Introduction:
First of all, am not gonna waste your time with my story and who I’m, and what I thought this thing is about when the first time I saw it. Rather, I will just go straightly to the main point then start from there.
A few days ago, I was looking at reddit’s community of The Crew 2, and suddenly something very strange and unusual just caught my attention.
I discovered a shocking secret message hidden in the random tips bar of PVP.

What you’re basically seeing here is a memorable quote from the famous Assassin Creed series. Following that quote there’s a message saying that this is the “Wrong game”. This means this is not only a random quote that’s been shared in there for no reason but also a secret message from the IvoryTower’s employers. It is also an official back response to my recent criticisms that i posted long time ago here in this forum.
This secret message confirms something that I recognized of them and this game long time ago, something very consistent with what I know and recognized. More importantly, it’s the ultimate answer of all our major questions and concerns about The Crew 2. And especially these major questions : “Why The Crew 2 is so different than The Crew 1, Why The Crew 2 and its major features are completely downgraded, Why The Crew 2 is so heavy and restricted and limited to its potential, and lastly, why Ivory Tower was rejecting most of our feedback and suggestions”.
The reason why in a short simple answer is because the main story behind that quote has been put into practice on The Crew 2, and within its design structure and the multiplayer infrastructure. However, the in-game details on how it’s been put to practice will not be presented to you in this topic, because this require another constructive and separate topic to adress them properly. But, you will still be able to learn the main ideas of that secret message when it will be briefly sumarized in my Q&A, and my response to IVT.
How did I knew that was actually a secret message and an official back response to my recent criticisms:
I arrived to that conlusion mainly because of these four following reasons :
First, The message appeared in PVP and exactly after my recent criticism about PVP. (Sorry I lost the link of my criticism due to the complete overhal and redesign of the forums. What is all about is basicly I was criticising IvoryTower about the lack of freedom in TC2)Second, the quote talks about the freedom and that is main goal of The Assassins.Third, the quote was a selective part of a complete Assassin Creed quote, and nothing else besides that part was quoted.Lastly, It’s very consistent with what I know and recognized from The Crew 2, and that is the dominance through order and control. Which is basically the main goal of The Templars (The enemies of The Assassins).
Moreover, even if I’m wrong and this is not true, or if the message never appeared, my main topic today will still be completely true and on point. I’m simply using their secret message (or whatever you call it) as my primary evidence to bring this topic through this direction, and use it effectively to prove my points. The other way of proving my points is by providing the in-game details and use them as my primary evidence, but it would be a lot difficult than proving them in this way, so I went with other way instead.
What does this secret message is stating:
The specific quote in that secret message is talking about freedom, this mean no one should have control over anyone or anything, you're free to do whatever you like, at anytime you want. Next to that, the statement next to that quote is rejecting that idea, it’s rejecting that freedom because it’s clearly stating that this is “the wrong game”, meaning this is not the right game for freedom, and it will never be about freedom. However, the freedom that’s being rejected here, is not the freedom that was derived from the stupid non linear story of TC2 (the freedom of driving and exploration, and the freedom of conquering the air, the land and the sea of the united state). It’s a freedom of game accessibilities, game features, design structure, and the multiplayer infrastructure.
Why and how this secret message is the ultimate answer of all our major questions and concerns about The Crew 2:
Think about it as this way: The community wants freedom. This freedom is basicly the flexibility and huge potential of the game, it’s the main thing that makes the game so great and successful.
Next to that, the developers already offered this freedom in The Crew 1, and it was even wider and extent in that game. Moreover, It’s exactly what IVT was saying in that quote “Everything is permitted”, that’s because of the fact that you can do whatever you like at anytime you want. For example, you can play with your friends in private lobby and do CVC anytime you want, you can have full access to all the events in PVP and all the racing famillies anytime you want, you can turn on/off traffic and collisions in pvp anytime you want, you can search for lobbies and do anything else (play other events or play summit for ex), you can have full access to the open world while the pvp match making is in progress, you can spectate in pvp and watch other players racing anytime you want, you can have full access to the roster and invites/add friends anytime and anywhere you want (invite friends in PVP or while driving for ex), you can have full access to the user interface from a mobile phone anywhere and anytime you want, you can fast travel anywhere and anytime you want, you can buy performance parts from tuner shops anytime you want, you can create content with the race creator anytime you want, and many many more.
All these accessibilities and features are basically freedom. are the flexibility. are the huge potential of the game. are the creative abilities of the game. they simply gives the players the ability to control their own gameplay experiences and ultimately they gives them the sense of having the full freedom without being limited or controled by anything.
Well, Unfortunately, not with the game that we are dealing with today, absolutly not when the developers has turned into templars within their business in The Crew 2 and after being a nice friendly assassins.
