Kaz loves the grind

  • Thread starter cvjoint
  • 28 comments
  • 2,994 views
77
United States
United States
Kaz in reality loves the grind. The kind that doesn't make too much money that is [like the oval grind they just patched]. PD wants people logged on, and grinding is low effort for PD as it does not involve new events, cars, or tracks. However, big money making grinds are not good, since it will let players accomplish their goals and then they stop logging on. You have to take what Kaz says with a grain of salt.

There were various grinds in prior GTs to cement the legacy, where you won cars and sold them for cash, ovals, etc. GT has always given people the illusion of advancing their careers through the grind, if feels fruitful to the player, keeps them engaged for hours, and that's the trick.

This is no different than other companies selling a product and turning it into a habit. Did mankind brush teeth 3 times a day for 5 minutes for its entire existence? Did we all eat corn syrup sweet cereal for every breakfast since we were hunters and gatherers? No. These are all habits built by the commercial giants to keep you spinning the wheel. Once GT take [i.e. games purchases] reaches a plateau the game is mature. The only way to make profits is to keep people logged on and receive cash for cars.

If Kaz truly wanted to limit grinding, he would make all events pay the same per hour or mile/km. Something more of a formula. He could make daily mileage lottery tickets really fruitful, or give you all the cars for golding the licenses.
 
The only way to make profits is to keep people logged on and receive cash for cars.
How do they make profits if players log in? Playing is free after purchasing the game.

I would be more inclined to believe that a small margin of the player base is buying MTs because of the insane grind, and they allow PD to continue make profits. So maintaining a bad economy has a reason.
 
How do they make profits if players log in? Playing is free after purchasing the game.

I would be more inclined to believe that a small margin of the player base is buying MTs because of the insane grind, and they allow PD to continue make profits. So maintaining a bad economy has a reason.
Brands are crucial. When GT approaches Tommy Hilfiger or what have you, they will mention an active player base of X million. This is how many people you can reach by making a virtual car in GT7.

Here is a recent headline:
"'We just released the Spec II update and the number of active users jumped up to double what it was before that,' said Yamauchi." https://www.vgchartz.com/article/45...sers-doubled-following-spec-ii-update-launch/

For every brand that GT features, GT franchise strengthens its own brand, and the valuation of PD grows.
 
Last edited:
Brands are crucial. When GT approaches Tommy Hilfiger or what have you, they will mention an active player base of X million.
That is possible. Not sure how much goes in those transactions, and if it goes in favor of PD each time, but it must play a role.
 
I agree the grind has always been an element of GT so it’s a bit confusing why people are so mad. Personally the 700PP Le Mans race is my favorite non-afk grind race in the history of the series. The rain keeps things interesting and there’s a wide variety of cars you can use to keep it from getting stale. Who remembers grinding just to sell the Gillet Vertigo?
 
Last edited:
I agree the grind has always been an element of GT so it’s a bit confusing why people are so mad. Personally the 700PP Le Mans race is my favorite non-afk grind race in the history of the series.
I love this race, although I don't consider it a grind (I've been over that definition a couple-few times) it's become one of my favorite races.
The rain keeps things interesting and there’s a wide variety of cars you can use to keep it from getting stale. Who remembers grinding just to sell the Gillet Vertigo?
I see you and raise you El Capitan and selling the Minolta.
 
I agree the grind has always been an element of GT so it’s a bit confusing why people are so mad. Personally the 700PP Le Mans race is my favorite non-afk grind race in the history of the series. The rain keeps things interesting and there’s a wide variety of cars you can use to keep it from getting stale. Who remembers grinding just to sell the Gillet Vertigo?
I remember...
 
I love this race, although I don't consider it a grind (I've been over that definition a couple-few times) it's become one of my favorite races.

