Warning: this post is extremely boring and 70% academic, you can skip this one if you want, not missing anything important.
(you can blame @Alpha Cipher for this one, he induced to commit it)
I haven't forgotten about this, the study I mentioned I can't find because it was before I started using EndNote to save academic references.
But, if you really are that curious
this forum is easily a good subject of study itself. I'm bored at the office and I've been comparing data with kudosprime. If you take the people that complain about the lack of content and demand new stuff you will immediately notice a pattern. Then compare the people in this forum that demand improvements in the content that we already have (better tire model, linear throttle, changes in penalty system) there is another pattern completely different.
Generally speaking, most people asking for
improvements are seasoned players that are advanced or very advanced in game. Loyal customers that already have finished most of the campaign and driving school (I'd say that 90% aprox have finished 100% of the game and relay purely in the online experience that the game offers).
Whereas players asking for new stuff are, generally, not seasoned players. Are somehow irregular, you can see drastic changes and variations in their safety rate SR (seasoned players profiles have a stable linear progress [see first image] and "not-seasoned" players have a more erratic profile with very low peaks of SR[second image].
View attachment 747456 View attachment 747455
In a side note, it calls my attention that seasoned players have completed 100% of the offline game and relay purely in online gaming, and yet they don't ask for new content (even if their experience is purely online). They ask for improvements.
I'm trying to be very polite about this because I don't want to offend anybody. This is not bad or good, this is a natural habit in any entertaining product (subscription based, free, pay shop, doesn't matter). When people is not able to master a service/product there is no sense of reward after investing so much time, which leads to frustration (and leads to quitting or playing several games inconsistently). The constant checking and seeking for new content is just a way of finding reward
[more about this here]. In other words, they can't master the game (because lack of time, because lack of skill, age etc etc etc) and the "not-seasoned" player finds reward in new content, hence the constant waiting for new stuff. In contrast to this, some seasoned players even have 3 accounts and find reward in mastering all of them, because they have the time or the skill or other circumstances.
In conclusion:
Games like Warframe keep introducing new stuff to "hook" customers, because their business model is almost pyramidal. It is a constant carpet bombing of new content almost every month (that is why I stopped playing)
Polyphony could do the same, however they don't. If PD don't do it is for a good reason. It's because they have a different approach, a different model: they relay in the seasoned players. And that is the real reason behind the lack of constant content updates.
Japanese companies have been doing marketing at different levels since 1650 (first multistorey shop in the world and still working). If I can guess all this while having a coffee at 8:30 in the morning (and I'm barely in the first months of University), you can bet that the marketing firm behind SONY/PD (in a culture doing marketing for the last 400 years) know all this perfectly. They know all of us because our data. They know age, they divide us in groups and they study us by region, you can bet on that. They know they cannot trust the opinion of player asking for new stuff, because statistically they will leave. "Not-seasoned" players will leave sooner or later, in their seek for reward (your brain is faq-in with you, you can't trust it
[more about the reward system here]) Not-seasoned players will leave... unless they master the game. So PD focus in seasoned players.
Again, don't take this post personally, this is data not opinions, this is not me bickering about new players (I'm a new player!), this is me saying: master the game or you will end leaving, and all the time you have invested will be for nothing. Racing is one of the best drugs out there, keep racing here. There is more reward in being as quick as
@Alpha Cipher in Suzuka (for example) than in having a new track or a new car.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
P.S.:
Use this forum for this purpose. This is, from a professional/fan perspective, one of the best forums I've come across. It's so good that the first thing I do in the morning is reading this forum with a coffee. The level of knowledge about racing and simulation is outstanding, you will not find something like this anywhere else. USE IT. Ask questions, and question yourself. Why is my SR so low? Should it be steady? Why is it that I'm going from D to C and back to D and C again, and so on? How can I be faster? etc etc etc.
I'm also not saying that you shouldn't ask for new stuff (this is all induced by alpha's comments, blame him)
Personally, I prefer to master the existing tracks, rather than having to study new ones. One of the best moments for me in the last days was finishing second in Monza with the RB junior, or lapping a circuit just 3 seconds slower than TRL_lighting (that is insane!). That is way more rewarding that new stuff.
Also use this forum as a platform to find better lobbies, there is a whole section of online leagues and championships with a very good level. MASTER THE GAME. Be a pro
And there you go, this is a 3 hours research-writing academic article... about a sim-racing platform... I don't think I can use this at Uni to get a better qualification, can I?
