Video games are no longer the dominion of nerds and outcasts that you knew in high school. They’re now the locus of a nearly $100 billion industry that has reached worldwide and come back with over (and this is somewhat educated guessing) 500,000 titles in existence, spanning the electronic gamut of smartphones to consoles to home computers.

As in any artistic medium, the envelope is pushed more and more with every year: better graphics, better sound, better gameplay, better game mechanics, and so on. Genre after genre is invented and reinvented in the name of expression and exploration, and your results may vary on what you like or dislike. But one genre still has yet to receive much attention: off-roading.

Spintires did a great job of simulating what it’s like to push giant 4x4s through mud. Now, we want a sequel, and it’s unlikely due to a fracas with the creator and publisher.

This isn’t to say there haven’t been some decent off-road games. The first that comes to mind is SpinTires, a 2014 release from a Russian programmer that did a pretty darn good job simulating the experience of mud bogging in various Russian trucks and SUVs. I’ve played it, even with a full Logitech steering wheel and pedal set with manual shifter, and I’ve had my fun. The added bonus was the community of players, who modified the game to let me drive virtual representations of popular 4x4s like the Ford Raptor, Toyota Tacoma, Jeep Wrangler, and so on. Online play was available too, so I could play with friends.

But that was about it. There was no racing aspect, no career mode, no upgrade system, nothing beyond the pure experience of man, machine, and mud. It was interesting for a while, but not enough to keep me coming back. And the saddest part is that the Russian programmer, Pavel Zagrebelny, has been in a tussle with his publisher and likely won’t be making SpinTires 2 for the foreseeable future.

Forza Horizon 2 had some off-road focus with vehicles like the 2013 Ram Runner.

Other games – Grand Theft Auto V, Forza: Horizon 2, Excite Truck, and so on – paid lip service to off-roading, but didn’t go full-bore. Still other games, like Baja: Edge of Control and Motorstorm nailed down certain aspects of off-road, but didn’t get everything, and look pretty crummy by today’s standards. What I think we’re looking for is a game that centers completely around off-roading, with equal parts attention paid to desert and rockcrawling, as well as some mud bogging and rock bouncing thrown in.

Give us a garage with multiple vehicles to choose from, that we can start small on and upgrade from there with money earned from incremental wins in races. Brand names like Ford, Chevrolet, Volkswagen, Toyota, and so on would really go a long way here, with all of their characteristics kept as well.

Get some of the big sponsors to be involved and lend their logo and likeness to the game – Mickey Thompson, King, KC HiLiTES, BF Goodrich, etc. Do some motion capturing and rendering of racers like Bryce Menzies, Rob MacCachren, BJ Baldwin, and others so the authenticity is there as well. Add in collision damage and realistic depictions of Baja, the Mojave Desert, Deep South rock bouncing competitions, and others to make us feel like we’re really there.

I guess there’s really no way to just demand this of game developers out there. The only way is to do it yourself. Well folks, let’s see what we can do about that. What do you think should be in this awesome, genuine off-road video game?

One thing’s for sure: Nintendo’s Excite Truck did nothing to advance the genre in a realistic manner. It was still fun, though.