The Great Debate: Is it Simulation or Arcade?

[Dazmaniac]

Great read Danny, you're absolutely right with regards to the iRacing people looking down on those who don't have the cash. If I had the cash, I'm sure I'd play iRacing, but in all honesty you're never going to get a true representation of real life. You can laser-scan a track, sure, and you can model a car and controls to the nth degree... but you can't laser-scan physics, handling and the feel. As I said in my own most recent article, as a simracer, you get into trouble and you simply press the esc key, rather than having a trip down the hospital...

Don't be tarring all iRacing subscribers with the same brush. We don't all look down our noses at non-iRacers, thinking we are better than them. I subscribe to iRacing and enjoy it, it is a good racing simulation game but can be better. I can afford to subscribe to it which is one reason why I do, but I don't consider this makes me 'better than anyone'. I also partake in driving/racing titles on XBOX360 and PS3 like NFS series, GT series, Forza sereis, Motorstorm, Burnout, Midnight Club, WRC Rally, DIRT etc.

I know of people who don't run iRacing but have their PC configured to a full on racing rig with motion seat, triple screen setup and expensive wheel and pedal combo and relevant add-ons available, which has probably cost far more than my humble wheel and iRacing subscription. So why because I subscribe to iRacing I'm I made out to be the 'bad guy' as it is they who obviously have the cash to spend on extravagant wheels/pedals/rigs, lol.

I agree you cannot laser scan physics, but I am sure yu would have a better chance of replicating real-life physics on a laser scanned track compared to non-laser scanned track that is as smooth as a babies bum, even though it may have all the corners in the right place.

IMO, titles like iRacing, CARS, NetKar and rFactor are simulation racing games, titles like NFS: Hot Pursuit, Burnout Paradise and Blur are arcade racing games. This is how I interpret the difference between sim -vs- arcade.

If you want simulation you need to get a a full on racing simulator like those used by F1 teams, but even then, it won't be as in real life, as you crash in a simulator (be it driving or flying) you don't end up dead.

Simulators do what they say on the tin, they try to 'simulate' real life, not actually be real life.

 

[Apex1972]

 

[Ryan Soucy]

Danny, just a writing tip: never begin your conclusion with "So there you have it..." :tongue: "In conclusion," is not much better either...For the record, clutch and downshifting are much better in LFS and rF (with Grinding tranny mod)!

 

[Dion Button]

Great Article Danny.Never even gave it a thought, just always assumed Forza was Arcade because everyone said so.Personally i don't care what game it is as long as i'm having fun playing it.For example F1-2010 (Yes 2010!) Lots and lots of people complaining it wasn't a sim, but I did a 5 year and a 7 year career on it and loved every second of it.And I like a good arcade game every once in a while, not too long ago i picked up Need For Speed Undercover again and had a blast playing it, finished the game in a week.

 

[Flavien Vidal]

Great article!But that driver that was flatout on the throttle trying to shift @ the GT Academy was Andre Gomes. He is also a very good and known iRacer... I'm pretty sure he spends more time on iracing than on GT5 PS: I tend to recognize myself when you say PC gamers looking down to console players...It's just that I enjoy GT4 (dont have a PS3, only a PS2), sitting down in my coach with a gamepad in hands... Same thing for Forza 4 or 5 that I tried last week...So when I hear people praising GT5/Forza as the greatest simulation, I cant help but think they're a bit clueless... Last week in Forza i could barely manage to get my car to do a spin out with all helps off... using the handbrake... The game would not let me do.So while I admit they are not like Mario Kart, I really think they cannot be compared to iRacing, rFactor or Netkar... The difference is just too big to me...

 

[Flavien Vidal]

And by the way, as far as the GT academy is concerned... Bryan Heitkotter, Andre Gomes or Christopher Roberts are all big iracing players with a few hundred official races under their belt. Bryan Heitkotter actually own a Pro License in iRacing and Christopher Roberts used to have one if I'm not mistaking...

 

[Danny Asbury]

I was aware that there quite few "PC" drivers that went for GT Academy. I wasn't aware of the fact that the one I mentioned in the article was, in fact, an iRacer. lol I suppose it was just nerves that got the best of him. Good insight Flavien!

 

[Adrian Herrera]

Nice read... and for what it's worth i'm an iRacer. And a Gran Turismo fan. I enjoy iRacing as much as Gran Turismo 5. And i also have NetKar Pro and F1 2011 on the ps3.. And i just bought Game Stock Car.. The only real problem with sim racing is that there is not enough time to play them all!

 

[Omer Said]

Fantastic writing Danny thanks! I hope this will be a lesson for many flamers and fanatics

 

[Daniel Monteiro]

Enjoyed the read, sure is something to create an open discussion about the matter.

Imo if you go to your local go-kart track you'll get more input than any racing sim, simply because reality is reality and that's it. i think games (or sims, whatever people want to call what they play), are meant to be enjoyable and have fun with in whatever way, be it feeling bumps on the track or having a big car collection (otherwise why even bother playing?).

