[POLL] Has Weekly Sport Mode Worked?

[Cardiffian]

Daily is probably not long enough and weekly sometimes too long. Maybe something in between, or perhaps a combination ?

 

[monkeywall]

I preferred the races when they where changed every 3 days and had the odd race where tuning is allowed. They need to change the sr ranking system. Making it harder to get to sr S. That way the clean drivers can race in peace.

 

[NevilleNobody]

i actually prefer it after initially not liking it. The biggest problem has been the terrible combinations, the last few weeks has been really, really poor. Group 3 at Bathurst helps but as i have said before, the game is in dire need of a few more sensible tracks that don't encourage pile ups as much as most of the existing ones do.

 

[Crazy Taylor]

Depending on how you see it the main sport mode that gone to weeklies. No IMO. The other (FIA) races are still relatively popular, so that part yes.

 

[GOTMAXPOWER]

Weekly races are too long if the combinations are bad.

I wouldn't be upset if race C was weekly, race B was the old style daily races. Then for race A we can have 24-7 glorious shuffle races, for those who don't care as much about their DR and just want to jump into a quick race.

 

[Veinz]

It works for me.

 

[sturk0167]

I expect RDR2 to take more players again

Count me in. 👍

 

[RX-7_FD3S]

Worked for me, not playing gts as much as when it was dailies resulting in depressing fia races, resulting in me not having that much fun in gts anymore. Used to play 2-3 hours a day and now 4-5 hours a week.

 

[Vader86]

Well I play less thats for sure. If Tokyo is a track then I won't even set a quali time.

 

[05XR8]

I voted yes. Basically, from my view, rather than hard data.
Case in point, is the current Race B. It may take a few days for many players to get used to the reverse layout. I saw many mistakes last night. Players not going fast enough through the busstop, misjudging the apexes to the hairpins.

With a normal Daily, players can wipe this race and wait for the next day. At least, now, players have the chance to improve their knowledge of the layout.

 

[SlipZtrEm]

I'm not a fan of weekly. I get the reasoning, I do. People have more time to learn the combos, so it should in theory provide closer racing.

But if they're not fans of the combo, you've now lost players from the eponymous mode for a week instead of a day. That's a longer time for them to potentially get hooked on another title, or just generally lose interest altogether. There are multiple possible solutions, but the two that come to mind first:

• have a combo of daily and weekly races.
• have more than three races in the rotation.

Raising payouts would also help, because as is, if people are going to drive a race or races that they aren't super excited about, they might as well do a GT League one and actually bump up their credits. IMO, there's little incentive for the average player to take part in Sport Mode if they aren't huge fans of the combos, or obsessed with stats. And I say that as someone who really does value a good race over an easy win — we're probably the minority, unfortunately.

 

[Pedinhuh]

On one hand, this change made me adapt more to the tracks in the roster and allows me to fine tune my racing line and work on multiple racing strategies, as I have more to do that now.

But on the other hand, it completely burned me out of playing each race more than 3 times, it gets old quick. It got so boring that this finally pushed me into playing and finishing GT League and the Driving Missions, also I'm on lobbies more now than in Sport Mode because of it.

So, one thing is for certain, this did pushed me into exploring the game more.

 

[simsimsheree]

I wish kudos could provide stats on how many are in the Online Lobby system other than Sport Mode.

It might make it easier to see if the downturn (if there is one) due to weekly Sport Mode is balanced by an upturn in Lobby and League participation, or whether it's a downturn in overall players.

Daily and hourly SR/DR figures might be also useful, to track trends in participation (to give the cleaner drivers an idea of what hours to avoid!), and also a chance to actually COUNT for yourself actual participation in the Lobby system. You obviously can't count players in Sport Mode, but it's really not that hard to set Region to All and do a quick headcount of rooms and players in them. It might be interesting to see an actual count compared to kudos's extrapolated figures, see what kind of error is in them.

I for one would welcome a sharp upswing in choosing Lobby races over Sport Mode. Want clean racing? Find a clean host. Want clean racing in Sport Mode? Best of luck!

 

[icenl]

Before i checked the races every day, but after a couple of weeks of tracks i didn't like i dont even bother to see which tracks are on. Now i just do a couple campaign races for credits and the daily car instead and after that play some other games.

 

[John G]

I only play once or twice a week so dailies don't suit me. Then again I only time trial, no online racing

 

[ASH32]

I have not raced a single online race since the change, now whilst the change wasn't the only reason I was not racing for a few weeks, it now is contributing to me not returning, it's just not encouraging me to put the time in to get back into it and race around the level I was at before. The average/poor looking, week long combos, are not a great draw, if the selection was better maybe it wouldn't be as big of an issue.

Still think it needs a race or two extra adding if they keep them as weekly races or they need to switch to two or three sets of races a week.

