Goodbye

Miscellaneous Off-Topic
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Most people won’t care about this post, they hardly ever do. To those of you who do take the time to read this, I thank you.

This series first started for me back in 2007 on Forza Motorsport 2. I was fifteen years old, just getting really interested in cars, and what made them tick. I met a lot of my friends on that game, a lot of them I still talk to. That was one the things that I loved most about this series, it’s community. The community drove everything, from the artists, to the tuners, to the tuning garages who supplied the artists with their work. The drifters, the drag racers, and the circuit crews. The community is what made this series what it is today. Hell one could even say we were all somewhat like family. It also helped that the game was extremely fun, and pretty ahead as far as console racing simulators go. It was easy to pick up with its difficulty options and customization, but could be extremely challenging if you cranked the difficulty up. It had everything a good racer needed, great cars, great sounds and graphics, and amazing customization. It was the pinnacle of racing games at that time.

Now fast forward to Forza Motorsport 4, and you can see the full realization of what racing games should be. It obviously wan’t without it’s flaws, but it was the best in the series in my honest opinion. It had everything you could possibly need, an auction house, the storefront, clubs, rivals and some amazing gameplay. I’ve never felt a greater sense of community than I have from this one game. It’s inconceivable today that people can come together and actually enjoy themselves, without bringing turmoil and disdain into the collective whole, but this game accomplished that. Not to say we didn’t have disagreements and such, but we were a generally happy group of people, as most car fans seem to be.

Now fast forward to Forza Motorsport 5, and most of the original members have disappeared. There isn’t any auction house, the storefront has been replaced with a sharefront. But, we still have Rivals and such, so that’s okay. Honestly, I genuinely enjoyed most of my time with FM5, it’s not a bad game, but it lacked in the most important aspect for me, community. Without the community, there is no point in playing.

No, to Forza Horizon2, never played the first one, figured I would give this one a try. I liked it quite a bit, at least for a little while. It got boring for me really fast, it got to where I no longer enjoyed the gameplay, the physics bored me, they didn’t offer much challenge in the ways of mastering the vehicles, at least not in the way past games had. I obviously can’t complain about physics, seeing as I knew what I was getting into, so that point is null, but still. I tried to get into the community aspect, but just didn’t see the point in doing so with a game I didn’t enjoy.

Now to get to the actual point of this exorbitantly large post, I’m done with this series. At least for a while. I really don’t want to be, as it’s a very beloved franchise in my own mind, but I just can’t find the fun in it anymore. I didn’t come here to make this post and whine and complain. I came here to say goodbye, and thank those of you who have been a part of my Forza experience.
It was truly a great one, and I hope I can regain some of the excitement in future iterations.

Thanks, AFRO.

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Damn ive played the game since the first editition imhave a hard finding goodmpeople to play with you sound like one of those good people if youmchange youre mind add me as a friend iam usally on ecery day and would enjoy racing or doing the Bucketlist with you.

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Hey, credit where it’s due: it’s a well written, thoughtful post.

Speaking for myself, it’s the “WAAAH, T10 STOL MAH MONEY CUZZA X-Y-Z BYE BYE” ones I ignore (they’re often walls of grammarless, mispelled text to boot).

Sorry to hear you’ve fallen out of love. I agree, the community in FM5 was not served overly well, but FH2 brought it back for me. I’m in a fun club, have some wickedly fast friends and rivals, the magic’s still there. Hopefully someday FM6 and (fingers crossed) FH3 reinvigorate your love of the seires.

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Unsure what to say; I understand your entire post because it’s your opinion but saying goodbye but willing to try future releases, kinda sounds you’re only taking time not to play Forza until the next release. A lot of people do that albeit not with these lengthy explanation/reasons.

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Yeah,it’s basically a break, not sure if I’ll try the very next iteration, but there’s a chance for possible future titles.

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Friend, before you go, try Club gemma on FH2 , it might just change your mind
And if your really, really bored, you can always race with me :))

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Yeah give this club a try its has great people great races!

