I agree Promag. If people are turned off because of the videos or graphics or whatever, then that's fine, let "the people" make their own opinion about that. But for hardcore simracing websites to show so much bias against a particular hardcore racing sim -which offers a great driving experience - just because it hasn't exploded with "mainstream" popularity and doesn't have as fancy pixels as other games/sims? That's what's messed up... If I ran a simracing website I would NEVER be like "oh hey, that Miata mod for rF2 is really fun and a great contribution to rF2, ahh but screw posting it, sure it's really fun, sure it's a great contribution to a great modern sim, sure I run a website on simracing mod releases/news itself, screw all of that, rF2 isn't super popular so I won't post it". Lol, unreal. If it's a mod that was a quick 10 minute conversion from another game, then obviously that's a different story, but some mods have some real good time and effort put into them and are of good quality like the Miata, like Spaskis' tracks, etc.
I think it's good enough, AC has the worst sound samples on the planet and it still sells, McDonalds isn't even food and look what they've done. Also Rf2 can't worry about mods or videos people post it has to control it's own branding, carefully. Push it out there, honestly I would think that there is a lot of other places to advertise besides a couple of websites that are too close to the community. The internet is big and there are 7 billion people on the planet.
Those numbers are real and as far as I know you can also create skins for rF2... Taking into account this numbers to keep some kind of proportion for 7 downloads that AC has, rF2 has 1. So maybe we could say that for every 7 articles about Assetto Corsa you will get 1 of rF2. Looking just the last week or so at VirtualR there is about 14 articles about AC and 3 about rF2, so they are just giving a proper coverage. Another numbers from RD, the most downloaded item in rF2 has almost 5k downloads, the most downloaded item in AC has 50k downloads, 10 times more, that says it all.
Eduard, who cares. Again, we're not arguing about which is more popular, that's fine. What is messed up is when people send in some good quality mods to websites that are supposed to be about, well, simracing, yet those websites wont cover the news because it's not for a super popular game. All of a sudden the big simracing sites have got their egos up their you-know-what, and instead of just being about genuine simracing (regardless of popularity), it's now all about popularity, bias, control, etc. Not to mention they're not even "true" simracing websites anymore. I mean BSR and VR cover games like codemasters F1 games, Shift, Grid, EVEN FORZA HORIZON and WRECKFEST (AKA Next Car Game). Lol. It's just now all about website-hits and "business" rather than just a pure, genuine website about simracing.
Lol the comparison between AC and McDonalds totally made my day. Couldn't be more spot on. Dismissing everyone who stands up for rFactor 2 as tin foil hatters... well that's just the entire argument lost and flushed down the drain in an instant. Sad but true. Impossible to take seriously. I surely don't believe that any of those news sites are deliberately trying to silence rF2 to death. What I do think is that the line between real sim racers and more casual gamers is becoming more and more blurred. Suddenly everyone's a sim racer, but all they care about is graphics, and can't even turn a lap. I've read countless posts on the AC forums about people who only care about taking pretty screenshots. I think the feeling of paranoia really comes from a sense of injustice. It is painfull seeing the watered down sims take all the credit, it really is. When the physics and force feedback is so superior in rF2, the sim really just deserves all that attention it's missing out on. I think a lot of reactions stem from that feeling, and rightfully so. But again, many people are just insanely shallow and don't want anything else but something pretty to look at for ten minutes and go 'wow' and take screenshots and post them on FB along with a status stating 'most hardcore sim racer ever'. It is just painful to see how more and more very shallow games are suddenly being called hardcore sims and the crowd that goes with that. Everything gets watered down. So perhaps rF2's biggest enemy is just the time in which it exists? A time of confused people, with attention spans of five year olds, who are too obsessed and busy with marketing themselves on social media as something they're not while they don't have the time to do something deep and rich and meaningful anymore? Just my take on things, from observations... Some of the comments that the AC dev made in a recent interview really gave a lot away. Reminds me of what Codemasters used to say about their F1 games. Since when has sim racing been about 'pick up and play'? Since when has sim racing been about instant gratification? Never. But yet rF2's 'competition' is all about instant gratification, and they're still hailed as the greatest racing sims of all times. So something has definitely happened to the 'sim racing crowd' and lines are getting blurred. Long story short, I just don't wish success upon products which I find to be mediocre or watered down. Simple as that and honest as can be. This causes a very natural and human sense of injustice which in turn leads to a bit frustration now and again. I think many will know what I mean by this. But by all means... do continue to dismiss this community. It's just getting more silly by the minute. I for one am pretty prove of being part of a community where everything isn't measured in looks and appearances. I am very glad to have found this place filled mostly with true racers.
