To grind or not to grind, that is the question

[GTLeigh]

Hello fellow GT people,

After lingering about on these forums I find that many people use the phrase 'Grinding' when talking about re-doing races. I have always been confused by this phrase.

To me there is no such thing as 'grinding'. To me the reason I buy GT games and have done so since GT2 is that I really like driving games. The purpose of which is to drive.

So what I'm saying is due to my love of driving games I can repeat many different races in many different cars and still experience the joy of driving. I don't find this boring as if I did I wouldn't buy driving games at all.

After enjoying driving I seem to rack up credits which enable me to buy new cars (I like to collect them) or various upgrades if I fancy tricking a car out.

It seems to me that if the credits are the be all and end all of your experience then this would take away the enjoyment of the game, which is driving.

So, what is your preference, driving for fun (which racks up credits) or driving for credits?

 

[Boone]

I drive for fun and earn credits along the way.

 

[polizei]

fun

 

[SonnyCrockett]

This is kind of a complicated topic. When I take my Dino 246 GT and replay the MR Challenges and the Festival Italia, I do it for fun. Same goes when I take my Shelby Daytona Coupe on the Classic Race Car series or whatever it's called. All of those I do it just to drive for fun and to enjoy the car. But then I do want the Ferrari 250 GTO, and I ain't gonna get it doing the MR Challenge with my Dino over and over again. When I wanna earn money I play the new RedBull challenges.

-Sonny

 

[Dragonwhisky]

I think the term is used in the sense that, in some cases, you have to drive cars you don't really want to, to get enough credits to be able to drive the cars you do. For instance, I would never have chosen to buy that Vitz and do that race had the game not forced me to. That is part of the grind and not much fun.

 

[pudgiecat]

Since I didn't race through the game, I drive once a week for the enjoyment and finish races at a leisurely pace.....I log in every day to keep the bonus at 200% and then spend Friday night racing and enjoying the opportunity to race....even if I do't win , it helps me get a better understanding of how to drive.....

 

[Kwicko]

Well, I glitched the game and loaded up my garage with 50m CR and a ton of great cars, so I don't have to grind at all - now I truly CAN just drive for the fun of it, without worrying about how I'm going to get enough to get that next sweet ride or make the mods I want to make.

 

[Dragonwhisky]

^ there is that too, of course.

Trouble free, no grind, pure fun, driving.

 

[GTLeigh]

Thanks for the replies guys, the first car that you have to buy, the Fit I must admit probably wouldn't have chosen it myself but it introduced GT6 and I still had fun with it.

I do find myself repeating the Nascar event at Motegi, but again it is because I enjoy the race. Another favourite of mine is the Red Bull Jr race at Brands Hatch but again this is because I love the car and the track so I never feel like it's a chore to gain extra credits, although both do pay handsomely.

However I also love taking the Mario Andretti Hudson round the early races, not much money to be made but again I enjoy the driving.

 

[Dragonwhisky]

You're a more dedicated driver than I. The only place I would drive that Fit or the Hudson is to the nearest few bricks of C4.

 

[GTLeigh]

You're a more dedicated driver than I. The only place I would drive that Fit or the Hudson is to the nearest few bricks of C4.

I do like the Hudson, yes it's a bit of a pig but it's not too bad once you get used to it, plus for 1948 it's alright

 

[Resnaux]

