Since Sunday November 10, 40 sailors have been racing to win the Vendée Globe. But they are not the only ones, this is also the case for hundreds of thousands of other people, precisely 524,672 skippers counted on Monday November 11 evening. They sail, not on the water, but on their tablet, their smartphone or their computer thanks to Virtual Regatta, a real-time offshore racing simulation game.
This phenomenon was created in October 2006 by Philippe Guigné, creator of online games who until then was struggling a bit. The Rochelais, a sailing fan, then had the idea to develop a virtual race which would be held in parallel of the Route du Rhum. From this first edition, 50,000 players participatemost of whom know nothing about it.
Virtual Regatta is accessible to everyone. You sign up, you are given a boat and then everything has been simplified. The game interface shows you your boat and gives you in real time the same instructions as real skippers : the weather conditions, the position of other boats, including those of the real competitors to know where you are.
In an extremely simple way, you make your decisions. Change of course or not, change of sail to adapt to the wind. It's up to you to make the right choices, which will be validated or not depending on your ranking.
A free game with paid options
Virtual Regatta is what we call “free to play”, a free game to playbut the game offers you, by putting your hand in your pocket, additional options that allow you to be more efficient and, above all, faster. Even without that, you quickly get the hang of the game. Obviously, the more time you spend on it, the more you can adapt your strategy and gain places.
For example, the winner of the previous Virtual Vendée GlobeJean-Claude Goudon, a retiree who lives in Drôme, set his alarm every day at 4:55 a.m.time when the first weather forecast of the day was published. And then he logged in every two hours until 11 p.m.
Virtual Regatta is realistic and screaming truth, we believe we are on board thanks to a 3D view. Real professional sailors play and train on it, as races are held all year round. This is the case of Franck Gabart or Armel Le Cléac'h. The craziest thing happened in 2008. Loïck Peyron, third in the Vendée Globe, gave up. He returns home and calls Philippe Guigné. He asks him to put his boat in Virtual Regatta right where he had dismasted so he can finish the race.
If that tempts you, you can still register and take the Vendée Globe en route, to a mid-ranking position. But be careful, it's addictive and you're embarking on a three-month journey where the biggest risk is that it's your darling who ends up setting sail.
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