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Who is the leading contender right now for this year's Triple Crown?
Hansen - who won the Breeders' Cup Juvenile at Churchill last year.
18%
Union Rages - who won 3 or 4 races as a juvenile including the Grade 1 Champagne Stakes
21%
Algorithms - who recently scored a huge victory in the Grade 3 Holy Bull at Gulfstream Park
24%
It's just too early to determine the top contender for this year's Triple Crown racing season. Anything can still happen.
37%
Total votes: 307
BRAINSTORM
Welcome to Brainstorm !
A place to voice your thoughts, opinions, ideas and praise about the game, outside of the forum.
In my opinion, our family here is very dysfunctional right now, so view this as an Intervention. I want to see this game thrive. This blog will be for players who care about the game ,to come up with some ideas to help it grow and quell the discontent and people leaving the game. Hopefully we can come up with an idea or two that HRF can implement.
First, let's define the trainer game and clear up some misconceptions.
A few players, and perhaps even HRF, think that this game is for entertainment purposes only. They're dead wrong!
Entertainment is watching television, or going to the movies, or being a spectator at a sporting event. Although the game is very entertaining, we are active participants in the game, not spectators. When a million points are on the line, the equivalent of $100 US, it becomes more than pure entertainment.
If HRF views the game this way, that's problem #1.
This is a game!
Like any other game, from any children's game all the way to the Olympic Games, all games have rules.
That brings us to problem #2.
Mike once posted before the class system, that "if player's want to
place their horse in any tournament, it was there right to do so".
Which was true, there were no rules against it. How about the Jockey
and Bettor games, can any player enter any tournament? Why not?
Now we're going to get political for illustration puposes only.
CAPITALISM vs SOCIALISM
When the Trainer game first started out, there were few conflicts or complaints. Why? Because there were few players, few horses and everybody had a chance to win, no rules were needed at the time.
But over time, pure laissez faire capitalism(no rules/regulations) took over. Those who could afford to breed the most slowly started
dominating the game. Complaints and discontent arose. Maybe if you were lucky enough to win the lottery(Wells Fargo), you were content.
But the game was largely only for the rich. Survival of the richest! The game will not grow, if it is only for the rich.(btw, have you ever seen me without a ton of points? this ain't about me, ok?)
Enter Socialism. (Handicap weights and High BSR giveaways)
Pure Socialism is just as bad as pure capitalism. Neither system works, alone, you need a blend of both.
Enter THE CLASS SYSTEM
But instead of going with what has proven to work in real horse racing over these many decades. HRF decided to reinvent the wheel, so here
we are today.
HRF has provided us with this huge beautiful Mansion.
Problem #3, there aren't enough players to fill all the rooms.
Those who say that there are no problems, are the millionaires.
They don't ever see a problem, because nothing affects them.
Telling me or anyone else, "well if you don't like it, don't play", isn't going to solve anything. In their selfish blindness, what millionaires
refuse to recognize is that while there's strife, discontent, fighting and wars beneath them, when the world comes crashing down, it's game over for them as well.
So let's work together and offer up some solutions that will fit into the framework of this already terrific game that HRF provides. It just needs a little TLC.
The main problems causing all of the discontent are the handicap
weight issue and the class system itself.
I'd like to tackle the hanicapper problem first, but please speak your
mind, tell me were I'm right or wrong, and let's BRAINSTORM.
It's bad enough to have a $50 purse decided by someone who doesn't know what they're doing. But it's even worse for that person to have to go through what Jimmiethewheel, Sisterhorse,K-n-B, et al, have gone through. Let's fix this nonsense, together.
I still think Hanicapper Training is a possible solution, but what do you think? Your best ideas are welcome here.
- vasdef's blog
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Comments
Fix this fix that
That sounds good but nothing is going to get fixed until Puddles jumps on board. So until somebody gets Puddles to interact with the community again then everything we do or say is pointless.
Pessimist
Hopefully you're wrong, JB.
Besides that doesn't mean we can't try.
Reality
We have been trying for a week with the scale weights thread and nothing. Like you said about the champions of champions tourney they couldn't do that correctly. The players have offered fixes and ways to get the community interested in past and present champs and hrf couldn't bother to communicate with players to get that done. I think Hrf has us on ignore.
Somebody needs to contact Puddles and get him or someone else to start joining in some threads with responses.
Get rid of 2 and 3 year old
Get rid of 2 and 3 year old instas. Offer only 4 years old up for instas. Instead of the rule where each horse can run 3 generals and 3 instas in a season of racing, install a new turbo tournament in its place. A turbo tournament would be over in 4 days start to finish. It would offer two trials that would be run on the same day, then have the final 3 days later to allow for buddy challenges and instructions. Scale weights, so no handicapper needed. Tournament max being 20 horses, top 5 from each trial make it to the final.
Ok
Now we're talking!
I like the Turbo tournament idea.
One thing is certain, they're going to have to get rid of some tournaments somewhere. Instead of waiting to see if one is going to fill, it should be a mad rush to sign up before it fills.
