Fair enough if you feel that way, but unfortunately the situation has gotten to the point where big teams are dropping like flies because there simply aren't many TM tournaments to enter, there are no guarantees for the future and the big sponsors and eSports organisations don't see the point in carrying on. So I would say that your ability to dictate when it's appropriate to discuss this has been severely diminished; with all due respect, it's the teams calling the shots here, not Nadeo. When the entire emphasis is put onto the community don't be surprised when they start asking for things that you're not giving them.Hylis wrote:I think it will be better to have this debate once we have released the work we are doing. Otherwise, I feel it can continu maybe a little too much
A lot of what you're saying sounds great: You have high ambitions for Turbo, and you always should have confidence in your products; and genuinely, what I've seen of Turbo so far looks great. But then again, I thought the same about Valley, and although it's a very unique and good looking environment, nobody plays it. It's a failure. But anyway that's all I see here, lofty goals and ambition, and no clear roadmap as to how they're going to be achieved. How are you going to make something that is niche and generally unknown relevant to the mainstream? Like I said before, the world changed, but your game did not. That is one of the reasons why you're falling behind.
The thing that Trackmania did so well (Indeed continues to do) is that it's an aggressively anti-realistic racing game with a handling model that's deceptively difficult. Before TM came along, racing sims were the only things being taken seriously. (And don't get me wrong, before TM came along I was a big racing sim fan, and I still am, but they're not for everyone, they don't have the universal appeal that a stunt driving game has) Now TM is on the decline, Rocket League has taken up the mantle that should have been TM's. I'm surprised at how positively you're reacting here to Rocket League, when in reality you should be envious of it's almost overnight success. They are competitors, they're not going to do the work for you; when eSports organisers see Rocket League's popularity they don't think: "Hey, maybe we should hold more stuff for TM as well!" They just think: "Wow, Rocket league is great! That's all we need to cover the racing game department, let's just do that." They've already forgotten about TM, just like the playerbase. What you should be doing is analysing why Rocket League became so popular, and how it's stayed consistently popular ever since coming out. Most relevantly, ask yourself why so many Trackmania players are more interested in Rocket League and I think you'll start to understand just what TM needs to do; it is certainly not work of the moment, but at the same time (if you'll excuse the pun) it's not exactly rocket science.
It is difficult because the sims like Project Cars, rFactor, Forza, etc. All have real world equivalents, so for example they can get real life racing drivers to race against fans in engaging fun eSports events. (I.E. Look at Formula E and Forza with their Race/off event with Senna and Prost next Saturday) With TM unfortunately it is much harder to get that kind of publicity because it's not a real life simulator; it pushed the boundaries of reality to create crazy tracks which have to be driven in new and inventive ways, and the truth is that the TM name is just not a draw to people anymore. In the UK particularly, it's a name with no weight on the competitive scene. Telling someone that you're good at TM is basically like telling them you're good at Hard Drivin' or Geoff Crammond's Stunt Car Racer; No-one has heard of it, because the world has now moved on. Without wishing to simplify it too much or be melodramatic, it comes down to a choice of adapt to the market and survive, or die.
Like I said, it's alright for guys like me: The Grand Prix and F1 communities and teams have been small for quite some time. We are tightly knit and we'll probably keep going and doing our race regardless of numbers; admins prefer a small group of dedicated guys who will always turn up anyway. But it's the tech scene in particular that's really suffering, and that's a real shame for me. I hear players talk about how 'the old days' were so amazing, with over 100 teams signing up to tournaments (compared to about 30 these days) and lots more competitions to enter...And because I spent 2011-2013 only playing GP/F1, I missed those old days, and the feeling is that it will never be that good ever again. Is it a problem with the game or did everyone just get older and move on? It's probably different for everyone, but for me I feel it is more of the former than the latter.