I think we all like driving, but in order to enjoy it and to become a better driven, you need to have appropriate goals. If Gran Turismo was just a game with only "free races" and cars available that you don't even own, and that you will be free to do whatever you want, I think you would feel bored after a while, even if much more content is made available to you by the game.
Then if you have goals like completing championships, earning money and buying car, you have (a bit) the impression to progress like if you were in the real world. Sometimes the game impose you to drive cars that you wouldn't even think to try otherwise, or impose you some difficult or complex challenges, and you first feel a bit angry about that, but when you manage to do it, you feel more proud of you because you learned something...
I won't appreciate the game if it was only a matter of driving, I prefer if there is some "reason" to do it so that I have the impression to progress... And then, when I happen to face a great challenge and I feel I begin to be able to do it, I really enjoy the moment of driving during which I am switching from an insufficient pace to a pace that can offer me the victory.
The credits are a bit less important, because I don't really seek to afford a specific car (or maybe one or two, but once I own them it's OK). It is only at the beginning of the game that I like to earn credit, because when you start you only have a bad car and few credit, if you manage to earn 20.000 or 50.000 you know that soon you will be able to afford a beter car (another way to progress in the game). At the end of the game I'm not so much interested in credit because you don't really progress in terms of the fastest car you possess, you just become a car collectionner.
Regarding this, I prefer the 1st GT games because it was more difficult (at least for me, I was probably a worse driver than I'm now) to afford a beter car thant the one you have in your hands. It was less about immediatly trying to have 5, 10, 20 or 100 cars but just to progress in the world of competition, progressivly improving your car by adding a turbo or something like that, or earning more money to afford a beter one. It was interesting to complete 5 times the first championship because it was the only one you were able to complete anyway. Then you was really counting your money to try to estimate when you will be able to jump to the next level.
I don't really had this feeling with the last GT games because the challenge is more about completing different championships and to have much more different cars (which is also interesting but after a while it looks like a routine...).

 

[GTLeigh]

I think we all like driving, but in order to enjoy it and to become a better driven, you need to have appropriate goals. If Gran Turismo was just a game with only "free races" and cars available that you don't even own, and that you will be free to do whatever you want, I think you would feel bored after a while, even if much more content is made available to you by the game.
Then if you have goals like completing championships, earning money and buying car, you have (a bit) the impression to progress like if you were in the real world. Sometimes the game impose you to drive cars that you wouldn't even think to try otherwise, or impose you some difficult or complex challenges, and you first feel a bit angry about that, but when you manage to do it, you feel more proud of you because you learned something...
I won't appreciate the game if it was only a matter of driving, I prefer if there is some "reason" to do it so that I have the impression to progress... And then, when I happen to face a great challenge and I feel I begin to be able to do it, I really enjoy the moment of driving during which I am switching from an insufficient pace to a pace that can offer me the victory.
The credits are a bit less important, because I don't really seek to afford a specific car (or maybe one or two, but once I own them it's OK). It is only at the beginning of the game that I like to earn credit, because when you start you only have a bad car and few credit, if you manage to earn 20.000 or 50.000 you know that soon you will be able to afford a beter car (another way to progress in the game). At the end of the game I'm not so much interested in credit because you don't really progress in terms of the fastest car you possess, you just become a car collectionner.
Regarding this, I prefer the 1st GT games because it was more difficult (at least for me, I was probably a worse driver than I'm now) to afford a beter car thant the one you have in your hands. It was less about immediatly trying to have 5, 10, 20 or 100 cars but just to progress in the world of competition, progressivly improving your car by adding a turbo or something like that, or earning more money to afford a beter one. It was interesting to complete 5 times the first championship because it was the only one you were able to complete anyway. Then you was really counting your money to try to estimate when you will be able to jump to the next level.
I don't really had this feeling with the last GT games because the challenge is more about completing different championships and to have much more different cars (which is also interesting but after a while it looks like a routine...).

Very good points, I do remember when I got GT2 and just did the first race over and over to obtain enough money to make my car competitive before moving onto other races, at the time I thought I could complete the game with just one car (didn't take long to realise I couldn't). GT5 & 6 didn't seem to have this.

But at present I do have a goal of sorts, I mentioned earlier that I do like to collect cars and every car I own gets put through it's paces at Brands Hatch (favourite track). I am currently buying every car that is under £50,000 in GT6, some are not brilliant but there are some gems in this price range. Quite a lot of Japanese cars seem to fall into this price range also, but it never feels like grinding, just enjoying the driving.

 

[Kwicko]

Thanks for the replies guys, the first car that you have to buy, the Fit I must admit probably wouldn't have chosen it myself but it introduced GT6 and I still had fun with it.

