We take a step out of the virtual world, to interview the man who made the series possible. Q1: Where did the idea for the F1F Virtual Grand Prix Championship come from?
Nic Morely: It came out of nowhere really. I mean I always thought of doing something like this but never got around to it. Basically I thought it would be cool for users on a F1 based website to be drivers and team managers. I chose F1 Fanatic, but the idea of users as drivers and teams never came to be. Now we have users as managers with made up drivers. It works well though and I’m very proud of how everything has come together. The guys in the series are great. The idea would never have come alive if it wasn’t for them and their genuine interest. Q2: Were you surprised about how much interest you got in the series? NM: I was. Sadly, originally when I wanted users as drivers there just wasn’t enough. A few guys got interested and we were able to do a grid of nine I think it was. Then all of a sudden Lucas, Bradley, and Joey joined in the dying minutes you could say. It was pretty nice to have a grid of twelve. Then we got more interest as it went along so I’m very honoured to run a series for such great people. Q3: You run Free Practice, then Qualifying then the Race, then you edit the race for a YouTube video. How long does this process take? NM: Firstly I need to code everyone’s strategies and developments into the game – and sometimes driver changes which can be a lot of buggering around. Practice is only 15 minutes long. Qualifying is 30 minutes. The race, is well the usual length. Once that is done I will write up the practice results. The next day the qualifying report. In the meantime I like to start recording the race highlights with Fraps. It can take a bit of time. The worst part is editing the race review on Windows Movie Maker: it can be painfully slow and sometimes I just don’t have the motivation. I then go in to do up the race results and all for the video. It is then uploaded to YouTube which is quicker these days because of new broadband – half hour or so. I then post it on the forums and that is that. Q4: How long do you think you will continue the series, and if you do stop, do you have anyone lined up to replace you? NM: I have no intentions to stop the series. I love running it. It’s kind of like a hobby – that might sound silly to some, but I genuinely like doing this. Perhaps some time down the track the series could be placed on hold. Realistically I can’t do this for the rest of my life, and sometime in the future I just won’t have the time to upkeep the series – plain and simple. Maybe one day someone can be lined up incase I get lost in the forest or taken by aliens. However that person will need to be trained – that might sound obnoxious but I would only want the series moving in to someone’s else hands if it was done properly. Honestly there is a lot to know but it’s not hard when you know what your doing. The series would need to keep its unique values and core rules. Keep it’s legacy.
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