 

[HERE4BEER3]

I only play once or twice a week so dailies don't suit me.

I don't understand this argument at all, it's not just you lot's of people say this. Whether you play once or twice a week or check in everyday of the week doesn't really matter. In fact I think daily races are more suited for people who only play once a week. Say you only play on Friday's, you have to practice and race all in the one evening, chances are you are racing against drivers who've been racing that same track since Monday, putting you at a severe disadvantage.

So what you're going to miss a lot of combinations, you're only playing one day anyways. The same feeling you got when you logged in on a crap day is still the same but now it drags on for a week.

 

[05XR8]

I don't understand this argument at all, it's not just you lot's of people say this. Whether you play once or twice a week or check in everyday of the week doesn't really matter. In fact I think daily races are more suited for people who only play once a week. Say you only play on Friday's, you have to practice and race all in the one evening, chances are you are racing against drivers who've been racing that same track since Monday, putting you at a severe disadvantage.

So what you're going to miss a lot of combinations, you're only playing one day anyways. The same feeling you got when you logged in on a crap day is still the same but now it drags on for a week.

It's not a drag, if someone only plays once or twice. It becomes a drag or burden, to players that don't like weekly races.

What have PD said, about the change from daily to weekly? What was their reasoning?

 

[bmxmitch]

To me, it shouldve been like this since the start:

Race A: Daily
Race B: 2 Day change
Race C: Weekly

And maybe a race D endurance test
Also, tuning for Race C and "D" needs to be a thing again. If I check a weekly race and see the leaderboard full of the same car, I immediately close sport mode and do something else. It's just boring to have 3 one-make races over a week...

 

[05XR8]

The Seasonals seemed to have a good balance. Time trial and "Sport Mode" races. Coulda, woulda, shoulda.

 

[DJShadesUK]

The Seasonals seemed to have a good balance. Time trial and "Sport Mode" races. Coulda, woulda, shoulda.

But don't the seasonals only really work if you have the time to put aside for their schedules, and if you miss one it makes the whole exercise pointless, does it not?

 

[Sander 001]

Makes no difference to me. Daily/Weekly races are still too risky for very little reward.

I do FIA so I want to keep my SR intact.

 

[Jamie Bbbbb]

You really shouldn't put that graph in the OP; it is too leading. What matters is not the player count, but what each person thinks about whether the change has made the game better, had no effect, or made it worse. And for me, it has pretty much ruined it. I don't see how I'm supposed to enjoy the game now or ever again knowing how much better it was before.

Honestly though, I think weekly races would work fine if there were less car-and-track combinations. It's just not worth staying committed to a game when you know that it might be months until your favourite race comes up. Anyway, I digress; it's pretty pointless discussing it at this point.

 

[05XR8]

But don't the seasonals only really work if you have the time to put aside for their schedules, and if you miss one it makes the whole exercise pointless, does it not?

That's like the Daily race. What's the point of having a Daily, if you miss out on that combination? If someone owns this game, it's up to the buyer if they choose to make time anyway.

 

[VeeDoubleU]

Also, tuning for Race C and "D" needs to be a thing again. If I check a weekly race and see the leaderboard full of the same car, I immediately close sport mode and do something else. It's just boring to have 3 one-make races over a week...

Tuning wouldn't stop it being a one-make (if it would be a one-make anyway).

 

[DJShadesUK]

It's just boring to have 3 one-make races over a week...

Tuning wouldn't stop it being a one-make (if it would be a one-make anyway).

To avoid falling into the one-make trap and keep things interesting - knowing that I'll never make it into the top ten anyway, closest I've been is 44th* in region - I try to find a (competitive) alternative vehicle to giver myself a challenge within the challenge; beating the meta.

I may know I won't be setting the leaderboards alight but its very satisfying turning in a good result, and sometimes winning, against people who have only chosen the meta because its occupying slots 1-10 in the top ten list, especially if they think they're quick because they're in the meta.

Also, not driving the meta does give you an in-built excuse for not reaching the top 10!

Edit: * Actually, I've just remembered thats not quite true... I did once make 2nd in the world, but that was only because I was one of the first 10 to set a time!

 

[Sven Jurgens]

You really shouldn't put that graph in the OP; it is too leading. What matters is not the player count, but what each person thinks about whether the change has made the game better, had no effect, or made it worse. And for me, it has pretty much ruined it. I don't see how I'm supposed to enjoy the game now or ever again knowing how much better it was before.

Honestly though, I think weekly races would work fine if there were less car-and-track combinations. It's just not worth staying committed to a game when you know that it might be months until your favourite race comes up. Anyway, I digress; it's pretty pointless discussing it at this point.

It's also not very healthy when your favorite track does come up. I did over 180 races on the Nordschleife in a week. I'm still recovering and now my second favorite track, Mount Panorama is on all week