I do find myself repeating the Nascar event at Motegi, but again it is because I enjoy the race. Another favourite of mine is the Red Bull Jr race at Brands Hatch but again this is because I love the car and the track so I never feel like it's a chore to gain extra credits, although both do pay handsomely.

However I also love taking the Mario Andretti Hudson round the early races, not much money to be made but again I enjoy the driving.

The '14 Corvette is just a joy to drive around Brands as well. It just... *flows*. So many of the curves you just barely have to tap the brake, or just lift off the throttle a bit, and it just smoothes right around that track. And yeah, the Red Bull Jr. is just a blast on that course, for the same reasons. You watch all the other Juniors hitting their brakes, and you're just sailing by on the outside, grinning.

 

[pudgiecat]

Well, I glitched the game and loaded up my garage with 50m CR and a ton of great cars, so I don't have to grind at all - now I truly CAN just drive for the fun of it, without worrying about how I'm going to get enough to get that next sweet ride or make the mods I want to make.

Like you I used the glitch and have most of the cars I wanted in the game so all the driving I do is just for fun or to test out different cars .....

 

[86Debris86]

I just spent the two days i had off of work seeing which out of all the GT300 cars i could get round Suzuka the fastest. I'm definitely in it for the fun! It also just so happens that i find the best money makers in the game, the Red Bull chamionships, lots of fun too so i've never needed to grind for a car i want to buy.

 

[BMWcrazy]

I don't grind either.

I just do the races that I really enjoy. Like the 24 minutes of Le Mans and Nurburgring.

 

[SmileyOr]

I'd enjoy driving the $20 mil cars, but without Bob to do some earning for me it will be years before I can afford them. A short cut is to spend some time on the higher paying races and "grind" away until I can afford one of the cars I want.

I've almost played out the game and the few seasonal events that have a high return for your time are far and few between. I have about 120 cars that are a mix of bonus cars won at events and some purchases for a few cars that I enjoyed in GT5.

In GT5 I would run the system's Bob's and let them earn for me so I could spend my time doing what I enjoyed for relaxation and not money/credits. It took a little over a year to build up my garage to 1300 cars.

I can't wait for B-Spec to come to GT6

 

[JMR450]

Thanks for the replies guys, the first car that you have to buy, the Fit I must admit probably wouldn't have chosen it myself but it introduced GT6 and I still had fun with it.

I do find myself repeating the Nascar event at Motegi, but again it is because I enjoy the race. Another favourite of mine is the Red Bull Jr race at Brands Hatch but again this is because I love the car and the track so I never feel like it's a chore to gain extra credits, although both do pay handsomely.

However I also love taking the Mario Andretti Hudson round the early races, not much money to be made but again I enjoy the driving.

I did a lot of grinding in GT5 until the seasonal events started awarding really high dollar payouts as I wanted all of the 20 million credit cars.

In GT6 I have a number of events I enjoy driving and taking photos afterwards. The happy by-product is I make money. I like doing the Redbull JR series as it is fun racing and it makes decent money. I like collecting cars, so I take each and drive them, make some dough and use the photomode. I have a couple of series that the tracks are ones I enjoy so I run those with different cars. In theory it's grinding, but because I use different cars it doesn't feel like it.

I hope that helps.

 

[Johnnypenso]

The money glitch saved the game for me without a doubt. I got halfway through Offline Career and was bored to tears and didn't have enough money to buy 2 GT500 cars. If the first money glitch didn't come along, I would have given up on the game until another glitch came along. My only interest is in driving and tuning cars and racing online. Grinding is terrible game design IMO. A sandbox mode where everything is available to me on Day 1 would be perfect for me.

 

[CBH]

The money glitch saved the game for me without a doubt. I got halfway through Offline Career and was bored to tears and didn't have enough money to buy 2 GT500 cars. If the first money glitch didn't come along, I would have given up on the game until another glitch came along. My only interest is in driving and tuning cars and racing online. Grinding is terrible game design IMO. A sandbox mode where everything is available to me on Day 1 would be perfect for me.

