How This Forza Horizon 5 Car Earned An 8000 Year Ban
Avid gamers know bans happen from time to time, but they usually don't last until the end of time. One "Forza Horizon 5" player just got hit with an 8,000-year ban for a controversial car design he created. It may not be forever, but it is until Dec. 31, 9999, so it might as well be forever.
As shared by a friend of the affected player on Reddit, the disciplinary action was issued as the player's "first-ever in-game ban" without any prior warnings or bans given. Though this may seem extreme, photos of the car shared along with the post make it pretty clear why the ban was so dramatic. The custom livery created by the player features a prominent image of North Korean political leader Kim Jong-Un, known for his oppressive and autocratic leadership, dressed as KFC's Colonel Sanders, known for his fried food and an unlikely dating sim. This directly violates a "Forza" rule that prohibits user-generated content of "certain notorious individuals," as pointed out by a Redditor.
In addition to the Kim Jong-Un art, the player who created the design included the hashtag #SendNukes, along with fake company logos like "Nuke" instead of Nike and "Nuke Balance" instead of New Balance. The Reddit user who shared the photos was right in their analysis that it "looks like [Turn 10] doesn't like jokes or something." However, fans had varying opinions on the ban and the incident.
Forza Fan Feedback
In addition to getting thousands of upvotes, the "Forza Horizon 5" car banned for millennia garnered many comments from fans, leading the original poster to clarify a few things by adding two additional notes to the original post. First, they wanted fans to know that "Playground Games has nothing to do with this ban, as they do not enforce the game in any way. This ban was issued by the Enforcement Team at Turn 10 Studios." On top of that, they wanted to clarify that while some news sites have cited that the disciplined player "may have a history of making these types of liveries," that's simply false. According to the banned player's friend, who has known him for "the better part of over a year...this is not true!"
Though the banned player may not have made these designs before and won't get to again, they definitely got a moment in the spotlight. Many commenters on Reddit didn't agree with the ban. As one wrote, "It's edgy, yes. Does it deserve a perma-ban? No." A lot of folks found the design entertaining, ranging from "kinda funny" to "very funny," as well as "pushing it."
Fans of "Forza Horizon 5" may take the design as a joke or an offense, but either way, they'll probably think twice before designing their next livery.