Why I'm not looking foward to DTM (as a player). And why I'm really looking foward to it (as a carset maker).

Now, first things first, I mean no disrespect to anybody who has worked on the carset. That isn't what this is about.

The simple truth is that DTM has never, and will never interest me. And neither will the carset. The thing is, it's trying to appeal to people who would otherwise tune in for Grand Prixs, and it tries to be 'F1 with tin tops'. And that, I assure you, is truely devastatingly bad.

They aren't tin tops, and they don't provide the racing that you should see with conventional touring cars or GT cars, cars that are actually built for the roads. (But what really annoys me here is where people from DTM say that this is a good thing, in what way exactly? Why do you think that a car where it's really difficult to pass for no reason is a good thing?) And they don't appeal to the part of me that actually likes open wheel racing either, simply, what's the point? If you ask me, DTM is just a mess.

And I just think that the carset will dissapoint. We often talk about fans' carsets and players' carsets. And this is a fans' carset, something people look foward to, something that brings in new players, but just doesn't cut the mustard, doesn't stay interesting, doesn't actually help the players much. Maybe it's better than some (actually, it's far better than a whole load of things that have also been suggested), but it is still a fans' carset.

But still, DTM as a carset is inevitable. It had to come at some point, and it's all very well that it's now. Doesn't really matter.

However, there is one thing that I really am looking foward to here - weight penalties. I spoke to Matt about all these, and he said something good, that these varied with each car and with each track, and the same for Super GT. Now that's just brilliant. It's been done properly, it's applicable for many more carsets, and it'll help things in future.

So, I have mixed feeling about the imminent carset. No doubt, people will play it, and will join the game thanks to it, but it doesn't interest me. And, after a short while, neither will it interest most players, sad to say, in my opinion. But still, it's good news, all carsets are.

Yowch

These last two days haven't been fun for anybody who is leader of a clan. Plenty to worry about.

The whole issue is that a couple of days ago, this guy hacked into Chris Homan's account. And you know how he got the password? He read it in clan chat. Yowch.

Now, you might just think that this is unlikely to happen to you, for you know everyone in your clan, and you can trust them, and so can everybody else. But, well, it only takes five seconds to read a clan chat message. So, this guy could come in with a clean record, read an acount sitting thread, and be done with it, he's in your account. And if you're in a clan like Rising Stars, or a low down clan hungary for members, he'll get in really very easily, through no fault of the leader.

The issue is that we can't just not let people in because they might want to hack into an account. Unless we set up our clan on the basis of invitation only, but that, for many, is not acceptable. That isn't the philosophy of some clans, that's not what we're about, not what we want to do. We want to be open to all.

Thankfully, the guy is now permabanned, and that's great, we can have some confidence. But still, watch out for these things, and be careful with your pass. Don't post it in clan chat, although you might think it to be limited to those few in the clan, anybody could join at any time.