You know, playing GT League again, on and off over the past little bit, and yeah, it still sucks and the chase the rabbit **** doesn't fly anymore then it did in 2010.
But at the same time, it feels like a reciprocating cycle with regards to the cavalcade of complaints about how arbitrary the penalty system is in Sport races, and the general pervasiveness of dirty driving. Think about it - GT games from the very beginning has never actively punished players for dirty driving, even going back to the first game. Divebombing AI in a wild gambit in order to make things easier for you? Sure! Shunting, spinning out AI? Go right ahead! Wall scraping with the back quarter panels so that you don't get time penalties in GT4's special events? Why not! Hell, even with the games that did have damage, it was basically arbitrary, and did nothing to actually affect your car or strategy if you were being especially aggressive, even compared to other racing games of the time.
So, you come into GT Sport more or less conditioned to treat the AI as less then dirt that simply serve as fodder on your way to a podium, especially considering the events are one long chase the rabbit sequence, with some events especially leaning into that mechanic, and the AI never stray from the optimum racing line other then when they bin it (which happens a lot more then any racing game I've seen in terms of AI). All you need to do to participate in Sport Mode is to watch two short videos that basically amount to 'don't be a dick, mmmkay'. Absolutely no practical application of these ideals. Just watch a few videos and off you go.
Take all of that into consideration, and of course there's going to be rampant ****** and dirty drivers in Sport Mode. The series as a whole hasn't given a damn about promoting good driving habits going back to the first game, and the game's AI and racing scenarios basically mean that those bad driving habits continue to fester, and of course they leak into the online portion. The game takes no punitive measures to combat it except dropping said person's safety ratings (Which truly, positively mean nothing) and then continue to let the problem fester, except now newer players have to deal with the bad apples.
Sure, all of this could be avoided if Polyphony actually worked out the penalty system and made punishments for driving more punitive, and actually made that safety rating system mean something, ala iRacing, but the chances of that happening are less then nil considering the core of iRacing is paying a subscription for a better, more mature level of racing, and those that actually pay the subscription and continue to drive like asshats are promptly punted off the service or serve penalties.
As such, if people really want the situation in regards to dirty drivers in Sport Mode to change, you'd be better off actually pushing and prodding Polyphony to change their offline racing structure and AI so that it isn't some long chase the rabbit sequence, and that the AI actually pose a threat in terms of giving the player a run for their money. That, or actually adding in a half decent damage system that will deter people from treating the AI like trash, and subsequently might turn off players from divebombing, wall-scraping, or what have you.
. Should they look the same or are they actualy modeled like they should.
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(told ya wasn't entirely new 
) but never actually discussed anything for whatever reasons... Well, Never say die!! 
)
