New User Feedback

Gday guys,

Firstly let me say thanks for the fun I have had during the few races I have done so far using the 2D trial. There is certainly some potential there for an enjoyable casual pastime.Unfortunately though I can already say that I won't be continuing, and rather than walk out the door without you ever knowing why I thought it would a be more positive if I was to repay the fun I had with the trial by giving some well meaning feedback on why I wont be continuing.

At this point I have found the 2D side to be quite functional to my needs, and gives an experience that is immersive enough whilst also providing the critical information needed to try and manage a team during a race. However as a reason to subscribe, I find that there is simply not enough substance on offer. I will try to expand on that more as I write.

Whether I am a subscriber or free user, I am very limited in how much use I can get out of iGP Manager. With a limit of one league at a time, and one race a day, this can mean I spend very little time actually doing anything at all. Once past the initial team setup phase, it's really just a few clicks here and then after a race to manage new upgrades or options, then spend 10 minutes getting feedback from the drivers for the next race. Then I am simply watching the race and get ready for any surprises to the strategy. All this might unfold in as little as an hour, with a big chunk of that hour spent simply watching and not actively influencing anything. If this is a once a week league, then I am extremely limited in my use of iGP Manager. Even Darin Gangi of Inside Sim Racing jokingly stated during the review of your game that he might create another account just so he can race more. (Also that is how I heard about iGP)

If I play as a non subscriber,usingjust the timing boards, I could have a similarly good race experience with the paid guys, but with the crucial race information lacking there is simply no point in it. I can't influence my strategy all that well if I am being handicapped purely for not paying, so then after the free 2D trial the reason to stay is reduced

.This then comes around to the price.(excuse me while I use rough USD figures, as an Aussie USD tends to be what I most commonly deal with online) The thing to remember here is that although it has been stated that ~$48 USD is just a few small dollars each month over a year, you are in competition with others for a persons monthly "throw away" cash. Many people have bills or interests that accrue a monthly cost to them, and you are competing directly in this regard.For instance I am a member of iRacing, and a certain amount of money gets dedicated to that. A one year subscription there is roughly twice what yours is, but the content and available use of the product is hugely greater. Also other games (sticking with racing for now) such as Live For Speed have cost me the same in total as iGP does for a year, and they have been one off costs. Live For Speed has seen me doing over 50,000km online and I can pick it up and play at any moment I like. I have also mentioned iGP recently to online friends in Australia, but not one has even tried the game now, as they are instantly turned off at the price vs content given for subscribing.

I would say you need to consider if it is worth sticking to your price for what maybe 10 in 100 people that say "ok that's fair" compared to having your price back down to around $20 USD and the possibility of 40 in 100 people saying "ok now thats a price that is a fair deal". Look at Steam holiday sales for what a competitive pricing can do for user uptake of a product.At the current pricing there just simply isn't enough on offer to compete with my other interests and encourage me to part with more of my disposable income.

Should a time come when the content and available useage delivers in a way that my wallet can justify I think I would return quite happily.Anyway I hope I have been fair in my comments, and if anything I have said is incorrect, such as in how limited the use is, then please feel free to correct me.

Thanks again.

Hmm this was all paragrahed out and formatted. I seem to be having problems with this forum.

EDIT - Fixed I think :)

Thank you for your consideration Ken. We hope to see you this way again soon.

I am too lazy to read all of the above. Please sumarize to an old Clone Wars vet, Ken is for or against IGP ?

Thanks Edwin :)

@Darth Vadar - in short, generally I am for iGP but at this point won't be continuing due to:

1 - Far too limited in its use for me to feel it worthwhile subscribing. It must remember it is competing for my disposable income with other interests that also want a subscription, and tend to offer more for similar costs.

2 - Free to play version is too limited in its race info.

Actually while I am here, let me give an example of how it is too limited in its available useage for me to subscribe.

I am a member of an Australian gaming forum that has 1000's of active members daily. There is a good group of guys there interested in racing/sim racing. I would have loved to been able to convince these guys to take part in iGP and set up a private league for us that ran once a week, I'm sure many would have a lot of fun taking part, as would I.

But then that locks me into just that league, and then I can no longer have teams in other leagues where I want to compete. I then would have to look at a second account, and a second subscription (as the free to play version just isn't enjoyable enough with its lacking race info). Getting me to subscribe once is already proving hard, getting me to subscribe twice just will not happen. There is no good reason why at the present cost for a yearly subscription that I should be so limited in how much I can take part in iGP.

Ken I have to say I fully agree with you. I'm in a position where I am considering paying and whilst it is only a small amount of a year. It's still money and I could spend it on something else. Like you I fully understand the game is fairly new and that there are a lot of developments in the pipeline. But why would I pay now for something that might make the game more enjoyable in the future. But all of that aside I do enjoy the game and I would like to support it but looking around the forums there are some serious issues that needs addressing and a few more options would be fantastic as well.

