If you have been following the Pansy Patrol for any length of time you know that I have not posted in a while. Well, today I saw something online that enraged me enough to end my hiatus.
Recently, iRacing.com opened their website to the public. On it they explain their still-in-beta product to the world in the hopes of raising excitement and brand awareness. Basically, their product is a virtual world (based loosely on the World of Warcraft model) in which customers pay a monthly fee of about 20$ to race cars in virtual races against other people. The basic subscription gets you a Pontiac Solstice and admission to only a few simple tracks. If you wish to race anything more exciting you have to fork out your Mastercard.
Normally I would be all for this. As the founder of a very nascent technology startup I can sympathize with new companies trying to get customers and opening the site up to show people is a great way to do it. But what really rubs me the wrong way about these guys is their attempt to distinguish themselves as a serious online racing community and not a game.
In an interview on opening day one of their executives said the following:
We don’t think of ourselves as a game company… World of Warcraft has a real appeal…But our system is more serious, frankly. If you are serious about racing, our product is for you, because getting on a [simulated] track with a full field of other drivers and racing against them safely involves as much commitment and time investment as if you went to racing school.
They even go so far as creating a new acronym so you don’t confuse their online world with an MMO. For you see, they are an MMIS, or ‘massively multiparticipant Internet sport.’
Perhaps I am doing something wrong, but my efforts to get into serious racing have cost a lot more than 100$ for an electronic steering wheel, 20$ for a monthly subscription, and a comfy office chair. How this company can compare the cost, the risk, and the reward of actually racing a vehicle with an online simulator is beyond me.
On their website they explain it in greater detail:
iRacing.com is not a video game. It is a subscription-based simulation service for real-world racers and racing enthusiasts, as well as a platform for a new branch of global motorsport - known as internet racing - which is the sport of real-time, online racing
Internet racing… Definately sounds like the next big sport. Might be too new for the Summer Olympics in 2012 but I hope to see you there in 2016.
Somebody over there needs to get off themselves and update their page to accurately describe their product. It is a game made out of a racing simulator built on top of a popular Nascar game which the company bought the rights to. If you are in the market I would recommend Live for Speed because at least they don’t have an identity crisis.
In the meantime, I’m going to all the popular local racing sponsor companies and try and get some funding to start my iRacing career!
on August 28, 2008 at 11:49 pm Richard C. wrote:
Are they selling any devices such as all important steering wheels and pedals? Those are very important parts of the driving experience…
on August 29, 2008 at 12:36 am Henry wrote:
No. I believe you are supposed to buy any of the existing USB ones. But come on, in most real racing series you have to provide your own equipment. It only follows that you’d need to source your own wheel here.
– Henry
on August 29, 2008 at 8:34 am Roger S. wrote:
What they actually say (going by the quote on your own Web site) is that online racing requires as much commitment as a RACING SCHOOL.
Of course it doesn’t require the commitment of regular racing like you’re twisting those words to read.
To be good at this type of simulator, you have to commit (oh, there’s that word again) an awful lot of time to it.
Simple tracks? Have you ever heard of Laguna Seca?
You probably read this on Slashdot and think you know something about it… Pansy.
on August 29, 2008 at 10:06 am Henry wrote:
Roger, I def. didn’t catch this from Slashdot. On my personal blog I like to call out Slashdot for its rediculous articles from time to time:
http://www.henrycipolla.com/blog/2008/01/yet-another-absurd-slashdot-story/
I didn’t say it doesn’t require commitment to get good. Any competitive game does. While I was in Washington I lived with some of the top Smash Brothers Melee players in the world. They used to practice for several hours a day. Often, just sitting there repeating the same comples move combination over, and over again so that in tournaments they would not be off by a single frame.
What I said was that it is still a game. Unlike racing which requires a lore more than commitment. Just having your car work every weekend is more of a job.
Nadeo created a racing game a while back called Trackmania. They eventually expanded it into a huge tournament with a $400,000 prize and people from all over the world entered. (http://www.trackmania.com/en/) iRacing is just Trackmania but with different physics and prettier graphics. It’s not the first idea this “online sport” idea has been tried. I just don’t like this attitude that they are “more than a game”.
on September 1, 2008 at 3:29 pm Noah wrote:
Sorry Roger, I have to side squarely with Henry on this one. I’ve been around most of the tracks in the Northeast countless times, and I’ve also played Gran Turismo 4 countless times as well. There is no comparison. Yes, with a properly positioned steering wheel and pedals GT4 comes close. But it is just a simulation, and a very poor one for replicating the feel of any car at speed.
And Roger, do you have any idea what is ACTUALLY involved in going to a racing school? And I mean an ACTUAL, SCCA affiliated school that will get you an ACTUAL racing license, that lets you race in ACTUAL races? Try 3 days and $3700. That is 3 solid days of piloting an open-wheeled racecar. Now please explain to me how this is in any way equivalent to sitting in front of your computer with a Logitech steering wheel?
I agree with Henry - this simulation is just that, a racing simulation. The only difference I can see between it and GT4 is that iRacing costs a lot more without offering anything more.
on October 26, 2008 at 7:34 pm Recent Links Tagged With "lfs" - JabberTags wrote:
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