Community Question | What Stops You From Racing Online?

I have raced with the RD guys in Oz, may even annoy them again when AMS2 gets up. Good(ish);) bunch of guys who enjoy the hobby and put the time into improving their times. I think the main issue re playing online, which is far superior to SP, is the performance gap between the punter (ie, me!) and the dedicated hobbyist. Because of the lack of numbers there is no "B Division" to hone your online skills. So as a punter, it is a good result if you can finish on the same lap as the rest of the field and as others have mentioned, you hate to mess up someone else's race by accidentally punting them off the track.
 
Short answer: Mental health

To elaborate, committing to basic daily tasks is something I regularly struggle with, like sleeping and eating, so I can't commit to a regular league like RD as I'd like to. I don't venture into public servers because it's often more bad than good, by quite a margin too.

I feel this part. I don't like public server racing but I'm never consistent enough to be part of a league or anything requiring commitment

The other downside of that is I have to rely on a well developed ai model to race against in order to have any fun, which means in Assetto Corsa, I spend more time adjusting track ai lines instead of racing
 
As I get older (mid 50s) , my attention span has decreased to the point of.... oh, sorry, I'm back, went to do something else for a minute there.. anyway, where was I?.. Oh yeah, I race when the mood strikes and sometimes even abandon a race half way through because my mood changed and I just cant be bothered.

Add to this the fact that I can't be bothered with setups, accusations, dumb****ery and everything else associated with general online. As for leagues.. nah, they don't suit my "mood schedule".

As for talent?.. oh I am very talented, I just hide it well :D
 
What prevents me, is some health problems. I only participate in some events in several games, when they are short runs, maximum 15 minutes. I do a lot more when I'm alone, as in the case of Dirt Rally 2.0 and WRC 7 events (which we can do, regardless of the opponents, I didn't buy WRC 8, but I intend to buy WRC 9). Another problem, internet quality (here in Brazil is generally not stable). Equipment quality (in the case of Hardware: usually in some games I have to reduce the graphic quality, to increase the performance (more stable frames, to give other problems in the vision and headache, reducing the details of the path etc ... that I I could see better. To play online regularly, only a group of friends do it regularly, in the same city, and chatting via Whatsapp (with video), and exchanging information, as most have similar equipment, but not all games, we can have fun very well, at the moment we play pCars 2 and AMS, it could be Assetto Corsa too, but this doesn’t give us the chance to include AI pilots, unlike the first two. Who knows more for the end of the year, AMS2 and Rfactor 2, which also it seems to me that it doesn't need such a powerful machine. It could be AC Competizione, but taking my PC as an example, it gives a lot of lag (because it needs very good hardware), it would also have an excellent RaceRoom, but my friends don't have most of the packs that I have.
 
Usually, just have no time to dedicate myself into it. I don't want to spoil other people race and, also, have a sh1ty pride that make me like to win (or at least do a good race).

Now, with the C19-quarantine, I have some time, but people seem to be all about that GT3/Spa/ACC BS and this lack of a more sophisticated taste make me sad... now I pray to your fkd-up souls and hope that someday this barbarity ends, you all be saved from the eminent hell and I have my multiplayer back.
 
I did allot with a private league for a while on RaceRoom and was fun racing with the group. Right now it is mainly my time is very limited to spend 1-2 hours doing the league races. Also the starting times of the events change allot and do not fall in my time schedule to do them.

I prefer private leagues rather than going public lobbies cause the drivers in private leagues are much more dedicated and courteous to racing rules.
 
Being an adult with responsibilities.

Seriously. There's a reason why iRacing succeeds at online multiplayer infrastructure. They run the same series every single hour or two. You almost always have a chance to get in. With the ease and polish of the system, more people join, and that means quality of racing goes up.
 
Few reasons, for me.

