If they made it reasonable cost, like.. paying once (a reasonable amount) for a 1 year subscription to updates, and then paying extra for tracks, fine, I'd bite and try it out with the base game, but the whole subscription thing is just total wank really.
im not so sure
my guess is the subscription fees are mostly for the run over squirrels minigame where each rodent with skidmarks on its back gives you 2 experience points that you can use to make your virtual driver steer quicker and survive harder crashes
and about that graphics discussion the only dx-whatever feature that would really help to make lfs look better _while playing_ is realtime shadows as you see in crysis where everything casts a shadow on everything else (up to and including a cloaked see through soldier)
no it isnt but its one of the very few games that has natrual looking colours
and i dont care how many dx10 crap you throw at a game if it looks like a cartoon or a photo its failed miserably
What i'm complaining about is that you pay a monthly fee (for something like community hosting and maybe LFSW stuff were getting for free) in ADDITION to paying for content - it can't work both ways!
I'm actually surprised there isn't a start up fee... Although noone's gonna buy it for six months without trying it... so anyone who is paying 20 bucks for the first month is actually paying a start up fee...
What a sad and simultaneously funny thread. It makes me feel ashamed of being a simracer, and yet can’t help to laugh when reading some or most of the comments here, because they’re really ridiculous.
For the first time in many years a company will ask a decent price for an activity that has been the poor branch of gaming, and what’s the reaction of some?
“Oh, 9 euros per month for something that takes 10, 20 or more hours of my life every month is incredibly expensive! Rip-off!”
Just for the record, can someone mention a cheaper hobby? A simple night watching a 2 hours movie is more expensive.
Of course, it’s true that not all can pay such price as unfortunately everything in life, but if a person has a minimally decent PC AND broadband, 9 euros is not exaggerated IF the service iRacing will offer takes care of the simracer’s needs. And no, the typical product doesn’t, not even LFS in its current form, it simply gives user a more or less sterile environment where to race.
If this service will or not be something worthy of the price no one can say for sure at this point, we just need to wait and see. But let’s face it, the developers behind the project give pretty much 100% guarantee that the quality will be outstanding.
Can’t understand the hate towards iRacing and its business plan, really. I certainly hope they are very successful. It’s great for all current products, including LFS.
For the first time in many years a company will ask a decent price for an activity that has been the poor branch of gaming, and what’s the reaction of some?
“Oh, 9 euros per month for something that takes 10, 20 or more hours of my life every month is incredibly expensive! Rip-off!”
Just for the record, can someone mention a cheaper hobby? A simple night watching a 2 hours movie is more expensive.
Of course, it’s true that not all can pay such price as unfortunately everything in life, but if a person has a minimally decent PC AND broadband, 9 euros is not exaggerated IF the service iRacing will offer takes care of the simracer’s needs. And no, the typical product doesn’t, not even LFS in its current form, it simply gives user a more or less sterile environment where to race.
If this service will or not be something worthy of the price no one can say for sure at this point, we just need to wait and see. But let’s face it, the developers behind the project give pretty much 100% guarantee that the quality will be outstanding.
Can’t understand the hate towards iRacing and its business plan, really. I certainly hope they are very successful. It’s great for all current products, including LFS.
hmm I am not going to really comment before I try it,but so far I like how it looks, and I will at least subscribe for a month.
and yeah sim racing has always been really really really cheap...you know in flightsimming the price of 2 LFS license can't buy you half a PMDG 747!!!!
and yeah sim racing has always been really really really cheap...you know in flightsimming the price of 2 LFS license can't buy you half a PMDG 747!!!!
Yes. All sim racing with the exception of iRacing.
And the quality has been outstanding
.If the quality correlates with the price I don't understand what are you people complaining about?
