People aren't *racing*, they're *playing the game*.
best quote ever.... there is almost no racing in GT5 and if you think there is your sadly mistaken... driving around Ai moving pylons isn't racing, time trials on seasonal events isn't racing, shuffle racing where one guy always has the best or worst car... isn't racing... besides time trials and GT academy where is the competition?
98% or more of competition in this game is time trials
racing online doesn't amount to anything or mean anything when everyone uses a different car or different PP or hp its meaningless... it doesn't even keep a tally while your playing for bragging rights.... you race for what? money?
listen, I got my copy of GT5 and my subscription to iRacing in the same week of Dec 2010..... both games mean very different
things to me
I racing since then has become a full-blown hobby for me, I try to get a little practice or a race in every day....I only have so much free time, but I work really hard to get faster, learn the tracks and improve my driving. In the short time since I started I bought a new TV for my PC, bought expensive pedals, made a racing seat out of wood and a Subaru WRX seat... not because I ever desired any of this stuff but because of how impressed I was with iRacing and how intenese some of the races were. I was never a racing fan either.... I rarely fallow racing of any kind...
iRacing has also given me an appreciation for NASCAR which I never ever thought i'd have...and I know that from what I've seen in GT series with NASCAR (if I'd only seen that) it would never have changed how I felt about it.... I'd still probly hate it if not for iRacing.
and just in terms of gaming, I've had some of the most mentally intense and rewarding multiplayer experiences I've ever had in iRacing (going back to half-life deathmatch on my first PC in 1999)..... 42 cars with no lag people....
GT5 on the other hand I'm still playing the way I started, on a 20 dollar laptop table with a DFGT with wornout pedals sitting in a rocking chair.
GT5 by contrast to me is nothing more than a pass-time... I've had some good experiences and the driving is very enjoyable but there isn't much more for me than that ... i play it less than once a week and only when I get a craving to drive some of the exotic cars. For awhile I tried very hard to find the same kind of competition I was getting in iRacing and became very frustrated ... sometimes its fun for the social aspect
to play with friends ...but we always come back to the same frustration of not being able to setup fair races.
WHY IS THERE NO FIXED CLASS RACING IN THE ENTIRE GAME? ..... SO FAR THERE IS NO FAIR RACING, no fair racing, NO RACING PERIOD.
WHY CAN'T I SETUP A RACE WHERE I CAN FORCE EVERYONE TO HAVE THE SAME CAR TUNING AND NO ADVANTAGES? .... how hard is that? .... its the single biggest reason I stay away from starting my own league ...and if you do you have to send out massive e-mails explaining to people how to tune their cars and no assurance they won't cheat ....
iRacing can run 42 cars bumper to bumper with seamingly no lag .... its literally a real race in real time...I just ran the 120 mins of Thunder on watkins glen last weekend... After 2 hours my shirt is soaked thru with sweat and It wasn't the result I wanted but still a rewarding feeling to finish...and the next day played GT5 with friends but felt like cartoon racing by contrast..... but let's forget about the PC for a second because GT5 being on the PS3 is no excuse .... I want the races to mean something, I want to keep score.... look at the amazing stats I get in BF3 ... Every kill I've ever had with every gun... and the servers have no lag .. i can usually play on any server coast to coast in NA and play lag free.... gt5 on the other hand doesn't even have servers yet...... without servers the racing will always lag.