different racing disciplines as add-ons...much like they do DLC now.

 

[Richard Wilks]

The mods that i usually work on tend to always be full series/grids. To me, there is nothing like simulating a real series, present or past, and i cannot stress enough how the mixed mash of "all in one" that seems to be the trend today just lends itself to 20 minute races of just 3 or 4 different cars. And that is a damn shame, because there is nothing quite like discovering all the cars of a particular grid or championship, and having a real experience in said championship. It makes me cringe everytime i see sim racing system races with just 3 group C cars starting a 20 minutes race with a standing start...

Devs claim that's where the money is. It might well be, but i still played Nascar Racing, and i wasn't even following Nascar at the time.

 

[aka2k]

I still like car porn stuff like Gran Turismo and Forza on the long run. Granted, the physics aren't on the same level of the top PC racing games, but the fun factor is undeniable. Even to this day I still play GT4 every now and then.

 

[MrLonguinha]

A mix of the three, Rfactor, GTR2 and Assetto Corsa for the modders was and is phenomenal, we can race in several categories, from the classic F1 seasons to Rfactor 60's, 70's, 80's, 90's, 90's that Codemasters has not yet seen the possibility of re-creating some full seasons. GTR2 and GTLegends also with diversity primarily with content that I really like, Endurance World of the golden years, 60, 70 and the incredible 80's Group C, Assetto Corsa as well. Project Cars 2, could explore more content, with even more cars and classic tracks to make dream championships. We can not forget Dirt Rally and Dirt 4, which would be even more fascinating if they recreated some classic seasons, not just cars. Race Room came with a great proposal with the almost complete championships of the late WTCC, DTM, ADAC GT Masters, some GT3 cars and other varieties, but lack more circuits ... I can also say of the developer REIZA (Brazilian) that has very good content for the gamers who like the Stock Car Brasileira, besides old seasons of the Brazilian of Marks and Gáucho of Tourism, besides fictitious F1 ... Content is not lacking for these and other games that will come (AC Competizione, Dakar 18, Nascar Heat 3 ), the more variety of content the better, the public gamer thanks !!!

 

[ShredatorFIN]

Better to do something properly, once you do it. ACC looks good.

These "Jack of all trades" games like pCars 2 and AC1 will never be polished and feature complete. If game says it has "Everything" it sounds too good to be true because it isn't

 

[Tim Meuris]

Definitely single series. The mixed bag in ac was not my cup of tea. Good thing they are going for a single series now! I' m also more interested in racing than driving.

 

[dale223223]

I''d take AC's variety over another GTR2 any day.

I don't do leagues and such so I care more about variety.

 

[Will Mazeo]

Has to be a mix IMO, as much default content as possible, with some modding allowed, and then some protection to the investment of devs and 3rd party that license content (like they do in rF2) making content unique. Something I suggested here https://forum.studio-397.com/index....t-paid-items-making-content-unique-etc.60293/

 

[UMC 22]

As mentioned in the touring car article, I think most sims are tying to do too much at once and are ending up doing it all in a pretty mediocre fashion. I'd like to see more developers tackling just one series of racing in their sim, or a small number of linked series. Eg, BTCC with it's supporting classes such as the Ginettas and Clios. That way they can put more effort and development time into adding the required features and getting things exactly right, instead of using it all on cars cars cars.

Will this happen? Probably not, because developers seem to think that all games should suit everyone possible these days. Niche games are practically gone.

 

[Richard Dastardly]

If there's more than one series eventually, then giving a broad range of cars which compete with each other makes a lot of sense - as AC proved ,if there's a narrow choice of cars to race each other then they tend not to get used at all. If there's *only* one series I think it'll burn out though.

Having said that we wouldn't have *any* historic cars if we had to have a whole series at a time. Some sort of dev-supported modding program would help even if that meant 3rd party mods were paid ( you'd have to support the program somehow, and it'd help quality control & balance ).

 

[J. Dembowski]

Single series, there are too many mixed content sims right now.

 

[Isaac Chavira]

Single series, I want WEC & IMSA Weathertech to be their own series.

 

[erba72]

I voted on single series games, but I think, it's a part of all of them, a good sim, is firstly a sim with good physics, with a mixed base of content, or based on a single serie, but with modding support, so the community can create everything.

 

[St3fan]

Seeing that all the options have similar amount of supporters, you know that no matter what a dev does, there will be people whining

 

[Tero Dahlberg]

Different people have different preferences and that's how we are

20 years with this hobby of ours has shown me that for me good physics and good feedback is the most important combination for me. At times I've learned this the hard way. There have been times wanting to like a sim that only frustrated me. And it hasn't just been days or weeks or even months! The big lesson there was that play/try many sims even if your main focus is on one.

Experience from many sims gives you better perspective of things. It teaches you about yourself, makes you know yourself better, and that in turn makes you find enjoyment more easily