On a side note my dream is for someone to make a fully emersive Formula 1 game. Similar to the style of Football Manager.

Well perhaps Ken is gone now, but I just saw this thread pop to the top, so I'll reply anyway:

I am a paying member, yet I completely agree with Ken's point of view. It is quite a bit expensive for what you can get out of it, especially compared to actual racing games. The reason I pay and continue to play is there is simply nothing else out there that comes near the stategic aspects of the game. I am an F1 fanatic, and really enjoy the challenge of formulating a strategy for a race based on past experience and conditions, and then at times deciding if and how to modify that stategy live in race. Once you have levelled up and things like KERS and DRS come into play, you really do have to monitor your race sector by sector, as well as keep an eye on what stategy others are doing.

That's not to mention if you join a good league and have a bunch of like minded folks, the friendly banter can be fun as well. As a fellow Aussie, if you decide to take it up again, I thoroughly reccomend the 'Aussie F1' league.

I should clarify. I am posting from my 2nd account. My main account is the one I pay for 2d on. :)

Ken C i completley agree with you.

Unfortunatley i'm not in a position to spend £30 a year for a browser game, don't get me wrong, it's a great, fun game but like i say, £30 was definatley a shock when i considered becoming a full member.

As you pointed out, i also have two accounts (this being my second, learning account), another thing i agree with is that on the "non 2d" timing screen, you have hardly any control, one of the biggest issues for me is that it doesn't tell me what lap im on. :P

Aside these problems i have as a new, but enthusiastic member, i thank the Devs for the great work they have put into the game thus far and i hope they can put these "critisisms" to good use. :)

Adolf, the timing screen does show which lap you are on, it is displayed under "GAP" for the leader & then showing the gap to each car

Ahh i hadn't seen that either, i was looking in the corner like how it shows on the 2d screen. :)

thanks.

Just remember £29.99 a year is £2.49 a month. Surely one can for-go a pack of cigarettes for a years worth of Dot Racing.

We do have a lot going on in development, and the rate of development is starting to increase.  The rate of actual releases should increase in due course as a result.  We have some updates in the pipeline that address some of Ken's concerns head on, so it's nice to see we have been working in the right direction!

I understand the game is still in development and feel I should not have to “pay to be a beta tester” at times when bugs pops up or I get dropped mid race HOWEVER I am a happy paid subscriber as the good outweighs the bad overall and it should be getting even better with each update.

My proposed solution (in part at least) to Ken’s post and something I would love to see is Multiple teams per account! But put a limit of maybe 3 teams per account. Think of it like Red Bull and Toro Rosso. Many people here have 2 or more accounts already and are running “B” “C” or even “D” teams (I have 2 paid and 2 free accounts but I will only be renewing 1 paid account)

I feel it opens up the possibility of more racing in more leagues. Your A team can be a 1 or 2 race per week league and your B team can join an everyday league that’s just for fun. So if you are feeling like a race but your A team does not race for another 4 days you can race with your B team. If you are really keen you can join 2 every day leagues and run one at 6pm and one at 8pm….you can even do some really crazy things like B team races B league at 7pm 25% race distance as a “test/practice” session then A team races A league 8pm 100% race distance. So you have all your data, tire, fuel info from the 7pm session.

I don’t know about the other guys but it is a pain to log out and log back in for my B team and then again for my C team. Plus it can get confusing at times. To have all 3 teams under one account would be perfect. Each team would be completely separate and would have a different background image or menu color scheme to differentiate.

It might also help keep people in the game longer and help with the learning curve as it seems there are a lot of new managers in the rookie level that get smashed buy guys running lvl 6 drivers with DRS and even KERS. These new managers feel they can only commit to 1-2 days a week but after round 5 they are so far off the pace they are getting lapped every race let along even coming close to leading a lap, so they leave never to be seen again. However they might have be able to do an “extra” race here or there outside of what would be there A team and run a few B team races that levels up quicker as it is a 5 day a week league even thou they are not online for every race and then this and thats gets unlocked and now they have DRS and they learn you cant run a no stopper 100% race at Turkey on softs :O before you know it its season 2 for the B team and it now becomes the A team……..happened to me anyway..Thoughts

This has been mentioned before (multiple teams per account) but no one really seemed fond of the idea. I'd love to see it aswell though. It's actually really annoying trying to monitor multiple accounts (OK, we have the option to not have multiple teams, but lets face it: 90% of us do it xD) on differnet user names.

It would just be a butt load easier to be able to manage your teams under one user name. I guess they could argue that it couldn't work because we could then gain access to our subscription on multiple teams, but I'm sure there are ways to work around it.

I also have two paid accounts, and tbh I'll probably keep paying for both as long as the subscription gives me an advantage over being a free user.

I just think it would be cool if you could have it like up the top where you have league, manager, team, igp etc, above that was the same type of menu but for each teams etc and you could flick between them. I don't even know if that is possible but if it was I'd +1 it for sure.