I’ll admit, the “influence” aspect of Forza Horizon 4 sounded pretty cool on paper. It gave people who didn’t necessarily do well in racing a chance to gain fame and fortune by doing other things such as creating decals, tuning setups, taking photos, and of course, streaming the game. Players can also gain “influence” by watching Forza Horizon 4 streams when they’re not playing.
It’s this aspect of the reward system I have a bit of a problem with. First of all, I should note that I already have a problem with “influencers.” This new popular form of free advertising has been latched onto by all the major publishers. These “influencers” get games and products handed to them for free and usually ahead of their release in order to stream themselves playing and therefore advertise the game.
The reason I put “influencers” in parentheses is because personally I find it insulting that publishers like Microsoft or Sony or Ubisoft think I give a shit what Streamer X is playing today. I view streams to see the game, to see if it’s something I would want to play, and I couldn’t give two soggy shits who’s playing it. But then, I’m not 12 years old, so some douche with purple hair and a stupid hat just comes off, to me, as a douche with purple hair and a stupid hat. But the kids love ’em, and we all know they’re the future (God help us), so while they’re flossing and running up Dad’s credit card, us adults are left shaking our heads.
That, annoying as it is, is still beside the point I’m trying to make here. The thing is, now, with Forza Horizon 4, the viewers are now getting rewarded for watching. I’ve taken in a few streams myself in order to gain future influence for when I get the game.
Here-in lies the problem though. Had this game launched to everyone at the same time, it wouldn’t be as big of a deal. But it didn’t. Microsoft sent out copies to reviewers and (ugh) influencers about a week and a half prior to launch. This means that their hand picked selection of streamers were given copies of a game no one else had access to. They could stream a game no one else had, and viewers had extra incentive to view them, leaving everyone else out in the cold. And that’s not okay.
This is why review embargoes have existed for years. They were created to give small outlets the same opportunity to get the traffic that the large, corporate mega-sites could. The IGN’s and Giant Bomb’s of the world will always get their copies early. The small, private websites owned by nobodies such as myself always had to wait until launch day and purchase the games with our own money. That’s been the case for an eternity, and I never had any illusions of getting anything from anyone.
But FH4 is a special case. Microsoft lifted the embargo over a week before the game launched to the Average Joe. And once it does, the Average Joe doesn’t have a snowball’s chance in Hell to get any viewing traffic to his stream. Microsoft gave their “influencers,” who already have a following (that’s how they became influencers) a golden ticket to boost their popularity even more.
It’s the typical case of the big fish getting bigger and the small fish starving. The great thing about Mixer was that it gave everyone tired of Twitch’s bullshit a fresh and even start, but now Microsoft is boosting their own service by pulling the same “front of the line” crap that Twitch was doing. The cream does float to the top, after all.
I don’t ever expect this to happen, but Microsoft had a golden opportunity to play Robin Hood and give those copies of FH4 to streamers that were struggling to gain an audience. I don’t claim to be one of those, I rarely stream and when I do, I’m not the most interesting person to watch. But there are many that stream, day in and day out, in hopes of getting that big break, that unfortunately they’ll probably never get because A) They don’t have the cash for a great rig, B) They can’t afford to buy every single new game that comes out in order to stay relevant, or C) Let’s face it, attractiveness plays a part, and a lot of people just aren’t fun to look at. Hence the purple hair and stupid hats. And cleavage.
As of this writing, the game still has yet to launch to the masses. The only people that have it are the.. you know who.. and those that are financially stable enough to drop $100 on the Deluxe Rich Person Edition (which I also have a huge problem with, but that’s a whole other argument). Until it does, I can only assume the viewing traffic for the game will plummet, since everyone will be playing the game and not farming influence.
Oh, that brings me to one last complaint. “Influence Farming” is now a thing. There were people that literally streamed their free copy of Forza Horizon 4 for 24 hours a day, 7 days a week on fucking idle just so that they and viewers could gain influence for literally doing nothing. What a great use of your hand-picked “influencers,” Microsoft. How did you not see that one coming? Or did you, and this was all intentional? I’m going with the former.
This is a mis-step that no one seems to be talking about, and maybe I’m just the only one that has a problem with it. But as someone who has been overlooked as an artist for pretty much his entire life, I get a little bitter when others are given the same cold shoulder. Everybody needs a break, and Microsoft missed the boat in giving a few people the opportunity they needed.
Instead, it’s another case of the Haves and the Have Nots and I’m personally getting pretty tired of it. Microsoft, this needs to be the first and last time this happens.
