I've been a musician/teacher for many years... and people often say I'm 'talented'. (Muted cheers...)
I smile, nod, move on. In my opinion there is no such thing as 'talent' outside the basic physiological aptitude for learning that differs in each instance of a human. Practice, understanding, memorisation, repetition. Those are the things that appear talented to the outsider - even people who may have actually acquired the same skillsets as yourself.
I can listen to a piece of music and play it back immediately - that's a combination of awareness and memory at work. After 20, 30, 40 playthroughs the repetition of that piece will improve and begin (if I allow it) to take on my own stylistic touches.
I enjoy track racing games because they massage the same parts of my brain that playing music does. The concentration of awareness and memory when learning a new track or when learning how to drive a track in a new car are very relaxing.
Memorisation of the 'routines' involved in a succesful lap is key and so therefore is repetition. The point is, of course, what constitutes the measure of success for a lap - Famine [Edit - sorry, it was niky!] has just alluded to the same organic nature of racing versus hotlapping.
Skill? Talent? It lies in effortlessly repeating the necessary base processes and balancing those against a desired stylistic outcome.
I see no absurdness [sic] in the fact that a racing game would require you to manage such functions to high degree...
Ok, composition would be the perfect example to support my point, not execution.
Oh and the "absurdness", well, I say it again, English is not my first language. Sorry about that error.
Interesting you bring up music. Because that is another discipline in which repetition is necessary for mastery, and in which there is a theoretically perfect way to perform a piece. And yet musicians who inspire our awe are not the robotic ones able to render a piece MIDI-perfect, but those who take it to the next level.
That said, complete mastery of even the most repetitive and constrained of video games is a wonder to behold:
Even in repetition, there's skill. Of course, it'd be impossible to do the same thing in GT5. I doubt you could even finish GT1 in just eleven minutes.
Ok, composition would be the perfect example to support my point, not execution.
I'm sorry but what you're saying is ridiculous. A race car driver has to memorize the track. I can memorize a track too but that doesn't mean I will be able to produce the same lap times as a talented professional.
Memorizing a brake point doesn't mean you'll be able to hit it precisely. Memorizing the proper steering input and driving line doesn't mean you'll be able to execute it as well or as easily as someone with more talent.
If it's all about practice and memorization how do you explain why some people here got 60 golds in the licenses so quickly while people like me have been struggling forever on licenses like ic-10?
Anything that requires eye hand coordination requires skill.
I think your definition of "skill" is limited.
No way, video games are the ones with limitations and the ones with their own "skill" definition which means complying with what the algorithm set by the programmer requires.
How come people can't understand my point and just go on talking about "real life racing"?. My God...
Ok, I think people are just talking about different things here, so here it goes again:
Video games are the ones with limitations and the ones with their own "skill" definition which means complying with what the algorithm set by the programmer requires, which can be easily accomplished by memorizing said requirement through repetition.
How come people can't understand my point and just go on talking about "real life racing"?.
My God... GT5 is a video game, not real life racing...
Just an easy analogy here:
One thing is to compose music, and another would be to execute music.
Both require skill, yes, of course everything in life requires skill.
Composition is not accomplished by memorizing, execution is accomplished by memorizing.
Got it now?
GT5 forces you to execute music, you can't compose (I mean while driving for the TOUGHEST golds in the game, please don't come up with the course maker feature...)
And yes, I have all the golds I've been trying and will eventually get them all, so why do people insist in "the OP is frustrated".
No, no, the OP (me) is analyzing a marvelous game with hopes to contribute with something that could make it evolve even further.
Got it now?