QuizUp (I think that was the name) had a really interesting way of solving this - they pretended the users are online. Is this lying? Maybe, but for anyone not

QuizUp (I think that was the name) had a really interesting way of solving this - they pretended the users are online. Is this lying? Maybe, but for anyone not aware of this fact the experience was great. Now, QuizUp is probably a more unique case because the action on the users' part is very simple (simply choosing an answer). They simulated a real user by varying the response time (presumably based on the real user's results... hopefully anyway.) Forza Motorsport 5 also does an excellent job of this, albeit they tell the users that they're not playing real people. Users play matchmaking, career mode and free play (career mode and free play being the game modes that include simulated players). As you play, Xbox Live services used by Forza become more aware of how you drive and your "drivatar" (that is, the fake player you become when other people play non-multiplayer game modes) becomes more accurate. I think over all it's a great experience in both QuizUp and Forza 5, and I don't necessarily see a problem with faking users with simulations when the online populations are low.