MSA TORA TCC Season 8 - General Discussion

Ok, we will put this to a public poll. I will clearly state the pros and cons of each so we can get a fair answer.

I can see both points of view, but obviously I'm biased (as a hopeful regular A lobby runner) - ultimately I have to agree with Amarth and Duncan on this one - the TV coverage should show the 'story of the championship', not just a hotch-potch of random races for the sake of giving everyone fair chance to be on TV. The TORA GT coverage started with race one of E lobby, it was a good race, but it was pretty much a standalone, it had no connection to the rest of the championship, the drivers fighting for the title etc.

To S2M Ranger's points, - we (as in the drivers in the championship) are not really the target market of the product (the TV broadcast on European-wide TV) - it's more casual gamers, people who've never done sim-racing and general motorsport fans. Over 10,000 people watched some of the rounds on Motors TV last time, so it's only right to show them the 'best' of the racing TORA has to offer. To me that means showing 'the championship' - people watching want to follow what happens to those drivers throughout the season and showing too many different lobbies will be confusing. Remember that we understand how how lobby system works, that we run 7 or 8 races simultaneously as part of 1 larger race - that's hard for someone not competing or a general motorsport fan to comprehend (I've struggled to explain it to non-racing friends). When someone 'wins' the C lobby, they've actually finished 29th overall - and I don't mean that disparagingly, the fact is that that is a 'race within a race'.

Don't get me wrong, I'm not advocating that all 18 races are A lobby - sometimes an A lobby race can be dull as everyone has their tunes and lines perfected leading to less action, but I do think the priority should be to show more of the racing from say the top three lobbies (A, B, C). Showing a wider audience what we do with sim racing is more than just showing a standalone good race - it's that championship battle, the drivers, the teams, the story as it develops. The Volvo was a huge surprise to everyone at Silverstone National; and the reigning Champion just scraping into A lobby by 0.07s, these are the stories that develop and provide intrigue in a championship. A battle for 78th place in G lobby made be entertaining in itself, but with the time and effort it takes to produce the coverage (capturing, editing, titling, commentary), it would seem a better use of resources to showcase battles that will ultimately decide the fate of the championship.

Standaman94 wrote:Ok, we will put this to a public poll. I will clearly state the pros and cons of each so we can get a fair answer.

+1

TG Wormburner wrote:

BG Hainesy wrote:Agree with Amarth really

On what?

LOL  

LOL, just saw the avatar and assumed. Edited my original post  

Kilroy8 wrote:So. It seems the A lobby drivers want A lobby broadcast, and lower lobby drivers want the other lobbies broadcast. Figures

Not guilty, I won't get near A Lobby in TCC, but that's where the battle for the title will be at. For the random Motors TV viewer (and apparently there are a lot going by the GT season being in the most viewed top 10 on Motors TV) it makes it far easier to follow the championship.

I'm studying broadcast journalism and I agree with most points Mark makes, such as showing all of the GT races from last season in A lobby, maybe that would have garnered more interest in a continued viewer watch, as well as more views on youtube.
Take Iracing for example, we know they can get a lot more cars onto the track because it is a PC game etc, but they only show their best drivers competing against one another, and that makes viewers who might want to get involved think 'hmmmm this seems like a challenge, I might find out if i'm good enough to compete with these guys'.

I think they way I have it my head is, with option 1C, if there's a dull period in the A lobby race, the commentator can say.. "using our virtual technology, lets take a look at the battle for 29th place in C lobby" and then show a bit of action from that, and then resume the action in the A lobby. A bit like say in F1, you follow the battle for the lead for a while, then it gets a bit dull and you see the Force India and Williams battle for a lap or two, and then resume the 'championship' battle again. That way, it feels less disjointed than showing a completely different race, those 'lower lobbies' are part of the same race, just racing virtually - which is actually what we do, it's how you convey that on TV that's the tricky part, which is why I like option 1C.

CQR MAGiC wrote:I think they way I have it my head is, with option 1C, if there's a dull period in the A lobby race, the commentator can say.. "using our virtual technology, lets take a look at the battle for 29th place in C lobby" and then show a bit of action from that, and then resume the action in the A lobby. A bit like say in F1, you follow the battle for the lead for a while, then it gets a bit dull and you see the Force India and Williams battle for a lap or two, and then resume the 'championship' battle again. That way, it feels less disjointed than showing a completely different race, those 'lower lobbies' are part of the same race, just racing virtually - which is actually what we do, it's how you convey that on TV that's the tricky part, which is why I like option 1C.

I like your idea Magic.

I like the idea of 1C, my only issue with it is that it will make things a bit harder to edit, which is why I prefer 1A or C.

You can do it Stan, your videos are awesome! This is kinda new for motorsport broadcasting really, pushing back the boundaries of what's possible - real world series only have 1 limited lobby of cars to feature, TORA has virtual technology that allows us to see the other cars racing lower down the order too, beat that Sky F1 and FOM TV  

Well, I know it's possible It's just time and effort, really. We're lucky we've got a huge window before it's aired, compared to GT where we literally had a week. I'm trying to streamline all the processes so that it makes things a lot easier (on my end at least)

I still don't know how you all turned around the GT coverage on a weekly basis, must've been really hard with that being a weekly championship!

For the staff -

Would it be against regulations if we were to run the same paint just with a different Primary Colour?

I.E

That is fine

Thank you

seems someone been playin too much forza online.......I saw this on Autosport http://www.autosport.com/news/report.php/id/109901

Why is registration closed?

Think its a new TORA setup where all registrations close 24hours before each race

Dang, well maybe next time. This Umbrella Corp. Renault will have to wait for its debut for another time..

Should be open till 7pm BST tomorrow

BG Chucky 82 wrote:To make sure your invited to this race, please post "IN" in the form provided in this post, before 7PM BST on the 17/09/13

Not the race thread, registration thread.

XPR Soundwave wrote:Not the race thread, registration thread.

Oh, yes that's 48 hours.

Kinda figured when I saw it lol I should really plan ahead for last minute decisions

BG Hainesy wrote:Should be open till 7pm BST tomorrow

BG Chucky 82 wrote:To make sure your invited to this race, please post "IN" in the form provided in this post, before 7PM BST on the 17/09/13

XPR Soundwave wrote:Why is registration closed?

Registration Hainesy me' boy, not race sign-in.

Why u no GIF on that one lol