Gran Turismo: Sport
From GameLabWiki
This site will be dealing with the motorsport-simulation Gran Turismo Sport and the research approaches that can be related to it. First, a short overview about main facts and characteristics of the game will be given, subsequently followed by a more detailed analysis of core game mechanics which will lead us to related research approaches like simulation, game interfaces, competitive gaming etc.
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.
Research-relevant Contents of the Game
Core Game Mechanics
The core game 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.
Driving
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 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.