Modders To Boycott Simraceway

Bram

Founder & Administrator
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Several well-known modders and teams have announced their intentions to boycott the upcoming Simraceway website, not wanting to see their content become part of the site’s questionable concept. The group, including teams like CTDP, GSMF, Apex Modding and known modders like Erale and dmatzies, won’t be giving Simraceway permission to use their modding work in any way.

To understand this matter, a little bit of background knowledge is needed. rFactorcentral.com, a well-known community website will cease to exist in 24 days, making room for a new website called Simraceway. What looks to be a normal name/design change is much more significant as the new site is run by a different owner. While rFc was run by a community member, the new website has been taken over by an outside company called Ignite Skill Gaming who have “invested” in rFactorcentral.

Click here to read the full article at VirtualR.net

What is your opinion?
 

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  • Andrew Evans

without the support of the modding community, they'll burn.... it's not like rF has a ton of high quality in-built content....
 
It appears that this new company develop something similar to the "Gamerskill" thing implemented in many games on Xbox Live. They are developing the new site to be a premium service - and obviously a money spinner - and seem to be wanting to implement their tech within events on the site. Fine, but hardly in line with the ethics of the modding community, who do everything for the fun and enjoyment of all, rather than the money making opportunities of some corporation
 
  • Andrew Evans

yea man... i love it when a "company" takes over a "community" because they think it can make them some "money" but they pretend like they "get it"....

"".....
 
I've not really watched developments on this, I saw the banners for Simraceway and just figured the rFactor Central owner was expanding to cover other sims, I guess not.

The modders will do what they feel is right but is their main problem the fact that Simraceway will be a paid service? How is this different to say Race2Play who also charge to race on the servers using free to download mods?

The modding scene has been a constant source of intrigue to me as to why none of them have been shut down for the use of trademark names like F1, BMW, Porsche to name a few. It was a worry when I first started downloading them that these mods would get taken away but it never seemed to happen. Also the fuss made over these mods when people strive for their fabled realsim yet a lot of these mods are made in someone's bedroom/study with no input from the car owners/designers and yet they are lauded for their realism <shrug>
 
Very bad move from SimRaceway, and I fully support the modders' actions. I predict a new community website, and SimRaceway faltering and fading.
Just a small question: has MMG joined the boycott?

EDIT: Oops. Just saw Petros' comment on the VirtualR article. :embarrassed:
 
It's good to see that they will not let a company do that to them!! So what's next for the modding lot? as they play a big part of the gaming community and in doing so keep old games like rfactor going strong and up to date.
 
This discussion and the one at VirtualR has been interesting, I've followed some of the links provided and I still don't see why the need for burning torches and pitchforks. I think some of the discussion at VirtualR is a little disingenuous to say the least. The company behind it is being made out to be some corporation feeding off the poor mod makers but a link to a site showing the companies details show it to be a small outfit of 4 people. This hardly seems like the David vs Goliath battle some want to make it.

I made the comparison to Race2Play here and it seems other have made the same comparison at VirtualR and people are commenting on it without knowing the actual details of Simraceways plans, indeed one poster admits that everyone is just acting upon the original article and the bare outline given thus far. If Simraceway charge for the actual mods then they open themselves up to litigation from the license holder ie F1, BMW, Renault, Porsche etc so I would guess their plans would fall along similar ones to Race2Play to avoid such issues?

It troubles me that to some this may be more of a power struggle, sites like RFC can generate decent ammount of money from advertising and who wouldn't want a slice of that pie? I see plenty of names of sites thrown into the ring, VirtualR, Nogrip etc which is why I think some of the discussion is perhaps a little disingenuous. I'm glad I don't see the backhanded canvasing by RaceDepartment there, kudos for staying out of that one.

I bought rFactor the day it was released and remember what a joy it was when rFactor Central launched and I had a one stop shop for mods. Up to that point to find mods you had to view several racing sim forums and look for announcements and more so you had to suffer the download sites like megaupload etc witing in queue's because even if you paid subscription to one, the next mod to come along would use a different download hosting site. rFactor Central changed this by providing links from thie site though I stand guilty of not donating as much as I should over the years I did donate despite having my own server/web related costs to think about. I wonder how many of these mod makers donated to have their mods listed and hosted? did the ones who are apparently (according to one poster at VirtualR) complaining about the time it takes to get listed on the site donate money, time, help?

If part of the comapnies plan is to have a kind of gameskill points system like XBOX Live as Mike points out then surely that could be a very good thing for sim racing, if players are matched on skill levels would that perhaps help reduce servers being full of people with vastly different levels of skill and the wrecks that causes? I'm still undecided at this point, I've read the links available on this discussion but until Simraceway give more details on their plans I think its a little early to march to their offices with burning torches and pitchforks and its certainly not the right time (if there ever was one) to be wishing people burnt in hell.
 
Hey, Bram, this is a free community or what? Why did you remove my post? Do you agree what these guys are doing? Can i have my free opinnion about certain persons only care about money?
Best regards, and please, do not make it again.
 
Hey, Bram, this is a free community or what? Why did you remove my post? Do you agree what these guys are doing? Can i have my free opinnion about certain persons only care about money?
Best regards, and please, do not make it again.

Luis your post was not according to our forum rules so it gets removed. If you don´t know the rules i suggest you read them first!

@Banger: the layout of the new site looks absolutely stunning, nothing wrong with that :thumb:
 
Hi, Bram, and my last post is nothing personal against you. But i can´t agree with these guys are pretending to do. Maybe i´ve been a "little" too rude. But i also think they will not go too far with their politics. Best regards, Bram.
 

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