The Crew Motorfest - General Discussion

[strela]

You can usually stack the "chores" as well. Run 2 races at level 3 in the bundle car and you've done all 3 of the tasks on the left of the Main Stage. Run 5 Escapes in the bundle car and you build toward the 12.5 miles (20km). The 3 in the middle have to be done separately but one is always the Custom Show car entry anyway.
My only real gripe about the tasks is the fact that doing Summit feats in the bundle car doesn't count towards any of the tasks.

In FH you get daily tasks on top of the weekly ones as well...

Same. I usually start at the festival. Do the feats in Honolulu. Do two run of Achieving Immortality (Lamborghini). And than finish the treasures/ 12.5 mile run. It's not the most exciting thing to do but it gives you a good boost to xp and money.

 

[breeminator]

You can usually stack the "chores" as well. Run 2 races at level 3 in the bundle car and you've done all 3 of the tasks on the left of the Main Stage. Run 5 Escapes in the bundle car and you build toward the 12.5 miles (20km). The 3 in the middle have to be done separately but one is always the Custom Show car entry anyway.

There was a time in the past when you could do it all quite quickly, but then they changed it so there's often a lot less ability to double them up. All part of farming as much player time as they can, which was exactly what ruined the Forza games due to the 30% "accountability" target combined with how games receive income from Game Pass.

In fairness, The Crew 2 was a lot worse when it was in live service due to the Motor Pass, it's much better now that has gone and all you have to do each week is the Summit.

 

[WanganDream]

All part of farming as much player time as they can, which was exactly what ruined the Forza games due to the 30% "accountability" target combined with how games receive income from Game Pass.

Well said!
This was the main reason that ended my nearly 20-year loyalty to Forza.
It's also why I never bought FH6 and why I view the various rumors and hype currently floating around the internet with a cold shoulder.

Of course, Motorfest has these "chores," but the pressure is far less than Forza.

Are you forced to play certain races or categories because of FOMO? No.

Are you punished for missing a week of gameplay? No.
This alone is a huge difference.

In Motorfest, almost all of the content you miss is later made permanently available. This means I have the right to choose not to play a challenge, and the guarantee that I won't lose anything by doing so.

That's why I still enjoy this game, just as I did three years ago, and I can always look forward to updates as "new fun" rather than "new chores."

Hopefully, Playground Games and Microsoft will listen to people's complaints about playlists, take a page from Motorfest's approach, and opt for a more user-friendly live service for FH6.

The exploitative approach they currently choose is likened to slash-and-burn agriculture. While it may temporarily benefit from user engagement, it's not a sustainable live service.

 

[evldave333]

Well said!
This was the main reason that ended my nearly 20-year loyalty to Forza.
It's also why I never bought FH6 and why I view the various rumors and hype currently floating around the internet with a cold shoulder.

Of course, Motorfest has these "chores," but the pressure is far less than Forza.

Are you forced to play certain races or categories because of FOMO? No.

Are you punished for missing a week of gameplay? No.
This alone is a huge difference.

In Motorfest, almost all of the content you miss is later made permanently available. This means I have the right to choose not to play a challenge, and the guarantee that I won't lose anything by doing so.

That's why I still enjoy this game, just as I did three years ago, and I can always look forward to updates as "new fun" rather than "new chores."

Hopefully, Playground Games and Microsoft will listen to people's complaints about playlists, take a page from Motorfest's approach, and opt for a more user-friendly live service for FH6.

The exploitative approach they currently choose is likened to slash-and-burn agriculture. While it may temporarily benefit from user engagement, it's not a sustainable live service.

Agreed, engagement is such a fickle thing. Thankfully Motorfest has the secret sauce of gameplay ergonomics, it really doesn't chafe (jet aside). I will grab FH6 as I love the genre, but I dont expect to engage with it for long because of its gameplay and menu structure actively tripping it up. Boredom creeps in real quick when starting a race requires too many clicks to get there, and the handling model is genuinely unsatisfying if functional.

 

[breeminator]

Hopefully, Playground Games and Microsoft will listen to people's complaints about playlists, take a page from Motorfest's approach, and opt for a more user-friendly live service for FH6.

The exploitative approach they currently choose is likened to slash-and-burn agriculture. While it may temporarily benefit from user engagement, it's not a sustainable live service.

In case you or anyone else didn't know what I meant by the so-called 30% accountability margin, it's explained here, for example:

Inside Xbox’s profit pressure — How a 30% margin target is reshaping everything from studios to strategy (and upsetting fans)

Microsoft CFO Amy Hood has forced Xbox to deliver an industry margin far beyond what is typical for gaming in general, which will devastate the business if not rectified soon.

www.windowscentral.com

The devs are basically being asked to do the impossible, so they have a go, but it will always fail in some way.

 

[WanganDream]

In case you or anyone else didn't know what I meant by the so-called 30% accountability margin, it's explained here, for example:

Inside Xbox’s profit pressure — How a 30% margin target is reshaping everything from studios to strategy (and upsetting fans)

Microsoft CFO Amy Hood has forced Xbox to deliver an industry margin far beyond what is typical for gaming in general, which will devastate the business if not rectified soon.

www.windowscentral.com

The devs are basically being asked to do the impossible, so they have a go, but it will always fail in some way.

 

[BlazeTheCat05]

Well said!
This was the main reason that ended my nearly 20-year loyalty to Forza.
It's also why I never bought FH6 and why I view the various rumors and hype currently floating around the internet with a cold shoulder.

Of course, Motorfest has these "chores," but the pressure is far less than Forza.

