NOW?! Live-Stream Physics-Test with Bruno Spengler

I just got a preview mail, will DTM 2015 be an experience?
Thought you would only bring car packs from now on.

 

hm, maybe it stays a single DTM Experience in Steam, which can be bought as a single game and for the Raceroom-Store we get a selection between an Experience or Pack. But it all depends on the Contract between Raceroom and ITR.

 

yeah - for sure

ah - and now with the correct year under Bruno's name ^^

 

Another good stream thanks; Bruno sounded genuinely very impressed by the development and how close it felt, without using thousands of pounds' worth of equipment, which is a great sign. Modern DTM isn't really my thing but seeing him point out how accurate the markers and braking points were to real life is really insightful.

Inviting the reviewers and critics to join in was a stroke of genius too, hope to see a few more of these guys participate in future (folks like Jimmy Broadbent, EmptyBox etc) as it was good being able to get the raw, live review outside of their normal setting.

Can I ask whether Mr Spengler has also tried the new GT3 BMW Z4 physics, seeing as he drove it at Spa this year?

 

Yeah, and he drove it last weekend in ADAC GT-Masters-Final to save Team Schuberts Team-Title. Would be an interesting info for sure

 

I definitely agree about dead air but only bodes well for us all, obviously so immersive they forget they're live. First few minutes Bruno was so wrapped up in driving he forgot to turn his mike on!
Looking forward to release day, which of course is the obligatory SOON!

 

Don't take anyone off developing! we can all edit ourselves with the FF button if necessary, just keep creating the cream and we'll lap it up!!

 

georg in chat said in the next week or two for both dtm 15 and gt3 update

 

I see Bruno drive whit a G27! zo al FFB en physics is update voor all wheels ???

 

Marketing is an economic must. Sympathies by already established customers do not pay for bills. Money from newly made profits does. So: what needs to be done to win new customers, must be done. And its no waste of time at all. "Waste" and "necessity" are two terms that are mutually exclusive.

However, a coder is no artist is no marketing expert. I doubt that these areas overlap and steal personnel from each other.

 

I have checked some more of the older streams and videos you can find. And there is something that I would say is a problem with many of them, as far as I watched them: they probably do not reach the intended major audience, the important audience that count when you do stuff like that: new customers that so far do not know Raceroom.

The reason is simple. Many people love to read and watch stuff about games they like themselves, especially when you are younger. I was like that myself, I still can be very enthusiastic about stuff, games, books, that I like. I am a longtime fan of this hardcore simulation of mechanised warfare and tanks, named steel beasts pro - when version 2 got released in 2006, I wrote a review on it that was published at tanksim.com - and it had I think over 30 pages. The interview with the developer not even included. So I know from own example that people love their pet toys, their hobbies, their favourite games being written and reported about, and they like to read and watch that stuff.

But "stuff" in case of these Raceroom streams lasts one hour sometime, or even longer. And often has only homeopathic doses of new information and tech talk that really talks iron and the rubber and carves out the real nitty-gritty of the tech in Raceroom - and why one should consider it beside competitors like rF2, AC, iR. Instead: much network racing shown, commenting of the gaming, some dudes having a good time together, and occasionally here and there some intresting info.

Who watches this? Enthusiasts. Most likely enthusiasts that you must not convince of Raceroom, because they already got hooked. They like it, and that's why they watch it. But what you want is the other way around: that people not knowing R3E watch the videos - and like to find out about the game because of what they saw. But many people that still hear the echoes of Raceroom's not so positive past, start one video and watch and watch, and little happens and some dudes play network racing and chatter a bit. And so - I would expect that not many non-fans of Raceroom switch it off. And probably do not come back again.

Would I watch video after video, 40 minutes, 60 minutes,. 80 minutes long, of a game that i am in doubt of anyway, am not really interested in by my own initiative? I know that I do not do that. I give it some minutes to show me something that gets my attention. If that does not happen, I start to doze off.

It already was said that the video material must be heavily edited, and condensed. I would stop doing live races during streams, there is no structure, no pull, no drive in things that way. I would prepare video material that shows one of two things: either dramatic scenes from races that raise excitement, that shows action, overtaking, multiplayer or AI racing head to head, the drama, the tension the high burning flames, if you know what I mean, or: in detail, in slow motion, in big picture the physics engine at work, in all its aspects, because the driving model is what its about in a racing game.

This material then forms the background of the "stream", actually it is a prepared video, and stream it becomes in a session afterwards maybe where people post question and somebody answers them live. Clever cutting needs to be done to have an exciting mix of not too long video sequences with comments, and in-between documentary interviews, which also should not last too long - better have more different streams/videos released over time. Take the stream with Bruno Spengler two days ago, or three days: like other stream before, I must admit it was - well, lame. Not Mr. Spenglers fault, but first the accustic mishap that he did not hear the others, and then the lazy questions and answers, question that sometimes sounded as if they were born from boredom or embarassement just to fill up the time, and the the sometimes ultrashort answers. Heck, there is a pro driver available for interview, so give him a damn GRILLING! Indeed do interviews with Spengler, or van der Linde, and have questions prepared that really lead to the depths of things. These deeper questions on some few occasions were there, but too early, too easily one gave up that path and let the opportunity to have an immersive shoptalk, slip away. Then the many breaks there were.

No, showing live network playing and chatter a bit during that, is no good idea. Looks very unprofessional, to be honest. Even unprepared.