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Maybe see you around in a few years then friend

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I agree with almost everything , I hope we get back the forza 4 great stuff, but boring listen to Gemma join a Club there is always something to do tune paint race online or in rival to earn XP for your team or just
cruzing with folks and do crazy stunts …

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Hey Afro, I know how you feel, but then i told you that when i got FM5. Community has been decimated just to make the game easier to police. It was purely a cost decision, nothing to do with ‘doing it for the gamers’ or whatever other rhetoric they want to spin. Otherwise it would have either still been in, or come back by Horizon 2. It hasn’t which proves it’s not returning. For Dan Greenawalt making all those bold claims about it being a community driven franchise at every single game show, it’s ridiculous that this is what they think is community driven. More like community driven out.
It remember when we used to run round amalfi with Mr G and the rest, just messing about in our varied cars. The smaller car lists make for more boring grids now too. Only a handful of cars get used. I remember when we’d run a race and everyone had different cars. In the same night i ran an old Corvette with mad camber, and an S1 Ford Fiesta and all sorts in between. We did lots of community minded stuff and we generally tried to make the forums a better place to be. Those charity auctions for Mr G’s kids he was mentoring were one of best examples of community spirit. You can’t even do that kinda thing now on the latest two games. No collabs for painters either. I miss some of those awesome paints that teams like deadlights came up with. The sharefront has yet to pay me a single credit on either game for anything i’ve painted. Despite selling hundreds of copies of some paints. It’s just plain ridiuculous. People should be paid for every paint, not some arbitrary threshold that’s been decided you must reach. There’s now a sign above the painters who earn credits door, it says, ‘You must sell this many paints to enter’.
They took away all the community features and they’ve hobbled this game and it’s community and the worst part it, they are completely oblivious.
Most of my long time Xbox live friends have been made through Forza, and most of them have walked away. We’ll still stay in touch obviously dude, just not through Forza. Which is a real shame, but they’ve completely lost their way and i can see why you’re off. I’ll be sure to let you know if anything miraculous happens in Forzaland, but i’m not holding my breath. lol.

Now go put that hat of yours away, it’s caused and eclipse over southern Texas…

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That would explain why it’s gotten so cold. Lol I’m sure I’ll come back at some point, I just don’t know when that will be.

Thanks for everyones kind words and support, it’s greatly appreciated.

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I remember playing FM3 every day up untill they stopped giving gifts and such. I would start the game hear the music but there was nothing there any more except maybe some tuning credits,same with FM4. Its as if some thing had died,i have not felt that with FM5 or FH,i miss the old days alot!

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LOL I actually read it, In '07 I was already a 45yr old man, so I have always had a different perspective…I have no close personal friends in real life who play this game …and I’m not playing so I can meet kids, but I do like too have a friends list to compare my times etc…I play the forza series simply because I enjoy racing…its good exercise for my stiff hands, and the forum can be entertaining, but I have never felt the game had to be so real that it can replace actual driving…but I can see how it would for those who are waiting for the day they get too drive their first car in real life,being caught in a traffic jam in the evening rush hour get’s boring really fast also…never loose sight of the fact that this is just a game…on a side note, I was at the mall with my wife yesterday…so I popped into EB games while she was at the book store, and was able too play H2 on the big screen…a kid about 8yrs old was watching me race, and was completely amazed at how well I know the game and was cheering me on…too cute lol

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I also started with FM2. I played the heck out of FM2, FM3, FM4, FH, FM5, and now FH2.

I really liked FM5. Sooner or later I expect to return to it even though I’ve done all the career races, but it has free play so I can make hour-long races if I want. I do really miss the features we’ve lost from FM4, though, and have been hoping for a return and then some for FM6. I spent a lot of time on the auction house just trying to save a few CR on cars, and Storefront beat the pants off of our current share system. It was so much easier to find stuff in the old Storefront system as opposed to the mess we have now. I also hate how Drivatars don’t take damage in career mode and we can’t view telemetry during replays. These are my only real gripes with FM5, and I hope they will be remedied for FM6.

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[Mod Edit - Abbreviated profanity, profanity and profanity that is disguised but still alludes to the words are not permitted - D]

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FM2 was the height of this series. Understand part of that was due to the timing and climate. The economy took a beating and a lot of people were at home unemployed or living off savings. Therefore a lot more free time spent playing Forza. As it recovered and people slowly got back to work free time went down. Also from my own friends list many people had started families, again a time killer. It’s called growing up. Priorities and interests change. Yes T10 has released some lackluster titles as of late. So has every other game developer. Know why? We aren’t their TARGET DEMOGRAPHIC. They are on to the new us.

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That just made me horribly depressed… : (

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Oh yeah, i’m in club Gemma too! I remember joining cos Gemma said she was in the club on her own, now there’s like 600+ members and that’s in about a month. lol

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Fixed for you Mitchy.

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See? The other day it was 600, now it’s 800! lol

1 Like