In-game and online economies, and UGC sharing

This has always been a tricky topic, in any game with an economy, and not just Forza. Early games (Forza 3, at least) were a challenge to get money to buy cars. If you wanted to buy the Ferrari 250 GTO in Forza 3 (20,000,000 CR), you would need quite a lot of determination to get it done, be it through a lot of racing, or being a good tuner/painter for the Storefront and Auction House. It added a sense of accomplishment to each car one purchased though.

Forza 4 greatly relaxed these restrictions; perhaps too much. Within a few days of playing (sometimes hours, if they were good at Rivals), one could get the most expensive cars in the game, which also got their prices slashed: 10,000,000 CR could net the same 250 GTO that cost twice as much in 3. This made the process of obtaining a car no longer a challenge; there is almost no grind involved. This, coupled to easy free upgrades (minutes worth of racing nets the player 100% discount on almost all upgrades), meant that you both had less risk at trying new stuff, but the economy basically became irrelevant in the process.

With 4, micro-transactions were also introduced, in the form of tokens. Depending on the in-game price of the car, you could pay either 1, 2, or 3 tokens and get it for no in-game cost (but at the expense of real money). This concept carried over to later titles, especially 5, and wasn’t received with much acclaim, as the economy took a complete 180º turn in the process in 5, being, at the very least, a grind.

The grind introduced with 5 was later dialed back with updates, as an answer to the feedback from players. 6 took this one step further, by greatly increasing the amounts earned at each level (up to 1,000,000 CR per level in the higher levels, and sometimes as much as 50,000,000 CR in special spins), again turning the in-game economy into a non-issue.

Forza 3’s storefront.

Coupled to the in-game economy, Forza also has ways to share user-generated content (UGC), ranging from paints and vinyl groups, to tunes, either for free, or for a sum of in-game currency.

This concept was introduced in Forza 2 in the form of the Auction House, and was expanded in 3 with the introduction of the Storefront, both of which were killed in 5, being replaced with a “share and rewards” system (not to be confused with “Forza Rewards”), based on how much your items are downloaded, used, and liked, again with mixed reviews.

I am sympathetic with both sides on this case (Turn 10’s, and the players’). On one hand, having an in-game economy that spans to an online game is, essentially, heaven for cheaters. On the other, the rewards system implies that, unless you are a popular painter, you will receive little to no in-game money for your tunes, vinyl groups, and liveries.

Back to the topic of cheaters: at least in Forza 3 and 6, glitches which allowed a player to obtain great amounts of money in a short period of time were discovered (and patched relatively quickly). Now, in 3, this led to bans, but in 6 (as far as I know), the bug was patched, and that was it.

The aforementioned glitch in Forza 6.

The reason why no bans (as far as I know) were handed out in 6, is that, unlike in 2, 3, and 4, where the two economies are linked, in 6, (and in 5, for that matter), the economies are split; it doesn’t matter if I have 10,000 CR or 10,000,000 CR: I can get the same online content as anyone else. This kills the ability for cheaters to unbalance the game’s economy by inflating the amount of money flowing through the system.

Forza 2’s Auction House.

The Auction House in earlier games (2 through 4) showed this very problem. While it was a great place to sell limited edition copies of a player’s content, it was also prime territory for cheaters (or just players with lots of money) to inflate the cost of each car, effectively making it impossible for others to buy them (along other issues, such as accepting cheated money could risk you getting banned yourself as well).

Forza 5 and 6 suggests some paints before a player buys a car. However, while this system is great for a first interaction, it’s useless if one wants to find more content from the same player. It also doesn’t work with tunes (the auto-upgrade system could be revamped for this as well).

Replacing the online economy with the rewards system isn’t perfect, however. For players who don’t race often, and instead dedicate themselves to painting, it can be hard to obtain the in-game funds to buy the canvas for their next masterpiece.

I know that currently, for a tune, one earns 500 CR for each download, 100 CR for each use, and 1000 CR for each “like”, and it wouldn’t surprise me if it were to be the same for paints and vinyl groups.

I think that a hybrid system could fix this problem, however: by introducing a Forza 3-lke Storefront that allowed players to check out and download other people’s content, along with “top” content, discoverability would increase, both for tunes and for paints, but money would be kept out of the system because all content would be free.

This, coupled to the “rewards” system, could just be enough for balancing things out, without introducing a system that could be tampered, as in-game money wouldn’t be used to get the contents from the Storefront.

The rewards system could also be tied to in-game XP, which would then mean that the player could level up (and earn more CR in the process), just by sharing their paints, tunes, vinyl groups, pictures and replays, instead of just being earned by doing races.

Another thing that took a hit during the transition from 4 to 5 was the ability to share cars, tunes, vinyl groups, and liveries. Again, this is to deter cheaters and scammers, but in the process, the ability to make co-ops disappeared.

A possible solution to this would be to implement a simplified version of Creative Commons. Now, I don’t suggest that licensing should be introduced (that would be a nightmare), but, at least for layer groups, I would like to have the ability to share them in such a way that others could re-use my work in the process, by allowing others to share a livery that has my vinyl groups.

This could replace the binary “locked” or “unlocked” content system. I could share them in such a way that they are uneditable (as they are right now), but still be able to receive credit and rewards for people using them, and would open up the game for co-ops again. Of course, one could always choose to keep the content 100% locked as well.

I think that, in the end, the current online sharing system’s problems are the result of Turn 10’s overreaction to the exploits of the old system, but the resulting system is crippled, and can be improved.