Railworks America

All of us here love trains obviously, but if you think about it most of the "gamers" out there wouldn't even give this game a second look. We're only a small percentage of people that this game appeals to and thats just how it is.

As to that video...

That is a stupid video. I should report you, Brian.

Yes, RSC is trying for a broader audience. What game company wouldn't? You want to rest on your laurels, or make some money? I will not use any kind of controller, other than a joystick (flight sims) or wheel and pedals (for race sims) With RW I use keyboard/ mouse. Raildriver is broken, plus I need money to buy more games (oh, yeah, food, too) RSC is trying their best to get things right, and to increase the customer base. Solid business!

When the SP-1 was coming I started to check and follow for a while users online playing Railworks3 on Steam Stats board. Very few people IMHO: average Peak Today only 1,600 and average Current Players online only 500. I and some friends thought they would be at least 10K (Peak) and 3K (Current). I'm no long sure, since then, how big indeed is the users' base of the game.... especially with such often sales "off" seasons and considering that relatively few users know how to play off-line on Steam a mistery!

Today the stats are better: 3,400 Peak and 1,300 Current, but this is still much less than I ever figured...
http://store.steampowered.com/stats/

At least they know for themselves:


Railsimulator.com - "I have no idea what I'm doing"
(just posted on their Facebook wall)

I just got this game from a sale as I have been eyeballing it for some time.....Mind you, I play RPG's, FPS, MMO's and other types of games.

If anything, you are alienating gamers who want to try something new. I love this game - yeah, I'm a noob, but that doesn't mean I dont have a passion for trains. 0_o Sounds like you are generalizing more then anything else.
I have no clue what I'm doing, but I'm learning and trying - and most importantly - having fun. Got the game + Horseshoe pack. Thinking about getting the "Trains vs Zombie" expansion as well.

Point is - Yes - more people are starting to play this game. Some will like it, some will hate it. More Pew Pew, less QQ. You should he happy the game base is growing. More gamers = More devs = More content + higher chance of another train sim.

I'll bet the stats are higher in winter. It's the middle of vacation season here. I play "offline" most of the time... I wonder how many of us do that?

Don

I saw that picture on Facebook this morning. LOL!

Cecillia wrote:I just got this game from a sale as I have been eyeballing it for some time.....Mind you, I play RPG's, FPS, MMO's and other types of games.

If anything, you are alienating gamers who want to try something new. I love this game - yeah, I'm a noob, but that doesn't mean I dont have a passion for trains. 0_o Sounds like you are generalizing more then anything else.
I have no clue what I'm doing, but I'm learning and trying - and most importantly - having fun. Got the game + Horseshoe pack. Thinking about getting the "Trains vs Zombie" expansion as well.

Point is - Yes - more people are starting to play this game. Some will like it, some will hate it. More Pew Pew, less QQ. You should he happy the game base is growing. More gamers = More devs = More content + higher chance of another train sim.

Your just what we needed here, a new perspective. It is fun and we all were noobs at one time.

I am having fun too. Some folks out there are really good at route building, some are good at operation, what I had found I can take a standard scenario, clone it, experiment, screw it up, reclone it, the experiment some more then have fun with what I did. I could sit here and complain all I want, but I was one of the many who paid the 50 bucks for the game as DLC from steam and pretty much have almost everything from the DLC that is North American except the NEC. What direction RSC is heading in, I have no clue but right now I am having fun with what I have.

Glenn

Brian, why you let a new player run Donner? You know it's junk! Run B-SB, it's been upgraded. Or HSC. Ah, you are terrorist, trying to sabotage sim (you do know I'm just kidding with you, B) Or the fantastic Durango to Silverton?

It almost sounds like RSC should just cater to the "true" train enthusiust (what is a true train enthusiasts, anyway, please give me a definition? ) and just forget the casual simmer/gamer. Lets not forget how people become "true" train enthusiasts. It starts with an experience, such as a train set, experience, or even a SIM/GAME(how mine started 10 years ago)! Just because a person isn't a train nut, doesn't mean that Railworks can't pull them in.

