“We intended Jokers to be something that helped people and not affect gameplay, but in an effort to push more features into the product, we got the implementation on this one quite wrong,” reads a statement by its publishers, Motorsport Games.
“The inequality to ranking effects isn’t a fair way to handle this.”
Announced earlier this week ahead of a Version 1.4 game update releasing on the 28th July, the joker system originally would provide a driver the ability to wipe driver rank and safety rating from a particular (solo driver only) race.
The actual race results wouldn’t change, but the ratings and rankings that help determine splits could be. One joker could be played every 10 races, a maximum of three could be held at one time.
Additionally, which led to ‘pay-to-win’ sentiment, the feature was only going to be available for those who subscribe to the Pro ($48 per year) or Pro+ ($84 per year) optional memberships.
“There’s still just under one week until the game update arrives for Le Mans Ultimate; Motorsport Games and Studio 397 would be best advised to make the most of the next seven days and consider their options,” we said earlier this week.
Now it has been confirmed that the feature will not be behind the paywall, but instead open to all owners and drivers with Le Mans Ultimate.
Earning a joker will be more challenging too, taking 10 races to complete to earn one, then another 20 for the second and a further 30 for the third (60 races in total for three jokers, for example).
The company reiterated that “badge bans and Safety Rank are still in effect and our new protest system and new dedicated stewarding will be handling these players” in response to feedback that the joker system could encourage worse driving standards.
It reiterated that it was designed to alleviate the frustration when a driver has a PC or internet issue, only to receive a ding to their ratings.
“We’ll be monitoring the usage and tweaking the time to earn the jokers as necessary through RaceOS in the coming weeks and months,” it said.
It also confirmed that the Version 1.4 update will still be released on schedule with these changes, but that some UI text may mention jokers as being part of the subscription, which they won’t be, and these references are expected to be removed in subsequent hotfixes.
Traxion recently conducted an interview with Motorsport Games CEO Stephen Hood, covering fundamental multiplayer changes, DLC pricing, console versions and community feature requests. We’ve released the whole interview on YouTube and Spotify.
Well that’s unfortunately too late. Once I saw this nonsense I just pirated the game. Sick of these racing game developers adding these extra charges for their games. The hardware is expensive enough, I’m not paying more for a game after I already bought it. iRacing is even worse. Bought a month pass only to find out I also need to buy the cars and tracks ontop of paying every month.
I agree that the joker rollout was nonsense, but I hard disagree with pirating any game. Without paying customers, paying wages for hardworking developers, the game doesn’t exist.
The premise of this entire game is in-accessibility, glad people aren’t putting up with it just because it’s officially licensed and has good physics/realism.
Discussion
Well that’s unfortunately too late. Once I saw this nonsense I just pirated the game. Sick of these racing game developers adding these extra charges for their games. The hardware is expensive enough, I’m not paying more for a game after I already bought it. iRacing is even worse. Bought a month pass only to find out I also need to buy the cars and tracks ontop of paying every month.
I agree that the joker rollout was nonsense, but I hard disagree with pirating any game. Without paying customers, paying wages for hardworking developers, the game doesn’t exist.
The premise of this entire game is in-accessibility, glad people aren’t putting up with it just because it’s officially licensed and has good physics/realism.