Rubber Banding in Racing Games

No lead in racing games is safe when rubber band AI (artificial intelligence) comes into play. In an attempt to keep races close, some racing games have AI that makes it hard to win by a large margin. Large leads are natural in sports. Think of when a powerful team is defeating the other in a blowout. In the case of rubber banding, the lead will be kept closer than normal so you don't feel like you are ahead by a country mile (or multiple country miles). Even when you are on top of your game and making next to no mistakes, you somehow fall into a trap to where your once dominating lead is shrunken considerably. And if unfortunate... you may even get passed or sustain terminal damage. This blog post is all about rubber banding AI, primarily in racing games.

There is a balance between keeping races competitive and keeping races realistic. Unless the leading racer makes a huge mistake, it is unlikely someone down by a lot will come right back and win a race. Even games with not very aggressive AI can still do just enough to rattle your brains some. The AI gets tuned in a way to where it realizes you are racing impressively and then decide to tweak things to bring you back down to earth. How sad is it that the difference between being a great racer and a bad one depends on the AI or the mechanics of a game?

Is rubber banding AI good for racing games? It can seem totally unfair to play a racing game if the AI always seems to always have the upper hand. You can have it all- the most powerful vehicle, the most racing skill, and complete knowledge of a track... yet still lose because of AI deciding to get better all of a sudden while you are leading profoundly. Maybe there is rubber band AI to remind you that you are not invincible or unbeatable no matter how good you are. So I would say rubber band AI is not appreciative, but understandable.





If you'd like to chime in on this issue, let's discuss:

What do you think about rubber band AI in racing games?

So this concludes another blog post on "John's Race Space." Thank you for reading! Take care and be well.

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