How long will iRacing survive as subscription service?

I think the pricing will drive some people away (no matter how many
pizzas they do without .

The price can add up to way more than any racing sim cost previously and
you have to keep paying to drive it. For fun, pick your favorite sim,
and apply the iRacing cost structure (number of cars, tracks and how
long you played it) and you'll be shocked at how much it would have
cost. That's what your iRacing cost could turn out to be (give or take
a pizza or so).

Just a small example. After getting my D license I was enthused about
buying the Skip Barber car and competing. Then I realized I had to buy
not only the car, but 3 more tracks. Oh and about that time I had to
send in another $20 for the next month (since I am still on monthly.)

Don't get me wrong, I love what they are doing and I might really get
sucked into it even with my price concerns, but the cost could really
add up over time.

>> as it's my opinion that the heydays of sim racing are gone. It was moderately popular from about 1999 to 2005 and
>> since then interest has waned

> So sim racing died shortly after Papyrus did - just a co-incidence? Just after the last sim (N2003) that made simming
> easy and simple?

Not just sim racing, but also online racing in general. The first few nights
(USA time) of the Need For Speed Underground 2 demo (October, 2004),
there were 1000 players online. The actual game was released a month later.
By the fall of 2005, there were less than 50 players online on the USA server,
with around 100 on the European server. RD3 created an online spike in
2006, more so outside the USA, as internet and broadband where more abundant
outside the USA by then, but it never came close to the number of online
racing game players in early 2005.

> Well it seems that another thing you fail to understand is that iRacing is nothing without the surrounding service -
> and that's fine with me because without that I probably wouldn't give a stuff anyway. As far as I'm concerned, just
> making a sim without an accompanying service is no longer good enough. And i dont mean just a server either.

It wouldn't be nothing, it would be a great sim, and besides, the online play
is independent of how it's paid for. There are many players that are happy
to mostly play offline with an occasional venture online, but iRacing doesn't
offer that option, yet.

It's clear that iRacing's current format appeals to many racing sim players, but
the issue here is if there will be enough of those players over a 3 year span
do keep the current business model intact.

On Tue, 12 Aug 2008 16:16:19 -0400, Larry wrote:
> Jeez, what a stretch, all in the name of using a word so hated in the
> end-user software community. Nice Job!
>

He has a point, Larry. You cannot deny that while the GTR2 users (and
possibly GTL as well, dunno) are fscked now regarding online
racing. iRacing users / paying subscribers however will be truly
fscked should JH ever decide to call it a day and spend his money on
other projects. We will be left with nothing in this case, while GTR2
at least will provide offline enjoyment as long as the DVD lasts.

All the best, Uwe


--

> He has a point, Larry. You cannot deny that while the GTR2 users (and
> possibly GTL as well, dunno) are fscked now regarding online
> racing. iRacing users / paying subscribers however will be truly
> fscked should JH ever decide to call it a day and spend his money on
> other projects. We will be left with nothing in this case, while GTR2
> at least will provide offline enjoyment as long as the DVD lasts.

This is a bit off topic, but why was there a trend to do away with
the TCP-IP feature that the older racing games had? GPL and NR2003
had it, so did the older NFS games, High Stakes and Porsche Unleashed.
Now if there's any alternative to online play, it's just LAN. Is it
possible to come up with a "generic" LAN emulator that is really
TCP-IP for these games?

Well now, ain't life one big risk... A sink hole could swallow up my house
tomorrow and I'd be out a hell of a lot more than $13, plus a few paid-for
cars and tracks.

-Larry

"hoover" > wrote in message
e...

> He has a point, Larry. You cannot deny that while the GTR2 users (and
> possibly GTL as well, dunno) are fscked now regarding online
> racing. iRacing users / paying subscribers however will be truly
> fscked should JH ever decide to call it a day and spend his money on
> other projects. We will be left with nothing in this case, while GTR2
> at least will provide offline enjoyment as long as the DVD lasts.
>
> All the best, Uwe
>
>
> --

I call this the "EA Effect".

Probablly the same reason EA doesn't use the XBOX Live servers for it's
games (IMHO). If they let loose of control of the online servers, they
would lose the ability to shut down a server thus forcing players to buy the
next version. Or making the server so crappy, that people buy the next
version out of sheer frustration. Anyone who has played Tiger Woods 2008 on
the XBOX over the last year knows what this feels like.

-Larry

"jeffareid" > wrote in message
...

> This is a bit off topic, but why was there a trend to do away with
> the TCP-IP feature that the older racing games had? GPL and NR2003
> had it, so did the older NFS games, High Stakes and Porsche Unleashed.
> Now if there's any alternative to online play, it's just LAN. Is it
> possible to come up with a "generic" LAN emulator that is really
> TCP-IP for these games?
>
>

(Andrew MacPherson) wrote in
dress_disguised:

> It's a brave attempt to break the simming mould,

BS! It's a greedy attempt to cash in.

"jeffareid" > wrote in news:9kzok.11799$i15.1410
@newsfe01.iad:

>
> This is a bit off topic, but why was there a trend to do away with
> the TCP-IP feature that the older racing games had? GPL and NR2003
> had it, so did the older NFS games, High Stakes and Porsche Unleashed.
> Now if there's any alternative to online play, it's just LAN. Is it
> possible to come up with a "generic" LAN emulator that is really
> TCP-IP for these games?
>
>

Yea, download Hamachi.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hamachi

"rqk" > wrote in message
. ..
>I think the pricing will drive some people away (no matter how many pizzas
>they do without .
>
> The price can add up to way more than any racing sim cost previously and
> you have to keep paying to drive it. For fun, pick your favorite sim, and
> apply the iRacing cost structure (number of cars, tracks and how long you
> played it) and you'll be shocked at how much it would have cost. That's
> what your iRacing cost could turn out to be (give or take a pizza or so).
>
> Just a small example. After getting my D license I was enthused about
> buying the Skip Barber car and competing. Then I realized I had to buy not
> only the car, but 3 more tracks. Oh and about that time I had to send in
> another $20 for the next month (since I am still on monthly.)
>
> Don't get me wrong, I love what they are doing and I might really get
> sucked into it even with my price concerns, but the cost could really add
> up over time.

When you say buying the Skip Barber car, you mean with real life currency?

Thre only included cars are the legend and solstice I believe as part of the
monthly fee, the rest come at a one time additional cost, as will additional
tracks.

"Bob Loblaw" > wrote in message
...
>
> "rqk" > wrote in message
> . ..
>>I think the pricing will drive some people away (no matter how many pizzas
>>they do without .
>>
>> The price can add up to way more than any racing sim cost previously and
>> you have to keep paying to drive it. For fun, pick your favorite sim,
>> and apply the iRacing cost structure (number of cars, tracks and how long
>> you played it) and you'll be shocked at how much it would have cost.
>> That's what your iRacing cost could turn out to be (give or take a pizza
>> or so).
>>
>> Just a small example. After getting my D license I was enthused about
>> buying the Skip Barber car and competing. Then I realized I had to buy
>> not only the car, but 3 more tracks. Oh and about that time I had to send
>> in another $20 for the next month (since I am still on monthly.)
>>
>> Don't get me wrong, I love what they are doing and I might really get
>> sucked into it even with my price concerns, but the cost could really add
>> up over time.
>
> When you say buying the Skip Barber car, you mean with real life currency?
>