Are you forced to play certain races or categories because of FOMO? No.

Are you punished for missing a week of gameplay? No.
This alone is a huge difference.

In Motorfest, almost all of the content you miss is later made permanently available. This means I have the right to choose not to play a challenge, and the guarantee that I won't lose anything by doing so.

That's why I still enjoy this game, just as I did three years ago, and I can always look forward to updates as "new fun" rather than "new chores."

Hopefully, Playground Games and Microsoft will listen to people's complaints about playlists, take a page from Motorfest's approach, and opt for a more user-friendly live service for FH6.

The exploitative approach they currently choose is likened to slash-and-burn agriculture. While it may temporarily benefit from user engagement, it's not a sustainable live service.

Fully agree with you. When a game starts to take up too much time to where you should be asking it for a raise and a vacation, that's when something is fundamentally wrong with the structure of it. It's why I also stopped playing FH5. FOMO is a NOGO for me.

 

[strela]

My only real gripe about the tasks is the fact that doing Summit feats in the bundle car doesn't count towards any of the tasks.

Someone must have read it because it counted... Today at least. 😎

 

[carlosy]

Anyone else unable to start the game today? The intro runs longer than usual and then it always crashes when I click the button to the main menu.

 

[breeminator]

When I was a kid I would do actual chores around the house so my father would give me 200 Liras so I could play one game on an Arcade for 30 minutes.
Today doing two races in a game is considered a chore. 😭

Seeing the FH6 reveal has given me the urge to clarify a bit more what I think is so bad about these games (Motorfest has copied some of these elements from FH).

In your example, you were willing to do chores in return for money, and that money could be used to buy what you wanted. Money is the universal currency of the real world. In these games, I would have much less of a problem with them if they had a single currency that could be used to buy anything you want at any time. What I think makes them so tedious is how they force players to play specific elements of them, even if the player would rather play other elements of them. E.g. in Motorfest we have prestige tickets that force you to do custom mode time trials in a very specific way, with one attempt at each race+discipline giving an optimal return. Playing the game like this is of zero interest to me, what I want to do is to pick one race+discipline and do it lots of times, trying lots of different cars to see what times they do. It's this forcing of the player to play the game in an utterly tedious and boring way that makes me see them as chore-based. If everything in the game could be bought with the in-game bucks, like in real life, I could play the game however I want, and buy whatever I want in return, the game would become fun.

These games are like if in real life, a doctor went to buy something and the shop said "Sorry, we can't take your money because you earned it from working as a doctor. We only accept money here that was earned from working as a refuse collector.".

 

[WanganDream]

If everything in the game could be bought with the in-game bucks, like in real life, I could play the game however I want, and buy whatever I want in return, the game would become fun.

These games are like if in real life, a doctor went to buy something and the shop said "Sorry, we can't take your money because you earned it from working as a doctor. We only accept money here that was earned from working as a refuse collector.".

I enjoy the custom mode so I can't agree with the complaints about it (although I can understand and sympathize), but I completely agree with everything else.

And although it's not to your point, what you said also explains why I love the main stage at Motorfest and hate the Forza playlist.

Both events have in common the fact that they are limited-time events consisting of one month-long season made up of four one-week mini-seasons.

However, in the main stage, all you need to do is collect XP, and the method you use to obtain that XP doesn't matter. So essentially we can just play the game however we want. There are also weekly challenges, but these simply make it more efficient; they're not something you have to complete.

And the Festival playlist is completely different.

You're forced to play specific races and championships with specific cars and categories, and you don't even have the ability to choose the AI or challenge difficulty. Of course, you don't have to complete every challenge, but you're still forced to complete a certain number of them. This was really painful.

No matter how tired you are or how much you want to spend your time on other things, you can't escape the challenges. I eventually gave up and quit the game, but every week for the last few months until I quit was depressing. Races I didn't want to do. Cars I didn't want to use. AI that openly cheated by rubberbanding. I was fed up with it all.

Now I can play the game however I want without feeling that stress or pressure, and it's truly enjoyable.

"I'm tired from work today, so I'll just skip racing and collect some XP from treasure hunts."
"Tomorrow is my day off, so I'll grind for some rally raid parts."
"There's a livestream I want to watch, so I'll watch it while playing drag racing with one hand."
I play the way I want, and before I know it, I've earned a major Main Stage reward.

Plus, even if I miss the Main Stage reward, I'm guaranteed the Main Stage Legacy. So even though there is an element of FOMO, Motorfest is a great game for me to play without feeling any of that pressure.

 

[evldave333]

What got me about the Forza playlist was the disconnect, there was no direct click through to start up the events, just ludicrous. Motorfest gets you driving quicker than most other games, and it matters... extra faff is not warranted in a leisure activity.

 

[strela]

@breeminator while it might have look like it was aimed at your comment... it wasn't. What I wanted to say is back in time kids were willing to do something they didn't like (chores) to play a video game for a few minutes. Today we don't want to play a game even for a few minutes when some mechanics feel like chores.

 

[breeminator]

However, in the main stage, all you need to do is collect XP, and the method you use to obtain that XP doesn't matter.

It does matter a bit, because there's the 3 different types of XP.

I also have to say, I did this week's Motorfest summit, but it really highlighted to me how much worse than The Crew 2 this game has become. Same car for every event, and every track is just so similar to every other track. The Crew 2 summits are just so much more varied, though this week's was a little tedious as I've done the exact same summit before. Motorfest feels like it's becoming more of an advertising board for car makers, and the Summit is each week's space available to advertisers.