How You Play Gran Turismo 7 Depends on Your Age, says Kazunori Yamauchi

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I'm a bit younger than the rest of you who started with Night Driver, Pole Position, etc. I played those games quite a bit, spending hours just cruising Night Driver and later, putting some effort into Pole Position 2.
I got serious into video game racing with Daytona USA, 1998 Sega Rally, wipEout, and Hydro Thunder. I beat out AI on all difficulty levels on a regular basis and human opponents couldn't get close. I'd play Episode 1 Racer more if the Sega version was available on a home system. Gran Turismo has always been a take it or leave it game for me, but it makes a good test bed for controller mods.
The vast majority of my time in GT7 is in single player mode, but I run some online races also. That's probably what will keep the game fresh while I save up for the last six legendary cars. I had a Microsoft wheel for Sega Rally and a pair of GT Force wheels for GT3 and 4.
These days I have $35,000 worth of classic games in my game room. There is room for in person multiplayer but I don't want one game or piece of equipment dominating the area. As it is now some of the consoles require a CRT. Others need a flat panel, and the flat panel is the secondary screen. If I mounted a wheel to the table it's on, the whole thing would flip over.
I do have full size controllers for some other games, like fishing reels, light guns, and three massive twin stick style controllers.
As a collector and a player, I don't really fit the mold of your average gamer. I'm still quite competitive and I aim to earn that S sportsmanship rating, even if not the S Driver rating to go with it.
 
Younger players can't even finish a race without checking Instagram or TikTok. It's society-wide mental illness I swear.

Quakebass
If that’s the case, it only proves they need to have more fresh content any day you log in
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This is the basis of my hot take above. Gen Z kids and younger these days consume content at an unimaginable rate. Things that aren't fresh and new simply don't matter. Everything has to be on constant rotation. I call it the Call of Duty problem - where are we dropping in to waste time, because we surely aren't absorbing anything from it. Games are tools to waste time, not experiences to be appreciated.

Maybe it's got more to do with age and maturity rather than generation but I distinctly remember absorbing myself into games with relatively limited content when I was in middle and high school, dedicating myself to these games until completion. I could walk you through the stories of the games I played because they effected me like I was reading a novel. Nobody can do that with modernn CoD et al anymore because nobody bothers playing it.

The same thing has happened with digital content and streaming music. Kids don't own anything these days and they don't want to. They want to own nothing but have access to everything. Nobody listens to albums anymore, forcing me to root through all these libraries, while they just hit play and call it good enough. As long as noise is happening they're distracted enough from real life to get by for another day. Meanwhile I'm out here re-buying old disc versions I used to have, re-buying old consoles, CDs, vinyls, etc.

Some of this modern lifestyle really sucks and PD's data aligns with that.
 
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It's interesting Kaz states older players tend to spend more time in-game. When many peoples expectation would be youngsters spending all their spare time playing games. From personal experience, as I've got older, I play fewer different types of games. I have a handful of preferred genre's and stick to 'em. Amongst those genre's I tend to focus on a handful of favourite titles. I think it's also the case older players get in from work and just want to chill out in-game. Not just driving, but tuning, checking out liveries, photography etc., perhaps while also listening to music, a podcast, or watching sports.
 
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Makes sense, and not only for Gran turismo, on my 20s I played a lot of COD online, now on my late 30s I spent my gaming time on offline GT7, spiderman and open world games in general. Last weekend I downloaded Warzone 2 and I just feel old, slow and laggy :lol: 🤣🤣🤣🤣
 
I would mostly play online,if……
Voice chat worked
More daily driver cars

This game looks great and weather is awesome but I can’t get a room off the ground.


I ran a 305hp daily driver room in the first online GT and it was tight racing that got a good number of people.

Now it’s VGT drag races nope.
 
Yard_Sale
Interesting topic. Makes perfect sense for the most part.

These days, I play much more offline than online, but still haven’t gotten bored of the game. And I think it’s because the way I play; in a rig, cockpit view, with both paddle shifters and an H-pattern/sequential. I make it a point to use different cars for all the races, and drive them authentically according to how they are IRL….or according to the mods I’ve made; I.E. if I have put a sequential transmission in a civic, I use my H-pattern in sequential mode.

It’s then that one realizes how well PD has modeled the characteristics of these cars. Some cars shift very well with the slightest nip of the clutch. Others require a little more time to shift. In cockpit view you get to admire the intricate detail.

