Why only a few are interested in nKpro racing club races?

[Stefan Mizzi]

I am really missing nKpro as I feel it's a great sim. Races can be really fun, heaps of tracks and the cars feel great.

As you all know, online community to just jump on a server and race is always almost nil.

And I have noticed that even in RD club races, the interest is very low!

So, I must ask...why such a low interest in nKpro? I am curious to know why only a few take part?

Cheers

 

[Ron Kruck]

Tuesday night (CET time) is fine with me!

Have you thought about the car and track already? The demo version car and tracks might attract the newcomers more, but I can also understand that the advanced drivers would prefer a more challenging race environment and competition ...

 

[Turk]

I'd be interested in joining a race, I haven't done much online racing but I recently got some fanatec gear and am more prepared to race online. NetKar Pro is still one of my favourites, I bought a license for rFactor2 but I keep going back to NetKar it just seems more fun.

The only online racing I done in NetKar was joining a server that was using the Fiat and I think that's a great car to race but I'll have a go at anything.

 

[Ron Kruck]

Hi Michael - great to have you with us! However, judging the feedback in here, our initiative might fade away, even before our engines get started...

Daniel, you mentioned advertising@racedepartment might help, what exactly are you suggesting?

 

[Daniel Hansson]

Advertising here at RD would be for instance an article for the front page. In Online Racing News or something. Think I'll postpone the plans to another week since its always good to advertise some time ahead.

 

[Ron Kruck]

<advertising removed>

 

[Tom]

Ron Kruck If you'd be so kind and not advertise other websites on here...that'd be great!

Tom

 

[Kjell Eilertsen]

Yeah stop pointing people to other sites where they actually are racing this sim! RD might loose customers! Oh wait....

 

[Bram Hengeveld]

Yeah otherwise we can't pay for our 24 porsches in the garage that our "customers" pay for.

As with all the advertising it has been pointed out god knows how many times: Go to the official forums, facebook or twitter of a game and spam yourself to crazy.

If we allow one we also have to allow others and before you know it we are an advertising board which we dont want to become.

No need to ridicule simple and normal forum rules Kjell.

 

[Birddogg66]

Well I think a 3rd party publisher is dealing with NKpro and ATM trying to get it greenlit on Steam don't know if this will help long term for MP races but it might. I up voted it because I feel compelled to support a kunos developed title and want to see them get their day in the sun when they have truly made it to the big time.

 

[Kjell Eilertsen]

Yeah otherwise we can't pay for our 24 porsches in the garage that our "customers" pay for.

As with all the advertising it has been pointed out god knows how many times: Go to the official forums, facebook or twitter of a game and spam yourself to crazy.

If we allow one we also have to allow others and before you know it we are an advertising board which we dont want to become.

No need to ridicule simple and normal forum rules Kjell.

Rules are rules, I will follow and comply, doesn't mean I have to agree and like them though. While I understand the reasoning behind you not wanting advertising of other sites on here I think that when it comes to games that seemingly have been "abandoned" by the RD community, allowing people who actually enjoy the sim and who will still be coming back to RD for their daily dose to find likeminded to race with to be nothing but a positive. But thats my opinion.

 

[Ron Kruck]

First, the RaceDepartment tells us in this thread that it has given up on the NetKar Pro community:

"We gave up after so many attempts to get a healthy following in our club. Seems that everybody wants to race online but nobody is willing to step up and organize it for others on regular basis." (RD)​

​

But if I dare to point out that some other site has not yet given up and is actively attempting to keep some NetKars rolling - my hint gets deleted as "spam"... well, I think this represents a rather sad attitude

So, "yeah", Kjell is right ... what's the problem? ... just think about it, this single line "spam" might help the (barely ticking) NetKat community .... and you've got absolutely nothing to lose

 

[Bram Hengeveld]

Ron Kruck Go to the official forums on DrivingItalia or to the Steam forums of NKP and announce it there. As said our rules don't allow it, sorry.

And of course for having pretty normal forums rules that 99% of all online forums have we are classified for having a sad attitude (as usual). Thanks for that.

 

[Rupe Wilson]

WE gave up, If you look at the club events you will see that Senad made attempt after attempt to put up club race with very low attendance, and eventually no drivers , all this takes time of a valuable member of our staff (which we do for the love of sim racing) So yes we stopped with the club racing. only after the drivers stopped racing.
But it has been said many times if people want to race we will provide a outlet for it, but as drivers you also have to your bit.
Are you prepared to be there every week and push ther sim Join us as staff and take a active roll in being on the servers and try to get it going, i was hoping with this thread that we might see this again but we don't see enough of a response and a number of drivers who will sign up and start the club rolling..

And having a post that says go to another site to do your racing .. im sorry but i for one wont stand for this.. As staff we work very hard to do all and more than what is required to keep sim's up and running
so you as a driver can race..

 

[Ron Kruck]

Yes, you gave up, and there is nothing wrong about that - if you feel that response is missing and the effort is not worth while.

