I really felt like when they introduced seasonal events, it was going to be awesome. I can't tell you how excited I was when I tried the MINI Cooper challenge and managed to get 7th and doubled the money I had made up to that point in A-Spec, which had already bored me to tears. Here I was, presented with a tremendous challenge that I knew, somehow, was possible, but I just needed more practice and better tuning to pull off. I also can't begin to describe the feeling of competitiveness that started with my friend when he eventually got 5th. I had this crazy desire to place better than him using the exact same car, knowing there had to be a way to get it to go faster.
Ultimately I never ended up actually winning a seasonal event that first week (I have a feeling it's because I always drove in automatic), but I felt incredibly accomplished for managing to place 2nd in three of the events. The next week, they removed the restrictions, and I at first didn't try them, because it seemed silly to me that it had been reduced to the same lack of challenge A-Spec already presented.
After a while though, I just started burning through them all with an oil change to just earn the experience, which I hoped would mean better events (it did not).
What had first been a great addition to the game is now only a great way to earn credits and experience. If the A-Spec campaign actually gave you a decent amount of credits and experience per race or if the seasonal events gave about the same as the A-Spec races did, I doubt this debate would have risen.
Ultimately I think everyone knows that there are various degrees of experience and ability that players bring to the table, and trying to satisfy all of them in a single-player game is difficult. There's a lot of unnecessary hyperbole being thrown around in this forum in particular (e.g. the elites only use wheels and spend 40 hours a week playing, casual gamers spend no time attempting the races without overpowering their cars, etc.), but in my opinion, I think the problem is not in the players but in the decisions that PD makes about how challenging the game should be.
Right now the only real challenge is earning money and experience, and I think that's why they decided to add seasonal races so that people could experience the game at a faster rate. However, the races themselves are not challenging for everyone (I find it hard to believe it could be challenging to anyone other than those who have never played any racing game), and that is where PD dropped the ball. I thought they were going in the right direction with the seasonal races with more restrictions. I had hoped they would eventually make the restrictions of various degrees per seasonal event so that some were relatively painless with few upgrades while others were nearly impossible without a lot of them, but instead they've just resorted to the challenges the A-Spec races have. How great would it be if there were challenging races of various difficulty so that everyone could enjoy the game?
Even if you love the game as I do, you have to admit that it could be a lot more fun if you could earn credits and experience doing something moderately difficult instead of burning time just doing the same races over and over. I see the seasonal events as an opportunity for PD to improve this aspect of the game, and I am still optimistic that they'll introduce more challenging events this year. Right now I perceive everything in A-Spec except the FGT and historic races as very easy, and the seasonal challenges are easy to moderate in difficulty. If PD wants everyone to level and make money quickly, that's great, but at least throw a bone to the ones who can't find a challenge right now. There is no reason for this whole debate to be either/or. PD can make all sorts of challenges to improve this game, and the first week of seasonal challenges provided hope for me and others that those opportunities remain in the future.
