David G Fisher wrote...
> You truly want me to "take up the challenge"?
Depends what you mean by "the challenge". If you're talking Russian
Roulette, I'm out. <g>
> Desperately looking for another way to gather
> the girls together to pick on poor wittle me?
> Challenging my "sim racing manhood" hoping I'll
> set myself up for more criticism from the club?
No, though my message was crafted to provoke, you're doing a fine job on
your own. For the 2nd time: there is no conspiracy and I, nor anyone else on
this group is out to get/bother you. You just have tendancy to make these
sweeping generalisations which rub people the wrong way; some examples of
which follow... BTW: good to know you read my statement concerning the "FIA
approved" patch. Very clever taunt... wasted however. ;-)
> So clever. I realize now that saying that all
> other sims besides GPL don't "suck" is evil.
A premise which is just not true and you know it. Not even the hardest of
hardcore GPL heads on RAS think this way. Heck, some of them are even
warming up to SoS1937 so convincingly I'm considering giving it a 2nd look.
> I realize now that criticizing NASCAR and it's
> fans over their attitudes towards the death of
> drivers was completely out of line.
Not at all, it's your typification of NASCAR and NASCAR fans which pisses
people off.
> But now this? My skiiiiiiiils?
> I thought that r.a.s. frowned upon those who
> seriously questioned the skills of another. I've
> seen others question a posters skills, and
> quickly be criticized for doing so. There's the
> old double standard again.
<sigh> The old "reversal of argument" trick... ok, I'll bite and quote from
this thread:
"Practice kiddies. You know, like how you do 8
million laps at Monza, and then marvel at
breaking the 1:28 barrier?"
There's a nice example of the pot calling the kettle black, eh? -On two
levels in fact, if one includes your boast about your F1RC demo hotlap in
this thread.
> Ok, Jan. Let's see. I've been a core beta tester for
> CPR, MTM2, RC2000, and 4x4 Evo.
Fairly impressive, but what does that prove? Working for a Microsoft
subsidiary I beta tested Win95 (then called Windows Chicago), does that mean
I am a "power user"? No, in fact, it's probably safe to say I'm a better
simracer than Windows guru by a considerable margin.
> John O'Keefe from VROC and TRi had me be one of a
> small group to beta VROC (yes, VROC for GPL---can
> you believe it?) before the public beta, and it's
> release. I wonder why?
If I'd have to take a guess I'd say because a) he knew you and b) you had
your internet connection sorted out through experience with POD and
F1RS/MGPRS. Had he asked me I would have been useless at the time due to bad
modem settings and shitty internet provider.
If you actually meant that as a question, I'm sure you're better of asking
John.
> ISI asked me to be part of a focus group (since EA
> controls the beta testing in-house). I've got another
> racing game beta testing opportunity coming up soon.
Tell me something... have you actually ever mentioned anything to the
developers other than compatibility/functionality issues? -Have you ever
disagreed with them?
> You see Janni, no one (developers or other members
> of other forums) have ever had a problem (quite the
> contrary) with any of my opinions because people
> outside of r.a.s. (GPL fan club headquarters) haven't
> made GPL their girlfriend, and aren't hyper-sensitive
> when someone talks about her.
Call me sensitive, but I hate it when people bastardize my name. As for the
rest, like I said before, these sweeping generalization generated by your
perception of people will get you into real trouble some day.
> That's why I keep getting beta invitations.
Exactly, you tell them what they want to hear. ;-)
Seriously, racing game developers (with a few exceptions <g>) seem to want
to ignore GPL was ever made. And in a certain sense they're right... GPL's
groundbraking (at the time) features and technical advancements only really
appeal to a very small portion of the market. A segment economically
speaking not worth catering for unless one puts a value on good press and
brownie points. They want the general games player part of the market and as
such they are right to pick someone representative of this group. That's
perfectly alright from where I'm sitting. Kudos to you.
Unfortunately, simracers look at titles from another perspective, just like
they (generally speaking) look at and appreciate real racing differently
from the general public. I am amazed that you seemingly have not yet fully
realised your "common sense" arguments will just not work in this
environment.
> As far as "rankings", I don't race the N2/3/4 series
> because as you surely know, I think NASCAR is a joke,
> easy, and boring.
Again, a view which shows you have no idea what it takes to race cars, no
appreciation of what it is racing drivers do and how hard it is do at any
competitive level.
