View source for Gran Turismo: Sport

Have you ever wanted to know how it feels to drive the world’s fastest, most extraordinary and most expensive sport- and racing cars? In ''Gran Turismo: Sport'', you might will get an answer to that question - at least from a virtual point of view: The following site will be dealing with the motorsport-simulation in order to investigate it's research-relevant topics. A short overview about main facts and characteristics of the game is subsequently followed by a more detailed analysis of core game mechanics and further content which will lead to related research approaches.       
==About the Game==
Published in 2017, ''Gran Turismo: Sport'' is the latest release of the ''Gran Turismo'' Series, developed and published by the japanese video game development studio Polyphony Digital. According to the slogan "the real driving simulator", which is the official subtitle of the series, the game considers itself as almost hyperrealistic motorsport simulation. It is produced exclusively for Sony's ''Playstation''.  

Unlike other motorsport-simulation games like ''Project Cars'', ''the Crew'' or the Colin McRae Rally racing games ''(Dirt'' series), ''Gran Turismo'' is known for its extensive variety of officially licensed cars and tracks, containing road legal models and racing cars of the most popular car manufacturers as well as scaled racing circuits located around the world. Beside the arcade mode, ''Gran Turismo'' also features a career mode as well as an online mode which allows players from all around the world to compete against each other. 

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==Research-relevant Topics of the Game==

===Core Game Mechanics===
The mechanics of the game haven't changed a lot over the relatively long period of time including more than twenty published versions since the first ''Gran Turismo'' was released in 1997. The following sections will provide an overview about the core game mechanics.

====Racing====

Taking a selected (race-) car around the a circuit while racing against NPCs, the clock or online surely can be considered as one of the core mechanics of the game. Just like driving a car in reality, only four basic actions are needed to do so. Following scientist Aki Järvinen, who proposes a description of game mechanics by using verbs, the essential game mechanics while driving could be described as "accelerate", "brake", "steering to the right" and "steering to the left". Interestingly, the allocation of commands on the used input device has changed a lot since the first ''Gran Turismo'' was released, depending on how controllers have changed in the course of development of consoles and other controlling units like specially designed steering wheels, e.g. the ''Thrustmaster T300RS GT-Edition''.   

Regarding compatible interfaces like the classic Playstation Controller as well as other control units just like gaming steering wheels, ''Gran Turismo'' can be a considered a vivid example for used game interfaces as bodily techniques. The concept of bodily techniques, established by french sociologist Marcel Mauss, was transferred to the context of gaming controllers and game interfaces by David Parisi, who is pointing out three aspects of, as he calls it, bodily interfaces: modes of capture, haptics and button remapping.    

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====Economic activity====
Beside in-game progress gained by accomplishing several championships consisting of a certain number of races, there is another system ''Gran Turismo'' works with, incorporated with the purpose of keeping up the players motivation to continue the gaming process. Especially when playing the campaign-mode, ''Gran Turismo'' is operating with an in-game- monetary system allowing the player to advance in the game-state even faster and, of course, longer. By spending earned Credits, the player is given the possibility of buying better-ranked cars with which he will be more competitive during the next races and so on.

Following media scientist Britta Neitzel and her approach of so called „strategies of involvement“, the rewarding system implemented in ''Gran Turismo'' could be described as „economic involvment“ which is all about rewarding the player for his actions in a certain way to create a binding between game and player. Neitzel also speaks of several „levels“ of rewarding, a fact that can also be noticed in the game. The player is not only given Credits as a reward for achieving good positions in races: by gaining special cars as well, the player finds himself in a „financially“ comfortable position at an early stage of the game and is therefore free to either use the Credits to buy more cars in order to extend his car collection or unlock additional items just like liveries, helmet, racing suits etc. On that basis all the economic activity that can be done in ''Gran Turismo'' is based a multi-layered rewarding system, involving the player by providing rewards that evoke a feeling of faster progress on the one side and pushing an enthusiasm for collecting.    

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===Further Content of the Game===

====Gran Turismo Championship====
In 2018, ''Gran Turismo'' and the FIA („Fédération Internationale de l‘Automobile“) launched the so-called Gran Turismo Championship, consisiting of World Tour and World Finals. These massive e-sport events are open to every player, but in order to attend one of the World Finals events held in places all over the world like Paris, Nürburg, New York City or Monaco, the players have to survive a series of preliminary rounds. Because of that, only the very best players are competing in the events and are therefore ensuring close and thrilling e-racing. 

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On that basis, the events held can be closely linked to research approaches like competitive gaming. The Gran Turismo Championships are covered by a massive media attendance, operating in ways mostly known from other medial channels like television: There are preliminary reports in front of every race and analysing post-reporting discussions as well as the whole race is hosted by live commentators reporting in  English, French, German, Spanish, Italian and Portuguese. The events can be ususally streamed on YouTube, which shows that, regarding the Gran Turismo Championships, media formats known from motorsport-reporting in real life are adopted, but also transferred into new medial spheres just as streaming online, creating an entanglement of several medial channels.            

====Vision Gran Turismo & influence on actual motorsport discourse====
Another entanglement of different, normally rather seperated medial practices can be noticed if looked at the close linking of video game and marketing strategy of real-life automotive groups. As the benchmark of, at least ''Playstation''-compatible racing simulations, ''Gran Turismo'' is adressing a significant number of car- and motorsport enthusiasts all over the world. As already mentioned, one of the reasons of the game‘s popularity among them surely is attributibal to the variety of officially licensed cars and racing circuits. Over the last decade of releases, there have been plenty of collaborations of real-life car manufacturers and ''Gran Turismo'', allowing the companies to promote their brand by creating concept cars and studies which are exclusively to be seen within the context of the game. The chance of implementing these concept-cars, called Vision Gran Turismo, has been grabbed by some of the most popular, prestigious and influencial car manufacturers like Mercedes-Benz, BMW, Lamborghini or Bugatti.

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This clearly shows the reach and influence of the game on actual car- and motorsport discourse and -culture outside the conext of computer games. By collaborating with popular individuals just like formula-one world champions Lewis Hamilton and Sebastian Vettel as well as f1-engineer Adrian Newey, this influence is extended to a level no other racing simulation has reached yet. This observation shows that ''Gran Turismo'' is not only a computer game but constituing part of a whole cultural community which will have to be dealed with in following research approaches.

==Related Research Approaches==

===Bodily Techniques===
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===[[Competitive Gaming]]===

===Game Interfaces===

===[[Simulation in Games]]===

===Strategies of Involvement===

==Credits/Links==
[[Category:Games]]