Many good ideas and theories on participation (and a few crazy ones as well
)
It's ultimately up to us as organizers to figure a lot of this out. But I will provide my perspective as well, since what we do from a TT perspective is the engine that drives these online races.
Remember that our online races were really initially a grassroots effort from 3 guys in Division 3 (3D3) who wanted to organize weekly online race events that used the same combo as our TT's. It was immediately successful, and grew in participation and breadth over time. The basic premise was a successful one, no matter the combo. Those guys were recruited to staff to run WRS Online, and this forum was born.
We're not going to start setting up combos to suit online racing alone. Every race is not going to be a race car at a real world circuit. We use the entire breadth of cars, tracks, and race types available, in an effort to fully utilize the game, help drivers improve their skills, and to create broad appeal.
From my perspective, these are the things that are impacting the participation. Some of these we can influence, some we cannot:
- Marketing - I featured the WRS on the front page in weeks 1 and 3 of the TT, and highlighted the online races at the same time. The threads were admittedly less organized at that time, and we'll be giving WRS a lot more front page exposure in the very near future. The 15th anniversary of WRS is coming up later this month, and we have a very special TT along with an exciting online special event in the works. This, in and of itself, should increase our participation in a big way. In the meantime, I will begin cross posting the Online event thread with a redirect in the TT forum for awareness each week. And all of you can help market by encouraging your fellow participants to join us.
- Increase the size of our TT pool - You guys might not be picking up on this, but our TT pool is smaller than it was, even at the start of GT6. The first few weeks had about 60% of GT6 participation levels, but we (and the game platform) have done a better job of hanging onto participation, and we are currently 80% of GT6. Our registry pool of drivers is about half the size that GT6 was initially. Keep in mind, TT's began sooner than they did on either GT5 or GT6, and we had no qualifier. So people are not yet bored of what the game has to offer. More theories around that in point 5 below.
- Make races approachable for new participants - We used to have a "Rookie School" at times on GT5 and GT6, in which we opened up the WW race lobby up to 2 hours prior to the beginning of the actual race. And we would have new drivers pair up with experienced drivers, who would coach them in on online racing. We can do that again, but we need some interested folks to step up. This does not even have to be formally organized, remember that. Even if you guys want to make a thread in here to say "I am going to do this, at this time, on this day", whether that's Saturday before the TT, or not - Do it. You don't have to wait for us to help build the participant pool.
- Race Times - The times are built to suit the organizers. We've done surveys in the past to ask membership what they prefer. We've added the WW event (there were originally ONLY Wednesday races). We at one point even had a third Wednesday TT for the Asia/Pacific (Aussie) time zone(s). Again, if people are interested in specific times, and in potentially organizing for those times, speak up. We're not going to run you off. Remember, this began as a grass roots series that was user organized.
- Sport Mode and the Game Platform - This last one is my theory on part of the impact to #2. I believe with the new game, people have more things to focus on. They want to level up their driver rating, do some credit gathering for cars, and Sport Mode/PD Organized events are the way to do that. It's likely giving many people enough to do. And secondary theory is that maybe Sport Mode is scaring people out of online racing entirely. Have you guys been in those lobbies?
In any case, there's no silver bullet here. We'll focus on points 1 and 2. The members can potentially help with 3 and 4. And there's nothing we can do about point 5.
If you guys have suggestions on 1 and 2, we'll listen. If you have ideas on 3 and 4, feel free to execute.
We'll allow point 5 to take care of itself.
) and this weeks little car on big track
(with time to read the paper on the straights)...so why is no one here.....because they won't or they are intimidated. Lets fix it....it was really boring today as I was best of the rest when Quentin fell off 
.
