Volume 91 -- May 9, 2008

The Forza Motorsport 2 Community Update

By: Landin Williams

It’s another wonderful Friday afternoon here in Washington and, as I sit here typing this 91st edition of our weekly Pitpass Report, I can’t help but remember all of the great things that have happened over the past year for Forza Motorsport 2, as well as all the amazing content and unique stories that have surfaced from our community.  To bring all of this into perspective, we here at Turn 10 are gearing up for a weeklong celebration of... well, you, the reader. The last week of May will mark the one-year anniversary of the retail launch of FM2 and we've got a cool stuff in the works to celebrate the occasion (full details below). It's been an interesting and (sometimes) challenging road to where we are today, and the passion shown by our community has made it all the more rewarding for those of us here at Turn 10 who are busy working on our next project.

1992 Toyota Supra by dunkee - Race Livery Competition

Just this week we have finalized some of our community plans for our one-year anniversary, and I have to say it’s going to be action-packed and full of cool community contests, articles, and of course Turn 10 dev's laying the smack down on anyone brave enough to step up to the starting grid. One of the first things we are going to be doing is reaching out to 30 community contributors who have been prolific and creative throughout the past year. These articles will contain individual galleries filled with the best of the best from the community, as well as comments from their creators to recap their involvement and the challenges in creating their masterpieces. In addition to these spotlight articles, we will also be running a special set of competitions based around the one-year anniversary, as well as a weeklong Game with Dev event. 

2003 Mercedes CLK55 by: aLeS RS - Lets See Your Luxury

Here are all the juicy details:

Forza Motorsport 2 – One-Year Anniversary:

When: May 26th to May 30th 2008

Where: Forzamotorsport.net / Inside Xbox / Xbox LIVE

What: Best of Forza Community Content / Design Contests / Play w/ Devs 

Every day from 4:00 PM PST to 6:00PM PST, Turn 10 developers will be on Xbox LIVE racing (and maybe drifting) in Forza 2 with fans from across the world.

FM.net - Featured Articles

• Fastest Drivers/Teams of the Year
• Best Fantasy Livery Designs of the Year
• Best Replica/Race Livery Designs of the Year
• Best Photomode Pictures of the Year

Community Contests

• Special Hotlap Challenge
• Photomode Contest
• Themed Graphic Design Contest
• Livery Design Contest
• Tuning Contest
• Special Ultra-Limited Turn 10 unicorn car designs as prizing

Unicorn Blowout Sale

During the week we will also be uploading a whole fleet of unicorn auctions, some with buyouts, and others without.  Combined with the competitions this will be a great week for all you unicorn lovers out there!

New Car of the Week contributor F. Roberts talks about why he loves one of the worst cars ever built in our latest Car of the Week blog.

In addition to all of this crazy content, we will also be implementing a temporary change to the current Auction House bidding system.  Now first of all this is really meant as an experiment to get feedback from the community regarding bid extensions.  We have heard the cries from the community regarding the 2 minute bid reset that is currently implemented, and have decided to run an experiment to see how things would progress if this feature was disabled. This means when you set an auction to last 2 hours, it will actually end when the 2 hour timer is up. The last person to bid before the auction expires wins the bid. So what better time to test a feature than during our one-year celebration week right?  For the entire week starting Monday May 26th, we are going to be turning off the automatic bid extension -- meaning your auctions will end after the set duration.  We hope to receive valuable community feedback on this feature, so jump on the Auction House and let us know what you think.

As you can see we have a lot planned in the way of content and contests, so stay up to date on the forums, blogs and front page for news about how to get involved.  It has been a great year for Forza Motorsport 2 and its community, and we are happy that you have been along for the ride!

2008 BMW M3 E92 by Antiyou - Drifting Pictures Gallery

Of course now is also a time to look towards the future, as the third member of our community team, Fred Howell, has arrived on the scene here at Turn 10 to lend a helping hand.  Che and I are pretty psyched to have Fred here, and his arrival means things are only going to get better from here on out.  Below is a real conversation Che sent me regarding a real exchange he had with Fred this afternoon. I'm not sure he wanted me to paste it here, but here goes:

chespace: So Fred, how was your first week at Turn 10?

phred: Busy getting coffee for the two of you.

chespace: What kind of coffee does Landin like? Because you know I gotsta have my soy milk dude.

phred: I have no idea... I usually leave Landin's coffee back at the coffee shop, lol. I know one thing though, and that's I feel kind of like unwanted having my desk out here in the pit...haha.

chespace: Don't feel bad about sitting out there in the cubicle bay because pretty soon, Landin will join you out there, feeling unwanted and far from the action.

chespace: But you guys will have each other, and that's what really counts.

phred: haha

chespace: So besides the coffee fetching, what do you think of community management so far?

phred: You guys did a lot more work here than I ever imagined. I was amazed at how much there is that goes on behind the scenes here.  I thought it was all just making the pitpass and banning people but just the small amount I have seen it blows my mind how much there is to do. The day flys by because I always have something to do.

chespace: Yeah, not to pat ourselves on the back, but there is actual work to be done, contrary to what folks may think. But we're glad you're here now because that will really allow Landin to help me do more with the community and FM.net as we go into the summer.

phred: Looking forward to fetching coffee and leaving Landin behind for lunch.

chespace: Anyway, welcome to the team. Hope you don't get burnt out too quickly.

