rec.autos.simulators

TEN-A big disappointment
Finally seeing that the NROS everyone has been waiting so impatiently is up
and running only to find out that I am not allowed to participate in it. I
signed on to TEN almost a full YEAR ago only to have the chance to finally
race against many of you with whom I've talked, exchanged ideas or simply
wondered how I would do against all of you other N2 drivers and enthusiasts.

What happened is this; I didn't use my TEN account at all during the last
year (since I wasn't interested in the games they had available at that
time). Now when I loaded the latest TEN client software I got a message
saying my account is blocked. I inquired for the reason and asked them to
clear the matter and remove the block so that I could sign on. The answer
was that I am not a US or Canadian citizen and therefore I am not allowed to
use TEN's services! After paying them USD179 (12 months fees of
USD14,95/month) just to support them to get NROS working they tell me I
can't participate. To me this really STINKS!!!

Some of you may wonder that I am too far for NROS to work. Well, I am using
an ISDN-connection, it takes eight (8) hops from my ISP to grizzly.ten.net
(one more for Valhalla) and the ping times have been in the range of
150-200ms. From what I've read in the newsgroup many of you Americans have a
worse connection than mine is. Anyways, it seems I will not find out the
answer to this matter, unfortunately.

My speciality has been setups for both Nascar1 and Nascar2 and I was
planning to share my findings with all the other NROS racers out there once
I get on to the track and in the middle of all the action. On the contrary
it seems I'll be deleting my N2 directory and wishing good luck for all of
you.

I hope my participation in certain track guides and publishing and sending
out setups to other racers has been worth something.

For all those other non-americans still signed to TEN I wish you will not be
booted out.

Greetings,

Pekka Heino
Flyin'Finn

It takes no extra effort to accept a credit card from outside the States
and, as you say, with a good connection we can get better latencies than
Americans with poor ones.

The only answer that I can think of is the they are afraid that we
Europeans will prove too fast for them <g>

Cheers,
Richard

A little water on the fire. :)

mykey

The only valid criteria are latency and driving skill. Where you live
shouldn't matter these days.

Hey, didn't you see the "<g">? <g>

I do get a little ticked off though that NASCAR and their licencees don't
seem to want to promote their products outside of the States. They have a
great racing series and could double their audience with correct
marketing. But what do we get? Poorly scheduled coverage, no BGN tack
pack and worse of all no NROS :(

Of course to compete in NROS, I'm would have to spend a fortune on
getting ISDN (works out approx $1000 a year PLUS call charges of $75c -
$1.30 an hour depending on day of week) but it would be worth it <g>

Cheers,
Richard