Forza Rewards Program

In the realm of video game creation and development few studios have given so serious a treatment to both the games that they produce and the fan base for whom they produce them than has Turn 10, who along with Microsoft have gone to great lengths to provide a racing simulation game series that teeters on the very cutting edge of the available technology.

In terms of the need to make use of what you have rather than simply make do and wish for more, Each successive offering in the Forza Motorsport Series starting with Forza Motorsport 3 has found ways to extend the capabilities of the aging Xbox 360 console platform and thereby continue to surprise the players with each offering.

It can be reasonably argued that the rivalry between Forza and the PS3's Gran Turismo Racing Series has done much to spur on that sort of technical wowery -- as while it is fair to say that thanks to their platform exclusive natures there never can be a direct, head-to-head race-off to determine which is in fact the better simulation and package, in the end the true value of that rivalry is the manner in which it has encouraged the wizards behind each game to excel at their art - and clearly the players have benefited from this.

That being the case, players have come to expect Turn 10 to pack in an extra feature or six into each new game, and to set the bar very high indeed when a new member of the franchise is due to arrive -- which it seems is clearly the case for the upcoming Forza 5 on the new Xbox One Console this fall -- and clearly it has also been the case with Forza: Horizon -- but along the way something very new has been provided to players who consider themselves fans of the series, and that is the Forza Rewards Program.

Gamer Identity

If you are just now learning about the existence of this new loyalty repayment scheme you are very likely asking yourself "what is this Forza Rewards they speak of?"

In a nutshell it is a new rewards system that leverages the statistics and participation monitoring that is built into the Forza games and the Xbox hardware and uses it to obtain a snapshot of the participation levels of all of the racers throughout ALL of the games in the Forza Series, and then rewards them for their participation throughout.

That warrants further examination...

When you play a game on the Xbox platform there are certain statistics that are recorded, noted, and stored that are based upon -- and attached to -- your gamer identity.

A gamer's identity in this modern age of gaming is attached to their Gamertag, which is the name by which they access and play games on the Xbox platform both offling and online.

When a gamer first turns on their new Xbox they are prompted to create a Gamertag -- which is at its very basic level an account that serves as both the Profile for the individual gamer and the means by which they are identified to the plethora of systems -- from Microsoft's own game servers, its Live servers and store system, and the many different game-related and game-required servers that are operated by game studios, publishers, and developers all over the world.

A Gamertag contains -- at a minimum -- the following information:

• Your Gamer Pseudonym

• An Icon-Like Picture that visually represents the gamer

• Their self-indicated "Gamer Zone" (Recreation / Pro / Family / Underground)

• The Gamers Personal Motto

• The Gamers Avatar

• Their Real Name (or more often Nickname when different from the Gamertag)

• The Gamers Physical Location

• A Short Biographical Paragraph (called the "Bio")

While it may not seem like a lot of information, a clever gamer can and often will pack a lot into it while at the same time expressing themselves while offering clues as to their personality and values.

The above is just the open and public face of the Gamertag and the Gamer -- in addition to this there is a load of hidden information that while much can be sussed out by accessing other information reporting elements associated with the Gamertag, nonetheless serves as a wealth of statistical data that can be made use of by the game studios -- and in this case is very effectively used by Turn 10 and Microsoft as the foundation for the Forza Rewards Program - but more on that in a bit...

Information Types

As you can clearly see from the details noted above, establishing the identity of a gamer is simply and voluntarily accomplished by the gamers themselves when they create their online persona, complete with a player-created Avatar (or animated gamer person) that more often than not closely resembles their real-world form.

Attached to that identity is a plethora of somewhat concealed information, including (but certainly not limited to) facts like the time and date that they log into the game system, the different programs and games that they run on their console and PC and when they ran them, how much time they spent in each session playing a game or using some other application, such as watching TV.

Certain key actions that they have made or completed in their games are recognized by the system, often in the form of in-game Achievements that have become an ubiquitous element of modern gaming.

Achievements are a required element for all games that are created and released on Microsoft's Xbox platform -- Sony has a similar system, which is called Trophies, for its PlayStation consoles -- with the system often providing a very clear picture of what the player has been doing in a game, and how successful they have been at doing it.

When you take all of this information and gather it together as a list, the possibilities for making use of it are nearly endless, particularly if your aim is to evaluate how deeply a gamer has participated in the products you have created with an eye towards rewarding them -- and that is just what Turn 10 set out to accomplish via the new Forza Rewards Scheme.

Forza Rewards

The Forza Rewards Program is a new all-inclusive program for loyal gamers and fans of the Forza series that offers them incentives that are based on their future-and-past-accomplishments in the Forza games, with a focus upon gifting the players with rewards that are commensurate with that participation.