The developers have realised that The Crew 1 got stolen from their hands and got dominated and owned by the community and the players had so many opportunities of having control over their game, and that’s because of the extent freedom they gave them. It simply appeared to them that The Crew 1 was basically a photoshop, the entire game was hugely flexible and everything was permitted. So what they actually did is basically creating a new plans and adopting another strategy, and that is basically the dominance and control. They start establishing dominance and control everywhere in the game, by taking away that freedom from the community, by removing the flexibility, by removing the opportinities that provides them the ability of dominating and taking control over their game, and eventaly by just killing its huge and valuable potential, by decreasing its creative abilities, by decreasing its huge flexibility. And that exactly what’s happening in The Crew 2, that’s why The Crew 2 and its major features were completely downgraded, that’s why The Crew 2 was so heavy and restricted and limited to its potential. And more importantly, that’s what you are complaining about, you are complaining about its huge and valuable potential.
Also, this new dominance based strategy that they’re adopting on The Crew 2, is apparently the main reason why most of our feedback and sugesstions were being rejected. Because any feedback or anything that was demanding the freedom and the flexibility for the game, or in other words the feedback that was going against that new strategy, was never been accepted or sériously taken into consideration. And still today being rejected and for the same exact reason.
For instance, like Akorr’s feedback and his expectations that he shared in youtube long time ago (in this link
@minute 14:59). When he was requesting more freedom for PVP, all his requests was being rejected, and the same thing happened to my feedback. I did the same thing here in this forums, and way before the release of PVP, I requested more freedom for PVP and for many aspects of the game, and it were all been rejected.
Not only my feedback or akorr’s feedback, but most of the community feedback, from both TC1 and TC2. All the feedback that was going in the opposite direction of their new plans and that new dominance based strategy was secretly being rejected, and still today being rejected and for the same exact reason. This doesn’t mean IVT don’t listen to the community and our feedback, they do listen in-fact-they know every detail about the community and their requests but they simply don’t want to accept anthing that goes against their new bussiness strategy and plans. They also like to take their words very precisely.
What IvoryTower did offer to the community after taking away that freedom:
I will leave this question to Mr Stephan Janskowski (One of the producers of The Crew 2). Check this video here and listen carefully to what he says. @ minute 1:08
That’s it ladies and gentlemen, he concluded almost everything I’ve said earlier in this topic.
He's explicitly stating that he is offering you a new toys and new freedom as a complete and permanent substitute of The Crew 1 freedom. He took away the freedom that you wanted and that was already in The Crew 1, and gave you the freedom of conquering the air, the land, and the sea of the united state and the newly given conquest toys (Planes and boats, and instant vehicle swapping feature).
Let me put this in a short story to understand better what’s going on. Basically it is like this. Stephan and his team discussed together and said to them, “Look, we gave a lot of freedom in The Crew 1 and as a result of that, the game got taken from our hands and got dominated and owned by the community, so what we should do to offer the players as a subtitute if we take that freedom away from them. A developer came up with his instant vehicle swapping concept and said, “We should give them planes and boats and this cool new feature, then we let them explore the world and dominate the air, the land, and the sea of the united state”. Stephan said: Ok fair enough, we give them that as a new freedom then we take the advantage of that opportunity to establish a great degree of technical dominance and strict control over the game and at the same time prevent them from stealing it from our hands.
So what they basicly did is they took all the accessibilities of the first game that I mentioned before (accessible roster, accessible UI, accessible events, accessible open world … etc), and gave you the accessibilities of the open world and the game content (accessible buildings, accessible roof tops, accessible rivers, skies, seas…etc). Then they took all the features that were available in the first game, and gave you the instant vehicle swapping feature along with some other features that you never asked for (Lootboxes, video editor, variable loot system…etc). So in other words, they closed all the open doors of The Crew 1. Took all the doors that were originally closed from The Crew 1 and opened them in The Crew 2. Then they added some additional doors that you never requested. And that’s it, that’s whole point of that concept and that direction. It basicly came from the idea that The Crew 1 freedom must be removed somehow, and replaced by another less or equal freedom in order to compenstate between the two games. And more importantly, in order to dominate The Crew 2 and to prevent the players from stealing it from the devs’s hands and controlling it, and Keep retaining a direct, an unlimited, an absolute and comprehensive ownership and leadership over The Crew 2 indefinitely, while we the customers keep owning america and dominating the air, the land, and the sea of the united state.
They went against more than twelve million players that they were simply wanting to bring The Crew 1 to the next level and gets more out of its potential, only because they wanted to say to them this is our own game and nobody can touch it.
Or in other words, this is our own ground and nobody can dance. *facepalm* (-‸ლ)
My response to that message :
Thank you for your confirmation and honest response Mr Templar (IVT), Without your confirmation and response this wouldn't be possible for me to make this topic and bring it in this direction. So thank you very much, you made it a lot easier for me. I’m calling you mr Templar because your goals are the same as their goals which are the dominance through order and control.
