Forward: Upon proof reading of this post I realized I've had to make alot of generalizations and summaries for the sake of trying to stay brief. To that point I realize there are some broad statements here. For the sake of this discussion try not to get hung up on them for I couldn't think of a better way to write some of the thoughts below without them.
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I've had this philosophical discussion with many racer friends (fyi I currently race or have raced snowboards, skateboards, mountain bikes, road bikes and am a runner and cross country skier most at very high levels, semi-pro to pro) about how Americans don't understand racing.
I'll set aside endurance related race sports (i.e. running, cycling, cross country skiing, etc) and focus just on speed events for this discussion.
In the US racing is all about "the show", not so much on technique and pure speed. Look at the state of what snowboard racing (and to a lesser degree ski racing) has become in the US. It's something more akin to roller-derby than anything. It's the difference between the X-Games and the Olympics. One is about crashes and "the show", forced drama and pointless actions and the other is about precision, training and endurance. I'm not saying boarder-cross athletes don't train, they do, but even the top of the top in that respective race series (snowboard or skier-cross) will say it's much less intensive than proper board/ski racing. I had a chance to talk to Daron Rahlves about this last season (FYI he is a ex FIS world cup ski racer, next to Bode Miller and Olympic former favorite who retired from WC racing and is now racing skier-cross events in the X-Games). He told me that his level of training now is less than half of what it was when he was on the top end of the FIS WC tour. In fact most of his "training" is just going out and skiing with his buddies and doing a few hours a week in the gym in strength training. Well under the 8-10 hours a day a FIS WC skier trains (in the gym and on the hill).
More related look at the state of motorsport in the USA. I won't poo-poo NASCAR or Indy car drivers saying they are hacks. They aren't. But you can't compare the conditioning, training dedication and overall skill it takes to drive in a top US series to even a feeder series in Europe (i.e. NASCAR or Indy Cars vs. GP2 or most touring car series, not even F1). Road racing in the USA is a sideshow at best compared to ovals and alot of that has to do with "the show" (i.e. passing, crashes, drama).
Look at the other popular thing that passes for motorsport in the USA. Drag racing. Again...drama, crashes...a "good show".
Americans generally like "power", brute-force over finesse. Compare American football to soccer to see a clear difference in priorities or American tennis players to European (i.e Roddick vs. Fedder). Generally bigger, stronger and usually dumber is rewarder in US athletics (there are opposites to this in the US but they are far from the norm)
I've come to this conclusion over the years. Europeans "get" racing. Racing and the discipline it takes go back a long time in Europe and European tradition. Europeans like racing most things (ever see Semi-truck racing in Europe?) and racing is as big (if not bigger in some places) than stick & ball sports. Ski racers in Switzerland or Austria are as big, if not bigger, than NFL stars in the US. Therefore the training and discipline required to be at the very top level of racing (any sport) is rewarded. But beyond that Europeans generally appreciate the finesse it takes in sport, over brute force that is. Watch a F1 race with your typical American NASCAR fan and they will drone on how boring it is, no passing blah blah blah...they don't see all the finesse on track (generally they don't see the finesse on track in a NASCAR race either)... most Europeans will "get" it when they see it though, even if they aren't a fan of said sport/race.
As for Asia. Racing doesn't have a long tradition there, any kind of racing (motorsport goes back to maybe the 60s and then only in Japan and mildly). But what id deeply set in most asian cultures, especially Japanese, is a focus on discipline and self control along with sacrifice. F1 has had many Japanese drivers, but never any really GOOD drivers. That comes down more to the tradition and funding that dedication and drive. In racing where Asian athletes have come to the fore-front they have dominated (what comes to mind are mostly endurance sports though, which is all discipline and dedication). In relation to video games it's no surprise Japanese gamers are some of the best in the world. In an activity where almost superhuman sacrifice and discipline (almost to the point of fanaticism) matters I'll always put my money on the Japanese guy. That sort of dedication goes back to almost the founding of Japanese culture (and further back in Chinese culture).
So with Gran Turismo you have two things working against most American players. Europeans have a love, understanding and dedication of road racing and Japanese players have a fanatical dedication to task (video game in this case) that together spell doom for American GT players. Even more so they doom casual gamers from remotely competing with the top racers in the GT world. But then again that is true with most things. The local fast racer at your local ski hill or track wold get destroyed when up against a FIS world cup racer or a Schumi. That is the parallel we have in the GT community.
