Moderation Controversy
Over the last few months, Forza Horizon 6 has received an outpouring of negative comments on social media and Steam about the game’s moderating system, which has been perceived as unfairly targeting players who create Itasha-style designs. To address this, Microsoft recently released an updated code of conduct in an attempt to clarify what kind of user generated content will get players banned in Forza Horizon 6.
Itasha (literally “painful car,” for their bold appearance that can be cringeworthy to some) are custom-decorated cars often featuring characters from manga, anime, and video games. This real-life phenomenon that started in Japan has gathered a following, with players showing off their love for certain characters in car games like Forza Horizon 6, which allow players to extensively customize their vehicles with vinyl decorations. However, it seems that not all Itasha creators have been able to enjoy sharing and racing their designs across Forza 6’s Japan setting.
Over the last few months, there has been an increase in comments online from users alleging that there has been a huge wave of bans across Forza 6. Many posts allege that Itasha have been unfairly targeted and urge people not to purchase the game: “If you love Japanese car culture, don’t buy it. You’ll regret it.” This has fuelled discussions and speculation that AI moderators are being used, and that certain groups are mass reporting certain designs or creators. Such comments have also stoked fears that even having a screenshot of another player’s Itasha or having a draft livery design sitting in your library could result in a permaban.
Developer Clarification
To address these speculations, Forza Motorsport developer Turn 10 Studios clarified in its latest updated guidelines that each piece of reported content is checked by human moderators. “Once content has been flagged using the in-game reporting system, the content is added to a queue to be reviewed by a human moderator. The number of reports on a piece of content does not affect its prioritization or position in the queue.”
Turn 10 also addressed Itasha designs specifically in its updated guidelines on specific iconography and imagery:
“Itasha style designs are permitted; however explicit sexual content and sexually suggestive content are forbidden. While we cannot show specific examples of suggestive imagery in this article, designs that depict provocative poses, associated gestures and facial expressions, and attention to specific body parts can be examples of suggestive imagery.”
Community Reception
However, these updated guidelines are already facing criticism online. “These criteria are too vague,” chimed in one Japanese-language commenter on X. “Seriously, it’s just the same as saying ‘whatever I think is bad is bad!’”
“At least there are some specific examples and descriptions,” another commenter posted in Japanese. “Well, I guess I poses (standing on one leg with the other leg up) and M poses (legs parted) would be out. I guess they want to say ‘keep it within the bounds of what’s okay for kids to see,’ but due to the political correctness in British criteria, it’s damn hard to understand these judgments.”
Zero Tolerance Policy
According to Forza 6’s policy, players are usually given a warning for their first violation, with any additional violations after that receiving increasingly long suspensions. However, if a player’s behavior or custom design falls within the zero tolerance policy, they end up permabanned: “Only when an image contains child sexual content, explicit sexual content, explicit nudity, or imagery outlined above in Forza's Zero Tolerance Policy, will a permanent ban be issued without prior infractions.”
Extreme violations cover “offenses that Turn 10 has ZERO tolerance for, including hate speech, credible violent threats, child sexual exploitive abusive imagery, terrorism or violent extremism content, sexual/nude imagery, and more.”
Xbox Games Series Tier List
Female characters on Itasha are sometimes put in poses that might be deemed too sexually suggestive to pass Forza 6’s guidelines. The perceived age of anime characters can also be an issue that might prompt such censorship. These factors may have nudged some of these Itasha creations into Forza 6’s Zero Tolerance Policy, which results in a permanent suspension.
Steam Reviews
Over on Steam, Forza Horizon 6’s Japanese review status has plunged to “Mixed,” with a recent increase in Japanese language reviews not recommending the game. Some players describe the risk of getting permabanned just for taking a screenshot of another player’s car that violated regulations, alleging that car designs featuring female anime characters wearing bikinis have also been banned. Even positive reviews that describe the game as great fun describe the operational side of the online game as extremely poor quality, also highlighting issues with season missions and collecting credits.
Overall, the perception seems to be that Forza Horizon 6 has been stricter with its bans than previous titles in the series, and there still remains much concern over what and what doesn’t constitute bannable content.
While some commenters writing in Japanese on social media were angry at the banning of Japan’s imperial flag, it is worth noting that these iconography bans are hardly a new development unique to Forza 6. Previous entries in the Forza franchise also banned such imagery, including the Confederate flag and Nazi iconography. These guidelines regarding iconography usage were reiterated in Forza 6’s updated guidelines regarding specific banned imagery.
When Forza Horizon 6 was released, it received initial praise across Japanese social media for respecting Japanese culture and giving players a realistic-looking mini-version of the country to race around. However, it remains to be seen if Turn 10 can win back the vocal community complaining about its moderation system.
