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90% of Forza Motorsport Xbox players haven't completed a single online race

Monad

Member
Multiplayer is where a game of this type shines the most and the reason why platforms like iRacing have succeeded if done correctly (despite being monthly subscription and full of expensive DLC), racing cleanly and on equal terms is one of the most rewarding and exciting experiences you can have if you like cars and competition.

I haven't played much at the moment and I'm focusing on the career mode until more updates come out fixing all the mess, but the few online races I had in the early access were a blast despite all the game problems.
 
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SatansReverence

Hipster Princess
About 50 or 60 hours in now.

Almost exclusively in the featured multilayer spec series TCR GT and Mazda.

It's the best Forza multi to date. Reminds me of FM2 server style but without the regular salty host banning everyone faster than him.

Had a TCR race last night, did a Hard/Soft strat vs a guy doing Med/Med on VIR. Super close and clean race. Made an awesome move around the outside of a turn when the other driver when defensive after I had the soft tyre advantage at the end of the race.

Almost caught P 1 after he went softs too early but lost too much time battling earlier in the race.
 
No Way Kg GIF by SHOWTIME Sports


We need to let a poor game just die.
"Poor game"

Captain America Lol GIF by mtv
 

Freeman76

Member
Online racing is aggravating as fuck thats why probably. People dgaf and just barge you off the track lol, and playing in ghost mode doesnt feel right either. I did enjoy Dirt where it was just you on the track racing in real time with others doing the same, but not for long 🤣
 

Nitty_Grimes

Made a crappy phPBB forum once ... once.
How about some GAF races where we can all drive like little old grannies or us English folk with 'after you' 'no please I insist, after you sir'
 

odhiex

Member
That is surprisingly low.

Even if I don't play racing games religiously online, I have completed a couple of online races in GT7 with friends.
 

xrnzaaas

Member
I have zero interest in multiplayer. Not only the shitty community is still there, but now you also have a penalty system that's often working against you.
 
I bought every Forza Motorsport and Horizon game since release, originally on Xbox consoles but now PC, and have never once taken part in a multiplayer online race.

The way the games are structured now with the drivatars (or whatever they're called) and silly Gametag names for the AI drivers (which I personally hate in the new Forza Motorsport game by the way), makes it feels as if I am always online anyway. The AI is perfectly serviceable in these games, say, compared with Gran Turismo, which varies from awful to bland in my experience, so I have never felt compelled to play online. That isn't why I play these games.
 
I have always been more of a single player Forza player. I'm not that great at racing and I know it, but I enjoy tuning out and listening to music while I race. However when I saw everyones glowing reviews for the online I thought I would give it a go. I enjoyed the fact that you had to practice and qualify. Then I was very encouraged to see the text about how much of a clean racer you are is everything in Forza and I thought okay this might actually be fun, proper racing without idiots just smashing into each other. I managed to qualify in 3rd grid position and was hyped to race.

The race starts and within seconds some guy is repeatdely bashing into the side of me. Okay, I think it's the start of the race theres bound to be some argy bargy. then I get the message collision detected 0.5 penalty. WTH, okay, well the game can't be perfect in judging I guess. Then this same guy basically seems to spend the rest of the race just messing with me he takes us both out at the next corner by ramming the back corner as I turned. He gets away from the sand trap first then actually waits for me to ram me again at the next corner. in the end I get away from him and he cant catch me so he quits the game and I come in second to last.

I went back to single player after that.
 

CeeJay

Member
I'm surprised the numbers are so low, online is by far the best mode in Forza. Why race against dumb AI that just want to follow an on-rails path around the track when you can race against real people and have some proper wheel to wheel racing experiences? Racing against real people who can make some really inspired racing moves but also liable to make some mistakes you can capitalise on in the moment is what really makes the game enjoyable and exciting, you are never going to get that with the boring AI. Apart from the first couple of corners I see very little of the bumper cars that Forza has a reputation for and it can be a bit of a lottery (you get that with the AI races too though). In previous games it was 50:50 when racing right next to someone whether they would intentionally move into you and try to push you off the track but not in the new Motorsport, I have seen the vast majority of drivers being respectful and actively try to avoid contact wherever possible. Those penalties can really make a difference to your race and largely not worth risking.

The facts of this 80:20 split and that everyone in here who hasn't tried it yet is still complaining about how bad the racing online is just emphasises the ignorance. Sure, there may be valid reasons such as if time is really a factor and you cant devote 10 minutes to a race without needing to pause. There may be big gaps in between races but personally I take these opportunities to do jobs around the house that still need doing but are not time dependant.

The main reason I suspect however is that people simply don't want to take off the training wheels (rewind) and don't want to admit it.
 

CeeJay

Member
I have always been more of a single player Forza player. I'm not that great at racing and I know it, but I enjoy tuning out and listening to music while I race. However when I saw everyones glowing reviews for the online I thought I would give it a go. I enjoyed the fact that you had to practice and qualify. Then I was very encouraged to see the text about how much of a clean racer you are is everything in Forza and I thought okay this might actually be fun, proper racing without idiots just smashing into each other. I managed to qualify in 3rd grid position and was hyped to race.

