Sofa-jockeys given crack at virtual Formula 1 world championship Formula 1 has announced it's getting into “e-sports”, the preferred phrase for competitive computer gaming, with a new “Formula 1 Esports Series” that will see a virtual F1 champion crowned later this year. Many gamers think their pastime’s enormous following and facilitation of networked competitions makes a legitimate sport …
Don't you love it when the URL reads jann-ardenborough-racing-games when the bloke's name is Jann Mardenborough.
Jann is talented and he may be an exception or statistical outlier. To evaluate real world skills of games racers, I'd rent a grid of 30 Austin A30/35 saloons from the UK series organisers and participants. No advance training, just know how to drive a road car and turn up on the day.
Pull the knob to start the engine. The twist lever on the right of the steering wheel operates the headlights and sidelights (what?) not the radio. Err, yes, it is supposed to sound like that when you change into first gear.
Survivors qualify for an assessment in a full blooded Clubmans sports racers with the engine in front (OK, next to the driver's legs). A Clubmans car is a Lotus 7 after 20 years on steroids and bad attitude.
It looks those pilots never went far... when you drive a real car, besides the physical stress absent when your on an armchair, there's a lot to learn about the car itself, its mechanics and what to tell technician about its behaviour and how to optimize it - and how to cope with its faults, and an environment that is far less "controlled". Especially when your life - and other people's around - is at risk if you fail.
While a simulator is quick and less expensive way to test which people have the right skill (flight simulators are used for the same reason also), there's a lot more to learn when reality comes in.
I rather suspect that if you took 450,000 random members of the general public who have never touched a video game and subjected them to the GT Academy methodology, you'd get the exact same number of decent drivers as you get from the self-selected 450,000 gamers ... Bell shaped curve and all that.
The "winners" of GTA phase one could be picked by any eye/hand coordination and rapid decision making test. All the video game does is weed out folks without that particular inherent ability. I suspect that rapid correct diagnosis, tear-down and reassembly of a random internal combustion engine would work just as well. Competitive modern dance would probably be a better indicator ... But those wouldn't sell video games, now would they?
"I rather suspect that if you took 450,000 random members of the general public [...] you'd get the exact same number of decent drivers"
I disagree. While Gran Turismo is, in part, a test of hand-eye coordination (an essential skill for a driver), it also requires the ability to learn, remember, and understand racing lines and braking zones across many courses, and also requires one to know how adjusting things like wing angles, suspension geometry, tire choice, weather etc. affect the way a car handles.
Simply put, if you were designing a home-based test to find driving ability, a modern racing game would probably be what you ended up with.
"Competitive modern dance [..] wouldn't sell video games, now would they?"
To save you the effort of following those links, Nissan took a bunch of the best Gran Turismo players, and put them in cars. Several of them have gone on to podium finishes at races like Le Mans.
So yes, if you're really good at racing games, chances are you'll also make a good driver as well (with some training of course).
It even got to the point where they weren't allowed to enter the British GT Championship as "gentlemen drivers", because they were actually keeping up with the pro classes.
Car Racing is the only esport in which your gaming skills have any relevance to the real version of the sport.
Not that war is a sport, but FPS players won't make good soldiers, they'll likely be dead in the first 2 minutes of any battle. Being good at FIFA, NFL, NHL, NBA etc. games doesn't mean you're any good at the actual sport.
Game or sport?
Many moons ago I happened upon a heated debate in which a chess fan was vociferously arguing that chess tournaments and talented UK competitors should be funded by the UK sporting authorities. There have been court cases about this subject. The only part of reading the debate that wasn't a complete waste of precious moments of my life was the definition offered of sport vs game.
If something can be done by proxy, an expert guiding a player by phone for example, it is a game. If the skill has to lie with the player present it is a sport. This seems right to me. With Steve Davis at my left elbow and John Higgins at my right I'd still have zero chance at the Crucible - Sport. I do not have clue 1 about the rules of Go never mind how to play it but with the right person or AI whispering in my ear I could probably do quite well - Game.
