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2,547 Posts
Will this take the meaning of slot cars away as we know it?
| It's a good thing....(reply) | 7 | 29.17% |
| It's a bad thing......(reply) | 7 | 29.17% |
| It's good and bad..(reply) | 10 | 41.67% |
Consensus of opinion on...
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2,547 Posts
please reply as to why you ahve selected your vote
I'm not bashing, just wanting to know how people feel about making what we can afford into a simulation just metres away in most cases
Cheers
Rob
for virtual as in t'internet racing
I'm not bashing, just wanting to know how people feel about making what we can afford into a simulation just metres away in most cases
Cheers
Rob
for virtual as in t'internet racing
not fully sure how virtual racing is supposed to work - evry1 races 1 car each on their own tracks and the system tries to balance length/curves of each track to end up with a fair comparrison? Tracks seem to vary on speed so much depending on type of carpet/base they are on, flatness vs hills and bridges etc, and claenliness of track, I dont think it would be very fair.
If ppl remote controlled digital cars on one persons track, this would be fairer and presumably feasible, but you would have to have a heap of webcams and fast connection to race on it.
If ppl remote controlled digital cars on one persons track, this would be fairer and presumably feasible, but you would have to have a heap of webcams and fast connection to race on it.
I don`t think any of us know. It`s all just around the corner but until we have a go who really knows how it will all work and what potential it truly has? Manufacturers would like us to believe their sales patter but lets wait until the boys have had a play? I welcome any feedback based on experience of using the kit (without the suited businessman global sales view daft talk please).
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2,547 Posts
you vote, then leave a reply to back up why you voted..
sintax? whats one of em? my nose seems to be fine!
Rob.
sintax? whats one of em? my nose seems to be fine!
Rob.
Joined
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71 Posts
Are we talking about Digital or Internet racing here - because they are not the same thing. They are two very seperate products from Horny (at present)
Slotraccoon
Slotraccoon
'Syntax' is the word needed.
My opinion is that as soon as internet links are established, the actual slot racing will immediately suffer, and VERY badly. It's just another way to offer short-term instant gratification gimmickry in place of long-term, worthwhile activity. The obvious ultimate extension to this is that, eventually, NO ONE would bother going to a club or physically meeting their friends and would sit in solitude at home with nothing but a slot car set and a PC for company. It would then soon become apparent that the interchange with others via PC is so much less effort than actually setting up cars and racing that the slot cars would be removed and dumped. At that point, we might as well consist of nothing but preserved brains in jamjars with a couple of cables to a PC as our virtual existence.
It might very well happen and maybe it wouldn't really matter if it did?
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Maybe Hornby sees it as the ultimate and inevitable conclusion to our hobby, so it makes sense for them to get in on the ground floor and promote it?
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My opinion is that as soon as internet links are established, the actual slot racing will immediately suffer, and VERY badly. It's just another way to offer short-term instant gratification gimmickry in place of long-term, worthwhile activity. The obvious ultimate extension to this is that, eventually, NO ONE would bother going to a club or physically meeting their friends and would sit in solitude at home with nothing but a slot car set and a PC for company. It would then soon become apparent that the interchange with others via PC is so much less effort than actually setting up cars and racing that the slot cars would be removed and dumped. At that point, we might as well consist of nothing but preserved brains in jamjars with a couple of cables to a PC as our virtual existence.
It might very well happen and maybe it wouldn't really matter if it did?
Maybe Hornby sees it as the ultimate and inevitable conclusion to our hobby, so it makes sense for them to get in on the ground floor and promote it?
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244 Posts
I'd have to say it all depends how it works and how effective it works. So i'd have to say it's both good and bad:
Good - Having someone real to race against from the comfort of your own home. Will probably attract some new racers from the video/online games community
Bad - I do actually like to get away from my PC every now and then. Uness it's a "remote control" style affair (some combo of challenger technology being adapted dynamically via the internet connection ??!??!??) then I don't see much fun factor....may as well just race yerself and try to bit your best lap.
Also, have to disagree with Meco that it will mean the end of clubs.....ppl will always want to physically get together......just look at the popularity of LAN Cafe's/Parties......the online gaming community gather in awful conditions for whole weekends just to be in the same room........and that is with no actual physical need to do it (like a club track)......they just want to be in the same room and swear at ppl who beat them
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Good - Having someone real to race against from the comfort of your own home. Will probably attract some new racers from the video/online games community
Bad - I do actually like to get away from my PC every now and then. Uness it's a "remote control" style affair (some combo of challenger technology being adapted dynamically via the internet connection ??!??!??) then I don't see much fun factor....may as well just race yerself and try to bit your best lap.
