Sim-Racing Diaries: The Matrix

Me for Shawmut Racing, sponsored by Soridas Holding Co. 

I have always loved motorsport, art, technology and competition. What easily combines this for me: racing games. Thus, I have always enjoyed some kind of racing game going back to the days of Pole Position. Racing myself, racing my family using a joystick. Well, I am old now, but still race. Why? For the love of motorsport, art, technology and competition. However, instead of a joystick, I currently use a steering wheel with 11 buttons and an assortment of 9 dials, switches, knobs that can control over 60 functions. That's not including other peripherals like pedals or shifters.   

I used to get puzzled or judgmental looks when someone found out I played games as an adult. "You don't look like the type to play games." The usual reply was, "I like racing" and then I would try to explain all of the intricacies that come from that simple statement. As the person's eyes glazed over, they ended up still confident that the activity had no "value". However over the years, we have seen the creation, legitimization, proliferation and mainstreaming of the e-sports business that has made it over a billion dollar enterprise. This does not include all the ancillary activities related to social media that in and of itself, is a business for many people. E-Sports including "motorsports" is now a recognized Olympic sport.  

In a nutshell, a familiar parallel is comic books. People used to be made fun of because they read comic books. An easy trope is the comic book guy from The Simpsons. Then in a feat of re-branding and co-opting, comics became graphic novels and now it feels like every movie is based on those stories and characters. What we know as Marvel today, is worth about $5B dollars with some figures going as high as $10B dollars, was bankrupt in the 1990s. The same re-branding applies to gaming, especially the racing genre in which the language has transitioned from racing game to racing simulation. Which for all intents and purposes, is not that far from what has actually happened given the advances of computer hardware and software and the fact that professional racing teams have been utilizing racing simulators for at least 20 years or so. A lot of that technology has trickled down to masses. The software/programs I mostly use are iRacing and rFactor2. However, there are several additional programs that others use such as Assetto Corsa and Automobilista family of programs. 

Shawmut Racing Common Man logo 

A long explanation short, in the iRacing world to start a career you basically register as yourself, which yields some form of personal accountability in a virtual space, pay your subscription fee, and that's it. Given the proliferation of e-sports racing and the sheer market power of iRacing, you basically have an online racing career analogous to "real racers" as long as your good and pay your subscription. What a world we live in. So, what about me? I have participated in iRacing causally for about 7 or 8 years. What about motorsport, art, technology and competition? I think the aspects of motorsports, technology and competition are pretty self explanatory on why someone can find it interesting. This ranges from the business of motorsport in general, understanding the technological advancements not only in racing, but in home computing and software, to the simple act of competing against yourself, the clock, AI, or another human being in a virtual space.

From an artist point of view, I create liveries (i.e. paint schemes) in addition to racing using software like Photoshop, GIMP or in-game features. From my recollection, my experience doing these went back to the early Forza Motorsport games. These include some recreations or modern interpretation of historic or current paint schemes. For a period, I made a few for others to use, but stopped as I like having my own unique versions. In 2017, Shawmut Racing was born, now complete with an original brand logo. Nike and Michael Jordan have their Jumpman, but I have my Common Man. For kicks, I went ahead and started dreaming up a DaSilva Creative Universe, or the Real DCU (ha!), which I will probably start posting on #artofmythmaking. So, activities that were done solely to exist in a quasi-fantasy world of the creator and the small niche group of people that saw it, are effectively activities that are a basis of branding and business building, which for me does not seem right. However, in the modern day economy of attention, its exactly right and all the tools exist to earn real benefit from an entirely simulated world. In the words of Morpheus, "what is real?"