Make it videos not longer than 10 minutes. Fast changes between action-dripping or tech-showing video snippets, and interview scenes. This live chatter does little good, I think. The interviews must be prepared better, a catalogue of good, solid questions that lead beyond the surface of things. Convince people sceptical about Raceroom by confronting them what pros have to say on it - and they should have to say more than just obvious advertising. Also tempting: ask them to do a clean lap in exactly the way they would drive it in reality, than show both in split screen, parallel. Such videos were done by some players in the early phase of Assetto Corsa, people who owned one of the BMWs or Lotus' in real life and had recorded a real world drive during a trackday at Silverstone for example. Then the combined the virtual drive and the real drive in one picture, either by split screen or by having the one image cut into to halves: the one side showing the real cars left side, and the other side showing the virtual cars' right side. These videos were handed around, I tell you, and the synchronicity of both images spoke volumes, everybody said: oh look, it behaves like the real thing, acceleration time, turning, braking points , all is the same! If even the scenery in such combined image installations runs in synchronicity, this impresses people much more, without much words, and soon everybody wants to see more.

And by this, interest is generated.

Or consider the videos that were done by a guy named Stabiz, slow motion studies of Assetto Corsa and iRacing and the whole show presented with a strong aesthetic standard, following the rythm and musical score set up by the background song serving as soundtrack. Slow motion demonstration of physics and dramatic situation in big pictures. That's the thing to make eyebrows raising!

Interviews need better preparation, good questions. You cannot stumble into a situation as unprepared as was to be seen here, and then expect the sceptical people to impressed. Bruno said the braking points are good. Bruno said the cars are better. Bruno said improvements have been done since last time. Well, now I should go to my friends and give them these snippets from my memory as an argument why they must check out Raceroom?

I don't want to sound like a smartass or like being offensive, I do not mean to be offensive, I just want to be understood correctly, and I think that Sector3 wastes an opportunity here with this kind of video streams. Skip the current format, and replace the concept with a more focussed, compact documentary film, equipped with hot peppered video material. The live part should only be for people asking questions on the channel. This should not be done too often,, and the event should not last too long, else you end up being asked what your favourite dish is and whether your dog is big or small. Keep it focussed, balance facts and concentrated tech information in depth with dramatic and informative video excerpts. Don't play and talk at the same time - haven't we all not made the experience with friends visiting us that this way it works worst? You are confused. Your guest gets confused. In the end everybody is confused. It does not work well.

If you have such videos done, distribute and hand them out like paper flyers in the shopping mall. In forums, Race clubs. Per email. In dedicated race sim magazines. People clicking on them must get hooked within very short time. And it should not be so long that it gets boring, so a 10 minute time limit.

Be aggressive there, Sector3! You fight for your business. So set up a fight and make it look like a fight.

Before I forget to mention it: the track introduction videos that already were done - these are a step in the right direction. Just that I think they should be distributed in a way so that they reach more new potential customers. I only found them by having them linked in your own forum. That is way too passive. And thats why some of them do not even have 1000 klicks.

P.S. Resist the temptation to just post cockpit videos . these are being done by the thousands and thousands. They lack a convincing "Alleinstellungsmerkmal" (=unique selling proposition), not setting them apart from the crowd. To bring moving pictures to best power, the scene must be carefully directed, re-inacted. Try to hire Ridley Scott for that. Best would be videos that combine action-in-event with slomo so that the physics at work can be observed in all effect and detail. Many of Stabiz videos excel in right that. Unfortunately he never used R3E, just iR and AC.

P.S. This works better than just split-screens:
LINK

 

but this takes no effort and i love it, don't stop it. additional stuff is fine but they arn't losing anything from doing these streams.

 

It costs time.

Have you checked their youtube channel, how many clicks their videos get? 3 and low 4 digit range. Bad return for one afternoon of running and preparing these streams and having several people not sitting at their desktops.

Have you checked the clicks for Kunos' channel? 5 and even 6 digit range. iracing's youtube channel: mostly lower and medium 5 digits range - and they just post races.

They need to get more pull into their video advertising. And get it wider distributed, somehow. If only I would know a magical formula for that, they could get it for free from me. Really, that stream with Bruno Spengler was - well, too little content in much to much time. My first guess was: lame. I was bored. I waited. And nothing exciting happened.

I do not want to be rude here, or offend anyone. I just want to make sure that I get correctly understood.

 

they will do these tests anyway. this is how they make thier cars so realistic put real drivers in them and get them to help. putting them on youtube and streaming them costs nothing.

 

I agree to you both.
With @shardshunt cause I too really like those streams!

And with @Skybird cause they need to put out additional, pimped and easier to get hooked by videos in advertising purposes!

 

I guess everybody would love to publish more of those videos, but bear in mind that during those internal sessions things that aren't meant to be public are said and that the drivers rely on S3S not publishing this stuff. Hence the need for editing.
And of course because 90% of the stuff is just profanity of the worst kind, the Swedish kind, and Jay burping into his mic.

 

Ever tried taking some of your own advice and editing your posts a bit, I've checked older posts and they all say the same thing, we get it, you don't like a lot of what's RRE produce (not the way you would have done it), they have no idea of how to run a business (your opinion) and you find offence that people on a forum dedicated to a sim actually like it and drive it and want to talk about it possitively!
I know full well artists aren't marketing guru's like yourself but with such a small team overlapping of chores must surely occur. Although S3's streams are far from perfect, they are honest, Bruno complaining of not being able to grab 2nd early enough would never make your blockbuster style advertising promos. A professional driver's time is precious and I'd prefer to see and hear his real thoughts rather than a cherry picked selection. I feel these streams are there to enlighten the already enthusiastic people of this community and the free weekends are there to pull in new custom. The sim journalists attending the stream will do the condensing and put all into their own words for the wider sim community to read, by their reaction (live) it's going to be rather favourable.
My half full glass taste's good and I look forward to another, your half empty glass tastes sour!