So if they have to cut some age groups, or Reds, whatever. There are too many tournaments.
The Instas need to be restructured altogether.
Where are all the members
Where are all the members and there opinions? Well what we need is when we get alot ideas and proposed changes we need to setup a vote like the questions they ask on the main page. Give 2 or 3 choices and asked them to pick one and make a deadline on when the poll will close. Then you can get more people involved in the process.
Excellent
Now that's a great idea JB.
I haven't PM my buddy list about this blog, or posted about it on the forum yet.
I really want to start keeping this kind of discussions off of the forum.
It gets a little heated and then no progress is made.
But man, that last idea of yours is the best one yet.
Less time between tournament
Less time between tournament races - say one race each day in each tournament. some of the larger tournaments can take a month.
And we need to no what is going on , an update about all the programs what are on hold at current , business program , handicapper program etc etc a lot feel left out of the loop at the moment.
-------------------------------------
Having Fun :o)
Hmmm.
thinking.
My 3 Cents........
Fix what we have first....we have to find a way to fill all the tournaments, there are too many and too spread out over too much time like suncity said....Ive never understood why it takes a month to finish a tournament..No tournament should last no more than a week tops....that way, more trainers can enter thier horses in touneys that need filled....it takes me no more than 10 minutes to enter a horse into a trainer tourament, and 1 min to set Jock instructions.....its too dragged out the way it is in the generals, its not too bad in the blues....
Tiny post
1) The generals are fine. Players create tourneys and we vote on them.
2) Instas are almost useless now with the BRS structure of the blues and generals.
3) Blues need the tourneys to be limited to showing 1 date only, not 1 month worth of tourneys. Hrf may have add the Vip bonus structure in those tourneys to help push these horses to the 3yr old level to fill the blues for that age group. I suggest they have 3yr & up blues. So thats blues for 2yr and 3up.
4) Reds are fine but keep them also showing 1 date at a time, when they are set to go release the next bunch.
5) A handicap reward program to top handicapper every month which will list all handicappers and one vote per person and the most votes for that handicapper wins a prize.
6) Stewards will be ask to mentor 1 or 2 handicappers and make sure the handicapper knows and shows qualiity races. The steward will also win a prize if there handicapper is select top handicapper of the month. The reward can be a quarterly if not monthly.
7) If needed we can setup a voting system as I discussed early.
Thats all I can think of for now.
Vas
weights has nothing to do with it, people complain about it but its not a problem....i hope HRF does not delete or edit my post here because its my OPINION and in no way saying i am 100% right about the following.
here are the problems.
1. they floaded the game with useless instas, hoping people will breed and have the instas as a fall back if they didnt get a decent horse so instas has mostly garbage, these horses would have been retired if it wasn't for instas.
2. letting members handicapping finals, i posted about this and warned them all this would do was cause problems between members, guys we have no right to be dragged across the mud because this was handed to players who just wanted to help, this has led to some members going MIA.
3. spreading the wealth, this is a major problem, new trainers showing up out of no where winning finals like crazy keeping the points away from legit members and their pps through the roof, then HRF and Dakaa/ Jaycat spamming the forums how great the new trainers are and how much better they are than the people who have been here SPENDING and can play this damn game in their sleep.
4. new trainers, this is what we should blame for the mass amount of multi accounts that ended up in the game, HRF is to be blamed 100%, you don't slap the real customers in the face with these new trainers and accounts with some monsters, people started thinking "new accounts getting great horses" so you cant blame anyone but yourself when people start checking to see whats going on and opening these.
5. they started under estimating their member base, you have to keep the points flowing back into the community or what you will end up with is people holding on to their points....the new accounts went lights out in the finals only a door knob couldn't see what was going on, they were winning everything..i remember winning 1.5m points one day and by midnight i was ordering another 150$ 2m points because i went on a breeding spree, those days are gone because HRF has pretty much stopped the turn over in game.
6. current tournaments suck, they really do, we use to have some great tournaments and we had FUN not anymore that's been taken away, even the quick start 6k a day points for vip was messed with with the intention that maybe memebrs will not spend the time to bother with it now how messed up can you be to get to that point, lately i started thinking maybe i will start being billed 5k for each time i log onto this site or make a post.
just saying whats on my mind.
sundown
various things
I believe we should have scale weights because the handicapping is BS and the trainers don't really want real handicappers such as I was who handicap to make the race as even as possible at the finish (within the confines of limitations of weight), when I was doing it I would have spread the weights out even more if I had the range to work with, and bare in mind that in distance races the weights mean more so than in a sprint where a 6 pound difference is is only a couple lengths. The big problem is that most in here refuse to except what handicapping is and the whiners in here don't seem to want to except that handicapping means trying to make the things even by way of the weights, most of the people in here want the favorite to even though have top weight to not give away enough to lose the advantage they have for winning the race. So if we are not gonna handicap to make things even which is what handicapping is then we should have scale weights and just let the best horse win, rather than blackball any handicapper who actually handicaps the way a handicap is supposed to be done.
various things part 2
one thing that I consider to be a major issue long ignored by HRF and occasionally mentioned is the pace rating for races, in advanced mode we can set the pace for the horse which is like the trainer telling the jockey how to run the race. However in more important trainer tourney races we have no control over that. WHY HAS THE PACE FACTOR NOT BEEN MADE PART OF THE TRAINER INSTRUCTIONS as it is in advanced mode. When you run trny races you never know until the race runs just what the server is gonna make your horse do. Sometimes they make them go way to fast and then 2 races later the horse go so slow he's running from 30 back.. giving instructions when you have no control over pace is like shooting arrows in the dark IT NEEDS TO BE FIXED, half the inconsistency the horses have is directly tied to these inconsistent pace number we have no control over.
