To paraphrase what I said regarding Gran Turismo 7's microtransactions before, I felt that they were at worst something I could live with the existence thereof, but also that Polyphony Digital was toeing a fine line between a happy fanbase and an angry one. It seems now that line has been crossed, and those who previously praised the game are angry now.
Many will point to the destruction of fast credit grinding methods being the main cause of anger, especially if you focus the narrative around the MT's. But I think there's a far simpler reason why people are angry that shouldn't be ignored; the game is virtually unplayable at the time of writing.
What was supposed to be a 2 hour maintenance period has lasted over 25 hours as of my last edit, due to an unspecified issue with version 1.07. And with GT7 requiring a connection to the server as an anti-cheat measure (blame e-sports for that one), it's led to the cynic's worst fears about online only games being realised. You can technically play, but the only modes available are music rally, and a limited version of world circuits; you can quick race, time trial, or drift with one of 13 rental cars.
The situation is so bad that even outlets who I feel are all too willing to gloss over Gran Turismo's shortcomings otherwise have posted articles about it. This simply should not have happened, especially with how vital GT is to the Playstation brand. They had options to prevent such an extended maintenance, like reverting back to version 1.06 for a while, or just letting 1.07 stay up with the unspecified issue and making an emergency patch later.
I love the Gran Turismo series, but if you love something you have to be willing to criticise it when it becomes unreasonable to continue defending it. This has to serve as a wake up call to Polyphony Digital that they cannot coast on past reputation and goodwill, and if they continue down this path of botched maintenance jobs and coercion towards microtransactions, they will become the very thing they were supposed to be a shining beacon against in this business; just another corrupt and greedy monolith.
Many will point to the destruction of fast credit grinding methods being the main cause of anger, especially if you focus the narrative around the MT's. But I think there's a far simpler reason why people are angry that shouldn't be ignored; the game is virtually unplayable at the time of writing.
What was supposed to be a 2 hour maintenance period has lasted over 25 hours as of my last edit, due to an unspecified issue with version 1.07. And with GT7 requiring a connection to the server as an anti-cheat measure (blame e-sports for that one), it's led to the cynic's worst fears about online only games being realised. You can technically play, but the only modes available are music rally, and a limited version of world circuits; you can quick race, time trial, or drift with one of 13 rental cars.
The situation is so bad that even outlets who I feel are all too willing to gloss over Gran Turismo's shortcomings otherwise have posted articles about it. This simply should not have happened, especially with how vital GT is to the Playstation brand. They had options to prevent such an extended maintenance, like reverting back to version 1.06 for a while, or just letting 1.07 stay up with the unspecified issue and making an emergency patch later.
I love the Gran Turismo series, but if you love something you have to be willing to criticise it when it becomes unreasonable to continue defending it. This has to serve as a wake up call to Polyphony Digital that they cannot coast on past reputation and goodwill, and if they continue down this path of botched maintenance jobs and coercion towards microtransactions, they will become the very thing they were supposed to be a shining beacon against in this business; just another corrupt and greedy monolith.
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