2001 Saleen #26 S7R by  BLKJ Ghostface - Hotlap Challenge Photo Comp.

If you have been watching the front page of FM.net then you might have already noticed our latest article featuring the ShimmySideways STi, driven by James Elterman, along with details about the amazing contest that is already underway.  Honestly this is one of the coolest contests we have done to date, and I think this really opens the doors for these types of events in the future.  So what’s it all about?  How do you get involved? 

Well first of all you really need to check out the feature article on Elterman and his Time Attack STi, not only because he drives a sick car and completely manages his own racing team, but also because of the details regarding the contest.  In a nutshell, Elterman is looking for a new livery design for the 2008 Time Attack season, and he has asked our community to design the car!  He has just recently acquired a sponsorship from Takata Racing, one of the leading developers of automotive safety equipment, and they need a sexy livery to accompany Elterman’s monstrous STi.  For now here is a quick breakdown from Elterman himself, describing what Takata and ShimmySideways are trying to accomplish with this contest.

Check out Elterman's Killer STi and just imagine your livery on the side...

“First and foremost, Takata wants a car that projects the proper image of their company.  Some examples of features that would contribute to this image are Takata’s name/logo, green color, “Go For Green” slogan, and decals that help viewers associate the name with their Multi Point Harness.  To learn more about Takata and their image, I recommend that artists visit TakatRacingProducts.com.  Takata’s marketing group told me that they are looking for a design that is “sexy”; something your eyes are drawn to.  I am very excited to see what the Forza community can come up with!”

The concept of using Forza 2’s powerful livery editor, to preview and create custom race designs is a really exciting advancement, and we are very eager to see how our community responds to this amazing challenge.  Make sure to visit the official discussion thread here, as well as the submission thread here to check out all the action!

2003 Opel #5 Astra V8 by SlimyPL - Nurburgring Photo Comp.

HLC Season 3 - Individual Standings

HLC Season3 - Team Standings

Hotlap Season Week 4 (33) Top 10
1 - V12 Kronoturbo
2 - V12 BackONE AbS
3 - V12 seba grisea
4 - V12 Fullspe3D
5 - V12 Ermy
6 - R2P ChemicaL
7 - V12 Nikrox
8 - V12 SGATTO
9 - V12 TurbONE AbS
10 - IPR StevenX

Click here to see if you have been selected as one of the Random 30 from Week 33.

Along with all of the other great things happening within the community, the forums are always full of surprises.  Kinda like the AG Tuning Evo 8 that I discussed last week.  Now you would think that a car like this is worth a lot of Forza currency, and in fact it is; however now you can have the exact same set-up on your very own Evo 8…for free.  Yes you read that correctly.  AG tunings founding member Drizze, has just released the entire set-up for their Tsukuba 52 second Evo 8 here.  This sort of thing doesn’t happen often, and AG might all of a sudden change their mind, so I suggest you head over there now to grab one of the best set-ups you will find for an Evo 8 MR.  So once again great job to the entire crew over at AG and much respect for posting the settings to your prize Evo.

2000 Nissan Silvia Spec R by: SD Kami Sama - FC. Photo Comp.

I have also received a hefty amount of friend requests/gifts over the past week, and as much as I wanted too, I haven’t had a chance to drive them yet.  However I will try my best to give them a good test drive for one of our future articles.  Additionally if approved by the owners I will make some copies and send them to the other devs here at Turn 10 to run during our weeklong Game with Dev event.  Either way keep those tunes coming, as it is always great to have high quality cars at your disposal when racing online!

And finally before I call it a day, I want to announce that next week will mark the return of the much sought after winner’s galleries for both replica and fantasy livery competitions.  Toyotaracer249 and Brad o Shizno have been diligently running these contests steadily for the past 25 weeks now, and as a result I have decided to open up the galleries for the top winners each week.  As some of you already know these galleries were closed down along with the Turn 10 sanctioned contests, however with the dedication shown by both communities, I feel these galleries are a welcome addition back into the mix!

2008 BMW M3 E92 by SpecOpsBob - Nurburgring Photo Comp.

And with that said, I am out for another relaxing weekend.  Thanks for checking in with us here at Turn 10, and I hope you have a great weekend!

Peace

Landin