But on the other hand, you have to be a little bit older with some sort of disposable income, to appreciate all these little details to their intended potential. It also helps if you grew up during the era of some of these cars. If I was born in the 2000’s, I could see how it’d be tough for someone to “buy into” a 95’ Porsche 911 RS. It’s the same reason why I don’t really like driving the newer hyper cars. They just have little appeal to me
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if one doesn't buy into a Porsche 911 Carrera RS from 92, 95, one doesn't really enjoy the cars and machinery... I'm 23 but cars from this era (80-90) are the best ever imo. until at least 2010 maybe cars were much more interesting than now.
 
He's right and wrong but it applies to all of gaming. Younger people often gravitate towards multi-player while people my age and older find a lot more fun in single player games. That's how I am for sure. 90% of what I play is single player story modes and I don't even like games without a story except a select few.


With GT however, ever since gt sport especially, I vastly prefer online even when the AI is at its best. I still enjoy car collecting, so if not for higher payouts in single player, I wouldn't have done half the content I did in either of the last 2 games even though the AI is much improved over the rest of the series.

Offline racing is just boring most of the time in my opinion so I've always kind of laughed when people make such a big deal about it in gt games. For me it was just something to do and a means to an end (more cars). I think racing AI will never be as fun as racing real people and that's why I see GT Sport and especially GT7 as the best GT games by a mile.

I feel the same way about the amount of cars in the game as well. people put way too much importance on the number when the quality of them is so much moreimportant. Id take the og assetto corsas car list, with dlc included over gt7s or forza 7s anyday.
 
I agree with Kaz. I'm Gen X and I spend more time playing the game. Therefore one player updates should take priority!
 
So if we're discussing the data, one reason that often comes on in age related gaming statistics is time. The older you get, the less time you have to commit to something statistically. In college I was a semi-pro counter-strike player because I had worlds of time. Now as a professional 20 years later there is no way I can commit to that kind of time investment. On top of that, it's not a 1-1 investment. A 4 hour a day investment at 20 will not yield the same results as a 4 hour a day investment at 40.

So here we have gran turismo. To compete at even B level DR requires a lot of commitment for someone who is higher in age, again statistically. Something I do is ride on zwift and they separate everything by age groups. It is very nice because my results are much better against people my age vs. against people 20 years younger than me. It's much more motivating. If these people really want to make a game where "driving is for everyone" then they should probably stop designing the game and events for a small fraction of "everyone". Just a thought. Probably won't be a popular opinion here because the vocal minority are very much the current target.
 
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I’m 30 and I play exclusively offline because I’m an introvert. I only play online when it’s required for trophies.
 
Nearly 52, this article describes me accurately.

Maybe 20 years ago I would have been looking for online competition, but now I can’t hang and definitely don’t have the patience or desire to get through the banger Sport levels.
 
As a 52 year old that has been playing racing games since pole position in the quarter arcades this would hold true for me. As I got older I found that I wanted a more simulation experience from racing games. In online races you get bumper cars most of the time. Combine that with the fact that my reflexes are not what they used to be I just don't play online any more. I just don't enjoy the emotional highs and lows of it the way I used to either.
 
Keef
Younger players can't even finish a race without checking Instagram or TikTok. It's society-wide mental illness I swear.


This is the basis of my hot take above. Gen Z kids and younger these days consume content at an unimaginable rate. Things that aren't fresh and new simply don't matter. Everything has to be on constant rotation. I call it the Call of Duty problem - where are we dropping in to waste time, because we surely aren't absorbing anything from it. Games are tools to waste time, not experiences to be appreciated.

Maybe it's got more to do with age and maturity rather than generation but I distinctly remember absorbing myself into games with relatively limited content when I was in middle and high school, dedicating myself to these games until completion. I could walk you through the stories of the games I played because they effected me like I was reading a novel. Nobody can do that with modernn CoD et al anymore because nobody bothers playing it.

The same thing has happened with digital content and streaming music. Kids don't own anything these days and they don't want to. They want to own nothing but have access to everything. Nobody listens to albums anymore, forcing me to root through all these libraries, while they just hit play and call it good enough. As long as noise is happening they're distracted enough from real life to get by for another day. Meanwhile I'm out here re-buying old disc versions I used to have, re-buying old consoles, CDs, vinyls, etc.

Some of this modern lifestyle really sucks and PD's data aligns with that.
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I see where you're going with this, and I'll keep my comments to two observations.

1) There's plenty of people older than Gen-Z bitch-fitting about Gran Turismo 7 not having enough fresh and new content to keep them occupied for more than an hour each month.

