My Forza experience began with Forza Motorsport 2. I was immediately hooked on painting and utilising the Auction House to earn my credits. To be honest, at that time, I had no real interest in tuning or hotlapping. Through these forums, I found myself part of a tuning garage and that’s when the game eventually took on a life of its own. In a very short space of time, I had gone from being a stand alone painter, to being part of a team that interacted within a massive Forza community. This was a real game changer for me. My friends list grew daily and my interactions with the community, be it through the forums, in party or in game chat, took my experience to another level.
The Auction House allowed the Tuning Garages to act like an on-line business. The tuners were building the cars, the testers set their best lap times, the painters painting and the sellers, selling. The game had its own economy. Not only were the garages rewarded but the people buying the cars, gained access to tunes and paints that allow them to remain competitive, and look good doing so.
Like most economies, there were those who learned how to exploit it, and it wasn’t long before the money glitchers swooped on the Auction House (with their bazillions), making any sought after car, including unicorns, almost impossible to buy. As well as this, glitch cars were introduced and allowed the owner to take the paint from any car they viewed in the Auction House and transfer it on to a car of their choice.
Ultimately, the Forza economy collapsed and the community complained about the glitches. In reply, Turn 10 removed the Auction House from their future installments and replaced it with the sharefronts. While no where near as exciting as the Auction House, the sharefronts continue to serve their purpose, rewarding individuals for their efforts; albeit on a smaller scale. T10 listened, put in a new system to address the issues and guess what, everyone would still rather have the Auction House and by proxy, the credit exploits etc.
When the paint glitch happened, I shifted my focus to tuning and hot-lapping. I wasn’t the greatest but I was well aware of what was happening on the leaderboards. Having the option to leave a set-up open on the leaderboards helped me a lot. My time and effort on track was rewarded with entry to V12. From this point onward, the majority of my time was spent on track, setting times. The leaderboards were very active and back then they were filled with a lot of very fast guys; Backone, Daveyskills, Chemical, 3wide…the list goes on. Breaking the top 100 was a challenge for even the most talented driver. Unfortunately, bump drafting came into play and due to the nature of the penalty system, this allowed for a car to be belted up the ■■■, just before the start of a new lap; increasing the speed of the car at the start of the new lap. The community weren’t happy at this exploit. T10 listened (and in future installments), put in a new system to address the issue and guess what, everyone would rather have the old penalty system and by proxy, the lap-time exploits.
The examples I have eluded to above clearly demonstrate T10’s wish to get it right. However, the majority of issues they are forced to resolve for the community, are born of the community.
For me, Forza 2 will always be the pinnacle of the franchise but T10 are in a position where they are trying to keep a competitive edge, whilst pandering to the wishes of the masses. They are in a thankless position and no matter what they set out to achieve, there will always be the comparison with earlier releases.; as well as the constant gripes from all aspects of Forza players, on Paint Layers, FPS, Penalty System, Mutliplayer lobbies, Leaderboards, Earning credits, DLC…the list goes on.
What we all want is all the good parts of every Forza, all mashed into one release. But one thing I can guarantee is, all the things I like about Forza, will almost certainly be all the things someone else dislikes about the game. There is no happy medium.
I will definitely buy Forza 6, regardless of feedback from my peers. I have made some good friends through this franchise. I have learned to tune and paint and race (badly); this is where, from a racing point of view, it all began for me. It is what I know!
Having now played the Forza Horizon installments (I would have dropped Forza from the title) and Project Cars, T10 don’t really have to do that much with Forza 6, to re-establish their stranglehold on the racing genre.
What is your Forza Experience and why will you buy Forza 6.