I see you and raise you El Capitan and selling the Minolta.
I call and raise you the four laps (two forward, two reverse) series at Costa di Amalfi (one of the funnest tracks to have ever been in a GT game) for the Toyota RSC Rally Raid Car (which sold for 250k).
 
I call and raise you the four laps (two forward, two reverse) series at Costa di Amalfi (one of the funnest tracks to have ever been in a GT game) for the Toyota RSC Rally Raid Car (which sold for 250k).
Ah . . . Immediately I thought of my Chrysler Crossfire on that track.

Well played . . .
 
I agree the grind has always been an element of GT so it’s a bit confusing why people are so mad. Personally the 700PP Le Mans race is my favorite non-afk grind race in the history of the series. The rain keeps things interesting and there’s a wide variety of cars you can use to keep it from getting stale. Who remembers grinding just to sell the Gillet Vertigo?
I’m guessing mostly because Kaz made it a point to publicly state he didn’t want people feeling they had to grind in GT7, or something to that affect. His actions contradict his words on this subject.
 
I'll see all of ya'll and raise you the Porsche online time trials in GT7. Sell the 917k.

The game is a bit more interesting with the weekly challenges added in and for those who didn't grind for a bunch of cars, the rewards might actually be useful.
Playing is not free. You at least need an Internet connection and electricity. If you're playing online you likely have a PS Plus subscription. Plus there's always that temptation to skip grinding for an expensive part and just buy an MTX for it, then get on with the next race.
 
I'll see all of ya'll and raise you the Porsche online time trials in GT7. Sell the 917k.

The game is a bit more interesting with the weekly challenges added in and for those who didn't grind for a bunch of cars, the rewards might actually be useful.
Playing is not free. You at least need an Internet connection and electricity. If you're playing online you likely have a PS Plus subscription. Plus there's always that temptation to skip grinding for an expensive part and just buy an MTX for it, then get on with the next race.
Does PD get a cut if they add PS Plus subscriptions with GT7? If so, that's another reason Kaz loves the grind.
I disagree. I think you love the grind.

There is nothing a game can make you do. Play the game the way you want to play it, never let the game play you.
How do you set the race payouts again?
 
I do believe that 'Kaz' is merely 'the face' of the GT franchise now. He is an employee of the American run Sony Entertainment arm who dictate the direction of the Gran Turismo ...

Where did you think all this GT cafe white washing i.e fictional european white characters who railroad you in the single player mode (and lecture you about the Berlin Wall), the MTX & ponzi pyramid collector car pricing tie-in, the 'SUV is the future' talk and complete contempt PD has of the single player mode by not addressing long term complaints comes from?
 
If it were a real cars and coffee, there'd be a Ford Mustang wrapped around a tree outside.
If seasonal yes. Should be a load of m3/m4's, amgs in soggy ditches now if it was based in UK. Or so the old rwd stereotypes go...

Fortunately I can just ignore the cafe stuff and just see it as a few extra clicks to get to thr next race/challenge so it has no impact on my overall outlook of the game...
 
Last edited:
I do believe that 'Kaz' is merely 'the face' of the GT franchise now. He is an employee of the American run Sony Entertainment arm who dictate the direction of the Gran Turismo ...

Where did you think all this GT cafe white washing i.e fictional european white characters who railroad you in the single player mode (and lecture you about the Berlin Wall), the MTX & ponzi pyramid collector car pricing tie-in, the 'SUV is the future' talk and complete contempt PD has of the single player mode by not addressing long term complaints comes from?
https://gran-turismo.fandom.com/wiki/GT7_Characters

Seems like a pretty international bunch to me. This article says they’re the faces of Polyphony Digital employees, too. So not necessarily chosen by some American Sony Entertainment overlord.

GT has always felt pretty international to me, even going as far as having localised music, but with some Japanese quirks showing through.

And Japanese people absolutely love a pretentious European style cafe. It’s not all sushi and ramen. Especially those with some money to spend on nice cars to show off.