 

[hans54green]

I personally hate racing online (most of the time anyway), so the career mode is all I really play. One thing I've always enjoyed in the GT series is always being able to find a car that I wouldn't normally have thought of. By redoing a lot of the races (and buying new cars for them) I've had a lot of fun with cars I never would've driven otherwise. As for the money, I haven't felt short on cash yet in GT6. To be fair, I can't afford an XJ13 or 330 P4, but I'd rather put a lot of work into getting one. It actually feels more like a "career" to me that way.

 

[Outeke]

I drive for fun. But I do grind my way to the Autobahn trophy.

Grinding as people call it doesn't exactly mean they do not enjoy it.
But on these forums it's often used in a negative way to actually say "I need to gain (extreme) credits to purchase a certain high-value car. Which is only accessable by repeating the race that gives the best credits per time".

 

[David Bailey]

Grinding is essential in gt since GT5. And furthermore they expect you to do it why else would they have 20mil cars, someone show me the events where you can win all these cars. I dosen't worry me to much you can make bucket loads with a login bonus on the redbull events.

 

[ULTRAVIOLENZZ]

Grind. After getting the platinum and golding every event including seasonals, there's nothing else to do but to buy all cars and fully upgrade them. I had fun playing online but get disheartened when i found out that your tune in offline is different in online. I dedicated countless hours in tuning then that happened. Sorry I didn't know that because I didn't play GT5. That's why my Countach is jumping all over the race in online but in offline its very stable. And also the constant changes in handling annoys me. I will wait until PD makes the handling stable. For the mean time I will grind to buy all cars since I have nothing else to play because im a poor gamer.

 

[VetteZR1]

With seasonals nothing but super laps, I will grind for credits rather than drive in circles.

 

[Gentoo64]

I only grind when I want a new car not to save up (sometimes I think ah just 1 or 2 more), like the new Jaguar seasonal, just do 2 races for the car + parts. I could grind all day and have a ton of money but lose my sanity.

I think the payouts should be bigger all round for every race / event. Having to spend hours getting money isn't fun as you're driving the best time / cash payout races over and over (no pleasure in that), to buy stuff, to then tune / drive for fun.

IMO you shouldn't have to do any serious long hours for a game but I understand they obviously shouldn't just give the cars away. Maybe up the credits by 50% would be nice.

Before I had kids I could play games from when I woke up to when I went to bed, but not any more. I suppose a lot of people are in the same boat

 

[GTLeigh]

A lot of good points have been made in this thread, however I disagree with the sentiment that once a race has been gold that it is time to move on. These races are enjoyable to do again, this is not grinding but enjoying the driving of the cars available.

I personally believe that if someone just does a race once, gets gold then never does that race again that they are losing out big time on the enjoyment of the game.

There are around 1,200 cars in the game, be a bit of a waste if a race was only entered once. As I say, I enjoy driving lots of cars in lots of races, with this attitude the game never feels like a grind and I am never short of credits.

Each to their own I suppose but if I thought something was a grind and not enjoyable I simply wouldn't do it. This is why I am confused with the whole grinding issue.

 

[CBH]

I think the payouts should be bigger all round for every race / event. Having to spend hours getting money isn't fun as you're driving the best time / cash payout races over and over (no pleasure in that), to buy stuff, to then tune / drive for fun.

IMO you shouldn't have to do any serious long hours for a game but I understand they obviously shouldn't just give the cars away. Maybe up the credits by 50% would be nice.

Very well said

 

[Johnnypenso]

Grinding is essential in gt since GT5. And furthermore they expect you to do it why else would they have 20mil cars, someone show me the events where you can win all these cars. I dosen't worry me to much you can make bucket loads with a login bonus on the redbull events.

Man this is 2014 not 1999. How in the world can you find enjoyment running the same race over and over and over, to win imaginary dollars just so you can buy a car you really want so you can drive it? Wouldn't it make more sense to be able to get that car and just enjoy driving it, without all the grinding?