So basically any activity that can be outsourced to another country is a game, anything that has to be played in person is a sport?
That's actually the best definition I've heard. At least that's a lot better than definitions suggesting that sports have sweat potentially involved, or require some level of physical fitness.
"If something can be done by proxy, an expert guiding a player by phone for example, it is a game. If the skill has to lie with the player present it is a sport"
Sounds like a good definition, but the lines seem a bit blurred when it comes to real-time, fast action sports/games, where waiting to be instructed rather than acting on instinct and experience will be the difference between winning and losing.
Car Racing is the only esport in which your gaming skills have any relevance to the real version of the sport.
The one big difference is that after a shunt, there's no "start over" in the real world. Relevant to the real version only so much. While the simulator can provide training (much like aircraft flight simulators used by the military and airlines) it can only go so far.
F1 is deeply boring these days and the idea of an Esports show of people playing at driving a deeply boring sport doesn't really appeal.
If they're going to show Esports motorsports it would probably be a better idea to do decent coverage of something a bit more dramatic like i.e. a Wipeout style game.
I did catch some coverage of Rocket League but it was a bloody mess and pretty much unwatchable.
I tend to watch lets plays of things like GTA and to be honest I like watching people messing about in ways I never really thought of. I apparently lack imagination because I never thought to try to land a helicoper on a train. I now want to.
Also personally I tend to use lets plays as visual demos for the game, these days, even though it is easier than ever to provide them, most games do not come with demos so a demonstration of the gameplay is a big help.
... is virtual Murray Walker commentary.
Already been done. I think it was Grand Prix 2 around 20 years ago. Genuine Walker commentary along with the authentic "insightful" comments. The one that comes to mind was when you rammed the car in front. It would lose its back wing. You would lose your front and quite often a wheel too. Virtual Murray would then remark
"That was almost certainly a collision there..."
Funnily enough, yesterday I listened to a radio interview with the Dutch champion of this malarky.
What I recall from his chat:
- Last year's prize money was a meeeeeelion euro!
- The pros (Vettel, Verstappen et al) have also given it a shot and are 'very good' but it doesn't quite work the other way around... due to real G-force and concentration under duress etc..
So there ya go...
Just to clarify a few things here, it sounds like you're talking about Bono Huis who won the Las Vegas eRace at CES back in January. Refering to him as "the Dutch champion" in the context of the article is incorrect, as this is the first incarnation of the virtual Formula 1 Championship.
Bono Huis is a multiple champion of various amateur/semi-professional sim racing championships, including "Formula SimRacing" in which current real-life F1 driver Stoffel Vandoorne competed in.
In winning the Las Vegas eRace (organised by the electric-only racing series "Formula E" not Formula One) he won a sizeable chunk of the US$1,000,000 prize pool (over $250,000 I believe).
The biggest hotshoe in F1 at the moment is the dutchman Max Verstappen, who is an honourary member of the sim-racing team "Team Redline", the same team as Bono Huis. A video of Max Verstappen practicing in the iRacing.com simulation showed him pulling off an overtaking maneuver at the Belgian racetrack "Spa-Francorchamps" which he replicated in real life at the 2016 Belgian Grand Prix causing nerds everywhere to rejoice.
Also worth mentioning that the Mclaren Formula One Team are currently holding a "World's Fastest Gamer" competition, the winner of which will win a contract to be a test driver in their Formula 1 Simulator at the Mclaren Technology Centre.
"Simracing" is my thing, sorry to be a bore! :)
I loved this game when it was originally released, built up a group of people to play with online. Then new releases killed it with the game features and cars way to complicated to setup. Nearly all the winning players I went up against were using cheats in the setups to win. It lost its simulation appeal and just became another online game that belonged to real world losers who cheated within the game and enjoyed rubbing it in. This game lost its appeal a long time ago. A real pity.
The game is out this weekend (August) so although tied in with this competition, it's not as entirely shameless as suggested. And to be fair, I'd rather have a shot at a competition to take me to Abu Dhabi than get a pre-order bonus of a "special colour" helmet or something like many other games who want you to buy the game on launch.
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