I definitely understand the frustration with the monetization of games. I'm not fan and despite enjoying Forza 5, I will not buy any tokens. However, I'm seeing some numbers of 454 hours to get access for all the content of the game and that is just not accurate. A few things to note:
1. This is based off of buying every car in the game and the earnings from racing. You get money from your drivatar, rewards for playing the game, and any tunes, liveries, vinyls you share. This adds up and is a source of game credits. Additionally you start off with access to 40 cars in free play mode and even more in rivals mode that historically has rotated access to cars. In other words, you get access to ~ 25% of the cars from day one. And for you savvy folks out there, a method to free play any car in the game has been discovered... So that brings the grand total down to: 0 hours.
2. I've played for less than ten hours and have access to ~70 cars based on rivals, my garage, and free play.
3. You simply do not NEED to buy every car in the game. GT5 would most likely also take 100+ hours to obtain every car but what is the point? This is not a typical objective of a game player. Do I need to save up >$10 million to buy EVERY indy car or just buy one of them since it is practically a spec racing series? This can be had for $3million. The same for GT5. Do you need all 50 skylines? Of course not. I've played over 20 racing games and never once obtained all the cars or even thought about trying to do so.
4. There has been much talk about how unobtainable the most expensive car in the game is at $6million. Many already have it after one weekend of playing. Putting in much less time that some have claimed it would take (HINT: other revenue streams for in game credits are available).
The real issue at hand is in whether or not in the long term, for those that actually play the game, will be constrained from obtaining the cars they want and face the choice of paying or grinding to obtain them. I haven't hit this problem yet, but perhaps I will. I certainly have in other games (e.g. GT5) but at the moment I have plenty of in game credits and access to plenty of cars or Forza. By next week I will have access to well over half of the cars. I see similar feedback from others who actually own and play the game. Time will tell on how this economy in Forza 5 ultimately pans out, but this rhetoric claiming 400+ hours of playing to simply access cars is just plain ridiculous.
Although I'm not happy with the excessive monetization in the game, excellent post. Balanced opinion from someone who actually experienced the game.
I would like to share my experience with the game. First a disclosure: I'm a VIP, diehard fan of console sims. This means I level up at twice the normal pace for being VIP (leveling up gets you about 35k in credits), I play with all assist off (55% bonus in credits) and drivatar on expert (35% bonus in credits) and VIPs receive free cars from Turn 10 from time to time. My average winnings from races is about $8-9k. ANYONE who is a hardcore fan of the series/console sim races should/would/could have the same experience as me.
That said, here's what I got by now: four cars in my garage (three are a gift from Turn 10 for being a VIP) at the total value of 540,000; 274,066 credits available and already spent 143,800 credits in upgrades. Total is 957,866 credits earn in cash, cars. and upgrades As of now, my time spent with the game is: 1h29m racing, 58m test driving, 34m upgrading, 16m tuning, total time played is 3h17m. I'm not grinding at all, just playing the game however I like it, used only two cars in career. The speed you earn money in this game is significantly higher than previous iterations of the series.
I say to everyone to rent or buy the game, used if you will. If you think the monetization is worse than the amazing experience that game provides by racing, upgrading, tunning, painting liveries, playing online and its not for you, just return/sell the game back. The game per se is really, really awesome and it is a shame to miss on this experience.