rec.autos.simulators

Please read and voice your opinion in the polls at
http://www.racesimcentral.net/

We'd like to thank all of those in the sim-community who have taken the time
to read and evaluate the FILSCA white-paper. We have received many
enquiries,
criticism, and much enthusiasm and would like to take this opportunity of
clearing up as many issues as we can. For this, there appears, as soon as
the
webmaster is awake today, a FAQ (http://www.filsca.com/filscafaq.html).
Before that, however, there are a few misconceptions that need to be
discussed.

The first of those is the "us/them" scenario which certain members of the
sim
community have taken as their mantra. FILSCA is, legally, a group of
leagues.
It is a club, registered in the EU. Leagues join FILSCA, and they, and
no-one
else, is FILSCA. So who are the "we" mentioned above? We are a group of
sim-racers who are creating a platform for FILSCA - which includes start-up
costs, statutes, legal advice, concepts, websites, magazine staff, etc. It
has taken us the better part of a year, and we are still working, sometimes
up to ten hours a day, to get this right. Perhaps the best way to get around
this us/them dichotomy, then, is to give a practical example: FILSCA is an
empty building that "we" built. The building, when it is complete, will be
taken over by the leagues, to do with as they wish.

In this regard, the management positions within FILSCA are to be filled by
regularly elected representatives nominated by the member leagues of FILSCA.
Each member shall have an equal say in the running of FILSCA, the non-profit
club. So where do the drivers fit in? Firstly, FILSCA will recognize a
Driver's Union. Secondly, leagues are their drivers, and league-managers, as
we all know, are drivers as well.

So what motivates "us" to create something like this? Besides the technical
challenge, what motivates us is the threat to the sim community presented by
anonymous portals that will charge a fee for us to play our beloved sims. We
want to protect the sim community from outside interference, we want to
protect the leagues and make them stronger, we want the sim-racer to have a
better experience in sim racing, we want sim racers to get to know one
another through their "stats", for instance. We want to market sim racing to
the world as a sport, we want sim racers (that is, us) to be recognized as
sportspeople. We want to incorporate the best in simdom under one umbrella
to
strengthen our collective bargaining positions with sim-producers, and we
want to show that sim-racers are serious racers who happen to race in
cyberspace. We want to market sim-racing to the, as yet, unknowing public,
through the mainstream media, for instance. We want, one day, to sit on a
beach in the Caribbean surrounded by twenty drivers on-board hypersims
sponsored by business and broadcast around the globe. And after extensive
research and talks with people from the sim racing community, as well as
with
individuals not associated with sim-racing, we feel as if we have plan that
has a very good chance of succeeding.

That is what "we" want. Will we achieve it? Those responsible for the launch
of FILSCA - which is to say, the eight guys who are presently at work
preparing for "launch" - believe that an Ideal - that is, the collection of
dreams and aspirations that we share for the sim-community - is an aspect
that must exist prior to any project. Without dreams, there cannot be an
altered reality - and without an alteration of how we perceive the world,
there can never be any progress.

While it is doubtless the case that we have not found a way of enlightening
the world, we have, or at least we believe we have, found an approach
through
which our Ideal for sim-racing, and one shared by many in the sim community,
can, through hard work, good fortune and careful administration, become a
reality.

The charge that sim-racing, the sim-community, and FILCSA, will find it
"impossible" to achieve a certain status for sim-racing within the real
world, as has been mentioned in certain under-informed quarters, is a charge
that is not only an insult to FILSCA, but a slap in the face of the
sim-community in general. At best, this outrageous "impossible" attitude
hurts FILSCA and its member leagues. At worst, it insults the sim-community,
a community that comprises guys and gals with such a vast array of skills
that we have not needed, for any aspect of the plan, to actively involve
anyone outside the community. This alone says all that needs to be said for
the community.

We have never said that FILSCA will capture an audience of "millions": on
the
other hand, we have said it is impossible either. And nor will we do so:
because no-one knows what the future holds. We can only manipulate the
future
in the hope that we can somehow influence the unknown in our favor.

It seems as if there are certain individuals bent on trying to harm FILSCA
before it even starts. FILSCA is, (it cannot be otherwise), a democracy.
FILSCA will, legally be founded as a club. And that, incidentally, is not
some bogus line; it has taken an immense amount of work, research and talks,
not to mention lofty dinner-bills in exchange for expert opinions from legal
and business experts, to prepare our statutes and articles in such a way as
to meet all the requirements of a club under German law. We have thought
long
and hard on how best lay the foundation of FILSCA, and we believe that the
club format is the most democratic organization that can exist, because its
laws are so strict and defined that democracy is the only result. What is
more, FILSCA is a registered, non-profit-club. No member is allowed to make
money from this, and FILSCA the club may not show a profit at the end of a
financial year. A club is the appropriate form for people or organizations
(like leagues) that wish to join forces in the comforting knowledge that
each
has the same equal rights within their club.

As such, perhaps the best way to introduce FILSCA, at this stage, is to
introduce those that are responsible for creating FILSCA. Before this,
though, one last thing needs to be briefly explained.

What was our common motivation? We're sim racers. And since no-one else was
going to do this in an appropriate way that seemed to allow for both the
preservation of the integrity of the community, and for a way in which to
trigger public awareness toward both sim racing and the community, we
decided
to tackle this project with a group of guys who were willing to dedicate
their time and expense in order to prepare and launch what we believe to be
the next logical step for sim racing. At a cost, of course; time, money, and
now, it appears, a backlash.