And sadly soulless oversized front-drive boxes have become the norm in a lot of places. Japan especially.
 
https://gran-turismo.fandom.com/wiki/GT7_Characters

Seems like a pretty international bunch to me. This article says they’re the faces of Polyphony Digital employees, too. So not necessarily chosen by some American Sony Entertainment overlord.

GT has always felt pretty international to me, even going as far as having localised music, but with some Japanese quirks showing through.

And Japanese people absolutely love a pretentious European style cafe. It’s not all sushi and ramen. Especially those with some money to spend on nice cars to show off.

And sadly soulless oversized front-drive boxes have become the norm in a lot of places. Japan especially.

Even from your link, it clearly shows the 'front of house' (owners) characters are Western/White and they appear the majority of the single player progression events and remain in your memory, and for me atleast in a bad way ...

It seems Sony wanted to humanise the GT UI and initial game progression with friendly 'relatable' faces, the exact type of stock image that appear on Western mainstream software / cloud tech websites with a token person of ethnicity thrown in the mix ... utterly not representative of the real world, yet Sony are happy to replicate the insane bubble prices for classic cars from the real world into the game.

Then there are the majority of the tracks on GT7 I believe are based on the USA, real or fictionalised. They even retconned some classic GT1/2 era circuits as USA tracks.

I agree there are some quirks left in GT7, and at the same time I am not suggesting that Gran Turismo should be presented in a Japanese stereotype way. IMO, the UI from GT1 through GT5 worked in it's universal and functional approach, there was no sense in pandering or patronising to a set of regions or target market demographic.
 
I don’t see it as pandering or political at all. I’d say it’s fairly representative of real world motorsport which itself could be debated as to whether there’s a bias problem or not.

In game it’s representative of employees of Polyphony Digital across Japan, the USA, and the Netherlands. Hagerty is a real world luxury brand figurehead. The main guide character is a Turkish actress. Rupert is a GT events manager.

You seemed to be originally upset at the characters you meet in the Cafe being a form of whitewashing and lecturing, but they’re clearly a mixed bunch of faces.
You could even argue the Japanese are over represented there at three out of eight characters.

All that said I’d rather be disagreeing with you on this than with someone saying the opposite, and that the fictional characters and faces they did choose are because they’re ‘forced’ to be politically correct.

UI design in general is personal taste. I prefer it to a purely text menu driven approach, and I like the silliness of some of the animations like throwing an engine in, but I wish they’d load faster so you could just bash button combinations to get where you need to go rather than wait for the fading transitions.
 
The grind length is not ideal, but it's the grind's lack of variety that hurts the game. If only they'd made enough events that one wouldn't have to grind at all, just finish thousands of different races, there'd be a lot less complaints.

The recent custom race buff is the beginning of a bridge towards a solution, next up, multiply Sport Mode payouts to pay at least as much as Custom, ideally much more.
 
Last edited:
Even from your link, it clearly shows the 'front of house' (owners) characters are Western/White and they appear the majority of the single player progression events and remain in your memory, and for me atleast in a bad way ...
I play the game for 3 month now and I already forgot about all of them except the one guy who tells you stories about the cars whenever you complete an extra menu.
 
Wild idea, but maybe Kaz just likes driving. 🤷‍♂️
Even more.

IMO Kaz likes grinding himself. In this moment he is grinding Tokyo 25 times in order to buy his second McLaren F1 '94.

The only reason why the Abarth-grind was patched is, that Kaz doesn't own a rubber band and tried to prevent Chikane_GTR to buy his 33rd before Kaz got his second 😁

Cheers
M
 
The only reason why the Abarth-grind was patched is, that Kaz doesn't own a rubber band and tried to prevent Chikane_GTR to buy his 33rd before Kaz got his second 😁
I think you've missed the spot, Kaz is @Chikane_GTR and he could not allow average joes to become as rich as him without grinding by hand 16 hours per day 😁
 
Back