Audi 2008 Annual Report Download - page 19

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01 Ready for action: professional driver and
professional gamer in an unusual contest.
02 Simulation in the Audi Lounge:
Gran Turismo simulator, complete with
racing seat and pedals.
03 Gran Turismo is the ideal “training ground”
for racers. Tomczyk also uses the console
to practice.
04 The computer game’s detailed graphics
blur the boundaries between the real-life
and the virtual race track.
will when you run wide off the track. “You would break an
axle if you bounced over the curbs in the real thing. In the
game, you only lose a few seconds.”
Because computer performance is seemingly unlimited,
there are details in GT5 that affect the subconscious in a
way that has little to do with the actual driving. The sun,
for example, which either blinds the driver on some parts
of the track or plunges the cockpit into deep shadows on
others. The dirt that flies against the windshield if the car
in front of you leaves the road and skids across the grass.
And thousands of incredibly realistic trees along the track.
Appel says that when you drive the real Nordschleife, you’ll
notice a lone, distinctive pine tree at one particular spot.
“And if you’ve ever played the game before, you think to
yourself, ‘Hey, the tree from the game is really there.’ But
of course that’s not quite true – the tree from the real
world is in the game, not the other way round.” What is
true is that GT5 blurs the line between illusion and reality
so well that it is sometimes difficult to remember exactly
where you are.
Which is also one of the reasons why the market for video
games has shifted away from children in recent years: Peo-
ple under a certain age can’t truly experience highly com-
plex simulations such as Gran Turismo. In the United
States, for example, the average gamer is 35 years old;
the average age in Europe is between 27 and 33. The game
industry has long since overtaken Hollywood in terms of
global sales. And the production costs per game generally
amount to tens of millions of dollars, which should come