What's going on Howrse?

[Canuk]

This is just one persons opinion on the last 6 months or so at Howrse. I will cover the contest/promotion situation and the sales/item exchange prices.

** This is just my opinion **

Lets start off with the Contests and Promotions.

Like many players I am getting sick of of seeing one after another. It used to be that I looked forward to the annual promotions; Valentines day, spring, summer, fall and Christmas. Each promo lasted a couple of weeks and players were happy when they came out. Back then they might bring out a half dozen new breeds for the entire year and again, you looked forward to it.

Now it seems like there is always some promo going on all encouraging you to spend equus or passes. There's a new breed out every couple of weeks and it's lost the novelty value.

Quite simply players don't want to spend their equus or passes anymore this trickles down to the sales and the item exchange.

I think that the reason Howrse is doing this is generally well intended. By causing players to spend their equus and passes it causes prices to come down and makes things more affordable. They are essentially removing passes and equus from the game when you spend them on Howrse related things.

The problem is that Howrse has been doing this for too long and they have caused a situation where players are now hoarding or holding out.

The same howrse that would have sold for 10 passes a few months ago is now selling for 2-3 passes. Players haven't slowed down their breeding either but they still try to sell the horses for passes (even though players aren't buying). Those same players are complaining that their horses won't sell ... they will sell but you need to price right for the current market value, not the market value of a few months ago.

Item exchange prices are also reflecting the fact that players don't want to spend. I watch the item exchange carefully, looking for the right time to buy. I've seen the drop.

Achilles heel used to sell for 60K now you can pick them up for 35K

Fertility wands were 75K now they are around 40K

Zeus Bolts were at 100K now figure on 40K

While this is a good thing for people with equus kicking around the average player can't spend on items because they can't sell horses or foals for the money needed to maintain their spending.

[zeryxis]

While I've not really watched the market that closely, I do know I can pretty much count on a few things...

1) contests happen and usually boast out new breeds, including divines
2) the last few days of a contest will have breeds obtainable in HoPs, devaluing the earned ones
3) the day a contest ends, it will 50% of the time suddenly have an extension
4) less than 5 days later, a new contest will come up to bother you

In essence, theyve taken contests from something looked forward to and enjoyed to something dreaded and seen as a freak'n bother. Divines that used to be worth something are now more flooded than the breedable horses and almost certainly no longer seen as special. What's even worse is that they dont seem to put much thought into the divines anymore - theyre just reskinned copies of each other.

Planet horses are pretty much just like the gemstones. whats even worse is one cant get rid of them if they dont want them. For some at least you can put them up for sale or SH them if you really just want the gone. But forcing you to keep something you dont want makes it just BS to play on the chance you get stuck with something you dont want.

[Canuk]

I've personally just seen the divines as idiot trophies.

Why you ask?

Well the average player might have one or two of them ... they were usually won through luck and the player wasn't really trying to get them.

Then you have the players with a whole butt load of divines (usually doubles or triples of each one too) those are the idiot trophies, it screams "I buy alot of passes and spend them playing the lottery"

I have a greyfell and a Jupiter, I didn't want either one of them but I just happened to win them. I half tried for the Jupiter though because I think it looks nifty ... I used three HoPs that were in my stock to get it. I for one don't go out of my way to win horses you can't breed, can't sell and can't win comps with.

[kadiezi]

Personally, I don't mind comps like the cards that much, though just the fact that they have so many competitions is annoying. But hey, free stuff. What I really have a problem with, what gets my blood boiling, are the recent time based competitions. With the pinatas, you either had to never sleep or use HoPs to get to the end (shameless pass grabbing attempt), and with the current one, anyone in Australia/similar timezones who sleeps at night are getting the short end of the stick. If I'm lucky, I can get in to the 14:00-18:00 one (the 0:00-14:00 one is a piece of cake, though), but to do so, I have to stay up past midnight. Any others past it are much too late. I'm willing to bet the average player isn't nocturnal.

I even brought that up in the event topic, and you know what someone said to me? "It's about the fun". Where's the smileys that explode with rage when you need one. Fun? When you and many other players get the short end of the stick over something easily fixed they're supposed to accept it and have fun? When there's less of a chance of getting items (the main attraction of the competitions) for you and others near you based on poorly thought out times, you are supposed to have fun? AAAARGH *pops out of existence in rage*

[Canuk]

Kadiezi,

I understand your issue and I have to admit that I never knew about that. i kind assumed that if you had your location set as, say, Australia that the game adjusted and compensated on the times for entering contests (kind of like they eventually did for the uni breeding where you pick a "start" time and can't change it again for 30 days).

I liked the painting contest the best out of the seemingly endless stream of contests. It was fun, the outcome was fair all around and most of all if you did choose to use HoP's (or passes) the rewards were worth it. For example it seemed like you could only get certain colors from HoP use, well I have no problem paying one pass to get a multi pass item (like the 5th element).

The valentines day one and the pinata ones really had me ticked off. I didn't sleep and had my cell phone set to go off in time for me to click the darn pinata (i am ashamed to admit that). The valentines day one was okay but a couple of the rewards were just silly, why spend 20 passes to win a horse for three days (see my review about that one).

