end-user software community. Nice Job!
-Larry
>> iRacing does not use activation. It does not need it. It is an ONLINE
>> ONLY service. Everything is done via the web page.
> That IS the activation. No website, no racing.
-Larry
> That IS the activation. No website, no racing.
-Larry
>> Buy the full year. It drops the price down to $13 a month ($156 for the
>> year) AND:
>> 1. You get $60 iRacing credit to spend as you wish for future purchases
>> (cars, tracks or if anything is left over, your next subscription year if
>> you wish).
>> 2. Don't forget, there are discounts for buying things in groups. I
>> believe 6 items (cars or tracks) net a 20% discount.
>> $13 a month is less than a single pizza, delivered. Think about it :)
>> Considering the investment JH & Co have put into this, it is not really
>> that expensive. Frankly, I was sure it was going to cost twice this
>> much.
>> -Larry
> The year package is certainly a pretty good deal. The only problem is that
> my family and I suspect most others, operate on a monthly budget and $156
> is quite a whack from one month. In addition, I wouldn't buy an annual
> package until the sim has been out a while.
> Didn't know about the discounts on buying the extras and that is certainly
> welcome news.
> I still think, despite the work that's gone in, that the subscription
> should cover the cost of the vehicles and tracks. Maybe I'm to used to
> MMO's where one buys the game, subscribes for 16 dollars or so and gets
> pretty much all the content, plus new regular content and the publisher
> keeps track of various leagues like PvP.
> Despite this, iRacing must have got their sums right, as it is very likely
> that I will be staying, even at the $20 a month model...
> RobP
No, and no plans to do so in the near future. Currently I'm in
casual *** mode, but may join iRacing in the not so near
future if it looks like it will survive.
Probably off by a factor 10 or more. I can imaging the cost ranging from
10,000 to 100,000, depending on the track rental costs (if there's an off
season, the lower end of this range).
Some guy laser scanned Eastern Creek on a "budget" for about $3,000, but his
track time was free (Eastern Creek considered it publicity for their track),
and he rented a moderately priced laser scanner. The track is a free addon
for rFactor. Videos of the track:
http://jeffareid.net/rfr/rfrecpnz.wmv
http://jeffareid.net/rfr/rfrec2005f1e.wmv
So sim racing died shortly after Papyrus did - just a co-incidence? Just
after the last sim (N2003) that made simming easy and simple?
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.
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.
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.
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.
All the best, Uwe
--
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?
-Larry
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
BS! It's a greedy attempt to cash in.
Yea, download Hamachi.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hamachi
When you say buying the Skip Barber car, you mean with real life currency?
>>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?