Let me first begin by asking you a very important question, and it is as following: ‘’Why you could never inform us or at least whisper about that from the beginning? Why you couldn’t stick a message in The Crew 1 PVP and quoted “Nothing is true, everything is permitted. No Wait… This is only a ‘Temporary experimental Game’, and not a ‘True Representative’ of The Crew Franchise and its true and definite design structure?”’’
Is it because The Crew 1 was a mistake, or because it was intented to build up your initial player base?
From my perspective, I don’t think that was actually a mistake, because you seems a very well experienced game developer. But even if that was truly a mistake, you still have done a more bigger mistake than that one, and that is The Crew 2.. Do you know why? because your reaction and response to the first game was so extreme in The Crew 2 and you have gone too far with that and maybe without even noticing.
The problem is, you are turning The Crew 2 into a payback while making it as a sequel, a payback to the extent that you can literally feel the game being mad at you and wracking your brain, you can feel the extreme reaction and your response to The Crew 1. Seriously, I’ve never seen in my entire life a video game that is so heavy and restricted the same way as The Crew 2 is designed. Especially when it comes to the accessibility, the user interface and other core features like PVP, you absolutely nailed that one. The numbers of restrictions and downgrades are totally insane, It’s absolutely ridiculous. No flexibility, no freedom, even the player’s comfort got dismised.
More problems, despite all the criticism and the feedback that you received from the players and the reviewers. You still want to blindly reject all of that and keep insisting on using the same strategy that you adopted with The Crew 2, even though it was exactly behind its failure and the players' disappointments. And that was very clear from your message (Wrong game).
I understand that The Crew 1 was taken away from your hands by the community due to the extent freedom that you gave them, but let’s be very clear, wasn’t that the key reason behind its success? Wasn’t that the key reason why The Crew 1 so great and successful? Wasn’t that the key reason why The Crew 1 had more than twelve millions players? Wasn’t that all what they were expecting you to do in The Crew 2? Wasn’t that all what they want wanted? They wanted the freedom right ? Not the planes and the boats that you literally call freedom after your dominance, Mr Templar (Stephan) right? Just look around now and see, how the community is responding to The Crew 2? What they are saying about this game? Are they saying this is the game that we were expecting? Are they satisfied? It’s the opposite right ? So why you are going against your community then? Why not stick to the things that everyone love and appreciate then? Is it because owning and dominating the game is more important to you than simply giving away the freedom? Is it because the dominance is a lot easier for you than giving away the freedom? (Well… If that’s the case, then just go and give your condoleses to The Crew franchise man, because that’s what you are basically doing, you are simply killing it).
The dominance has gone too far Mr Templar (IVT), I think it’s about time you reconsider and revisit your plans and strategy.
And always remember, the huge success that was behind The Crew 1 was because of the freedom that you offered it, and the big failure that was behind The Crew 2 was because the dominance and the control that you established.
It’s all very clear and self-evident, you don’t need anyone else or me to inform you about that.
Best regards,
KipOWNinAMRCA_hf
The Crew Expert
Raven-GT
Mayor
A slightly different theme than the one IVT used for their response, but doesn’t really matter, because they are both very similar and self-explanatory.

Bonus image 2: This is an only optional image, I wanted to share with you because it shows something interesting.
In The Crew 1, this easter egg was a happy welcoming face, but in The Crew 2 it got changed to an Assassin Creed logo. So this could be a sign of their dominance.
It really makes sense, because when you play the first game you really feel happy and welcomed in that game, you really feel like this is your own home because everything is offered to you a silverplate, everything is permitted. But in the other side, all what you get from The Crew 2 is just frustrations and disapointments, the game just keep getting mad at you and you wont stop getting disappointed. And at the end, you simply feel unhappy and unwelcomed.

Bonus Image 3: An exclusive preview on how The Crew 2 PVP should be design. This is how PVP should look like if we use the same design structure of The Crew 1 PVP.
Personally I find this the best PVP Design in any racing game, there’s no racing game in the world that can offer you a huge collection of events and let you chose from it whatever event you like without limiting you into four or five events per race like in the crew 2 and other racing games. You see this is the creative freedom I like to have in racing games, the events collection is huge and variant and you can choose whatever event you like at anytime you want, for example, I like to choose only the events that suite my personnel preference and driving skills anytime I want, like that I can have my full freedom of choice in PVP. I also like to toggle traffic and collusion options as they are free to use anytime I want. And the best of all I’m free to go anywhere else and play whatever game I like to play and not being forcedly staring at that quote that always tells me you’re not free in this game and you’re in a wrong game. Seriously you will never find any racing game that gives you so much creative freedom of PVP inside a racing game never, all racing games gives you a limited choices and doesn’t allow to control your own gameplay experiences.

Thanks for listening.
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