rF2 classified as commercial raises different expectations

Hello,

Now that ISI has made rF2 commercial I believe the current build must have passed a major milestone in terms of internal developement planning. That is at least what I would expect... or have they just changed their marketing approach?

In any way, going commercial means that ISI has raised the bar for the quality of Rf2 and it should be pretty bug-less. (for the actual features > why would you go commercial when there are still bugs??)

Somehow, this seems however not to be the case taking the example of mirrors in the 60s series.

I'm actually not considering myself anymore as beta-tester and I think to deserver a bit more information on what ISI plans to do, especially with regards to bugs. Again, as rF2 is out of beta, the list of bugs must be pretty small and it should not be very hard to let us know when things are expected to be fixed. (if they will be fixed)

Constant developement: YES, this is however no excuse to still have bugs in the official commercial build.

I believe that everybody will agree that being out of beta we should at least get some insight on:
- official list of existing bugs and if they are priority or not
- official list of upcoming ISI content (not a list from users)

last but not least: is the modding system now finished? Initially the beta was a "modders beta", considering beta is over...
If so, it would be nice to announce it widely that modders can start or finish their work.

Thx

 

What? rF2 has been released?

 

what the heck is an rfactor anyway...

 

Who makes most of the dog sounds for cartoons?
that's right, an "arf"-actor.
Who makes the rest of the dog sounds then?
That's an "arf"-actor too.

 

Woof woof!

 

It keeps astounding me how people manage to keep forming these weird misinformed conclusions and half truths, making demands on top of that, and still expect serious answers from the developers. No wonder the dev team posts little info, they can't seem to do good according to some!

 

There is a big update due very soon, I just felt it through my wheel

 

Where is that commercial you're speaking of?

 

+1

 

ok, you all seem to have much more information than I do.

How do you call the phase where you can buy a product which is not marked as beta anymore?

"The second installment in the rFactor series is now available. You can find out some information and see some work-in-progress information in the Dev Corner, or you can get involved now with this constantly evolving product." >

What exactly is wrong with my request to get more info on a rF2, now that we are out of the beta phase?

 

the offical web-site: http://rfactor.net/

The second installment in the rFactor series "is now available". BETA has been removed in all advertisement.
If you're selling a software, which is not in beta anymore, isn't it commercial?

 

Read through some topics, you will get info when they have it. You don't have to agree with how ISI handles the beta and kind of let that slip away into an 'evolving product', but in turn the community maybe wasn't very forthcoming as well lately. The door swings both ways...

edit:
how someone can think a company doesn't want to sell it's product is beyond me, but I think there was some confusion in terms of context

 

"You don't have to agree with how ISI handles the beta"
LOL and again: where is the BETA mentioned? It has been removed everywhere.

While the Beta was marked as beta, all the fanboys here around were shouting: "don't complain it's BETA, everything is going to be better after the beta".
ISI has now decided to remove the attribute "BETA" from the actual release, people shout: "you don't have to agree with how ISI handles the Beta". Even though it's not beta anymore or what?

It's beta, it's not, it's not commercial either, it's in development...
wtf is it now?
If it is BETA, add the word BETA.
If it is not BETA anymore, the actual build must be the first commercial release: get the bugs out of it and inform your customers.

"how someone can think a company doesn't want to sell it's product is beyond me"

of course they want to sell, that's obviously the idea behind removing the beta...
but as mentioned, normally when going beyond beta you've reached a certain level of maturity in the developement... at least you should be able to tell your customers what problems still exist. (or wasn't maturity of the product a criteria to change the status of rF2???)

 

"but in turn the community maybe wasn't very forthcoming as well lately".

I hope that we did not hurt anybodys feeling at ISI.

You're right, we should stop throwing critizism at ISI.

Let's rather take it like a football game for below 6-years old children: let's make a match without counting the goals, because everybody is a winner.

 

next some1 will say there is no more monthly updates.

 

The 'don't complain it's BETA' line has become quite old this year and frankly it almost sounds like an excuse to me. The 'evolving product' sounds very much the same, but maybe that is just me.

Officially though, no statement or press release has been issued so all in all, we are still in beta if you ask me, which is apparent when you use the sim. Now I don't mind this being the case, but some people are thinking that just overnight the title went gold without them knowing about it, like ISI should ask for permission or something.

I agree that normally you could expect a project to be more mature when no longer in beta, but as I said, officially nothing else has been announced. I think this is their way of pretending they didn't hugely underestimate the beta stage

With you last comment, nice going with this comparison... I don't care if you crititise ISI, because frankly some of it is sound. However, don't act all surprised, not you personally maybe, or downcast, when they aren't releasing new content every other week (have they actually, ever?) because everybody (again, approximation ) is on their ass as soon as they do.

This is just what I think and by no means fact, but just browsing the forums, well, I think we should just be patient. We know they can build a great sim, even used professionally. It just takes time, and I'd rather they spend that time on the technological side of things, which sometimes will not translatly directly on screen, to improve the driving experience, than muck about adding visual content to try and please the mostly moaning and pleading community, which never seems satisfied.

Let's hope that person is proven wrong then.

 

For rfactor several high quality mods have been released over the years, e.g. DRM, V8Factor, Endurance Series, CTDP F1 2006 etc. Now with the full release of rfactor2 these modding team either have not yet announced anything or their current projects are on hold. Don't get me wrong, I am already enjoying rfactor2. But with lots of it's features bugged or missing, I think it still is far way from gold release. Switching from beta to full release without actually RELEASING a new build (full version) was plain stu***.

You can keep asking as much as you want, there won't be a satisfying answer by ISI staff. Criticism will only call the blind followers into action who almost treat ISI as if it was their god, trying to fool you while completely neglecting the facts.

 

ok at the end I believe our opinions are rather close... you just take it easier

Honestly:
A) it didn't feel good to be in payable beta for over a year... I got used to it but I still never understood the ISI-way of communicating with their customers...
B) ISI now tops this "bad feeling" by just giving things different names... which I think is not very transparent.

We all know it's still BETA... and that's my point: it just feels like ISI is doing a little naming "trick" to have people spend their money on rF2 before the competition game comes out... Personnally, this marketing move does not change a lot for me; as they got me already with A.

Why is it important:

> commercial = you can expect bug-free play and deserve customer care support, including statuts updates on existing bugs.
> Beta = there are and will be bugs, it's still an early developement state, info to customer might be limited
> Beta while asking people to pay AND not calling it BETA > somehow fooling your customers...

Maybe I'm all wrong again...

 

So it's all about the marketing trick then

Yep, I think it is dirty too, but it won't change anything though.

Expecting bug free commercial products, well... the more commercial a product is, and the more parties involved, the more bug prone a product is. Think of large launchtitles for new consoles which get pushed for a release in a total buggy state, or an arcadish F1 title halfway throughout the real season

Bottomline, ISI is taking their time, as they should, if this sim is to be loved and hated for about 7 or 8 years as well

I also think 90% of the people have no clue what it means to building or working on anything in software development, and it's hard to argue that waiting on something you are dying to enjoy is frustrating as heck (but that doesn't mean people should behave like abusive spoiled freaking kids)