>Okay, there's nothing here about N4 or NASCAR Heat directly, but this
>is a good article that defines some of the problems the industry is
>having in the marketplace, and how it is trying to come to grips with
>the issue of core gamers versus casual gamers. The casual gamer is
>critical to a game's success, and that is where GPL lost out, I
>believe, OTOH, GP3 should excel in this area.
>Read on -- it's entertaining:
>http://www.gamasutra.com/features/20000801/adams_01.htm
Good stuff, John. And the commerical lesson to be learned from GPL
is that you have to cater to casual gamers in *some* way. Papyrus
NASCAR sims have seemed to be able to do this (arcade mode) without
compromising the realistic aspects of the simulation. Let's hope
Papyrus considers that for future releases.
OTOH, while the difficulty of GPL may make it a niche product, that
"filtering" also tends to improve the quality of online racing (ie:
the racers themselves).
Another interesting conclusion to be drawn is that only a small
minority of people are interested in serious competition. In my
hobby, model rocketry, only about 10% of the national organization's
membership participates in organized competition. I always thought
that something was wrong there (being one of the 10%, its hard to
realize that the other 90% just lack that "competition gene"), but I'm
begining to think that that is just human nature.
I guess online racing with GPL is the place for me, even if I'm not
one of the fastest guys around (particularly in our league), but I
want to be part of that dedicated, competitive crowd.
"But in a way, fear is a big part of racing, because if there was
nothing to be frightened of, and no limit, any fool could get into
a motor car and racing would not exist as a sport." -- Jim Clark