The term "sim" or "simracing" should be used to describe a game, not categorize one (when did you last read on a nfs or burnout game the developpers bragging about their game being arcade?).play on and enjoy life, and like it was mentioned before: now back to racing

 

[FooFighter]

Agreed, this is one of the all time great sim racing articles and a pleasure to see such a rounded and realistic view to the whole issue. I often have this debate as I love a sim game but also don't have the time to become proficient enough to race with no driver assists on therefore I rely on things like low TC and sometimes ABS to help me out and maintain the reality VS fun factor. This removes me from being a complete sim racer but I find that this is how I can be fast and consistent and actually enjoy the events I take part in and I like to think that racing realistically is just as crucial as how many assists you can turn off. At the end of the day these are hobbies for most and fun should be the primary factor but mixed with passion can become an incredibly satisfying pursuit. As I found myself life slowly encroaches on this passion and things like family, work and other sideline pursuits eventually eat into the time you have for sim racing and this effects practice time, setup work and ultimately your laptimes. This is when reality bites and the balance between full sim and fun sim starts to swing. As long as you are enjoying yourself thats all that really matters. I love rfactor league racing but also get a bag of pleasure from titles like GRID, Shift 2 and even NFS Hot pursuit (actually from a danger and outright scare point of view I would rate shift 2 quite highly in the 'sim' category lol). So keep racing and enjoying what you drive, the titles we have are getting so much better these days and sim racing should continue to go from strength to strength be it on console or PC.

 

[Timothy Wheatley]

In terms of developers... Any racing game is great for every developer. A kid who plays Mario Kart may develop a taste for racing games and even if they go through 10 other titles, they may eventually find your 'simulation'. EVERY racing title available for EVERY platform is good for the industry and good for the genre.Just wanted to state my opinion on this one.

 

[Dariusz Swiderski]

Very enjoyable read Danny :good:

 

[FastU]

I race just about every sim I can get ahold of for PC ( dont have a xbox) and it is all just for my enjoyment. And when I race online with other sim racers I try and treat them the way I want to be treated. We raced 96 laps at dega the other night and we had one yellow, the rest of the time was green flag white knuckle intensity two and three wide. After the first green flag pittstops the field seperated and it look like me and my drafting partner were catching the leaders but we were going to run out of time. Lap 74 the yellow came out and bunched the field back up and it was nothing short of white knuckel shoot out. No i didn`t win but I sure had a great time. And I only paid 49.99 3 yrs ago. And I plan on racing for aslong as it will let me! And the creek dont rise! This was a very good read thank you for your thoughts and if it feels good do it.

 

[Patrick Moore]

Thanks for comments guys!


Matjaz, I do see what you mean. It is not my intention to betray iRacers as a pack of bums. Heck, I mean, I'm an iRacer myself lol. I've just noticed that quite a lot of "hate", so to speak, about other sims comes from them (or whatever the "top" sim is at the time). But, in all fairness, I've seen the same type of thing from Forza players all the way up and down the line. But, you're right, I did whale on about us iRacers quite a bit. :tongue:


Bart, believe it or not, that has been tried quite often. Still doesn't bridge the gap completely, though.

yeah, dude, your iRacing moodring has turned black. take a chill pill and have a homebrew! and be more careful of such broad generalizations in future articles.
thanks!

 

[Hiroshi Awazu]

Excellent article. Hope it will set some flamers straight.

 

[Rotax]

Best sim racing game fpr me is rFactor full modded. Of course i look down to the console-noobes. consoles just have disadvantages and many good games, like rFactor or ArmA 2 + AddOns are missing!

 

[Stuart Rinck]

Great read. As you stated, it baffles me how elitist PC users look down on people who use their consoles for sim racing and did a fantastic job at concluding that Xbox and PS3's are just computers with different names.

It may well be that pure PC enthusiasts are a bit afraid of the console. With many titles going console, and fewer PC only titles it may seem as though the console is somehow conquering or burying the PC. Afraid that the PC is going to be further neglected, and this causes the natural base instinct to attack what we fear. But it is a well known fact that PC only folks generally despise the console and everything associated with it.

 

[astonedg]

i think it's well explained about a racing sim and a driving sim for example, i have driven actual racing cars on an actual racing circuit -for a day- (bmw 3 touringcar, aston martin, porsche 911, lambo gallardo and an 80/90s f3 car in zandvoort) no racing sim could prepare me for what was coming to me, when stepped in the car i was almost pissing my pants cause i thought it could be over in a few corners, as i drove away full throttle with wheelspin(really everyone of you could do that) i hit the back of my head against the car the grip, g force the smell of burning rubber and gasoline, the ease of driving and the experience of full braking was amazing. there's no simulator in the world nor future that can ever come even a little bit close to that you could say that it is harder driving a sim cause you don't feel the track really especially in the f3 car i felt every crack on the tarmac in my back and ass. i wasn't aloud to race nor did i dare. i didn't really felt fear only before i stepped in, but i felt the danger, a few months later a racing noob paid for such a day as i had, the car burned out on the circuit, he wasn't able to get out.. i always wanted the best software/hardware to experience racing/driving, now i know that i will never be satisfied.

 

[Danny Asbury]

That's awesome astonedg! Thanks for sharing that. But, tell me, when you say the guy couldn't get out of the car... do you mean he died?