will Forza have series like they did in Forza 5 too get new cars.
God willing, no. Such a repetitive disingenuous way of engagement farming instead of really making the racing better. Things like improving the slow down penalty so it goes to the right person and skill based ranked racing. That’s what will make people play. We don’t need a festival playlist. H2 didn’t need that and I never played a Horizon game with more friends than that one. Literally myself and others had to wait to get in the MP or the party because there were so many of us.
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Then how will they go about adding new content like cars?
Most probably, yes.
Although I’m in the camp that honestly can’t see it anymore after two titles that were completely centered around it, it seems to work as an engagement strategy.
That’s why I’m sure there will be a somewhat similar system. Maybe more open in the way to access the cars but the weekly structure will be there.
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Maybe they will add cars every week? Like to the autoshow?
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How about just adding them to the autoshow… Enough with the forced engagement FOMO nonsense. It would be better if they made a good game that people want to play for a change. It’s not that hard. That’s how it was in the past.
Enough wasting of our time doing the same exact thing every week for 3 years.
It’s enough.
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If it was monthly like it was I’m FM I would be ok with that. Every week is just too much. Maybe I don’t have time one week. Maybe I want to go on a vacation.
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I see your point add new cars without grinding for them besides having the right wrist band and money
I’d rather grind for them to be honest. Not that I like that but it’s easy to make money. If they were always available I wouldn’t rush to get them anyway. I want to race and do time attacks that’s pretty much it. It’s a racing game. Will I follow the initial progression? Sure.
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I was thinking about this recently. If new cars were just added to the auto-show, and then you could get a version for free via the playlist, would that really impact their business model? Would engagement really be impacted?
In the past I would have said yes. As much as I hate to admit it, FOMO works.
But PGG has access to a unique data set. By the time the game released on PlayStation, a lot of unique cars were already in the backstage pass. Maybe the data there showed that FOMO wasn’t the golden egg of engagement, or at least the sole driver of it.
I have no idea if that’s true or not, but two things in the information we’ve recieved so far feels like they corroborate my theory.
- There has been zero mention of the playlist so far.
- Car meets will allow players to buy copies of the cars they see.
It’s that second one I want to hone in on, because how is that going to work with seasonal exclusives? It could just be that the feature is limited to autoshow cars only, and I can definitely see that being the case, but it does kind of undermine the feature to not be able to buy any car on display.
This is all wild conjecture, based on vanishingly little evidence, so take what I say with a very small pinch of salt.
It would probably be more productive to not post this at all, be responsible, and just say we’ll find out more information later, but that’s no fun.
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Keep the playlist just don’t use it for FOMO cars.
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It’s not necessary if it’s a good racing game. You can do that stuff on your own.
Probably needs a bit of a change up from being the same format in the last two games as it’s got a bit stale but I think it’d still work ok as a way to introduce new cars. Even if they drop one new car a week though I do think they should allow you to go back within that series/month and get a car/reward you may have missed. Even if it’s just for people that may be on holiday or just unable to play for a week or two.
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I would argue that it has some value, both as a guided experience for more casual players and as a gentle nudge to encourage players out of their comfort zone.
That being said, there are definitely a lot of things I’d prioritize over the playlist were I in charge of the franchise, and if, for whatever whacky reason, I were in the hypothetical situation where I could sacrifice the playlist to get those things, I would, without question.
But why not both?
The playlist should be improved to be a proper “event” rather than just a list of races/stunts. Whether that be using more map changes (decorations, outposts, posters, billboards, change in traffic/Drivatar cars and even new buildings) or via Horizon stories (rivalries, or just a good old narration about the history of the car, as if recording a car review).
These changes would make them feel more impactful. I do hope that the theming of each update is properly utilized, for example, Mercedes 140 Year celebration would include:
- A Horizon story (History of all Halo cars)
- Championships/Trials (Popular racing and road car rivalries -BMW vs. Audi vs. Merc across sedans, GT and SUVs)
- Stunts (that correspond to real world achievements - Time trial with the AMG One or AMG GT Black, or Top speed run in a W125)
- Forzathon Challenges with cosmetic rewards such as clothes or EventLab items themed after Mercedes Benz/ Mercedes AMG apart from the normal car rewards
- Increased MB/AMG traffic with posters and billboards
- A temporary MB exclusive car meet
- Rivals events with MB cars
- Drivatars that are high value, who race rare MB or AMG cars with specific upgrades or body kits
If there ever make the Festival Playlist a permanently replayable feature, then these events will be properly timeless and won’t just feel like a list of chores.