Howrse needs to do some major house cleaning and things won't change if we the players don't learn to unite and have our voices heard.

[zeryxis]

... I'm kinda very iffy about the new changes just announced, and it's just like, saying "we're gonna just automatically do this for you" instead. And you lose out on the skill gains some companions give to boot.

It just... really makes things seem to go more toward casual but useless. I kinda liked having to make sure I did foal games right, and that I handled it properly. Now itll just be handed to me, and I hate it. It's just lazy. Sure it means a little bit better GP with no fuss, but that was part of the fun of breeding. Getting a foal with such-and-such GP then using games to increase it. I more of skimmed the announcement cuz I was busy at the time, so if they implemented something to cover that whatever, but still. Why remove it? I liked picking companions for my horses, using them to give my mares a bit more skills during those last couple months of preggers, etc.

Plus I think it said something about being able to get Hestia's Gift off the uni breeding page? Sure that's -nice- but it will seriously devalue unicorns now, even though they have tricks to breeding to help with chances. Even if it costs a bomb, its just another way to milk passes from players who really want unicorns while also ruining their value... making them practically worthless. Come -ON-, are people so bloody lazy and needing instant gratification that they dont even want to wait and try? Sure i like getting a sure-shot chance every so often (like when I won a Gift from a contest and used it to breed twin unis) but I prefer the feeling of hope and excitement when your mare is about to foal and you're crossing fingers and toes hoping it's a uni, that feeling of delight when the foal shows a horn, and the upset of it being just a hornless foal. But every time I failed, it made e determined to get one - my uni Fel was the first I ever bred, and I was delighted when I got him. Now when all you need to do is pay a few passes or whatnot to know you'll get a uni foal, no guessing or hoping or emotion at all. It's pretty much just Howrse grabbing for more money out of passes...

whatll they do next? Pile on more limits for how to obtain passes without paying? Ugh...

[Canuk]

I agree with you 100% on the uni thing. Personally I never had any interest in them beyond collecting foundation Unis with full skill gain or zero games and a foal.

I'm one of the players from the vanilla days of 2007, I had to EARN everything I have. Now players just expect things to be handed to them and have a "why work for it" mentality. People say things about "well it's harder now then it was back then" truth is that the prices for things has remained relative to the amount of money in the game. Yes, I paid under 50K for my large fertile pastures BUT back then that was big money.

Back to the uni's ... what's going to happen is the same that has happened to many other breeds of horses. The big money/pass players will start to raise the GP so even if Uni's flooding the market doesn't kill things the rising GP will make "luck of the draw" unis worthless because of the higher GP, bred with tears and wand and guaranteed a uni birth. H.Gift was a nice novelty item but it does not deserve to be in the game as a regular BM item.

Next people will be saying that horses with M.Blood should have a chance of producing winged foals (i see this happening in the not so far off future) once that happens players will complain about the odds and it will be another uni fiasco.

I want useful updates not novelty updates.

[kadiezi]

I think it was mentioned that you could access a H. Gift from the covering page, but only if you already had it in your inventory (I could be reading it wrong, though). I can't remember anything saying it would be a regular BM item.

To give the exact quote, "You can now give a Hestia's Gift to a unicorn directly from the covering page if you have:

-at least one Hestia's Gift in your inventory
-chose a unicorn stallion from the same breed"

Still, I'm not completely happy with the companion updates. What about 0(or more accurately now, minus 0)GPers? Won't the automatic 1.20GP seriously slow that down? I've never had any interest in it myself, but that just sucks for them.

[skysong]

Kadiezi

Like you I really am not a fan of the lottery drawing times(since i live in Australia). I have to a) wake up ~really~ early in the morning to buy tickets for the 0:00 draw b) I need to wait till the morning to find out my results/buy more tickets because the drawings are at 10 PM! and I get the result at 10:30! (which is ~way~ past my bedtime). I also dont approve of tacking the companions away.

[riderruby]

I think the Hestia's Gift thing is that it is still a novelty item, but, if you have one, you can put it on your unicorn from the covering page like the Hera Pack.

But, again, howrse needs to stop the endless competition, I've stopped even trying, it's no fun to play when there are about 3 things that are worth your money. I use the stuff that they basically give you when you log in, but other than that I don't do much. The companions thing is RIDICULOUS! Why do they have to take away one of the things that makes the game fun!!! Most of the changes are usually fine and don't make a difference anyway, but this is kind of silly. Does the companion change even get Howrse anything, in terms of money!

[Canuk]

i buy my three tickets per draw and i usually get the 2 comp win tickets. I've stopped making any effort on the comps and I have already won most of the rewards from this one (including the passes).

[irene19]

Equus is usually no problem to me, as I have more than I need, but the promos I spend up to 300k(my budget) and passes on are Advent and Birthday.

[buddybbz]

Im really fed up of everything that's happened on howrse. I joined a week after howrse was made and it was much more enjoyable back then. I really wish they could go back to version 1.