Gamer ‘Reconnects’ With Dead Girlfriend Through Forza Drivatar

gamerant.com:

The Forza series of racing games, first released in 2005, have long been praised by fans of the racing genre. An interesting feature included in Forza is the Drivatar system, which allows players to virtually compete with their friends even when they are offline. For one Forza fan, this system has taken on a different meaning. They were able to play with their girlfriend, who had passed away months before.

Increasingly, people's behaviors on digital platforms are preserved. Whether it’s the things people post on social networks, the content created and shared, or high scores in games, everyone leaves behind digital footprints that can outlast them. In Forza, the Drivatar system is another way that players' behaviors can be captured. Drivatars allow users to race against friends who have played the game before, recording their movement and driving behaviors. In combination with machine learning, the game uses player modeling to then make predictions about how they might drive, allowing players to race against Drivatars in offline mode.

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Previously posting with the handle Pluto on the @relaxitsjonas TikTok account, the gamer had claimed in previous videos that they would play on their girlfriend’s Xbox. The account has since gone private, but re-uploads of the videos have been shared on Twitter. In the undated TikTok video, Pluto shares footage of themselves racing with the Drivatar of BlueDreams4207, an account used by their girlfriend who passed away two months prior.

In the heart-wrenching clip, Pluto describes racing with the Drivatar, and finding comfort talking to their late partner: “it hurts to talk to her and not get a response.” Pluto claimed