Something to Learn About Something to Learn

I’ve been doing some investigating into racing simulators recently and it has given me a whole new perspective on what it feels like to know almost nothing (okay absolutely nothing) about a new interest. I’m finding out that trying to gather enough pertinent information is a struggle. Even any information is a struggle.

Basically, for simulator racing you need to find out about several different components, such as cockpit seats, steering wheel and pedals sets, the different gaming platforms, and finally which games are worth the money. A daunting task for several reasons.

You see, I learned a long time ago that all reviews are not created equal. Here’s a great example of this from my first editor at ATV Television. He had realized that now that he was involved in the ATV industry that he needed to pay more attention to ATVs. After buying a few magazines (there were no other TV shows, and only one internet site back then), he mentioned to me how amazed he was that we attended the same new model introduction as those magazine guys, we rode the same machines, and we sat around having drinks and talking after all the riding was done. But yet, when the reviews came out, their reviews were considerably different than ours. Until that revelation, he said he had treated all the articles and reviews that he read in the video and hunting magazines as gospel – always 100% correct. Now all of a sudden he didn’t know what to believe and what not too.

It’s almost as if there needs to be a review of the reviewers in order to find out which are the good ones!

And now, I find myself in that same position. After being in the off-road review business for almost 20 years I’ve grown accustomed to being able to screen the reviews to know which are valid, which are off base, and which are pure hyperbole.

But now I’m investigating an area where I know nothing – not of the product, nor of the reviewers of the products. So now I’m left with first, trying to find the product reviews I need, and second, trying to figure out how valid they are for me.

So what? Well, I can now better empathize with those of you struggling to find out more about what I take so for granted. So I promise to try to be more helpful in my information for those of you newest to our sport.

And I will try not to get involved in another industry simply because there’s a need ;-)