1) I want to drive what I want, when I want, where I want. Venturing online means you have to drive what is available (read: whatever everyone else is doing).
2) I like to tinker and modify things. A lot of that is just skinning, but there's some other stuff, too. I can't use most of that online because it's either my own unreleased stuff or using modded content is a PITA for pickup racing. I almost never use vanilla content anymore.
3) Poor standard of driving in pickup racing.
4) Life makes committing to a regular league difficult. Ultimately I have higher priorities than sim racing, as much as I love my hobby. Business owner, relationship, puppy, etc.

I'm pretty competent behind the wheel, but by no means an alien. I did use to race LFS online for a bit (maybe around a year or two?) after S2 was released, and I had a ~41% win ratio when I stopped IIRC, so I'm not concerned about my skill level. I'm not the fastest on the circuit, but I'm pretty good at keeping it on the black stuff and that consistency and lack of crashing helps. That being said, a crappy ankle makes heel and toeing a bit painful so I "cheat" by ignoring the clutch on downshifts most of the time and just try to get my throttle blip timed right to allow the shift to happen. That means I take some damage every downshift so I run without any mechanical damage.
 
I sim race to relax and the risk of encountering a toxic personality who gets a kick out of ruining your race, is just too high. I suspect that a better female / male balance would improve things but we’re a long way off from that.

Leagues would be perfect but that needs time commitment and scheduling that’s beyond my resources for now. Maybe when I retire.
 
Tldr fear of not being good enough
(but still trying and training and enjoyng it)

I have to give some credit ( a lot of it in fact) to Iracing in that matter ... I've always avoided online racing , very little time available , lack of skill , fear to ruin other people races , .... Then one day I decided to finally try Iracing , mind you not for the online part , but to test the tracks and the ffb ... I quite liked it so I said to myself "lets do it" . In only three months of Iracing online racing I found out that having a "purpose" (learning a track , tryin to match decent laptimes , being more aware and responsible on track) is far more rewarding (for me) than jumping from a race to another offline. Then I joined srs , then simracing.gp , and then ... I still have anxiety of ruin other people races so i'm very careful on choosing the races i participate.
To sum it up , I fully understand that there are a lot of reason to not race online , and I think that for people a bit "shy" like myself , is even harder... But in my short experience some communities (racedepartment , srs , iracing also ) are for the most part friendly and respectful, so I'm finding myself trying to do more online races every time
 
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1. People don't losses too well especially when they cannot stand someone else is better than tem.
2. They are highly toxic when they called out for being in the wrong such as a racing incident
3. Lack of acceptance for newcomers particularly league racing which is understanding but a much needed system for clean and fast racers like a grading system from iRacing is needed.
for some reason the officially licensed games from F1 and NASCAR seem to be the most fun and accepting nonetheless I love sims I'm very new to eSports.
I too think this is a primary contributor. In my experience, I was discouraged by a propensity of some to be rather offensive in their comments in the chat (my experience is from iRacing in this regard). Some people have no regard for others feelings and refuse to give any form of respect or 'benefit of the doubt' at the slightest mistake.

People need to accept that mistakes do happen. Being abusive over a simple bump, or being slow off the line, or accidentally locking the wheels up, serves no purpose except to discourage and turn people away. I know its against the code of conduct, but many people don't care about that. But in order to get to the point where one can participate in higher quality races, one must accept that at lower levels mistakes will happen and sometimes you get the raw end of that deal. It's not the end of the world, you can race again another day. But many people, once attacked in this manner, will simply abandon the human element and return to the civility of offline racing.

I no longer listen to the voice chat in the races; I am happier not hearing all the complaining, swearing, brow beating, and name calling. But I continue to improve and my enjoyment is increasing all the time. Humans span the entire spectrum, from abusive to civil and encouraging. It is sad that when emotions run high and frustration sets in, the tendency is towards the abusive, and that in turn discourages many from enjoying all that online racing has to offer.
 
TIL this is a fairly common practice to this scene.

I look forward to being more active, but there is still more I have left to learn to be less of a hazard to others on the tarmac. I guess, some of us have care enough for the craft to not become one of the many spectacle talked about. Although I am learning there are other reasons too.
 
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