We are not sure how to answer some of the more vicious critics, nor exactly
how to deal with these guys posting on our own forum. It does anger us, more
than anyone can imagine. Picture eight guys, spread across the world,
spending hour after hour, day after day, month after month creating
something
for their community, and then having two guys post slanderous remarks such
as
"a collection of half hearted pipe dreams strung together by a handful of
governmental wannabes with little or no respect for the community, few
qualifying qualities and a total absence of jurisdiction for the matter.

More than anger us, we were collectively hurt. Perhaps one day if FILSCA
does
become some William Gibsonite reality, our posts to one another - which
totaled far more than these two guys deserved - will show that our reaction
was one that ran from anger to astonishment to, what the hell - let's just
stick to what we want to do because we know our motives, and they are,
morally at least, correct.

In the end, many of you know "us". We're doing this for you. So, here is who
we are, for those that don't know, and our credentials.

One last thing (and this time it really is a last thing!): although the
white-paper was meant to stimulate debate, we are in the process of
launching
FILSCA within the next weeks. The leagues are in place, the structure is in
place, the infrastructure is in place. The white-paper was a way for us to
determine if we had "missed" anything in our collective thinking, both
amongst one another, and amongst many in the sim community. The tons of
mails
in support are acting as fuel for all of us to take the final steps to
launch. We admit a certain pride in FILSCA - and we have no doubt that those
leagues, and their drivers who will take-over our baby, will do us, and the
sim community, equally proud.

The FILSCA start-up team are as follows:

Jon Andersen.  33 year old Norwegian Economist. Likes racing virtual cars
(TOCA 1 & 2, CMR). Completely hooked on sim racing after picking up GPL 2.
Dec 1999. Raced in MoG. President of the Court in MoG. Newbie at N4. Used to
have astronomical phone bills because of racing at Vroc.

Michael Barlow: Age: 33 Shortsville, NY Lived there in a big metropolis of
Shortsville in Upstate NY since his mother launched him. Has been on
Pitcrews
for both DIRT races and SCCA Club, as well as on a Trans-Am team with many
different responsibilities and was also on a Formula Atlantic team as a
"Go-For" Purchased a 8-bit sound blaster that came with papy's
Indianapolis500 way back many years ago. Shortly after that found a
Newsgroup
where people were talking about fast lap times using the Sim and offline
leagues such as the CompuServe league. A Joystick and a DX chip for my 486
later and he was getting heavily into SimRacing. Found out about Indycar and
ran that for a while then bought his first wheel/pedals (TM-T1). Next was
NASCAR1. In '96 he ran on Papy's open beta Hawaii system and ran up a
$1200.00 phone bill. Later TEN arrived and he was able to start saving money
again both on Hawaii and on TEN. Has run in many online leagues. At one time
he was actively participating in 8 leagues all at once. Each league he ran
in, he always finished the season in the top 25% and many in the top 5.
Since
GPL came out, he has ...

read more »

I think people's reaction (abuse aside, just ignore that) is sort of
understandable, I certainly heavily filter my r.a.s reading but I don't
recall reading any ground swell plea for an overall governing body.  Now to
hear it's structure and governing rules are more or less set without any
sort of public "what if" or "how about" discussion would certainly set
peoples backs up.

Imagine if a group of your neighbours arrived on your doorstep offering to
help paint your house, regardless of well intentioned they were, if you
didn't think you're house needed painting you're going to be pissed.

To use your own image... we your friendly neighbours;) believe we have made
a new super paint that would do wonders to your house, doubling the value or
whatever, and we stand on your doorstep jumping up and down in joy .... but
manages to mess up the point of telling you why you should accept our help
;) This also helps you understand our initial wonder at why people were more
or less bashing us... we wanted to help paint their house and they threw us
out like we were Jehova's Witnesses !!

I hope we are more tuned into a common manner of communication... we won't
just jump up and down at your doorstep, and you'll hopefully invite us in
for a cup of coffee and a chat about housepanting ;)

Mikkel

PS: I speak on my own behalf here, and several of my trusty colleagues in
FILSCA might object to the doorstep jumping part... :)
"I was the lone doorstep jumper in this, and I'm sticking to that story !"

Marty

Most of all............he's my best friend.

David G Fisher

Long time no see!

--
-- Fran?ois Mnard <ymenard>
-- May the Downforce be with you...
-- http://www.racesimcentral.net/
-- This announcement is brought to you by the Shimato Dominguez
Corporation - helping America into the New World...

--

Fester

| And...........
| --
| Fester

| > Most of all............he's my best friend.
| >


| > >
| > > The FILSCA start-up team are as follows:
| > >
| > > Jon Andersen.  33 year old Norwegian Economist. Likes racing virtual
cars
| > > (TOCA 1 & 2, CMR). Completely hooked on sim racing after picking up
GPL 2.
| > > Dec 1999. Raced in MoG. President of the Court in MoG. Newbie at N4.
Used
| > to
| > > have astronomical phone bills because of racing at Vroc.

---
Outgoing mail is certified Virus Free.
Checked by AVG anti-virus system (http://www.grisoft.com).
Version: 6.0.273 / Virus Database: 143 - Release Date: 8/16/2001

--

Fester

David G Fisher

| Only thing I can figure is he's proud to have a friend, eh?
| --
| Fester

| >

| >

| > | And...........
| > | --
| > | Fester
| >

| > | > Most of all............he's my best friend.
|

---
Outgoing mail is certified Virus Free.
Checked by AVG anti-virus system (http://www.grisoft.com).
Version: 6.0.273 / Virus Database: 143 - Release Date: 8/16/2001

--

Fester