Career mode: absolute necessity or overrated?

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shawtyoner
Now this is intuitive thinking, I like this a lot, interactive career mode. How would you control the online idiots who drive stupidly to ruin other peoples races though?
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You couldn't..
 
DEATHSARTHE
Online career mode is a terrible idea.
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Anything that makes the quality of your enjoyment dependant of random people online is a terrible idea. Offline all the way.
 
DEATHSARTHE
Online career mode is a terrible idea.
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I agree completely.

Only the very good would ever win races. That's stupid.

The current PSN downtime means the game would be a total no go.

The last time there was a survey carried out, it showed only 30% of PS3 owners had their consoles online. That was before GT5 came out therefore could have changed by now. No publisher with a brain would be willing to deliberately disregard 70% of potential purchasers of a game.
 
Tired Tyres
Only the very good would ever win races. That's stupid.
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That's one thing A-Spec is missing. You basically enter a race and win. It's the looming possibility of defeat that make racing worth doing at all.

I'd much prefer online career to offline so long as the pay was reasonable, basically meaning you don't need to come in the top quarter to get good cash. This would remove the need to make races all about first place, solving the first problem. You need to come in first currently because that's the only way to progress in an almost reasonable time frame, but that means the race must be a joke to let you win (unless there was qualification). But if the payout was good across the field, you could focus on racing instead of winning. This is all just another part of the reason why I find the career mode such a poor feature. It just takes racing out of the spotlight, but racing is supposed to be the center of the game.

But it's still no replacement for a completely open mode that just lets you enjoy the game to the fullest. It can easily be done, I just wish PD would wake up.
 
Exorcet
That's one thing A-Spec is missing. You basically enter a race and win. It's the looming possibility of defeat that make racing worth doing at all.
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Totally Agree! Seriously, do you have to win everything every time you play? Does every real world driver win every race they enter? Its called a career, win some lose some, and you continue. And its not like you would be racing the best of the best every time you enter a race. It would be totally random. The rules and car requirements could be a lot more stringent as well with real penalties. I'm not much of an online guy myself, but this could be something that would make people want to race online more. Sounds interesting to me.

Also, not saying it would replace single player career mode.
 
One point that's been missed is the almost ignored destruction of the license tests. These essentially prevented amateur drivers (Like myself) from entering the more 'prestigious' championships without gaining better skills and techniques and then being rewarded for doing so.

With the driver class system being based on experience points and not actual licenses the game has become incredibly easy if you simply grind (Or even just race the competitions naturally upto around lvl 22) the neccessary points to enter another competition.

Now while I actually agree that to prevent 'cheating', limiting available cars to actual race-based experience levels & licenses themselves need advanced driver levels to enter is a good idea. Wouldn't it be simply common sense to combine both? Licenses could prevent 'cheating' by forcing the driver/player to have both the correct level to drive the car and the correct license to enter the championship - but this is actually a sidetrack, so nevermind.

Online career? It could work, with several adaptions of the current system:
  1. Combine both License/Class system together
  2. Remove level cap.
  3. Protect all competitions by only entering drivers with specific license & class.

Of course if people want to create a race then they will be able to set there own restrictions as appropriate.

But as for the overall question, I can't see how the game would work without career.
 
shawtyoner
Totally Agree! Seriously, do you have to win everything every time you play? Does every real world driver win every race they enter? Its called a career, win some lose some, and you continue. And its not like you would be racing the best of the best every time you enter a race. It would be totally random. The rules and car requirements could be a lot more stringent as well with real penalties. I'm not much of an online guy myself, but this could be something that would make people want to race online more. Sounds interesting to me.

Also, not saying it would replace single player career mode.
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I think most people enter A-Spec events with a more overpowerd vehicle for the straight win. And overpowered could relate to any number of modifications. I think the difficulty level is left up to the player. If A-Spec had more regulations set for the events, I'm sure they'd be just as competitive as any online room - without the annoyance of random variables presented by actual people.

Not allowing super powerful cars, only allowing certain kinds of suspension, certain kinds of engine mods, certain set of tires and so on...