So far this iracing scheme seems the most promising sim since Nascar 2003 and LFS. That isn't imho a lot, but it is something. Finally. Maybe
.I think if you read more closely, you'll find that most people are complaining about how the whole pricing scheme all comes together. Some could live with paying for extra content, but don't like the subscription as an addition, others are fine with a subscription, but feel paying for content on top of that is unreasonable. And the feeling of never owning the software but rather renting it, is off-putting as well to many, including me.
Personally, I think the monthly subscription price of 9 Euros as such is not bad at all, really. And depending on how many iracing dollars you will actually earn through racing, I can see this paying for extra content might not be a problem at all when put into practice.
What I despise is the trial fee of 20$. Even though, it's not that high overall. It's a question of principle. If you're really convinced about the quality of your product, you don't need that, imho. So, it's not a good sign. And I don't beleive that a free demo is in the plans as of now. After all, what else is a trial if not a demo?
LFS?
Oh great then it must be like this.
rFactor, GTR, GTR2, WTCC RACE 07 whatever was the best sim out there bla bla (lol)
If I wouldn't have heard such statements from almost every dev or company that come out with something new then maybe the concerns would be a little fewer.
But just because the devs say it's outstanding it doesn't mean it is like this.
I can't really remember a programm the could hold the promises the devs made before it was released.
But you are right we have to wait and see but I'm not surprised if it is not as good as they say.
btw:
where do the 9 euros per month come from?
They say on their website it will be like 16$ to 19$ per month over 3 years which is almost ~11 to ~13 Euros.
Yep. Normally you pay a fixed price for a product, and a subscription fee for a service. Racing sims started out as products: they were off-the-shelf software, where all production cost was made in advance, and you paid a one-time fixed price to own it. When online play was introduced there also were some services included (servers, and stats sites like LFSW). The manufacturer has costs to run these, so it's reasonable if you pay a subscription fee.
Until now all racing sims were fixed-price, and I think that's logical because the main production cost is in developing the software, not running the servers. With iRacing I can imagine that they provide extra services, such as stewarding, or organising races where you can win a prize. But iRacing is subscription-based, which would mean that the main costs lie in the services. That's weird IMHO.
And if you think the price is reasonable, compare it with using LFS since S1 was out (August 2003). It's cost you $60 or so, but iRacing would have cost you around $700.
The only question I have is if this is truly a month by month payment plan, or if they are just using it as a marketing scheme to make the price seem cheaper. Example being... "if you buy for 6 months, it's only $15 a month!!! and a year only costs $13 a month!!!, wow!!"... But are you signing on to some kind of contract that you pay $13 for a month, or do you have to pay the full one-time fee of $156 (which is not fully noted in the news article) and have the license last a year. A full fee is what I'd think they are going to do, because it is common with many other software packages you buy online.
That said, I would probably choose to pay annually by each month, because $13 a month is so little compared to how much I earn in one hour for my job. Though I forsee problems would arise if they did such payment plans, because people would be required to pay on time, and there could be financial issues with customers. No matter what, I'd hate to bite the bullet and pay the full fee in one go because A) I might not be fully devoted to the game like I first thought I would be when I purhcased it, and B) Being a smart buyer, I would never pay over $100 (even $80) for a video game, without a sample demo that has me 200% impressed.
For what its worth, the game better be good enough to persuade anyone into paying such an amount. Because that is a VERY tough decision to make without a demo.
That said, I would probably choose to pay annually by each month, because $13 a month is so little compared to how much I earn in one hour for my job. Though I forsee problems would arise if they did such payment plans, because people would be required to pay on time, and there could be financial issues with customers. No matter what, I'd hate to bite the bullet and pay the full fee in one go because A) I might not be fully devoted to the game like I first thought I would be when I purhcased it, and B) Being a smart buyer, I would never pay over $100 (even $80) for a video game, without a sample demo that has me 200% impressed.
For what its worth, the game better be good enough to persuade anyone into paying such an amount. Because that is a VERY tough decision to make without a demo.
