You know all that user-generated content you’ve seen in games like LittleBigPlanet and just about every PC game out there? Sure, that stuff’s been great to mess around with, but it hasn’t really been true UGC. At least, that’s according to Forza 5 developer Turn 10, who believes that what’s being done with its new racer through the Xbox One’s DVR is unlike anything that’s really been seen before.
Speaking with OXM, lead gameplay designer Rhett Mathis explained how there’s really two different types of UGC in games. There’s the style of creativity you see in games like Oblivion, Skyrim, Far Cry, or Grand Theft Auto, where players use the given systems to create something unique. Maybe it’s a glitch, or maybe it’s just some guy filling an entire shack with endless cheese wheels. It’s that type of player creativity in a system-rich game that allows for fun, user-generated moments.
"That is a form of UGC, because I have tremendous creativity I can put into it and it can be captured with a capture card,” Mathis said.
However, what we’ll be seeing this year with Forza 5 will be different.
“Now with DVR, that becomes true UGC, because I can use the system from Fable, I can use the system from Grand Theft Auto to create moments that were never planned by anybody, and then share them.”
Drivatar might be an awful name for what sounds like an intuitive system, but that shouldn’t stop you from looking forward to this new layer of player agency in Forza 5.