Not that I would be a big fan of this, because I do believe GT5's ultimate goal is to just be fun (as should any good PS3 game), but I'm just pointing out if people really wanted to play A-Spec to the fullest the challenge is there. I'm sure PD didn't want to implement such strict rules because it would indeed be very detrimental to its replay value. Difficulty has to be up to the player and because PD doesn't step in and force things on us makes Gran Turismo's Aspec that much better.
 
MikeTheHockeyFan
The gaming industry has shifted to favouring multiplayer content in many games, and I expect future iterations of Gran Turismo to follow this route.

I could see future GT games taking the A-Spec career mode online with matchmaking.

  • You open up GT Life, check your calendar. Okay, it's Sunday.
  • The events running (available) today are Sunday Cup at Fuji, Clubman at Midfield, whatever, so you select an event
  • You are matched up with other online drivers entering the same event, and the rest of the 16-car field is filled out with AI
Look at the amount of offline vs. online content in AAA FPS titles. Look at the amount of offline vs. online content in the last NFS or two. We're headed in that direction with GT. Online gameplay beyond the open lobbies (which are great and a PC-style multiplayer racing experience on the consoles is rare), DLC cars and tracks for additional revenue, etc.

I see two distinct demographics on this forum:
  1. Players who value trophies/achievements, gold trophies on events, a level 40, 100% game. Goal-focused players. These folks feel cheated that A-Spec delivered less than expected. These guys want a game. Beginning, midpoint, endpoint, and have now shelved GT5.
  2. Players who just want to race and feel challenged. For them, GT5 is a sandbox with many possibilities. These guys are in online racing leagues, hate the credit and leveling system, want to drive everything in every race series imaginable.

I count myself in the latter half of those two groups, and I think the former group (looking for a big, offline, check-ever-box game) will be disappointed with where GT is heading as a series. Namely, online.
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You should work for PD.
 
DEATHSARTHE
I think most people enter A-Spec events with a more overpowerd vehicle for the straight win. And overpowered could relate to any number of modifications. I think the difficulty level is left up to the player. If A-Spec had more regulations set for the events, I'm sure they'd be just as competitive as any online room - without the annoyance of random variables presented by actual people.

Not allowing super powerful cars, only allowing certain kinds of suspension, certain kinds of engine mods, certain set of tires and so on...

Not that I would be a big fan of this, because I do believe GT5's ultimate goal is to just be fun (as should any good PS3 game), but I'm just pointing out if people really wanted to play A-Spec to the fullest the challenge is there. I'm sure PD didn't want to implement such strict rules because it would indeed be very detrimental to its replay value. Difficulty has to be up to the player and because PD doesn't step in and force things on us makes Gran Turismo's Aspec that much better.
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Yes this is true as well, but then if the ultimate goal is fun, why not have all cars available to drive from the start? The career mode the way it is now just seems like a chore to raise money to purchase a car you want, then do the same thing over and over to get more money to buy another car you want, etc.
These events just promote people to jump into overpowered cars simply to win to get the money they need, hence the grinding issue. I just feel there is a better way to go about it, and I'm not saying that I have the answer because I don't, but I'm hoping PD will soon, because as we can see, it hasn't really changed yet. I just want a robust, engaging, and ultimately satisfying career mode that keeps you hooked for a loooong time.
 
Simulation mode is vital part of what makes Gran Turismo Gran Turismo.
 
The only way an online career mode would be feasible would be if the game had some(likely horribly flawed/exploitable) way of dividing drivers into pools of similar speeds, as a lot of people just plain have no chance of winning against some others. No, you don't need to win every race, but it has to be possible or most casual players will get bored really fast. Making progression less tied to wins would probably necessary, as would including strict car and tune restrictions.

Then you still would have the problem of online idiots. They're nowhere near as ovewhelmingly plentiful as some would have you believe, but they are certainly never in short supply either. You would also be screwing over anybody who doesnt wish to be online all the time, or who can't.

It might be nice to have some sort of online-career-type-thing, but it couldn't be the games core mode, not for a few more decades at least. Plus it would be really complicated to get it right, and everybody would just complain about it anyway.
 
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