FIA Launches 2023 Esports Survey

FIA Esports Surve 2023 576p.jpg
Esports may be a bit of a controversial topic among sim racers. To gauge the current views as well as wants, the FIA launched the 2023 Esports Survey.

Image credit: FIA

There is no denying that sim racing esports have been on an upwards trend in the last few years. Competitions like Virtual Le Mans, GT World Challenge Esports or F1 Esports have grown significantly. And professional real-world racing drivers participated in them – some still do.

While some like watching top-level virtual racing, others hardly feel any excitement for it. The 2023 Esports Survey has been launched to “gather data from the global Esports community, so that the FIA can better understand it and help with its development”, as the survey introduction states.


No matter their involvement in esports or lack thereof, the survey adresses all sim racers. It could also help in gauging the popularity of different titles. Even if you do not watch or participate in sim racing esports, your answers may help in shaping the overall picture.

The survey asks for the sims the community plays and how frequently, among other things. These include whether or not you are interested in real-life racing, and how the involvement of the FIA and national sporting federations might influence esports and sim racing. Additionally, you can state in which positions you participate in real motorsport and sim racing.

If you want to take part in the survey, simply click here. Its findings will be available before the end of the year. Of course, we will share the results with you as soon as we get a hold of them!

What are your thoughts on sim racing esports and the 2023 Esports Survey? Got any suggestions to make it more interesting? Let us know on Twitter @OverTake_gg or in the comments below!
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About author
Yannik Haustein
Lifelong motorsport enthusiast and sim racing aficionado, walking racing history encyclopedia.

Sim racing editor, streamer and one half of the SimRacing Buddies podcast (warning, German!).

Heel & Toe Gang 4 life :D

Comments

Esports stands equal for playing a game. Just playing and it has NOTHING to do with real racing with real money, real employees, real damage, real life...playing a game on a screen...Just playing
 
If FIA get involved it will ruin it and make it a rich person's hobby only. With real fines etc for doing things wrong. They should stay away.
They won't regulate every aspect of sim racing, only the big esports. It will still be up to the organiser to decide wether you ramming someone in the breaking zone is worthy of a penalty in the AM split. But real fines for doing things wrong in esports is a good development, about time they stopped ramming each other out of spite and literally using cheats.
 
the only sims are good to do esports BY FIA is F1 Series , rfactor 2 , ac , acc , iracing ,grand turismo . forza motorsport,raceroom and maybe ams2
 
Premium
The survey is pretty quick, and if you want to tell the FIA that the right titles ("games") [sic] for them to run competitions in are Forza Horizon and Need for Speed you can :)

Thinking about it, NFS gameplay is probably more interesting to watch than e.g. virtual 24hrs of Le Mans, Which might be why I'd generally rather drive in my rig than watch other people driving theirs - and therein lies the issue.

I'll watch IRL motorsports, but can't actually do it due to the costs - that's why I sim race. I don't generally watch sim racing as I can do it myself, and I'd rather do it than watch it.

Still, I genuinely wish the FIA luck, though my optimism isn't particularly high.
 
Question 11 is great because based on real life motorsport history, not a single aspect mentioned here would be improved by the FIA having more involvement in esports; the majority of those aspects would actually worsen - accessibility and prices being the first things that would go out of the window.
 
Sim racing is the new karting & it's only natural that FIA is interested. More FIA involvement will mean more credibility, more manufacturer involvement & more professionalism.
But they'll have to be wary of the costs. Competitions should be held with the popular hardware, not on 5k EU rigs.
The most popular sim titles should always have the big championships too. They should make sure the widest talent pool is given the best chance to perform.

Some of the titles in the survey are not sim racing, I don't think Need for Speed is sim racing, it's arcade fun. I love it, but it's not sim :) Many start in NFS, Forza etc & progress to sim titles.
 
the only sims are good to do esports BY FIA is F1 Series , rfactor 2 , ac , acc , iracing ,grand turismo . forza motorsport,raceroom and maybe ams2

rF2, AC, ACC and iRacing yes...

Raceroom is a maybe...

The rest struggle to provide a fair online racing platform and/or realistically believable physics...

It's a choice between what is worse, Forza's rubber banding or AMS2s completely different weather patterns for competitors and therefore track grip... Even the F1 series has had the FPS issues...

I do hear that Forza is at least improving their physics so it's worth giving it a go but not online until they get rid of the rubber banding where the leader loses grip...
 
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My feedback was I don't care about professional sim racing and just want all developers to have access to tracks and cars to make their games.

Whilst I wholeheartedly agree with your statement...

The current economic climate won't allow for it... As we move towards the technological age it could change, but maybe not in my lifetime...

It'd be really nice if/when MSGS goes belly up that the rF2 code is made non-exclusive and various dev companies can then use it to start their own titles... It's not like it'd be too much of a deviation from ISI's way of working over the years, and after recent events it looks like ISI is still wanting to work in that way... However by making it more readily available to any dev team would really make the niche titles far more possible... Taking the engine development out of the equation...

I'm thinking along the lines that the recently laid off Indycar staff could create their own dev team and work on a V8 Supercar based title using the rF2 code a base... Hell I'm sure they could even crowdfund it... Things like that...

Exclusivity has really held back sim racing on many fronts... It's not just exclusive series rights that cause issues...
 
I wouldn't want FIA interfering and influencing any game design going forward. Simracing is fun, it doesn't have to be FIA sanctioned or recognize. It's videogame, it's accessible, it's vibrant and dynamic.

We never needed the FIA here.
 
I like the idea of eSports in general and think there's an untapped market here. Sim racing does after all have a huge competitive multiplayer side to it; even if you're not a sweaty tryhard, you're still motivated to finish as high as possible in your race, right?

But few series to this date have consistently drawn in viewership that can justify their expense. The F1 Pro Championship is the main series I cite as actually having an audience, whilst the Gran Turismo World Series, and eSports WRC when it's actually on, have done just fine for themselves also. Below that is where the struggles begin.

ESL R1 on Rennsport is growing but still unpopular when compared to it's prize fund. SRO on Assetto Corsa Comp is also lagging behind despite the backing of a half million sub channel in GTWorld. iRacing has been stuck in obscurity for many years despite having some of the best competitions on paper. MotoGP has potential but I wasn't impressed with how their races were run last time I watched.

Something I would love to see if the FIA does get more involved with sim racing is more chances for the aliens to transfer into real world racing. Sim racing is after all the closest most of us will get to actually racing, as if you don't come from money it's difficult to enter even the lowest tier of real motorsport. That's why GT Academy was such a big deal back in the day, and finding more drivers capable of translating their theorhetical skills into a practical environment can only be a good thing for the overall quality of motorsports.
 
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Premium
Filled in the survey in all honesty. Told them to use Live For Speed as platform... :D
 
Esports in Sim Racing is never going to be more than a few hundred people watching their mates.Leisure time is finite.After I watch some real live racing,do some sim racing,take the dog for a walk,go to the gym ,watch some other sports,watch a movie the last thing I want to do is watch some pretend racing where there is zero danger to any of the drivers.Just look at the lack of interest on threads on RD or any other forums.
 

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