i think its because of how easy lfs is to set up and the great netcode. Maybe the bright colors play a part too and the growing popularity of autosport. I started playing right before i got my drivers license and driving techniques translate well from this "game" into real life, though i have driven few cars with as "sporty" handling as the ones in the "game".
the "game" has a very solid organic feel to it.

What drew me were the great physics, great framerate with good graphics, and i'm also starting to become a more competitive racer.

I predict that once more realistic engine damage is added, many more people will join to just play around with destruction derbies. and once they grow bored with that they will get serious about racing and our community will grow. There is more good than bad in LFS's future.

Simple answer: LFS is fun unlike every other "boring" sim. Sims are boring to everybody but true fans of motorsports and LFS has much more to it than that. LFS is a game with cars in a realistic way. It can be as fun or as serious as its players make it.

And to make it even more amazing, LFS does not have any arcadey features and options like other sims have (easy arcade physics, damage off, tirewear off, time, wear, fuel multiplyers and so on). It always stays totally true and realistic and its still fun. No other sim ever achieved that.

I kinda dont really see the LFS ppl being young, most of the drivers are around 20 or more. I'm 17, but I rearly meet drivers at My age. Only lately I've started to meet some faster peeps around 17, 18 and that is not so Young anymore
And pls dont think about the demo when talking about this, demo is a whole different place, it's the underground of LFS

Quote from RudiTurbo :

And pls dont think about the demo when talking about this, demo is a whole different place, it's the underground of LFS

More like the playground of LFS

Quote from RudiTurbo :

I'm 17

you're only 17!?

wow, I must say, you kids can really drive

well, ppl around 18-23 are at their top u know. from there onwards you start losing brain cells but gain experience. if you look at proffesional racers, most are "young". 30 is starting to be considered as old. ppl at the army are young. proffesional sport players are young.

however, racing is a sport where experience can compensate for reaction time and that's why there are more older guys racing than, say, playing CS.

specifically about the original question, i think that in LFS the presentation is fun and attractive. you can have names with colors, you can send and recieve setups so easily, the track and cars are colorful and good looking, driving is fun. it's very democratic (vote about everything), online play is so easy to do. LFS is just so "alive" and the presentation is much less boring that other "proffesional simulations".

it's just an attractive simulation, that's all

Quote from avih :

specifically about the original question, i think that in LFS the presentation is fun and attractive. you can have names with colors, you can send and recieve setups so easily, the track and cars are colorful and good looking, driving is fun. it's very democratic (vote about everything), online play is so easy to do. LFS is just so "alive" and the presentation is much less boring that other "proffesional simulations".

it's just an attractive simulation, that's all

Uh Wait a minute......
I hear this line of reasoning quite a bit in this thread. Now lemme ask you something, Y'all don't think that the ease of getting online, the ease of changing set ups and the variety of racing offered Wouldn't be appealing to an older person? Y'all don't think the small town atmosphere or the laid back approach to playing doesn't appeal to older people?

As an "Old Guy", I think GPL is waaayyy too much of a headache to even almost deal with. GO here - get this patch, go there-get that file... after about a month of getting all your crap together you might can play against 4 ppl - if you can find them. Who in their right mind wants that?
( oh I get it...senile people would ) then NASCAR....... I just couldn't get into that at all and from what I seen of their community, they seem to take it too serious anyways....I don't play video games to increase my stress...
that's what a family is for.

The reason LFS seems to attract younger people is simply because younger people are the ones that buy video games. as you get older, you tend to play and buy less and less.

I think short (5 - 10 minute) races are appealing to the younger audience too. cf (say) in GPL you have 30 mins qual followed by a 20 minute race & you're pushing an hour...

Quote from RudiTurbo :

And pls dont think about the demo when talking about this, demo is a whole different place, it's the underground of LFS

lfs: undergound ... now what does this remind me of ?