Also, have to disagree with Meco that it will mean the end of clubs.....ppl will always want to physically get together......just look at the popularity of LAN Cafe's/Parties......the online gaming community gather in awful conditions for whole weekends just to be in the same room........and that is with no actual physical need to do it (like a club track)......they just want to be in the same room and swear at ppl who beat them
You are, of course right, Muffin Man!
I was just projecting the pessimistic possibilities.
I don't see it going QUITE that far but I definitely see the likelihood of it harming an already difficult situation with regard to maintaining viable membership of physical slot clubs.
Ingenious simulation design has a well-proven record of decimating physical activity.
I was just projecting the pessimistic possibilities.
I don't see it going QUITE that far but I definitely see the likelihood of it harming an already difficult situation with regard to maintaining viable membership of physical slot clubs.
Ingenious simulation design has a well-proven record of decimating physical activity.
Bad because we already have virtual races for PC, Xbox, Playstation ( see Granturismo 1,2,3,4......); I don't think these things will ever displace "real slot"; as a matter of fact we have R/C planes, helicopters and cars and the availability of virtual simulators has done nothing to them. I think that it is another and different hobby : there are "virtual pilots" of "virtual planes" connected to the Internet who plan flying missions like WW2 bombing, but I have never seen one of them on our flying field, neither anyone of my friends R/C pilots has ever exchanged reality with virtuality seriously.
I see no future for virtual slot; no need to waste our time.
Ciao
I see no future for virtual slot; no need to waste our time.
Ciao
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7,988 Posts
Sheesh, Meco. Take a happy pill. Lordy, lordy.
Trust me, it's a flash in the pan. The joy of slot cars is in their physical presence, being there, one on one (or six on six if you've got digital).
Internet racing is a sad aberation, a Challenger for the continentally challenged.
Tell me, do they have internet R/C races?
Trust me, it's a flash in the pan. The joy of slot cars is in their physical presence, being there, one on one (or six on six if you've got digital).
Internet racing is a sad aberation, a Challenger for the continentally challenged.
Tell me, do they have internet R/C races?
I agree. Clubs succeed or fail depending on the amount of fun to be had by people. There is already plenty of computer generated entertainment but people still want to meet up and be sociable. I did read Mego right though and agree with him on the overview of what we are potentialy being turned in to. Put another way it`s like the idea of virtual reality sex. If that makes someone happy then great but the vast majority still want to keep meeting up with someone else for the real thing!
QUOTE Take a happy pill.
Now there's a slippery slope!
Isn't this what the fear is?
Ever listened to the song, "In the Year Twenty Five Twenty Five", Zager & Evans.
(I wonder what happened to them?)
I already spend way too much time on a PC and going to the slot club is one of the VERY few things that drags me away to physical activity. If I started doing the virtual racing thing, I would almost literally never leave home or the office.
it's awfully tempting, is the problem, like junk food and all that other crap that we enjoy too much!
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Now there's a slippery slope!
Isn't this what the fear is?
Ever listened to the song, "In the Year Twenty Five Twenty Five", Zager & Evans.
(I wonder what happened to them?)
I already spend way too much time on a PC and going to the slot club is one of the VERY few things that drags me away to physical activity. If I started doing the virtual racing thing, I would almost literally never leave home or the office.
it's awfully tempting, is the problem, like junk food and all that other crap that we enjoy too much!
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244 Posts
QUOTE (Tropi @ 12 Jan 2004, 02:53 PM)If I started doing the virtual racing thing, I would almost literally never leave home or the office.
it's awfully tempting, is the problem, like junk food and all that other crap that we enjoy too much!
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Hmmmmm, now if we could just get macdonalds through email !
it's awfully tempting, is the problem, like junk food and all that other crap that we enjoy too much!
Hmmmmm, now if we could just get macdonalds through email !
Joined
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1,052 Posts
Anything that brings more options to the hobby is a good thing.
You do not have to do it. Its nice to have the option though.
It is but one part of the digital age.
There are, and will be, many other parts in the future.
In America and Australia slot car enthusiasts are often a very long way apart. Its about time some of you thought of others for a change.
I may not want to race any of you lot on the Scalextric Sport World server because you all sound dead miserable and all doom and gloom!
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But I am going to get a real kick out of competing with folk on the other side of the world, or even in Europe. Language is not a barrier in the international world of Scalextric.
And there is a current trend among youngsters away from 2 dimensional PC gaming and towards 3 dimensional electronic gaming. Hornby are doing the right thing for the hobby in noting that trend and updating the slot racing experiance to take this into account going forward.