That isn't to say there aren't elite GT American racers, there are, but of the top 20 known names in OLR in the GT world maybe 2-3 are American (?).
Personally, I consider myself fast and better than average as a racer in GT. Back in the GT3/GT4 days I was within a second of the true elites in OLR and more recently I'm generally within 2 seconds of the elites, getting closer than that takes such dedication and time that unless I do have time I stop there. I have much less time to spend in GT now than I did back in GT3, but I'm no less dedicated to GT than I used to be. It's a matter of priorities.
Sure the physics are separating the casual gamer from the dedicated racer more and more but as with any elite level activity that is always the case. The playing field is level in the GT world, just because you aren't willing to put in the time and effort doesn't mean it's not far. You just have different priorities.
You wouldn't expect to go from the couch (metaphorically of course, let's say weekend warrior enthusiast level) to competing with whatever top level athlete you admire? Why would you expect the same in a video game (not just GT, but modern complex game)?
What is so appealing about the GT OLR world is that anyone from the casual gamer to the talentless enthusiast and everyone in-between can race and gauge themselves against world cup level elites. There are very few activities and even fewer sports than that is possible.
What makes an elite in the first place? Training, dedication and discipline (true of any activity done at an elite level). In endurance sports your own genetics can be a limiting factor but they don't apply here in the GT world. With a in-depth understanding of the physics of driving a car, reading a track and picking race lines - all of which can be "learned" - and then hours upon hours of practice, self analyzation and still more practice any of us can become one of these elite GT racers. Your own genetics don't play a role, though reflexes do, but given sim GT racing doesn't have g-loading it's to a much lesser desgree. Yes, maybe you need to invest in the right tools (i.e. a wheel in GT) but that is true in any sport/activity. In fact the cost for entry to be a elite racer in GT is low. You really only need a wheel (and there are one or two elite GT racers who still use a DS3). The big flat screen TV, race seat, etc etc aren't needed (though they can help).
There is a thread in the Prologue section asking racers to post pictures of their race setups. I remember being shocked to see a picture of one of the elite guy's setups which basically was a wheel cobbled together on a little desk with a 13" SD TV in effectively a little closet, yet he still managed those times he did. Look through that thread and you'll see a few posts from those elite names with their race setups (and alot of fancy race seats and 52" HDTVs of people 10+ secs off pace). It's very enlightening to look through and shows you that the field to be a elite, or even competitive (top 200) racer in GT is very even and flat.
It all comes down to the individual in the end.
Not everyone wants to sit for hours upon hours shaving .001 of their time. Not everyone has the time to even do that. But those that have the discipline, practice and time do and it's amazing to see what they are capable of. These GT elites are doing nothing special, nothing anyone can't do, and they aren't cheating. They are just more practiced.
Yes, maybe natural talent plays a role, but much less so in GT OLR. Natural talent comes in in real life or in tournament play. Think of it this way. As many fastest laps as Schumi had in F1 were any of them ideal or perfect? No, even Schumi would say so. But his magic came in being able to wrench those laps out of the car in a limited amount of time (as with any top racer or athlete respectively). In GT OLR it might take elite racer A say 4 hours to set that amazing hotlap time (just an example here) but it may take the elite racer B 40 hours to set the same time and racer C 400 hours to set a time 4 seconds slower. Given enough time and practice all three racers could most likely reach the same time (it's just one might go crazy before they did). So elite racer A and B meet in a head to head tournament (I excluded racer C in this example because they wouldn't make it to begin with). Elite racer A will generally come out on top given they can jump in faster and set that fast time (I will say natural talent/reflexes maybe comes into play here, or is it simply conditioning/practice?). In time limited racing, be it real racing or head to head GT racing the more practiced (let's say talented - be in natural or learned) will come generally come out on top. In real racing things like the ability to suppress fear, withstand g-loads, top level conditioning and even eye-sight have greater roots in natural ability/talent... but in simulation (Gran Turismo in the PS3) the field is for-the-most-part level.
, thanks.
LOL
Try adding 50 pounds to your race car and see how fast you go!!!
John
