I have being trying to think of what is wrong with Forza 7. I dont think its just FM7 though as the problems seem to plague most console racing games.
Yes rammers, griefers & bullies make online racing ridiculous but i think the problem is much deeper. Motorsport is in the title and as far as motors go… FM7 is a mix of yes, no, why is that not here & what the hell are these doing here! Yes off-roaders and rally cars are useless without appropriate playgrounds and this goes without mentioning the rest of the filler that has no place in the game. Now we get to the actual problem and i hope a solution that should get rid of the madness in the lobbies!
Sport is in the title and in terms of motorsport its extremely important! Yet this has been completely overlooked in FM7 its earlier titles and other console racers!
The game has no emotional investment or a structure that relates to sport. Here is what i mean. I am talking online here but the career mode is exactly the same in vterms of sporting content. Public lobbies are just a pick up and play free for all! No sport to be found here. Clean racing plus madness yes. But that is not sport. The league system is where i think we could find a solution. We should first start with the avatars. A blob of ice cream as a helmet is meaningless in itself but so are the avatars. They serve no purpose other than to highlight the lack of vision at Turn 10. The avatar should have a purpose. They should be our online racing driver with a structured path from novice to pro using the leagues to create a complete online experience of learning to and becoming a pro racing driver. From the bottom up working your way to pro level would add meaning and purpose to a game that lacks purpose. Starting from a baseline would give novices a chance to learn to race in a progressive manner whkle not hindering the progress ot quicker racers. Clean racing should be part of the progression with demotion and barring from events a good way of giving people a reason to race clean. Because that is what is causing the madness. People have no reason not to be horrible racemates!
Basically in a nutshell. Turn the leagues into a complete online racing career experience with progress based on skill progression and clean racing. Have monthly licensed events like the road to the nurburg, spa 24hours with qualifying events as way to givevpeople a taste of what its like to feel invested in something! We have the cars, the tracks, the sofware and a community of budding racing drivers. Give us what we crave. A chance to become a racing driver with a sport to take part in. Its the lack of sport and the lack of a meaningful online career that makes FM7 feel substance…less.
Agreed. Forza shows up the worst in humanity. Many players cut corners, ram, grief, have no idea how to race fairly and seek extreme revenge for the most minor of accidental contact. Because they have no reason not to do it and have not been shown how to race properly. There is no incentive to race properly. There is no information on how to race properly. All sport has referees and rules to make it fair for everyone. Forza has no rules and pretty ineffective referees. We have been promised a penalty system. We can only hope.
The sad fact is that no matter what is done, a number of players will only be intent on spoiling the game for others. These people would spoil just about any game they could, it isn’t Forza specific.
For others, the game just doesn’t engage them enough. Motorsport is repetitive. Same car, same tracks, same opponents. That’s it’s nature. For many of us just putting together a perfect lap or closing down and passing the guy ahead cleanly is enough. For many, it isn’t and they resort to their silly antics in their pursuit of quick gratification. Far too many people can’t grasp the concept of simply enjoying the racing and firmly believe that every race has to be won regardless of how it’s won.
Sure, rules and penalties are fine but they still won’t stop people with little interest in the finer points of racing from buying a copy. This problem has no silver bullet solution.
People like prizes and awards. Perhaps cars, liveries, ribbons and other stuff should be awarded for how you drive rather than for how long you drive. Whatever, it needs more than just penalties to encourage a lot of players to try to play the game as intended.
This is a really fantastic idea. If people received rewards for good racing etiquette, it could go a long way to helping people pay more attention to their behavior on the track. Leagues last night was awful, getting rammed left and right for no reason and I suspect most of it wasn’t even malicious, but with no rewards for clean racing, people will resort to bumper cars if it gives them an edge.