The race starts and within seconds some guy is repeatdely bashing into the side of me. Okay, I think it's the start of the race theres bound to be some argy bargy. then I get the message collision detected 0.5 penalty. WTH, okay, well the game can't be perfect in judging I guess. Then this same guy basically seems to spend the rest of the race just messing with me he takes us both out at the next corner by ramming the back corner as I turned. He gets away from the sand trap first then actually waits for me to ram me again at the next corner. in the end I get away from him and he cant catch me so he quits the game and I come in second to last.

I went back to single player after that.
Sorry to hear that guy was such a jerk. I guess that at lower skill levels this kind of behaviour will be more prevalent but if you can stick it out and race cleanly for a little while then you will get out of that cesspit. The new rating and penalty systems mean that clean racers get to race with other clean racers whilst the trolls and rammers get put in races with each others like them (as far as i can work out anyway). My advice for anyone who wants to get involved with racing online is to not bother qualifying and start at the back of the grid and stay out of trouble to build up your reputation a bit. S safety rating is not that hard to attain.
 

calistan

Member
Why race against dumb AI that just want to follow an on-rails path around the track when you can race against real people and have some proper wheel to wheel racing experiences?
Online racing is stressful. It's not something I'd imagine most people doing for a bit of relaxation in front of the TV.

I used to play a lot of iRacing, and that was by far the most intense experience I've had in gaming. It's a massive adrenalin rush, but also frustrating if you're stuck at the back and a bit terrifying if you're in the lead with a pack of cars chasing you.

I've thought about trying Forza online but still haven't got round to it. I'm rarely in the mood for such tension and I think I'd be more likely to rage quit than actually complete a race.
 

BWJinxing

Member
I'm on a 3080 and having issues getting the game full screen on my ultrawife ( flickers like hell )

And I've turned on DLSS and can't seem to get out the 30 fps range even in a 1080p window.

I recall fh5, while the online was buggy at launch, the actualll game was playable
 

StueyDuck

Member
i haven't had a chance to try the game yet, but why would i go online and race with a bunch of heavy set sweatlords who take it way to seriously, I wanna cut corners, bash into folk and have a laugh and possibly try win the race against AI
 

Beechos

Member
These achievements stats are really eye openers sometimes. I remember beating the gears 5 hivebusters dlc and only like 2% of people earned that achievement. The campaign was really good and short surprised so little people beat it.
 

MidGenRefresh

*Refreshes biennially
These achievements stats are really eye openers sometimes. I remember beating the gears 5 hivebusters dlc and only like 2% of people earned that achievement. The campaign was really good and short surprised so little people beat it.

Maybe because it was a paid DLC? Or am I mistaken?
 

Rykan

Member
I think you should read the article again, a little more carefully.
I think you should take your own advice. My post and the article touch on the exact same "issue": A substantial amount of people download games on Game pass and barely interact with the game before moving on to something else, which leads to low completion rates for easily obtainable achievements like these.

Of course, the reason why the percentage is likely higher here is down to Game Pass once again. Steam players would have had to purchase the game, meaning they are likely more invested than Xbox with its Game Pass subscribers, who maybe fired up Forza Motorsport through their subscriptions to see what it was all about before going back to something else.
 
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Some trophy stats are often quite surprising, with many games being abandoned barely after first chapter, or some trophies which require simply to start a specific mode once, while games that actually aim at "you will get challenged and die a lot" often have quite a high completion rate, despite being harder and requiring a considerable time investment. I believe racing games in general have very often gamers ignoring a lot of very simple straight forward stuff.

Edit: Trackmania
Welcome to TM 80.2/93.89%
Basically finish any race, which can be much shorter than the usual Brands Hatch 2 lap races in other racing games. The easiest tracks require far less than a minute. So there are already a ton of people who started TM at all, but never finished anything. I am not sure if in theory someone can actually use it solely for creating tracks, since tracks need to be finished by the creator before they are released, and that might not count for that. But it is highly unlikely that someone would just use it that way. So people have started it and creating their profile was already too much and they said f... it?
 
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CeeJay

Member
Online racing is stressful. It's not something I'd imagine most people doing for a bit of relaxation in front of the TV.

I used to play a lot of iRacing, and that was by far the most intense experience I've had in gaming. It's a massive adrenalin rush, but also frustrating if you're stuck at the back and a bit terrifying if you're in the lead with a pack of cars chasing you.

I've thought about trying Forza online but still haven't got round to it. I'm rarely in the mood for such tension and I think I'd be more likely to rage quit than actually complete a race.
Ah ok, I can understand that. Personally any racing game doesn't stress me out at all whether its against real people or bots i don't feel much different. Conversely when I was playing PUBG a couple of years ago and got down to the last few left my heart would feel like it was going to explode out of my chest and my body was sweating buckets! FPS games are not something i've ever been good at and the prospect of a chicken dinner after around an hours worth of stealthily moving towards the final circle was quite stressful. I could regularly get down the the last few and even got fairly high up worldwide at one point even though my kill count was absolutely abysmal. I never did get a chicken dinner because my game style involved stealth and when it came down to it i couldn't make consistent kills.

