Forza Horizon 4 Ban Wave Hits Players

Strange things are happening in the world of Forza Horizon 4. Members of the game’s community are very upset with the recent ban wave because it all happened so suddenly, and a great number of players aren’t entirely satisfied with the new changes within the game. These bans have been committed to avoiding controversial discussions or the risk of being accused of disrespecting certain groups in society. But also, false bans have occurred.

Random suspensions

Forza Horizon 4 players are currently being suspended without any warnings. The developers have recently shown us a list of the new rules, and players should be aware of them. On the contrary, the developers have mistakenly banned people who use the game’s glitches and completely innocent people. Players have managed to set a physically impossible score on certain speed zones, drift zones and even on circuits. Those players will be removed from public leaderboards and temporarily banned. This has also affected players who did not cheat. That caused an outrage on social media sites such as Reddit and Twitter.

Top of the leaderboard at the drag strip

As you can see above, 6300 MPH is unrealistically fast and impossible unless you cheat. According to developers, those people will be removed from the leaderboards. Some people who set a realistic time but very hard to beat have mistakenly also received a ban. Some of the greatest drivers in Forza Horizon 4 were affected because they managed to set a dominant time. They end up being suspended as well.  

So a member from the tuning community just got banned for "Track Cutting". @forza_support Can we get some clarification on this? Improper checkpoint placements that lead to unorthodox lines has been around in previous Horizon games@Turn10Studios @ForzaHorizon @WeArePlayground pic.twitter.com/z6gfIPn9eR

— IsuckAtDriving (@ISAD_YT) August 7, 2020

New rules

Due to the game being ESRB E (everyone) rated, it means the developers must make the game playable for everyone. Therefore, Playground games have set new rules for Forza Horizon 4. The new rules were added after the George Floyd protests back in June. Black Lives Matters movement had a huge impact on the franchise, and the team is now doing anything to remove symbols that may provoke people. Symbols such as the confederate flag and rising sun flag aren’t allowed to be created and applied to your car and will lead to a temporary ban. That is the most common reason for a suspension, but the ban wave has also affect photographers and tuners.

However, players were allowed to create any kind of symbols in Forza Horizon 3 without any risk of getting banned. No one gave a ban to people who cheated on the leaderboards either. Most surprisingly, Playground games did not consider this until now, two years after Forza Horizon 4’s release.

Any response from the developers?

It’s been quiet from both Turn 10 and Playground games, however, Turn 10 wrote a short message on their official website regarding this ban wave and what affected players can do if they have been banned by mistake. They have suggested to “submit a ticket” to the official support (email the Forza support). That’s everything an affected player can do to solve this problem. This massive ban wave has also caused harassment against developers on Twitter. Forza‘s Community Support (also known as Nitro Glitter) went private due to overwhelming hate against her. She’s one of the people who give people bans and, for that reason, has been attacked by the community, according to Forza players.

Next time you hop on Forza Horizon 4, make sure you mind the new rules. The bans may last for months or, in worst cases, years depending on the reason. This is a problem that will hopefully be solved as soon as possible, despite the number of affected players in the community.