The rewards so far include bonus Credit (the in-game money in the world of Forza) gifts in-game for ALL of the titles in the most recent generations of the series, and even go so far as to include the often pined for and notoriously difficult to obtain "Unicorn Cars" that factor into the games both as a subject for the in-game Achievements system and as desirable rides for use in racing in the games.

The full scope of what may be awarded in the future as prizes for the Forza Rewards System is presently not yet established, but comments posted online from members of the Forza player community who have served as Beta Testers for the program suggest that prizes will likely extend beyond simply money and Unicorn Cars.

The rewards offered under the Forza Rewards System are based upon the "Tier" that the player has qualified for -- and the Tier is determined by how many points of those available from each game that the player has obtained. The more points they obtain, the higher the Tier Level is that they have unlocked.

Forza Rewards as it is currently structured uses points from participation in the following games:

• Forza Motorsport 2 (500 Points from 1 Criteria)

• Forza Motorsport 3 (1000 Points from 6 Criteria)

• Forza Motorsport 4 (2000 Points from 8 Criteria)

• Forza: Horizon (2000 Points from 8 Criteria)

• Forza Motorsport 5 (3000 Points from 9 Criteria)

The original Forza Motorsport game is omitted from the list above and fpr consideration in the program largely due to the fact that it was a game on the original Xbox platform released prior to the creation and the implementation of the Achievements and statistics tracking programs that now exist in modern console gaming.

The criteria used for determining points for Forza 2 is based entirely upon the Achievements that the player has unlocked in that game, though the games that follow after in the series use other additional criteria and points assignment -- below is a detailed sample for Forza: Horizon which will provide an ample and complete demonstration of what is considered participation in the games for the purposes of points in FRS:

Forza: Horizon FRS Points Criteria

1,000 Club Challenges (200 Points) X of 100 Medals Unlocked

Achievements (400 Points) X of 1000 Gamerscore

Cars Owned (150 Points) X of 100 Cars Owned

Days Played (400 Points) X of 50 Days Played

Miles Driven (250 Points) X of 1000 Miles

Paid DLC Owned (250 Points) X of 5 Purchases

Perfect Passes (50 Points) X of 500 Passes

Tokens Purchased (300 Points) X of 6 Tokens

As you can see from the list above the criteria for awarding points is divided into several areas -- most notably in-game actions, in-game purchases, and real-world purchases. Less of an emphasis upon the latter than they might have chosen makes this a fair system for gamers who choose not to spend real-world money on extras and game expansion.

It should be noted that the 1,000 Club Challenges are for the 1,000 Club Expansion Pack, which is a Free DLC game expansion that includes 250 Gamerscore Points for 10 additional Achievements. In addition to the Free expansion pack there is a Paid expansion pack -- Forza Rally -- that also contains 10 additional Achievements worth 250 Gamerscore Points.

In addition to the above expansion packs the points system also covers the paid car packs that allow for the addition of new and special model cars into the game and may count the Season Pass, which is a cumulative paid addition, but that is not clear in the terms.

As much of the points are divided among in-game actions that are either voluntary or a natural part of game play it is clear that this is not a rewards loyalty scheme that is designed towards the reward of deep pockets, which is a spirit and approach very much akin to the demonstrated philosophy of the studio, which has always been about fair play and the joy of racing!

Accessing Forza Rewards

To check your current Award Tier Level (and begin participating in the program) you will need to point your Web Browser at the following URL:

https://rewards.forzamotorsport.net/en-us/

Access to the Forza Rewards System requires you to log into your Xbox Live Account -- the reason for that is chiefly due to the fact that the Rewards system server must have access to your Gamertag record to access the time and data and Achievement tracking database that is attached to it.

After you sign in to your Microsoft LIVE account you will be able to determine what your Tier Level is, and how many points you need to earn in order to upgrade it to the next Tier.

Bearing in mind that once you reach a Tier or new Tier, you are sent an in-game message by Turn 10 containing the reward and you need to “claim” the reward by reading the message and hitting the appropriate button.

Each of the rewards appears to have an expiration date or timer attached to it, so once you claim a new Tier and its associated reward, it would be an idea to log into the game and check your in-game messages to claim that reward so that it does not expire by going unclaimed!

Forza 5 Elements

While the newest title in the Forza Motorsport Series -- Forza 5 -- has not yet been released at the time this was written, that Xbox One Platform Exclusive title will doubtlessly offer players a new field of cars from which they can collect and race and, very obviously, a new set of Unicorns for which players will pine and search.

That it is possible to acquire one or more Unicorn simply by participating in the Forza Rewards Program makes this a rather obvious no-brainer, which is why we included it as part of the Horizon Guide and why we strongly suggest you join in the program!