Hello All,
I was directed to this thread from Schmiddy (thanks a lot!) as to describe and express my thoughts on Pilsbierbude as probably the most vocal of the International users/sim racers.
First of all, I want to say how much I LOVE the Pilsbierbude and I find it the "Home of GTR2". You are probably THE ONLY remaining active league that races with this sim. I feel I have been "embraced" by many of you and made some new friends that we talk about GTR2, cars in general or out of topic discussions... It is REALLY a nice environment and I thank you for having it like that and be open to foreign people!! Like everything else, there isn't a "perfect place" or a "perfect way" of doing things and thorughout the 1 year that I have fully being part of Pilsbierbude there are - in my opinion - some stuff that are needing... improvement or something else. Let me explain:
1) PBB seems to underutilize something that made GTR2 GREAT: weather. To me a "sim" that doesn't race in the wet and has no 24Hour day/night cycle, etc is NO "sim". This is the SOLE reason why I didn't move - and will never move - to Assetto Corsa, Race Room Racing Experience and anything else that is incomplete and claims to be a "sim" without having the possibility of driving in a REAL weather possible condition!!! This is not Gran Turismo or Forza for crying out loud - even Formula 1 2001 for PS2 HAD wet weather racing and was pretty good! I believe such a community of "sim" racers would have embraced such a feature and run EVERYTHING on changeable weather (maybe 1 server dry?) and not the other way around (and now - no changing weather??? this is crazy!!) Every event should have been changeable weather. Everybody MUST learn how to drive on the wet or else he will never be top notch in the dry rather than in ideal conditions by just mastering the game physics. Summary: It's sim racing. Weather is simulated = changing weather should be used. I believe if you want only dry running you can do that in Gran Turismo or Forza (or now in "sim" games like Assetto Corsa and R3E). But please let GTR2 use one of the features it is good at: weather. Anyway.. disspaointed to have run most my events in dry knowing that there is no option for wet
2) PBB is fun, but it can get frustrating at times. As Silversurfer1967 says there is no policing of rules. People race like maniacs - like it is the last lap every time and it's either now or never! Hot lapping in 2-3 hours races. Result? 50% DNFs (on average) most of them in 1-3 laps and then people leave. Really??? Is this "sportsmanship"??? Apart from crashing and maybe destroy someone's race - saying sorry and continue - sometimes is just NOT enough when I feel you don't mean it! To me ANY racer who comes to either finish 1st or leaves the game is not a racer. You want to go hard and risk it? Then fine. But if you crash STAY in the server and watch the other 60 laps that people do. So you get angry and frustrated that you crashed in Lap 1 and you won't do it again. The "Gran Turismo" mentality has to go. It's not "log in, race, crash, leave" or "log in, race, win". It's being a good sportsman and respect others and yourself. Try to finish the race. Don't crash.. and if you do sit out and watch - so you won't do it again. And most of all: if you crash... TRY to finish!!! Crashes/unluck happens. But it matters to show sportsmanship and finish the race if you can!! Leaving after 30 seconds because you had an accident in 1st corner tells me nothing about your quality as a driver.
Conclusion: PBB is fun, but cannot be serious. I believe it reached the point on me where I want to be racing in more serious and more "structured" leagues. Where there are rules and people get penalties when keep crashing. Where there is a Championship and there is a FULL calendar of events way too early for me to plan and not every Wednesday for the coming Saturday. I need to know now the 2016 schedule for example so I can plan around, etc. So, I had a talk with the some rFactor 2 leagues (as rFactor 2 remains still the "only" new gen option that has wet weather and day/night transition) and also some Championships runnings that I will be probably joining in the future.
3) PBB is too German for me. I do NOT say this is bad. It's YOUR site and YOUR space. I am a... lucky guest
I liked the place and I thought this was fun and that's why I signed up and used it. But now, it's just too much for me specialized in a more focused German community and that's fine - just not for me anymore
I will move to somer more "english speaking" leagues so communication can be more direct and actual meeting locations possible (face-to-face here in America).
Overall: I hear that GTRT2s community is dead, which is bad because that's the primary reason I am leaving GTR2 for - probably - rFactor 2 (and the fact GTR2 will be 10 years old next year!!!). PBB is still the ONLY mainstream community of GTR2 players that's still active. And I HOPE that there will still be people (like this community) playing... At the end it's still the only true "sim" game and I will SURE come and play from time to time in PBB servers and having fun!!
Thanks for listening an international user! I was trying to help and give my opinions NOT to argue! Even if I criticize some parts of PBB, I STILL believe it's a great site running by GREAT people and above all: GREAT FUN!!!
Many, many thanks to PBB for all this time!
George
P.S: Sorry for the English
I hope Google Translate will work for you just fine! It worked for me for your German all this time!!