Here's a few facts for ya. The retail revenue for this edition of the game is $500,000,000. Currently PD has upwards of 140 people on payroll. Assuming a few executive salaries and a few well paid programmers/developers, that's a weekly payroll approaching $140,000 or over $1,000,000 every two months.
Crying poor isn't going to cut it for this argument so let's lay that to rest.
I assume you are aware that hybriding has been a part of the GT series from the beginning. There's an entire forum on GTP for it right here:
https://www.gtplanet.net/forum/forumdisplay.php?f=13 Call me crazy but it doesn't take a rocket surgeon to figure out that it would appear in GT5 at some point and if I as a stooge from Canada can figure that out, surely Kaz and PD can figure that out too. Frankly I think it took longer than it should have, given the massive talent out there who like to do this kind of stuff.
PD should have been well prepared for this and had a strategy in place and ready to go. They got caught with their pants down because of poor planning and underestimating the ingenuity and love people have for this game and nothing else.
Men in particular have been modding or souping up cars or whatever you want to call it, for 100 years probably. The first automobile race was 118 years ago and we've been modifying cars ever since.
It's only natural that it should be a bigger part of GT5, supposedly the industry leader in driving simulation. Forza does a far better job in this respect and we laugh at Forza.
I assume you can agree with all of that. I understand your objection was and remains that hybriding was done outside the parameters of the game and that it wasn't available to everyone, stuff was hidden making cheating possible etc. All of us, especially they realistic hybriders can understand that and we accept that because there are a few bad apples, we can sometimes be painted with the same brush. Really we do get that, but you also must accept that those of us that were operating within the usual parameters of GT5 or offline, creating fun cars to drive with cool sounds and more effective handling and gearboxes, without trying to cheat the system, are going to object to being called cheaters right?
We see ourselves as innovators and creators, modifying cars for our own enjoyment, not to take away anyone else's enjoyment, including your own. We all agree that cars with outrageous amounts of horsepower dont' belong in the game.
You must also understand what a golden opportunity this was for PD to introduce an exciting new concept to the game, how easy it would have been to pick up the ball and run with it.
The introduction of multiple levels of sorting parameters in lobbies would have completely solved the problem. They could have done what other game makers have done and brought the modders into the fold to help design new software to make the game more exciting, more playable, extend it's life way beyond what it is now, which is almost dead. As it is, they created a complete fustercluck now. All the worst parts of hybriding remain, including the dreaded 2500 hp/550pp monster cars along with the 100,000 hp X1's. This is the worst of all possible solutions.
Can we not find some common ground here? Can you give what I said a thorough read and see if there are not at least some things you can agree with?