Quote from Racer Y :

Uh Wait a minute......
I hear this line of reasoning quite a bit in this thread. Now lemme ask you something, Y'all don't think that the ease of getting online, the ease of changing set ups and the variety of racing offered Wouldn't be appealing to an older person? Y'all don't think the small town atmosphere or the laid back approach to playing doesn't appeal to older people?

As an "Old Guy", I think GPL is waaayyy too much of a headache to even almost deal with. GO here - get this patch, go there-get that file... after about a month of getting all your crap together you might can play against 4 ppl - if you can find them. Who in their right mind wants that?
( oh I get it...senile people would ) then NASCAR....... I just couldn't get into that at all and from what I seen of their community, they seem to take it too serious anyways....I don't play video games to increase my stress...
that's what a family is for.

The reason LFS seems to attract younger people is simply because younger people are the ones that buy video games. as you get older, you tend to play and buy less and less.

imho, lfs is VERY easy to use. unzip and you're ready to go. i'm 34 btw.

Quote from StanleyCarter :

you're only 17!?

wow, I must say, you kids can really drive

I was thinking the same thing. There's one more to add to the youngsters that I now know.

I only started playing S1 not long before S2 was released and I have to say that it hooked me pretty much straight away. The ease of navigating the menus to setting up your car (although that is still a black art to me to get it right!).

Now, at 34 and with a family, LFS is perfect for the quick half hour race every now and then. There's no way that I could afford the time of 2 - 3 hours of going through qualifying and then a full blown 30 or 40 lap race (the idea of doing this is very attractive though - I just think a divorce would probably be on the table before I knew it!). When you've got a family, priorities are in other areas and LFS allows many of us a quick fix to de-stress from day-to-day life.

The younger players have the time, patience (generally, not always) and persistance to get good at games. Us "old-uns" have the experience (someone else mentioned this) and use this to our advantage.

Anyway, young or old, we all enjoy our favourite sim and have a blast with it.

Quote from W1LLSD4D :

One here

Can't wait for my son (3) to be old enough to race against

I'm a father of 5

Unfortunately, only my youngest, who is 8, is really interested in sim racing. I think it’s great however that a sim such as this bridges the generation gap as well as it does.


Keep in mind, the young of today will be the aged of tomorrow

I'll say it again, i don't see much relation between age and LFS, i DO feel the
LFS community is more mature in comparision with MANY other car/racing
communities, not to mention the FPS crowd...

I just wonder if i'm the only one to have heard how the 1st gen Playstation
was mostly a male from 20-30 thing because of one MAJOR factor, not many
'kids' had 300$+ for a game console, even less the 60-70$ for each games.
That alone i believe to be the major factor for the average age of console
buyers when they started getting serious (15-20 years ago). Dads told their
wifes "it's for the kids", but it was really an attempt to recreate their
childhood. Which brings me to the other major factor imo that was something
i've read here recently that i hadn't realised even though it's obvious. We
(25-30ish) are the Nintendo generation. We grew up with the very first ones,
like the famous Atari, saw the birth of Nintendo, we grew up with Mario
Brothers, PacMan, etc... it's only normal that as (we) these men approach
their middle age crisis, (we) they seek to recreate their childhood Hehe, i'm
pushing a bit here, but it's still a factor i think.

Then, as mentionned somewhere in this thread, PCs became more and more
common in households giving access to a wide audience, heck, even my
granma is now "...surfing the net"
- "Ok, stop saying that Granma"
- "What, you don't think your granma can be cool too, eh ?"
- "No no, you're cool ,Granma , just, sigh, ah nevermind."

I'm actually proud of my Granma So there lies my view of the whole thing.
Until i see some actual numbers from Vic or something, i'm not about to
assume LFS, or any other 'game' attract any more 'kids' than 'geezers'.
Of course, you guys realise that to most women, we are ALL kids !

Quote from StanleyCarter :

you're only 17!?

wow, I must say, you kids can really drive

lol. look at lfsworld stats. that is a lot of seattime. i'm 18

Quote from avih :

well, ppl around 18-23 are at their top u know. from there onwards you start losing brain cells but gain experience.
if you look at proffesional racers, most are "young". 30 is starting to be considered as old. ppl at the army are young. proffesional sport players are young.

