In the recent post format engaging the players, Forza Motorsport throws out a simple question: “Which drivers would you add to your dream IndyCar driver lineup?” This sort of wholesome stuff can foster great conversations, can’t it? Now add Unter Ton, shouting in rage and vitriol, to the mix. That is what you get in the replies.
I can understand why Forza’s official Twitter posted “If you could create your dream IndyCar team, which drivers would you choose?” along with some polished car art. Some players even actually participated. Saying yes to Conor Daly, Scott McLaughlin, and Colton Herta as a joke and for the speed. Others saying Palou and Josef Newgarden. Nothing unusual.
But it’s not just that. It comes with hostility. Violence. Anger this deep rarely seeks a proper outlet. And Zac, with one player, enters the scene with “Still waiting for a confirmation from you guys instead of someone’s hearsay statement; is the game finished or not?” Oof. This is no longer about IndyCar at all, and it’s definitely not about this game. It’s far beyond this.
No one has this covered, and probably the worst part is all the remarks are explicitly wondering about updates— “WHEN’S THE UPDATE” from tpain744, “WHEN ARE WE GETTING UPDATE #23. STOP LEAVING CUSTOMERS IN THE DARK. THIS IS BEYOND HORRIBLE CUSTOMER SERVICE” from leetorts73. These are drowned in “where’s the promised content” to “where’s the simplest question” bucket.
There is just one more and it’s from sithmetal71 and it’s brutal—“I think every player should delete this game. There is no reason to play anymore.”
That said, it is obvious these remarks are not targeted at a specific tweet or post. It is targeted at a stack of unresolved problems. For all intents and purposes, it feels like there is nothing being offered thanks to the very minimal communication which feels like nothing is being offered. Every update is for seemingly secondary issues like IndyCar content, and there are users who believe it is to cover the core issues. A user, RIP 0ffworId, perfectly sums this up: “There were no news for many, many weeks and when you did post an update, it was all about recycled content if I’m not mistaken. And now this is your millionth post about the damn indy cars. Is there anything else?”
This screams a community that feels abandoned. They deeply love Forza, and certainly want the fantastic Forza Motorsport 7 to succeed. The issue is the care being shown on the updates for the game is simply too little. The assault on the official account for not engaging the user community for once is purely because the energy has to channel itself in some way.
This leads to other strange tangents. For example, Bogie 19th accuses someone else on the thread of lying, which simply adds to the chaotic tone of the thread. This is utter chaos, but there is some sense to it. There is a lot of groundless assumption being made by gamers, all because of complete radio silence regarding the game they premised their money on.
The greater issue with Forza mirrors the problem with most live service games. The issue that matters the most is communication, or lack of it. When the developers choose to remain silent, the fans tend to respond with baseless anger and assumptions. Then the developers do choose to communicate, it tends to make the situation worse if the details they provide don’t concern the issues the gamers have been requesting. It is important to note, Forza’s community is not upset about the presence of IndyCar content. The community’s ire stems from the fact that this content appears to be the only thing being discussed while more important issues are being ignored.
A seemingly trivial question about drivers drastically evolved into a conversation about the game’s updates and the quality of communication. At this point, they have made it clear that they don’t want attention drawn to them through imagination-centric questions. They want to know the release date for the next update, what the update contains, and the support plans for the game in the long run. They believe that their questions should be answered and all this noise should come to an end. The Forza community is eagerly awaiting those answers now.