2) I think we're about the same age, roughly (early forties?). We have the best perspective on the digital/internet era, we're old enough to appreciate it (and afford it), and young enough to use it. Shunning the benefits of what todays kids do is just stupid. I don't know if you know this, but you can listen to an Album on a streaming service without rooting through libraries.
 
XSRacing111
I’m 30 and I play exclusively offline because I’m an introvert. I only play online when it’s required for trophies.
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You know you don’t really have to interact with the other players, right? It’s not like there’s a bunch of chit chat going on. Other than when I recognize a GTP name, I treat the others as just anonymous people that could be bots for all I care.

I honestly don’t understand how some of you guys are so vehemently against Sport mode and refuse to play it. I’m not a big online game player, but with racing it just kind of makes sense.
 
I'm 24 and would love to play offline more where I won't feel too guilty about my inconsistent driving ruining someone else's race but the single player content in this gane is so boring that I'm pretty much forced online.
 
This shows how out of touch PD are with the community. They probably look at raw PSN stats, but that's not how you should analyze things. The reality is making liveries, tunes, and farming for credits takes time, and all that will count towards offline activity. Your "online" activity may represent only 20% of your time spent in the game, but it's still what's more important to you, and your main gameplay. Looking at how active people remain in the long run is also very important. Everyone is going to be focusing on the solo campaign early on, then the vast majority will either switch to online or stop playing (or come back just once in a while). Then, GT7 releasing with non functional lobbies, and them still being riddled with issues and missing features doesn't help in retaining people there.

Isolating the racing gameplay time in the last few months would make for a better comparison already, although still not ideal to give an accurate representation of what people are truly interested in when a lot of active players repeat Tokyo races on autopilot to grind money - a thing they do in order to have more things to use online. But really, the way you want to evaluate what your community expects is via direct implication - something they've been actively avoiding for the most part.

Anyway, it's not like you can't make both offline and online good. They definitely proved you can make both bad though...
 
XSquareStickIt
I'm approaching 29. I have played GT since GT1.

When GT Sport was active, I used to invest heavily in Sport Mode and FIA events, both financially and time wise. I play with a wheel, spend hours every day practicing, and got up to A/S before I stopped from the stress and frustration, most of which stemming from how PD seemed to have given up entirely on the penalty system. I now play once a week with a group of friends whom I know are clean and are more than trustworthy. With the comical mess that is GT7's lobbies and now even with a screen freezing issue for PS4 players, me and that group of friends still don't want to touch GT7 with a ten metre pole, hence why my "play" time in GT7 is exclusively SP. If Kaz wants to dig deeper into my data, I'm sure he'll find my mileage is almost exclusively on the Tomahawk S and Blue Moon Bay.

GT7's online experience is in shambles and not worth my limited time, but maybe I'm just running out of patience with age. Thing is, I don't think I'm that old.
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Geezer! lol. You have your whole life ahead of you.
Keef
Younger players can't even finish a race without checking Instagram or TikTok. It's society-wide mental illness I swear.


This is the basis of my hot take above. Gen Z kids and younger these days consume content at an unimaginable rate. Things that aren't fresh and new simply don't matter. Everything has to be on constant rotation. I call it the Call of Duty problem - where are we dropping in to waste time, because we surely aren't absorbing anything from it. Games are tools to waste time, not experiences to be appreciated.

Maybe it's got more to do with age and maturity rather than generation but I distinctly remember absorbing myself into games with relatively limited content when I was in middle and high school, dedicating myself to these games until completion. I could walk you through the stories of the games I played because they effected me like I was reading a novel. Nobody can do that with modernn CoD et al anymore because nobody bothers playing it.

The same thing has happened with digital content and streaming music. Kids don't own anything these days and they don't want to. They want to own nothing but have access to everything. Nobody listens to albums anymore, forcing me to root through all these libraries, while they just hit play and call it good enough. As long as noise is happening they're distracted enough from real life to get by for another day. Meanwhile I'm out here re-buying old disc versions I used to have, re-buying old consoles, CDs, vinyls, etc.