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I know alot of players are against the playlist but I quite enjoy it aside from the multiplayer events that have your teammates wrecking you out. Where the playlist sends you actually help explore new areas of the map
That seems like a lot of work for a monthly update, and more work means there is more pressure to make that work profitable. Even if PGG weren’t a for profit company, the development has to be at least sustainable.
I’d prefer if the playlist were more reserved, and then the game provided us players the tools to setup these kinds of things ourselves. Small and large communities can provide theoretically unlimited content if they have the tools, and can provide that content for free.
Within the context of my own situation, where it’s just a community of 5 to 10 players at any given time, the right tools could provide a ton of depth. Building off of your example, we could decide to run a build challenge on Mercs, say pre-2020’s A class RWD Mercs built for road races in spring. We can build the challenge using custom championships. We can meet at the estate, and our usual meeting place is spruced up with Merc themed stuff. We can replace our usual bonus points round, which is a beauty voting round where you can’t vote for your own car, with a visit to a car meet to see who gets the most downloads or likes. If we have private servers where we can choose the season, we can delay the championship if one or several contestants can’t make it without having to worry about when the main server’s season changes.
But the potential grows even higher when you get into the larger communities, with multiple people helping manage them. They can provide a constant stream of content to their members on top of what the base game provides, as long as they have the right tools. Drift competitions, painting workshops, roleplay sessions, the sky is the limit as long as players have the tools, and this is all on top of the traditional trappings of the playlist.
We can’t put the onus of creating this content solely on the developers. Again, the work needs to be sustainable, which means either reduced content flow or an ugly business model. Giving the community the tools and letting them do the work is the key to unlimited depth and replayability.
All of these tools have either existed before in the franchises history or have already been announced for 6. They just need to be brought together in a cohesive manner, and the playlist will be practically obsolete for those who choose to engage with these systems, solo players and communities alike.
But the playlist will still have value for those who don’t want to engage with these systems or join a community that does that for them.
I do have other ideas for how to keep a growing amount of content available for players at minimal expense to the developers. For example: if custom championships become a thing again, I think that there should be a location on the map similar to Horizon Tour in 5 that just spits out random championships that people can join solo, co-op, or PvP. But players who create championships can submit share them like blueprints can be shared in 5, and the devs add curated shared custom championships to the list of ones that get spit out by the mode. So people who want custom championships can just build their own, but people who just want to click and race without any hassle have a constant and ever growing stream of content.
But, as someone who is willing to engage with these systems and has a small community to play with, I’m more concerned with getting the tools to begin with.
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Yeah, definitely don’t want to see any FOMO mechanics brought back; integrate stuff into the game regularly and give us ways to access it at any point.
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Some form of live service, an iteration of the festival playlist i think will surely exist. As TheWarmWind alluded to it and from my own experience with Horizon 5, the monthly updates never really felt too substantial. Unless i go out of my way to create fun for myself.
For example: Something i would often do/ have done in the past is i get an itch to jump into Horizon 4. And just do a championship, do forzathon live, drive around. check out some cars. Sort of like a routine, where the festival playlist CAN help bring me that little extra fun and just something to engage with. But once i went into FH5 and started treating it like monthly content that it’s meant to be, the fun factor began evaporating pretty quickly for me.
Said this for FH5, FM and i’ll say it here again. If there’s going to be events like this, that are meant to refresh every week/every month. That’s something we know we’re getting anyway. Then why not focus on quarterly updates? Similar to how the Crew Motorfest does it. This way the developer will be able to actually deliver more than just the monthly refresh of events and a couple of new cars, which players know they’re getting anyway. Like this shouldn’t be news to anyone, i don’t think.
Instead put the focus on bigger features or updating old features. Like updating eventlab, the eliminator, online racing..
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Basically my idea is splitting the playlist into 2: The more competitive side of it- Like the trial, monhtly rivals to be their own thing, similar to how the crew motorfest does it. (co-op and competitive-centric). And the rest of the playlist- championships, forzathon challenges is just - free for all, enjoy at your own pace with no time constrains. Only the competitive events remain as exclusive weekly/monthly type events.
Unlock the new cars with backstage passes. Earn backstage passes the same way it’s worked in the past. Put returning cars into the championships, the forzathon shop or straight to the autoshow.
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