Ya, but just because you have more brain cells does not mean anything, you have to USE them too... and that is where the experience comes in :fence:

Quote from avih :

however, racing is a sport where experience can compensate for reaction time and that's why there are more older guys racing than, say, playing CS.

What makes you think old guys don't have the reaction speed? My feet are slower... but that is beacuse I am out of shape and heavier. I am just as quick as I ever was.

Young guys are the norm in professional racing? I would have to say that seems to be more of a trend now. But I think that has more to do with marketing and the maturity of ladder systems and the fact that kids start racing much ealier in life now, so they have the experience they need by the time they are 24. Plus, I think it ties back in with point #1, the proliferation of unused brain cells, and the certain knowledge that you are invincible illepall :eek:

In my earlier post I jokingly said that people in their 20's were kids to me. Well, that probably did not come across too well. They are young, but not really kids. I take each person, either online or off, based on the merrits of that person, not some silly guage like how many years you have been around. My point of the above comments, is the same but reversed.

Im 16 as some know but I could careless if the guy behind me is 13 and they guy infront of me is 50, All i care about is how mature they are, if the 13 year old runs up my back and is mature about it saying sorry, then I forgive, but if he rams me purpously I do get pretty angry people say its just a game, well ya but you'd be pretty mad if someone ruined your fun, i dont take it serious but I play for fun, its like turning someones tv off during a good scene! Then if i run up the back of the 50 year old and I say Im sorry (F4) and he says oh its alright dont worry bout it "stuff" happens. Or the other scenario I say sorry and he blows his top telling me to learn to drive stay offline and cussing his wrinkly balls off at me then that ruins the fun (no offense to the men that are getting old and erm wrinkly lol, sorry others had to hear that ) anyways im rambling on, but thats the gist of thing, Sim racers are more likely to be more mature. That is all for now, Happy racing!

I think it's true that LFS has a younger age than the other true sims (which IMO have only ever been made by Papy and maybe GTR) I personally don't think this has to be a problem, I'm 15 and have been racing seriously for about a year, I started racing in N2003.

I don't think real life experience is too important, the UF 1000 feels nothing like any of the Minis I've ever driven (2 1000s and a Copper), it may handle the same but the feel through the wheel just isn't there. So seeing as one has to relearn how to read the feedback from sims I think it's more the length of time one has been sim racing for than real life experience.

Quote from ajp71 :

I don't think real life experience is too important, the UF 1000 feels nothing like any of the Minis I've ever driven (2 1000s and a Copper), it may handle the same but the feel through the wheel just isn't there.

Well, it'd pretty damn hard to make the wheel feel as stiff of steering as a car like that. I drove a lot of VW beetles before, which I am sure the steering kind of feels the same, and it is basically like a go-kart. Unless you use 100%+ centerspring on a forcefeedback wheel, the UF1 is great feeling

to me.. its not so much the age.. what wonders me is whats causing these people to WANT to crash people in big races

anyways.. im 17, and i've been playing for 2 years now
ever since the demo i've gotten hooked to it
and i can even remember the picture that lead me to LFS.. the one of the purple and orange GTT's drifting around some turn, thought it was neat (this was at blackholemotorsports website that i had found through google) .. so went to it, looked at some pictures and downloaded the demo, and about a month after that i bought S1

Quote from avih :

well, ppl around 18-23 are at their top u know. from there onwards you start losing brain cells but gain experience. if you look at proffesional racers, most are "young". 30 is starting to be considered as old. ppl at the army are young. proffesional sport players are young.

Recent studies prove that the human brain doesn't finish developing until around the age of 25-28, so that blows your theory out of the water. It has been proven that an adult brain (25+) is more agile and coherent than a younger brain.

Somebody try telling Andre Agassi he isn't on par with the young'ns!

Honestly I do see a lot of young people in LFS but the Internet is full of young people. Mostly I see an older crowd playing LFS. My own team has ages ranging from 17 - 40, most are in their mid 20's.