Forza Horizon 5 appeals to you by the name of your Microsoft account, but for some trans players it has unexpected consequences.
Many returning Forza players were surprised when Forza Horizon 5 greeted them by name. The game pulls it from your Microsoft account so it can correctly say ‘Hello’. But for some trans players, this feature has led to the game naming them – a painful experience.
“It sucked and it was jarring,” Melody. told me over Twitter. “You have a few mandatory bits to play before you can actually change it. I’m not that familiar with the menus, but much of the customization is separate from the menu options, so I wasted a lot of time digging when it was another. place. ”
For new players, the game asks you for a name and nickname, but returning players do not get this chance.
“I was pretty shocked,” said one player, who asked to remain anonymous. “I enjoyed the intro sequence and had a lot of fun, but hearing the announcer shout my dead name made me completely blind. I left the game right away and was close to just refunding it on Steam.
“I really wanted to play with my friends, so I cooled down a bit and spent an hour figuring out how I could reset my storage to remove any chance of that nickname me again. I just wanted to reset my storage “so my nickname was not on it. I changed my Microsoft account name to something it could not vote on and tried to play the game again as usual after resetting my storage.”
This led to the error popping up. Now the game calls them by the name of the last NPC they spoke to. “The game probably did not handle it gracefully. It does not seem to affect the gameplay at all, so I’m fine with that.”
Forza Horizon 5 has implemented some great accessibility options and also included the ability for players to choose their pronouns, body type and voice – its character creation system is what Cyberpunk 2077 has promised to be. It is then disappointing that the potential for nicknames was not taken into account when the welcome feature was implemented.
For the player who ended up restarting their game, it just takes the shine out of it. “I’m really disappointed that they’ve done something so basic but crucial to many people’s enjoyment of the game.”
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