> GPL became boring after about 6 months, which is normal
> for non-Papy cheerleaders so I don't have the cute
> little rank some of you have.
There is nothing cute about having a GPLRank. It's just like a golf handicap
or any other amateur sport ranking. I am sick and tired of you belittling
people in this manner.
> I did however start racing online long before most here
> at r.a.s. (the majority of r.a.s. was very slow to turn
> on to online racing) with POD four years ago and
> competed in a 10,000 tourney where I placed about 15th
> out of the 50 who were fast enough to qualify. My ghost
> laps were among the best. I raced CPR online and held
> the number one spot (and stayed in the top 5 as long as
> I wanted) on Case's CPR ladder, while racing against many
> talented drivers (including eventual GPL'ers) like George
> Sandman. I placed 5th or 6th in the MS MTM2 tourney (out
> of about 100) in which the top prize was a new truck.
I didn't get into online racing at an early stage as at the time I had a lot
of difficulty staying connected to (usually) US-based hosts. There still is
nearly no interest for online simracing here in Belgium. Did manage some
MotoRacer and played a fair amount of Doom though, but that's another genre
altogether. Once I had a decent (cable) connection I immediatly got into the
swing of things.
> Yes, POD and MTM2 are arcade type racers, but the people
> who compete at the top level are as fast and good as you'll
> find ANYWHERE.
I'll agree to that.
> I'm not much for hotlapping (gets boring very quickly)
> except to work on setups (which I made available and
> which helped many), but I've never had any trouble in
> challenging the top times for whatever sim I was into
> at the time (RC2000, F12000/CS, GP3, F1RC, etc.). Being
> smooth and driving realistically is my style.
> And guess what? I don't spend hours and hours and hours
> and hours over the course of 1, 2, or even 3 years
> practicing with the same sim in order to be competitive.
> If I did, I'd be embarrassed to announce any improvements
> I'd made.
What's the matter? -Afraid of losing face in public? ;-)
Seriously, let me let you into a secret... neither do we. We all have lives,
jobs, families, commitments. And nobody does it just to improve his or her
"cute little rank" either. We do it because we enjoy it.
> I don't have anywhere near the availbale time to do so
> even if I wanted to. I know how much time it takes me to
> get up to speed, and if it starts taking longer, than I
> know I'm slipping.
Has it occured to you the challenge might not always be equal?
> If I raced the Papyrus NASCAR series and over the years had
> done a million laps at the same tracks, I wouldn't be quick
> to brag either.
You lack mathematical intuition. A million laps is proposterous. At say an
average of 36s per lap (for easy calculation purposes) that equates to
10000hrs or just under 3 1/2 years @ 8 hours a day. Nobody does a million
laps, nobody even does a thousand.
It does take a disproportionate amount of time to really get going at first
though. The time before the visual and audible clues get translated into a
sense of "feeling" what the simulated car does automatically can be quite
frustrating.
> A talented sim racer can get up to speed against the top times
> quickly, regardless of what racing game you are using.
True, but not everybody is. Which is why it's good less talented simracers
have a place where they can be proud of their acchievements, regardless of
how long it took them.
So what you're saying is unless you can get up to speed quickly it's not a
good simulation? -Strange, that's diametrically opposed to my view. If I get
into things quickly and start posting real life times or better "right away"
I get suspicious, for I know I could never be as quick in real life.
> I know who is fast at places like the BHM hotlap competitions
> (Jure, Bell, Duhan, Morgan,Tsimenoglou), and I can keep up with
> their times with a half dozen hours worth of practice at a
> particular track.
That's still disproportionately long with reference to the amount of time it
would take you in real life (except maybe at the Ring).
> Any more than that, and I get bored, and don't feel like I've
> truly accomplished anything.
So if you couldn't learn to play golf to PGA standard within 6 hours, you
wouldn't bother?
> I've even had segments of some of my sim reviews and beta
> reports be published at web sites like HG.
You should really (when possible with regard to non-disclosure and
exclusivity) reproduce those here. It would help people to get a feel for
your perspective without having to keep tabs on a number of sites. I don't
know about others, but I only occasionally visit sim sites and, in fact,
don't remember ever reading anything from your pen there. You do realise
part of the waves you create here are due to nobody knowing "where you're
coming from"?
> What are the big "achievements" that you or anyone else who
> responds to this
...
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