Racing, History, Death - ajaxab's Blog

ajaxab's Blog

Racing, History, Death

Posted on March 5, 2012 at 04:35 PM.

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So I just finished watching a show on the Velocity network about Formula 1 racing during the years 1960-1975. This period was one of, if not the most dangerous time in racing history. Over this fifteen year span, 22 drivers died. The deaths occurred for a number of reasons. Part of the problem was the cars themselves. Some teams, like Lotus, sought to make their cars lighter and lighter, but without the accompanying testing that needed to occur to ensure driver safety. Parts ended up being too fragile. Additionally, tire failures were not uncommon. A second part of the problem involved the tracks. The tracks were terrifying to drive. Spectators could stand just about wherever they wanted, there were no protective barriers and some tracks went into forests making it easy to hit a tree if one lost control. Finally, the safety preparations from race organizers were non-existent. Jackie Stewart talked about how he crashed at Spa-Francorchamps in the early 1970s. It took 30 minutes for someone to get him out of his car as he was fading in and out of consciousness. Apparently, another driver stopped to help him out and needed to borrow wrenches from bystanders just to take the steering wheel off of Stewart's car to allow him to get out of it. In another instance in 1973, Roger Williamson passed away when his car burst into a ball of flames at Zandvoort in Holland. The firemen could not get anywhere near him in time to put out the blaze. In 1970, Jochen Rindt became the first person to win the Formula 1 title posthumously after dying in the Italian Grand Prix.

So why this brief history lesson? Well, it's time that a game designer steps up and takes us back to this era. Papyrus did it in 1998 with their 'Grand Prix Legends' and it appears that a community has attempted to keep the game alive. But that was 14 years ago. There needs to be a new version of a racing game based on this era. It needs to go beyond 'Grand Prix Legends' by not only simulating the driving of the period, but the distinct possibility that one could die or have a teammate die. The game needs to take this death seriously as an homage to the brave drivers who stepped into these cars. How one would do that would be tricky. The game might need to be as much of an rpg as a racing simulation and would likely need to have a carefully crafted story mode. Whether gamers used to Gran Turismo or Forza could put up with dying and having one's career end might be another story. The game could also trace the development of racing technology during this period and the challenges and dangers that went along with innovations that didn't always work. Considerable risk/reward decisions could be laid out to players who might be able to take advantage of a new part, but again, risk dying in doing so.

I think I've only scratched the surface of what could be an exciting change of pace from the contemporary racing game. There are a lot of possibilities here!

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