Graphics from the pictures in this thread look really lame compared to that old wallpaper where the track looked almost real, what's up with that, where did those graphics go? Now, it looks no better than LFS, but with more detailed car models offcourse..
Now, it looks no better than LFS, but with more detailed car models offcourse..I think they should remodel their invoicing method to be day-based. If the iRacing developers want a subscription based payment so badly, then they should at least accommodate their customers so they don't feel pressured to play just to not waste any money. They can leave the prices as is or make them slightly higher to compensate, but when you buy a month you should actually get 30 separate days worth of usage, which then are only deducted if you actually use the software. The current method is doomed to be a failure, IMO.
That's precisely the point. LFS is too cheap. LFS users would have a better product if the devs had the possibility to charge a higher price for so many hundreds or thousands of hours of fun each user had in the last 5 years. In my case 64 months - for... 60$. How can this niche market evolve with ridiculous prices like this one?
Instead of a small 3 people team they would have the chance to hire more persons if considered adequate, and equally important, would be in a better financial position, which is more than fair for developing such great product.
Please understand that having only three (four, including Geraldine) developers is a choice the devs made, not because they're suffering from a limited budget. They simply don't want more people involved, as it would require lots of extra management effort and make everything more complicated. Also, they develop LFS in a speed they feel comfortable with - one of the reasons Scawen and Eric left the Lionhead Studios to begin with, IIRC.
Of course, how could the devs want their product to develop at a faster pace in graphics, physics, or any other area, with other very skilled programmers working for them? ...
One thing is to be independent, another is have the means to grow at their own pace, but having the possibility to do so if desired. It's a choice, yes, but given the limited budget they know they have, because ppl are so used to have things for almost free.
Because, to put it bluntly, it would mean either working in a sweatshop, or running one.
give a real argument. stop taking shots at opinions.
I'm in a similar position to the devs - I work for a company that consists of three people (me, one other developer, and a sales guy who also has a little design team on tap). While we'd like to be richer, we're making a decent living and the product is slowly evolving (it's always been better than the competition), and we get to do things mostly on our own terms.
That last point is the important one. And it makes a massive difference to your quality of life. Before I started doing this, I changed jobs every 6-12 months. I've been doing this for 8 years. If Scawen, Eric and Victor are anything like me, then I totally understand why they prefer to work the way they do, and I believe it's a lifestyle choice rather than a forced decision based on the value of the product.
There is no use making sarcastic comments. It is true that they want to go at it alone.
Wouldn't want to be the guy who hires you
I wonder if you read the previous posts?
Anyway, the argument is: finally someone will start charging a fair amount for an activity most of us (simracers) got used to have as nearly free, and indirectly and in the long run, all simracing products will benefit from this correction in cost.
Or if you prefer to get back to topic, I'm personally very happy that iRacing's lauch is approaching, the price seems adequate if their service meets my expectations, and I have little or no doubt it will be a success, benefiting everyone including LFS.
Oh, but BBO, surely you understand what the case with isi sims has always been? When isi says "realistic", "best" or "beautiful" you know instantly that it is just marketing bs and the actual sim is just yet another incarnation or mod of the SportscarGT. When iracing says the above stuff it has a lot more weight on it simply because they have people working at iracing who were developing games like GPL and nascar2003 which are true landmarks of racing sims and most of the time they can compete with the "best of today" being still clearly the best sims in their own areas
I am not waiting for revolution or miracles but surely iracing is 1000000 more capable than companies like ISI to release a proper sim. Will iracing deliver is the question but unlike with isi, there is hope with this one.
well yeah but if you take the only modern sims which have a physics engine worth talking about (lfs and nkp) neither of them tries to compete in the niche gpl or nr2k3 fall into
and judging by the car and track selection the iracing site offers so far they arent out to compete against any of the current sims either
This thread is closed
iRacing
(13603 posts, closed, started )
FGED GREDG RDFGDR GSFDG