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Moped
You do not have to do it. Its nice to have the option though.
It is but one part of the digital age.
There are, and will be, many other parts in the future.
In America and Australia slot car enthusiasts are often a very long way apart. Its about time some of you thought of others for a change.
I may not want to race any of you lot on the Scalextric Sport World server because you all sound dead miserable and all doom and gloom!
But I am going to get a real kick out of competing with folk on the other side of the world, or even in Europe. Language is not a barrier in the international world of Scalextric.
And there is a current trend among youngsters away from 2 dimensional PC gaming and towards 3 dimensional electronic gaming. Hornby are doing the right thing for the hobby in noting that trend and updating the slot racing experiance to take this into account going forward.
Moped
QUOTE Anything that brings more options to the hobby is a good thing.
I disagree and rather strongly.
This is a marketing buzz-phrase trotted out parrot fashion without any actual thought behind it (other than maximising sales).
A good thing for who or for what?
It might be good for Hornby, but further splintering and divisions in real live slot car racing is anything but good for our actual hobby. It's already hard enough to get a club up and running and to keep it that way, without encouraging half the potential membership to doss at home in front of a PC, conniving at ways to cheat their 'virtual buddies'! Anyone actually know how many thriving slot car clubs there are in the country? I know of some excellent ones from the posts we see here, but I really don't know how many there might be in total or how well they are doing.
Any reasonable guesses?
Whatever the number, does ANYONE genuinely think that virtual racing will actually raise this number?
Generally speaking, I believe that too many options are apt to create confusion and detract from the core values of what makes a hobby or sport popular. Divisions rarely promote unity or harmony in any minority activity, in fact usually the very opposite.
Note that I do not advocate NO options.
I am simply disagreeing with the blanket statement that "ANYTHING . . . is a good thing".
It isn't.
What might be good for a commericially driven, profit making company is not necessarily good for us, the hobbyists and, in this case, I think it is definitely bad.
I disagree and rather strongly.
This is a marketing buzz-phrase trotted out parrot fashion without any actual thought behind it (other than maximising sales).
A good thing for who or for what?
It might be good for Hornby, but further splintering and divisions in real live slot car racing is anything but good for our actual hobby. It's already hard enough to get a club up and running and to keep it that way, without encouraging half the potential membership to doss at home in front of a PC, conniving at ways to cheat their 'virtual buddies'! Anyone actually know how many thriving slot car clubs there are in the country? I know of some excellent ones from the posts we see here, but I really don't know how many there might be in total or how well they are doing.
Any reasonable guesses?
Whatever the number, does ANYONE genuinely think that virtual racing will actually raise this number?
Generally speaking, I believe that too many options are apt to create confusion and detract from the core values of what makes a hobby or sport popular. Divisions rarely promote unity or harmony in any minority activity, in fact usually the very opposite.
Note that I do not advocate NO options.
I am simply disagreeing with the blanket statement that "ANYTHING . . . is a good thing".
It isn't.
What might be good for a commericially driven, profit making company is not necessarily good for us, the hobbyists and, in this case, I think it is definitely bad.
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1,052 Posts
QUOTE Whatever the number, does ANYONE genuinely think that virtual racing will actually raise this number?
Note the following paragraph in the Hornby announcment:-
QUOTE The website will integrate the position of all of the on-line racers on a single virtual race track with detailed graphics of each car. It will also allow spectators from around the world to follow the progress of any race with virtual coverage on screen.
Live Sky Football on your TV at home did not stop people going down the pub to watch the big screen action.
It will be no different for Scalextric Sport World. Except you will be able to participate and watch your mates participate.
You simply set up a big screen in your club and you are away.
The club experiance might be different, but it will be busier like the pubs now are are footy nights because it will be more intense action as you will not only be competing against each other but against other clubs.
There is a big future here for those prepared to encompass the future.
Cheers
Moped
Note the following paragraph in the Hornby announcment:-
QUOTE The website will integrate the position of all of the on-line racers on a single virtual race track with detailed graphics of each car. It will also allow spectators from around the world to follow the progress of any race with virtual coverage on screen.
Live Sky Football on your TV at home did not stop people going down the pub to watch the big screen action.
It will be no different for Scalextric Sport World. Except you will be able to participate and watch your mates participate.
You simply set up a big screen in your club and you are away.
The club experiance might be different, but it will be busier like the pubs now are are footy nights because it will be more intense action as you will not only be competing against each other but against other clubs.
There is a big future here for those prepared to encompass the future.
Cheers
Moped
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