So I’d like to start a discussion on Leaderboards in Forza Horizon 5. Not just in “clean up cheaters” context but overall - the features, functions and the future of leaderboard or how they can be made better.
For those who prefer listening, I put my thoughts in a video below. For those who prefer to read - the wall of text is right under the video 
In my opinion the leaderboards is one of the most overlooked and ignored features of the game by both players and the studio and that’s a great shame!
On one side, many players, especially on more casual side, largely ignore leaderboards as something of no interest. They basically see them as something exclusive, reserved for top-level superfast aliens bearing no value for a regular person. More hardcore players would love to engage with leaderboards more but the very basic implementation and a crazy amount of blatant cheaters at the top of each board discourage many, including some of the most loyal fans.
On the other side the studio doesn’t put a lot of emphasis on the leaderboards either. We’ve heard in one of the progress updates that they are looking into getting them clean of cheated times but yet to see any real result of that. And we’ve heard nothing at all in terms of extra features or improvements to leaderboards.
I can only speculate about reasons for it. Maybe this is due to relatively low player engagement with leaderboards which would be a kind of self fulfilling prophecy - players don’t engage due to problems with the feature, studio is not interested in improving due to low engagement. A vicious circle.
Maybe this is due to technical limitations, insufficient toolset or more pressing development priorities (like fixing numerous bugs, completing other features on the roadmap and at the same time working on long awaited expansions).
Most probably that’s a combination of both and some other reasons I didn’t really think of. Whatever the reason is though, the situation with leaderboards is very very sad.
And I think that’s a huge mistake as leaderboards can be the engine of engagement for casuals and hardcore players alike. Clean and well organized leaderboards provide extra content for late game, incentive to progress for beginners and a competitive ground for wide community by giving the reason to boast your results to others.
So first, let’s look at what leaderboards we actually do have in the game.
First thing most people will engage with is Accolades leaderboard - the Hall of Fame, which ranks every single player in the game together (even those who didn’t reach the Hall of Fame yet) based on the accolades they collected. And even this, very first leaderboard is full of cheaters at the top, boasting accolades scores that are mathematically impossible to achieve in the game. It unfortunately goes downhill from here.
Next thing most people will engage with is individual leaderboards for each of the PR stunts (whether it’s a danger sign, speed trap or a drift zone). These too are full of cheaters at the top to the point that people are claiming a world record regardless of rakings in game and stick to it until someone shows actual video of performing better result. So at any point in time there’s dozens of people out there believing they hold current world record on this or that PR stunt.
We also have Rivals leaderboards - those exist as separate rankings for each track in the game in each class (so 6 leaderboards per track and show case event).
And the last one is a new Horizon Open leaderboard with ranks based purely on XP gained in any Horizon Open mode.
Access to each leaderboard is different. Hall of Fame is available at its own location in Horizon Festival. Each PR stunt needs to be accessed from the map by choosing that specific stunt and opening the leaderboard. Rivals boards are accessed from Rivals menu by going to each individual track, selecting a class and engaging with Change Rival option. Horizon Open is available from separate Horizon Open menu. So it’s quite a bit of a mess with no way to browse your leaderboards positions from one location.
Functionality of each leaderboard is also limited - you basically have 5 filters: Global Ranking (showing top ranks), players near you, your friends, your club and friends and the club together.
THIS IS TOO BASIC! Seriously! It’s a wealth of data that suffers from very poor visualization. And in modern days, where data scientists are everywhere and analytics are at the start of any sales pitch that’s just a huge mistake!
So what can be done to improve on it? Here are some ideas, a compilation of stuff that came up to mind while playing the game, that already exist in other titles (including Forza Motorsport!) and things picked up on discord conversations with friends.
1. Add MORE filters to existing leaderboards!
Whatever board we look at today, we can only boast about position in global rank, amongst friends or club.
But why not countries? Wouldn’t it be cool to say “maybe I’m only top10000 in the world but I’m top50 in Norway!”.
How about the filter for “my car”? OK, this new Ferrari is a terrible boat with tons of understeer that has no chance on global leaderboard. But what if I just love it and really want to see how I compare with others who also chose to suffer in it in Rivals?
Same for the car categories. The global top maybe filled with meta cars but how do other Retro Racers compare to my time?
Class filter for PR Stunts. I really want to know what’s the best you can do in D-class on that speed zone! Yes, let me compete with other snails!
Extra filters would also open up additional possibilities for community events (like competition for the best score in specific class or car) backed by global leaderboard. Or even custom events like “beat Fernando Alonso’s time on Estadio Circuit in Renault Megane RS”.
Basically, it’s creating extra content for the game without really spending time and money on assets.
2. Add MORE functions!
Those of you who played FM7 know that Rivals leaderboards offer a bunch of extra options: watch a replay of another player (if they chose to share it), download their tune (if it’s shared publicly), see the telemetry during their run - it’s kinda shocking this is not in Horizon! For anyone looking to improve, this is a huge, huge way to learn. Chasing the ghost is one thing, being able to see where exactly and how hard they are braking or how they shift gears is completely different and is super useful for those who want to be faster.
Similarly, trying to beat a friend in the same car is cool but being able to grab the same tune on the spot, without need to catch them online and ask for details is priceless.
And apparently, the code for that already exists within Forza family, so why is it not used?
How about ability to launch the leaderboard from within Rivals session and changing the ghost without having to quit? It’s so obvious and intuitive I actually couldn’t believe at first that this is not a thing in Horizon.
Or say, you want to challenge a friend across the board. Wouldn’t it be cool to select them on one leaderboard, set them as your “Nemesis” and they’d be automatically set as your rival for all other tracks and/or classes?
Another thing I’d love to see is ability to send a challenge to a player. “Quadro challenges you to beat their time on Chihuahua Circuit in Ford Focus RS in A class”. And yes, I’d spam a few people but it would still be fun!
3. Lastly - add MORE boards!
In previous Motorsport titles we had class leaderboards. Where aggregate ranking from all rivals races within class made up the best of the best for that class. It would be great to see those in FH5!
And the same for PR stunts! Per stunt and per class. The Danger Sign grand master! Drift Zone king! The Speed Trapper! A-Class Trailblaze Demon! Wouldn’t that be cool?
The list could go on, probably indefinitely! There are smaller things, like having more granularity within top 1% on the boards or having all leaderboards also available from a single place where players can browse their greatness. But all in all, I just really, really want to see more attention to leaderboards from the studio.
Let me know what you think