But, since you've decided to give up, and still care about the racing community as a whole, why don't you consider helping others by allowing pointing to a site which is still active for NetKar racers? Such an effortless contribution might help the struggling NetKar community from fading away completely. You have absolutely nothing to lose ... you already gave up!

And seriously, the argument

"Your homemade rules allegedly prevent You from contributing a little by providing a small hint for a community You have already decided to given up on..."​

​

doesn't convince me at all and has a strong sad flavour to it.

But of course, it's your site and your decision. I hope you make the right one and I am thankful for your efforts running this site!

 

[Stefan Mizzi]

Well, this thread (and nKpro section) is buried deep in the forum and it won't be seen much I'm afraid...

However, I think there is a general lack of people racing online at the moment.

Look at rFactor 2, GSC etc events....only a few people attend each week. Even rF2 servers are empty most of the times!

Yet, many people whinge that they want to race....but ppl never get together. This issues has been raised in rF2 forum too.

I then took initiative and suggested to develop a web portal which brings people that want to race together, similar concept kind if iRacing. People will know which servers/races/events will be available, then can join/subscribe to the event etc.

This will bring visibility of available events and people who want to race together. Right now, if someone goes online and see no one racing on the server, he/she wont join....result, server remains empty. But through this portal, one can see who will be joining or who is available to join in a few minutes or so. In short, it will bring people together!

Anyway, I'm rambling for nothing, as in rF2 forum, I didn't even get 1 single feedback on the idea, so obviously I am now not arsed to waste my time on people who only whine and do nothing about it.

 

[Jorge Alves]

However, I think there is a general lack of people racing online at the moment.

well ... yesterday there was a full grid in a nKP event ... same last week and i predict the same for next week ... and i also have been having fun in public servers with some people ... i have to wait for a while until people start joining but after 2 or 3 join others start coming really fast.

This just means that if you know how to organize things people will participate in events ... and if you are patiente to wait sometime in a empty public server others will join.

 

[Ron Kruck]

...
I then took initiative and suggested to develop a web portal which brings people that want to race together, similar concept kind if iRacing. People will know which servers/races/events will be available, then can join/subscribe to the event etc ...

But through this portal, one can see who will be joining or who is available to join in a few minutes or so
...

Definitely a great idea. I also think that an integrated chat room environment would help to "connect" with people and kick off events. As you mention, it is important to be able to bring people together, even if all servers are empty, at least to see how many drivers are online and looking for a race, and to see how many have subscribed to a shortly upcoming event.

Perhaps the same web portal could simultaneously serve alternative sims, e.g. rFactor2 and NetKar, and thereby strengthen the online communities by "at least somewhat" growing them together...

What exactly do you have in mind? Some kind of an open source development project?

 

[Stefan Mizzi]

Definitely a great idea. I also think that an integrated chat room environment would help to "connect" with people and kick off events. As you mention, it is important to be able to bring people together, even if all servers are empty, at least to see how many drivers are online and looking for a race, and to see how many have subscribed to a shortly upcoming event.

Perhaps the same web portal could simultaneously serve alternative sims, e.g. rFactor2 and NetKar, and thereby strengthen the online communities by "at least somewhat" growing them together...

What exactly do you have in mind? Some kind of an open source development project?

Yeah, for all sims! For most of them, one can also query the server to get info (this option is not available for rF2 yet).

Open project would be nice, where ppl can contribute. But the problem is that no-one shows interest in this so I won't be doing it unless I see some involvement.

 

[Jorge Alves]

I then took initiative and suggested to develop a web portal which brings people that want to race together, similar concept kind if iRacing. People will know which servers/races/events will be available, then can join/subscribe to the event etc.

So you are saying that when a community setup a event people will signup on that portal? That will not work cause communities have their one place where they want people to signup and most of them (not all) will just refuse to participate on that project ... i know it cause i tryed to do something similar for nKP.

I love your idea but i think if you want to do a signup system similar to iRacing where you will have "x" daily races ... you can only do it if you have your own servers (you need money for that) where you can control the time races start, make a signup book where people will see how many people will be on the races, and so on ... it will also require a lot of coding ... my coding skills are very limited as well as my financial resources but i will be abbling to do my small contribution for a project like that in nKP (its the only online sim i play atm) ... and maybe for AC when it comes out but first i will have to see how things works there

EDIT: or you can choose one of the many existing communities like RD and develop a portal there ... but a "all communities" portal i think it will be very difficult if not impossible to do it.

 

[Ron Kruck]

Well, I think it would be cool to log into a single web site, get a filtered listing of all upcoming or running events (and the participants involved) which are available for racing the sims of your choice ... by this way, you can quickly find the right sim+track+mod to join, rather than jumping from site to site ... although I'm not certain, if this might actually catch on

yes, perhaps the cost and effort factors would kill the concept ... I also can make a small contribution ... but as you said, we'll need significant hardware and coding expertise to get this thing rolling.