Simple fact. Money talks, and it's not always available. Sometimes sacrifices need to be made to reach targets etc. More money spent on marketing = more popularity, if you get a marketing agency who doesn't just get impressions, but actually drives a call to action. Unfortunately this is so expensive that I doubt there will be any money left for major improvements to the sim. More money spent on developing the sim = a very good sim that only a select few know about. This shows you what ISI values more. The QUALITY of their product. They don't/shouldn't care about how many impressions they can get, because impressions don't always translate into sales. They should stay focused on the quality of the sim, word of mouth spreads fast and user reviews have proven more effective in generating sales than payed marketing for smaller companies. ISI is not a AAA company, as much as we'd like it to be, it isn't and be thankful for that. Be thankful that they're willing to invest the majority funding in the quality of their product for YOU, rather than focus on wasting money to get 1,000,000 impressions and 0 call to action. With all of this being said however, it helps if you have a massive budget. AC most probably has a bigger budget, and as a result they can spend more money on better marketing whilst still having enough to improve their sim. Although I wouldn't say they have the best marketing out there, or at least they didn't near the beginning of this year. I also wouldn't say they have an edge over rF2 in terms of the sim itself. i.e. the physics etc. not visuals and apps and other "nice to haves". Perhaps those who really love and believe in this sim can chip in together and help extend ISI's budget. Make it a proper community funded sim, and not the twaddle pCars is trying to pass off as a sim.
I have to agree with Spinelli that it shouldn't be popularity contest. Granted that first you must be able to define what some website is all about. Only guys who run the website knows what's it all about. We can't just say them what they should be about. Maybe the sites that are mentioned here are really about popularity contest. We have to find a site that is about pure simracing news.
Communication: informing a client interested in your product. Marketting: psychological tool to sell a useless product to people who don't need it by making them believe it will give them a social existence. Love ya Tim!
By the way, nothing stops any of you from opening your own simracing news website and put whatever news you find, actually it's very easy to do it nowadays with some pretty wordpress theme and plugins.
This. This, this, this! Oh yeah, that's just so spot on. So for all the people who wants to be manipulated even more than they already are, there are plenty of other companies that do just that way better than ISI.
Come on, really, who cares what press says or this or that site, RF2 is the f**** King of everyone! BTW, I am the biggest RF2 fanboy.
I seriously doubt that Kunos has bigger budget. Before AC was released, Kunos had no successful product at all, basically only netKar which nobody played. ISI had massively popular rF1 and licensed rF1 engine to SimBin, Reiza, etc etc. Plus income from rFPro. That together must be order of magnitude higher than Kunos ever had. Only if we start comparing to Codemasters or pCars does ISI limited budget stand out. Kunos simply did very well with their limited resources in terms of marketing.
I was referring to more recent times. They've had more success with their marketing campaign recently, which is probably down to extra income/funding from somewhere. I mentioned it in my post though, it all comes as a price as the more you spend on 1 aspect, the less you're able to spend on another.
Seriously? GSC is better than this at some point? Sao Paulo is a special situation, is a conversion of GSC. If it had been made from scratch by ISI, would be a first class circuit and probably superior in every version of GSC. But it is not the case. It is a collaboration with third parties and the time that has gone into it is limited. If Interlagos of GSC be converted to AC, it would still be better in GSC. Reiza has done an amazing job with GSC. The lighting is very good and everything looks very realistic and natural.
Indeed. They simply took better decisions that allowed them to grow, starting from Ferrari deal (FVA), Steam, interesting licenses (BMWs, McLarens, Ferraris...), modern visuals/user interface and so. Obviously it has a risk from a financial point of view, but they are hiring more people and getting more licenses now, so it looks like it was worth to take those risks.
And what do you see there? Because I only see a normal track with no modelling challenges at all. I mean, the track is well done, but the real track itself has nothing special. I'd say the same even with the Forza 5 version, it's basically an airport with some cones and trees around.
