RaceRoom Competitions and events

[Daniel Monteiro]

In my opinion, this should be advertised on RD's front page, as an article.


RD is one of the biggest simracing communities, yet this competition (as well as the WTCR and the GT3 ones that recently took place at the Nürburgring track, with live streaming) is barely mentioned here on the website and forum?

I just found out about it one week ago, told a friend in Germany about it, and luckily I got some cheap plane tickets and managed to go to the Nürburgring, enjoy the whole 24h-race atmosphere, and even have a go at entering the WTCR competition. I did a couple of hours of practice at home, and this was the first time I properly turned any laps on R3E, so I had few hopes... and guess what, my friend and I managed to qualify! We got to participate in three races, with all of them being streamed live from the arena (for divisions 1 and 2), it was quite an experience!


But still I am baffled at how low envolvement there was from simracing communities...


Alright, not everybody plays simracing games to compete, but surely some people do, by looking at the level of some of the championships that exist nowadays online.

Not everybody likes to drive touring cars or GT3 cars, but surely some people do, as these seem to be the most popular cars in club races and championships.

And not everybody (like me) drives or likes R3E, but surely some people do, and this forum is a good example of that.

And of course not everybody has the time/money to fly to Germany on a Friday morning and stay there until Saturday evening/Sunday morning, but surely some people do, as the weekend cost me around €100 including flights and food, but of course I will not go further on this point as money is relative depending on every person's situation.

And did I mention that even the last placed driver of the last division (almost me) still had prize money to win?


The venue was the Nürburgring Arena; a place full of seats and well set up with a giant screen in the middle, two very good commentators in my opinion, and there was "big" prize money to be won (the winner took home more than €3000). Yet, the arena was almost empty. Only simracers participating were there, plus a few other people, and occasionally some people passing by, that were taking a break from watching the real Nürburgring 24h or any other activity at the track.

I must say that on site, RaceRoom could have advertised the event a bit better, as it seemed not to attract many "muggles" either. But I can only imagine that this arena, if it were full of simracing enthusiasts, would have been a day to remember - and I probably would not have qualified! The competition was amazing on all streamed races, and with a last race finish that gave intense flashbacks of Massa's family's despair in 2008, it could only have been more exciting if there were more people there watching.


This is positive criticism, as we all want simracing to grow because it means more entertainment in many ways to all of us, therefore bigger investment and bigger growth of the sims themselves. Let's all contribute to our passion

 

[Lars Hansen]

I don't mind, my pole's 12 foot.

Bet you say that to all the ladies....

 

[Daniel Monteiro]

Maybe the choice of the word "unity" was a poor one. I know there are all kinds of different people enjoying simracing in all kinds of ways - I also do it more for the social and fun aspects than for the competition. And that is mainly why I went there; got to talk to some interesting people, saw the real WTCR drivers "race" on RR, appreciated some nice machines out in the ring*boulevard (plus Porsche had an incredible rF2-based simulator rigged inside a real GT3 Cup car that I got to try, that was properly mindblowing, it even had fans blowing cold air on the driver's face!); overall a nice weekend in the Nür 24h atmosphere.

Maybe a better word would be synergy - my point was that simracing, even as a whole, is still quite a niche activity and all parts involved would benefit from more visibility in any aspect may it be online/local competitions, or a mod, or new tools/apps, etc... It is by no means a dark universe, maybe I just didn't look enough at the time, but I believe there is always room for improvement

 

[2112]

It makes perfect sense. RD isn't here to promote others, it's here to promote itself. But the bigger picture is that the moment you start advertising one thing on the front page, everybody will expect the same. Then you get people that are more of a rival to RD wanting to be able to advertise their own events. Then when you tell them they can't, they start pointing at other examples where we have and claim unfair treatment. We have no response to that because they're right... it would be unfair to advertise one thing and not another. So, to avoid that entire minefield and a whole host of complaints, we have a blanket policy that covers the whole area.

At the end of the day, those that are truly into sim-racing and e-sports will find out about these things from other sources regardless.

With respect but: No it would not be unfair to advertise one thing and not another. Of course I live in the US, not the EU, and perhaps rules are different there?

As long as you are a private entity you are able to choose who you decide to do business with. Equal time was only apropos when an entity was dealing with political ads or speeches but in 2014 the FCC decided to back away from that rule.

RD could choose to endorse those events they wish to endorse and refuse to endorse others. Perhaps based upon game content, whether the content was "timely" to RD followers, whether RD felt they could gain from promoting the event, etc...

That is how private media outlets choose what kind of ads they want to run and how much they want to charge for those ads. Perhaps you do not charge, and that is ok, but you still have the choice, by law, to refuse to endorse those events you feel would not be in the best interest (following, content, etc...) of RD.


Without trying to sound snarky, if you fear you would be "upsetting" a certain section and wanted dry-eyes all around, then you are letting peoples emotional appeals interfere with good business. Say you decided to endorse the R3E competition and then Joe's 'Mur'can Stock Car-o-Rama wanted you to do the same for them. You choose not to support their platform because you do not think it will be popular much beyond a rapidly shrinking niche audience. They cry because you supported some "Namby-Pamby Euro" sim but not theirs. Let them cry, tell them to develop a better sim and come back or take their sim back to the Deep South and sell it at the corner 7-11.

You have that ability.

Even the most middle of the road media outlets pick and choose their advertising and endorsement opportunities.

 

[UMC 22]

With respect but: No it would not be unfair to advertise one thing and not another. Of course I live in the US, not the EU, and perhaps rules are different there?

With respect, it would be unfair and it's about common courtesy, not "rules". Advertising one and not another would be rude and harm future dealings with anyone we refuse to advertise for. But none of this matters anyway since we don't advertise any competitions, leagues or clubs other than our own. So nobody is hard done by since we treat all the same. Simple.

 

[2112]

With respect, it would be unfair and it's about common courtesy, not "rules". Advertising one and not another would be rude and harm future dealings with anyone we refuse to advertise for. But none of this matters anyway since we don't advertise any competitions, leagues or clubs other than our own. So nobody is hard done by since we treat all the same. Simple.

You cannot please everyone and in doing so you only hurt yourself, or your bottom line. I do not advocate being rude, I merely advocate doing everything you can to be successful in a business or endeavor.

Taking a stance that is inclusive, even if it harms your ultimate success, is not a good practice. There is nothing wrong or rude if you are selective about the quality of the events you choose to support. Neither is it rude or unfair; what it does is tell prospective partners that you value quality and will only support quality.

There is nothing rude or unfair about that, nor does it violate common courtesy.