Of course, I'm not of the view that this is what's happening in pcars case, I'm of the view that it's Shift3, and nothing wrong with that as long as the non sim related problems of Shift2 are fixed.....and it seems as though that'll be the case, but as far as pcars being a sim or on the verge of being one, I don't feel or see it.
That's the 'glass half empty' view, and that's fine. I really don't have a problem with that at all. It does appear that some people, you included David, are not just basing their 'Shift 3' argument on the current state of the game, but are actually hoping that's how it turns out when it's finished. It's the vehemence of the discussion that perplexes me. I bought the latest Sim City, didn't like it at all, and moved on to something else I liked. I haven't dedicated a major portion of my daily life to trying to convince everyone else who like it that it's crap.
Project CARS will speak for itself when it's done. It'll be crap, or mediocre, or great, or the 'best sim of all time'.. probably somewhere between the extremes. It's certainly getting a lot of effort by talented people, and is the first game to have such an involvement from the gamers that are fans of the genre. The release version isn't the end of the road either. It'll be supported, improved, expanded. We want to make it something that evolves and isn't abandoned after the initial sales.
I certainly don't expect some people to change their opinion about the game, regardless of how it turns out. I expect there will be people who come to the official public forum and say all sorts of things about the game that many of us won't agree with, or be happy about. That's the nature of public game forums. Thing is, we also know that those critiques won't matter if the game truly meets the goals that we set out for it nearly 3 years ago. Some people can spam the forums with as much vitriol as they can muster, and we'll just laugh about it and pat ourselves on the back because we were right about what we were doing all along.
And if it's not the '
greatest racing game ever' on release, we'll work on making it better. Not every endeavor turns out exactly as planned, but if no risks are taken, it's hard to reach a goal. Risking and failing is noble in it's own right, and is far more than what the critics do. It's easy to point and giggle at someone else's failure when one hasn't even tried to do something great.
I know I'm in it for the long haul, and the majority of WMD members are as well. I'm not going to just take the money and run. I took a huge risk, and so did a number of other guys. I'll take another risk, and another.. and another. I know the guys at SMS. I know them extremely well, beyond any public facing posts and such. They're the kind of guys who set tough goals and work like maniacs to reach them. That's how I am, and why I have the money to back their work. It may seem like we're clique-ish, but when you throw many years of your working life into a project, that tends to create bonds.
This is TL
R and will likely get derided because of that, but I'm going to say one more thing on the subject because while I don't understand the vehemence of the criticism, and constant time consuming efforts behind the negativity, I understand why I and many others are the complete opposite. I can explain it very clearly, and I would think that sensible will say "okay, now I get where Micas is coming from".
So I have roughly $110,000 USD, 80,000 euro, invested in the development of pCARS. I don't net that much in a year. I gross more than that a year, but after taxes, retirement contributions, and living expenses, etc., the money left over is far less. So let's say it takes 3-5 years for me to save up 110 grand. That means that I turned over 3-5 years of my working 40+ hours a week at my job to SMS. I work very hard, as many people do, but I put years of my working life into pCARS. I will put more into it, because I have a long view and because I know the SMS crew, I know I will benefit greatly if we are successful. I'm not asking for a pat on the back for doing that. I expect people to say I'm being foolish. The bottom line is, I'm taking a risk to achieve greatness, and if we fail, we failed trying to be better tomorrow than we are today. I can live with that. I've failed before, and I'll fail again, but the chances I've taken and the rewards that come with it have been far greater than the failures. That's why I'm a highly respected professional in my field and why I make really good money today, with job security until I retire. Hardly anyone has that. I do because I worked hard when friends were partying, and I took chances when others said I was being foolish. I learned how to be successful, and the behavior I see from a lot of people, not just on RD but at WMD, is completely counter to what it takes to make it in this world. I don't compromise my principles, but I don't antagonize those that help me get to the next level. Why go to war with Ian Bell when he's only going up and is clearly wanting to take people with him? Why not find out what he's about so you can see that it's all about being smart and principled?
Anyway.. every time I see some 'simcade' and 'shift 3' remark, and much much worse from the Andy Jackson types, I take it as an attack on everything I went through in my life (and trust me, it was often sucky and a hell of a lot of work) to be able to join SMS in this project. It's crapping all over the goals and dreams and effort of people that you ("you" in a generic sense) don't even know. It makes me angry, and makes me want to ask what you've done in your life.. what risk you've taken, when have you just put it all out there where failure meant years of your working life were lost? Are you doing that now? Are you working on a high risk goal? Is there some way I can do my level best to crap on it? Is there a forum I can go to every day and do everything I can to see that you fail? I'm guessing the answers to all those questions is "no".
Lastly, as far as Race Department is concerned; I looked through the first 10 pages of news items. There were 10 mentions of Assetto Corsa, and one of pCARS (a trailer mention). The admins/owners of RD have chosen to go the route of at least enabling the aforementioned vitriol towards SMS and pCARS. Claims that are demonstrably not true allowed to stand as "opinions", etc. Well, fine. That's not a particularly smart business move, but then not every business is run to be successful. Nobody ever expects gushing and glowing praise, but a modicum of fairness certainly does go a long way to creating positive relationships. Apparently RD wanted to burn down any chance of that happening, but okay. Cool. We move forward.. ever forward. We will be successful. And I will let you know about it. We're measuring it in months now, and not years. Exciting times.
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