I would love to have the space for a proper racing rig and get into some more serious sim racing but I will need to wait until the kids move out and I can claim a bedroom before I can do that. Until then i'll have to stick to console racing with a pad.
 

SomeGit

Member
Doesn't Sea of Thieves have the same thing, where it turns out most people don't even finish the first voyage? This is exactly why "X amount of people players!" is a completely meaningless statistics.

By first voyage you mean the Maiden Voyage? That’s the tutorial voyage you can skip it, hell I have 60 hours of play time and never done.
 
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CeeJay

Member
i haven't had a chance to try the game yet, but why would i go online and race with a bunch of heavy set sweatlords who take it way to seriously, I wanna cut corners, bash into folk and have a laugh and possibly try win the race against AI
Your style of play is probably more suited to Forza Horizon then, you will find motorsport boring and frustrating i would imagine. Every time you cut corners and knock AI out of the race you will pickup time penalties and there isn't any way to disable it. A full race behaving like that you can expect to pickup 10 seconds or more in penalties. Even a very minor corner cut can pickup a 0.3 second penalty and if you cause an AI to lose track positions that will be at least 0.8 seconds. So, to win the race you would need to be way out in front on your own with a huge gap between you and second place. You would have to reduce the AI level right down and then it's not even racing, you may as well just do rivals or time trials.
 

SomeGit

Member
Some trophy stats are often quite surprising, with many games being abandoned barely after first chapter, or some trophies which require simply to start a specific mode once, while games that actually aim at "you will get challenged and die a lot" often have quite a high completion rate, despite being harder and requiring a considerable time investment. I believe racing games in general have very often gamers ignoring a lot of very simple straight forward stuff.

Edit: Trackmania
Welcome to TM 80.2/93.89%
Basically finish any race, which can be much shorter than the usual Brands Hatch 2 lap races in other racing games. The easiest tracks require far less than a minute. So there are already a ton of people who started TM at all, but never finished anything. I am not sure if in theory someone can actually use it solely for creating tracks, since tracks need to be finished by the creator before they are released, and that might not count for that. But it is highly unlikely that someone would just use it that way. So people have started it and creating their profile was already too much and they said f... it?

I liked my time with Trackmania on the F2P, but can understand someone quitting after looking at how much is locked off without a subscription. It feels really restrictive compared to nations.
 
Im actually surprised by this. In my mind sports games are meant to be played with people.

My racing experience has mostly been with trackmania, playing with friends on the online. I remember the days of ps1 playing gt1 solo and it was ultra boring. Same with nfs
 
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StueyDuck

Member
Your style of play is probably more suited to Forza Horizon then, you will find motorsport boring and frustrating i would imagine. Every time you cut corners and knock AI out of the race you will pickup time penalties and there isn't any way to disable it. A full race behaving like that you can expect to pickup 10 seconds or more in penalties. Even a very minor corner cut can pickup a 0.3 second penalty and if you cause an AI to lose track positions that will be at least 0.8 seconds. So, to win the race you would need to be way out in front on your own with a huge gap between you and second place. You would have to reduce the AI level right down and then it's not even racing, you may as well just do rivals or time trials.
I think you'll find that once I buy a game. I can play it how I want.
 

Taycan77

Member
The best thing PD did was introduce numerous online Time Trials. In recent months these have become much more extensive (and popular) with lots of manufacturer backed events.

It’s the perfect mix for those who want online competition but still play at their own leisure. For online racing itself, I only do the odd one, usually on a short track like Tsukuba. Can’t be bothered practicing for official FIA GTWS events.

Not that I’d ever be quick enough!
 

adamsapple

Or is it just one of Phil's balls in my throat?
I think you should take your own advice. My post and the article touch on the exact same "issue": A substantial amount of people download games on Game pass and barely interact with the game before moving on to something else, which leads to low completion rates for easily obtainable achievements like these.

Let me break it down for you in a simpler way,

The article is about only 10% people who have played online

Based on global Xbox stats, approximately 45% of players have completed the first career tournament in the game in single player.

So, no, this is not the case of people picking it up, booting it to the menu and the closing it.
 

Snake29

RSI Employee of the Year
Im only play online in GT7. Doing Cafe’s or other challanges between it but only playing singleplayer…lol that fucking boring. Online is so much more fun.
 
No issue with that, I have played exactly 10 seconds of Forza online many years ago. The race started and some jackass took me right into a wall the first 2 seconds and I quit the race and never played again.
 

xrnzaaas

Member
These achievements stats are really eye openers sometimes. I remember beating the gears 5 hivebusters dlc and only like 2% of people earned that achievement. The campaign was really good and short surprised so little people beat it.
Expansions generally have low numbers and only a few percent of the people play them. I think the main reasons are that people don't finish games in general and also they usually move on before the big DLC's have been released.
 
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