Why can't RSC try to bring this game to a wider audience, why do they only have to worry about "true" enthusiasts? Just because RSC is releasing something for people other than hardcore fans, why does it make it so wrong?

Even if they are just trying to grab more people for more money, what is the issue, isn't that what any company is trying to do? People don't usually establish a company just for their own joy, almost always they want to make money too.

Cecillia wrote:I just got this game from a sale as I have been eyeballing it for some time.....Mind you, I play RPG's, FPS, MMO's and other types of games.

If anything, you are alienating gamers who want to try something new. I love this game - yeah, I'm a noob, but that doesn't mean I dont have a passion for trains. 0_o Sounds like you are generalizing more then anything else.
I have no clue what I'm doing, but I'm learning and trying - and most importantly - having fun. Got the game + Horseshoe pack. Thinking about getting the "Trains vs Zombie" expansion as well.

Point is - Yes - more people are starting to play this game. Some will like it, some will hate it. More Pew Pew, less QQ. You should he happy the game base is growing. More gamers = More devs = More content + higher chance of another train sim.

Cecillia..
What you'll find is that there are many levels to the way people approach RW, as there is with any sim. Many of these folks are old rail hands. People who have actually worked and loved railroading in real life. For them, mistakes such as the wrong trucks or paint color is an insult. It denegrates and devalues not only the wk that was done on he real train, but their part in that history. Some folks are Just ardent rail fans. They may not have the history of working for a rr company, but they've studied and loved the trains just as much, and feel a bit cheated and insulted themselves, when a company that professes to model a train, doesnt even do enough research to get it right in the first place. Others of us are just more amiable about building tracks and having fun. We're what you could call the fantasy players. We have fun too, but arent as demanding about a route, a model or scenario as others may be.
However, modelling couplers that stretch like rubber bands to over ten feet in length, robbing a big boy of so much power it can barely pull even one passenger car, and not caring enough to fix the problems on a route that is at the heart of americas history is anathema.
These folks arent crying. They're angry. They arent playing a game. They're recreationists, and they are recreating pieces of history, commerce, and geography, that they love. I'm personally happy to paint my centenial in the blue colors of rest in peace rail road, but theres a lot of folks here who would see that as an insult to history.
Pam

I am one of those 'common gamers' I guess. Prior to trainsimming I played CRPG's (anything by BioWare, Elder Scrolls series etc), some MMO stuff (EQ1, EVE, WoW, LOTRO), flight sims like IL2 and lately Rise of Flight/DCS series. I was thumbing through Steam's sim category one fine day in the Spring of 2011 when I came across RailWorks 2. I have a good friend in my games group who trainsimmed (MSTS) and used to tell me how relaxing and fun it was so I was already curious.

I took a chance, bought RW2 and immediately fell in love with the sim- warts and all. I've been playing it fairly steady since that day and enjoy it enough to learn how to build scenarios etc. Best thing for me was I knew nothing really about trains, especially British and German rail, and very little about North American rail. What this sim has done is open up a whole new world of interest and my enthusiasm finds me researching and studying rail in Europe and North America.

It matters to me not if a gamepad controller is added- its no more or less realistic than using a keyboard and mouse- as I can't afford a Raildriver. Just to point out, my favourite milsim, ArmA 2, has options to use keyboard/mouse, joystick and pedals, steering wheel and pedals...and a gamecontroller...and I still sim-play it.

Anyway, if RSC make the game more accessible by adding a controller-use option and that sells more copies, then why not? I'm just a 'common gamer' who fell in love with railsimming because I accidently came across the Steam store zone for RSC and was intrigued enough to try it. Can't be all that bad?

heheh.. I've got two joysticks i use while programjing aircraft. One is a saitek X-52 for general light production and the other is an X-65 for when i'm so deep in it i'm drooling and need exact data to work with.. I'd love to have that x-65 working in railworks.. man would that be sweet.. and yeah, i'm pretty common too, even less so. I do most rpgs to get out aggression. I play em through the first time on normal, then i turn on god mode and relax..

At first I thought "yuck" about the controller, but then I have tried playing RW while in bed and the wireless keyboard/mouse can be unwieldy at best, so this might be just the ticket :).