Some of this modern lifestyle really sucks and PD's data aligns with that.
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That's to my advantage. There's a reason distracted driving will get you a penalty in real life. In GT7 it gets you off in the gravel pit.
As for finishing up older games...I'm in the US. We got watered down releases of SaGa 1-3. I went so far as to buy a WonderSwan Color, a multicart, and a complete in box copy of Makai Toushi SaGa just to play the updated version. I jacked my 3DS and did similar with 2 and 3, save for getting English language bootlegs of them instead of a multicart. I got complete copies of both in Japanese.
Makai Toushi SaGa was fantastic. It was fast paced, had a sense of urgency, and did NOT go easy on me. As for SaGa 3, the newest release, Shadow or Light, is night and day different from what we got here. The basic storyline is still there with some changes following the fight with Agron. There is a TON of stuff they expanded on in the story and in the battle system. Once again, weapons wear out...and fast sometimes. Characters learn new attacks, often as specials at first. Choices you make in the main story have effects on the expanded parts through the rest of the game and it takes at least 3x through the game to see it all.
I just wish that back then they saw the US as a potentially serious gaming market. I first picked up some of the more challenging Japanese game variants on a trip to Singapore, not realizing they were different.
Finishing one of the US releases of those was one thing. Finishing the tougher Japanese release was very satisfying!
CMB350
You know you don’t really have to interact with the other players, right? It’s not like there’s a bunch of chit chat going on. Other than when I recognize a GTP name, I treat the others as just anonymous people that could be bots for all I care.

I honestly don’t understand how some of you guys are so vehemently against Sport mode and refuse to play it. I’m not a big online game player, but with racing it just kind of makes sense.
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I see it as part of the game. Like the Gen Z folks, I run one or two races a night average, but then I dig into single player mode for a while. This evening I'll be on Le Mans for a while, first with a rented 787B in Race C, later in a '78 Trans Am in the WTC 700. Let's see if the Bandit can win that!
 
Eggstor
And PD made nobody happy because of their ham-fisted attempts to bridge the age divide.
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I don't like online gaming but I'm under no illusion that dumping it would make GT7 everything I want it to be, or even much closer at all. So your take is, frankly, ****.
 
GT_Alex74
This shows how out of touch PD are with the community. They probably look at raw PSN stats, but that's not how you should analyze things. The reality is making liveries, tunes, and farming for credits takes time, and all that will count towards offline activity. Your "online" activity may represent only 20% of your time spent in the game, but it's still what's more important to you, and your main gameplay. Looking at how active people remain in the long run is also very important. Everyone is going to be focusing on the solo campaign early on, then the vast majority will either switch to online or stop playing (or come back just once in a while). Then, GT7 releasing with non functional lobbies, and them still being riddled with issues and missing features doesn't help in retaining people there.

Isolating the racing gameplay time in the last few months would make for a better comparison already, although still not ideal to give an accurate representation of what people are truly interested in when a lot of active players repeat Tokyo races on autopilot to grind money - a thing they do in order to have more things to use online. But really, the way you want to evaluate what your community expects is via direct implication - something they've been actively avoiding for the most part.

Anyway, it's not like you can't make both offline and online good. They definitely proved you can make both bad though...
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A human thinking their anecdotal experience invalidates an entire statistical data set. I am shocked I tell you, shocked.
 
I agree with Kaz.I am 62 and rarely play ANY game in its online mode.I cant be doing with prepubecent halfwits screaming and ruining the experience for everyone.At my age the reaction time is a lot less than younger people,add to that my poor eyesight and arthritic hands and i am at a distinct disadvantage.That said,if the daily races etc allowed you to race your tuned cars i might be more tempted to have a bash at it.
 
I guess that makes me in between the two. I am 51 and have played GT from the start. I have always preferred the single player modes and had no urge to play online/multiplayer games. Once my youngest started playing online (COD/MW, etc.), just watching him made me say "I could do that!".

I started online with some COD/MW and it was fun but I knew I was no match for the regulars. I was just doing it for fun and it lasted a couple of years until it was no longer fun.

Being a GT guy, I bought GT Sport upon release (even played the beta). I knew the game was online only and was dissappointed that there was no single player content. I raced online anyway because it was the only way I could play GT Sport and I thought the other players were fine compared to the other online games. Again, I knew I was not going to be the best but since it was the only way to play the game, I got used to it.

Now with GT7 having single player content, I spend more time racing single player because the Sport races are not as enticing to me. When there is one I like, I would ususally race it all week. If not, I just stay on single player and earn credits that I keep burning through upgrading cars.

The GTWS gets me online for sure but the daily races have been mostly meh for me....
 
Totally agree. On psx1 and psx2 I was all about collecting all cars like a maniac, grinding for hours and hours. Now I simply don't care, usually I just drive on the same track (Willow Springs) doing time trials with different cars. And I'm totally happy with it.
 

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