Yep
I appreciate that Sundown, and pretty much agree with everything you had to say.
I also think that Mike is a marketing genius and the mechanics of the game are the best. The tournament structure is the problem.
But I still believe a class system was the way to go, as you have also said.
For the life of me, I don't know why they did some of the things they did. Their revenue was based on breed and retire, but not many people can afford to breed a bunch of horses only to keep a few.
When I first started playing it was immediately retire anything under 112, then 115, then 120. It was getting ridiculous!
In this 3 ring Circus, the Genarals are still the main attraction, the restricteds and Instas are there to keep the average player here and buying points. So you're right instead of giving superhorses away to get new players winning, they should've went with the class system all along. Thing is you can't price those people out.
We got to fix what we have now like Ruffian.. O said. lol
We all have some great ideas, but we need to come to a consensus on a few things that maybe Mike will agree to. Some say let HRF worry about fixing it. Well, I mean ok, Instas, tournament cancellations, uhhh, I think HRF could use a little help. Who else better to help, than us players.
And I know what Mike is probably thinking, "Who do these assholes think they are, telling me how to run my game?" LOL
We aren't trying to tell you, Mike, we're going to make some concrete suggestions and start making you a ton of money!
More VIP Members
One of the big problems we have is we dont have enough members entering tourneys. The top 20 stables support most of the action around here. Why is this?
I say you want more stables to have more horses so they can enter more tourneys. How can we do this? I tell you all VIP members can have up to 20 horses without paying stable fees. Anything more than 20 will be charged 8500pts. I would elimate the need for the daily 6k points a day and instead offer VIP 20 horse limit no stable fees. I see alot of stables with 10 or less horses in them and some are VIP.
The perk for VIP should not be the 6k a day, it should be a 20 horse no stable fee.
I just would like to see more people have more horses. I do get that 6k a day. But we need people with 20 horses or more to help support the tourneys. A few big stables are taking a break and some are not breeding anymore. I think there waiting to see something happen.
Hrf could also give a 1 month trial for VIP. Most sites offer this and it must work or they wouldn't do it. Hrf needs to start a new VIP promotion.
Weights
Thanks Xanadu, for your input.
All I know is that the bickering needs to stop.
I notice that there aren't many problems with the 2yos.
They seem to run to form. I don't if it's the weight range or the top weight limit, but the cappers do better with the 2yos.
Thanks JB
The most important thing what we need to focus on is how to increase membership,breeding and tournament participation.
You have some excellent ideas that will help in all three areas.
I'd like to ask Mike, if breed and retire donkeys was the main revenue stream, who made the decision to go with such low BSR in the restricteds?
Whoever it was , n the words of Donald Trump,
"You're Fired!" lol.
I think they should immediately cut 90 and 100 BSR Blues.
And if players want to keep horses that slow, create 5 test Instas one week. 5K claiming, 1K entry fee, maybe winner take all.
If they fill completely, Test them again . If they fill again keep them, if they don't fill, scrap it.
Good Blog
Nice blog, Vasdef. Lots of good ideas and solutions. What I would like to add is :
1) A better, more advanced breeding program. Instead of being like playing the lottery trying to find the "hot combo", I would like to breed horses for their specific traits (turf, endurance, sprinters, slop, etc.). Also, change the vet program. A horse should never come back worse.
2) Please work on the jockey intelligence. Nothing worse than having your horse run up another one for almost 2 furlongs with plenty of room to get clear. Really is no reason for this to happen.
3) I would like to see the tournament format go away and go with more realistic racing conditions such as maiden, claiming, allowance, optional claimers and graded races, all to be run by scale weights. Tournaments take too long and am sure part of it is so you will incur stable fees in the process.
4) Better communication from management. Right now there is, and have been, alot of empty promises and misinformation. Such as the horse auction program, business auction program, bit program, new horse files, client update, etc. I know there are more I have left out. I know they are busy, but maybe they should do one thing at a time and deliver instead of getting everyone's hopes up. The weekly updates were nice.
Sadly, you're right jb. Alot of members feel the same way about all the topics in this blog, but they are afraid to post because they don't want to hear the usual " If you don't like things here, you can leave anytime and go play somewhere else." Or the " I can close your account for you if you like ? " Neither is a proper solution. We all love and support this game, otherwise we wouldn't be here. We just want the best horse racing game to be even better.
vas
Who knows what Mike thinks of our Ideas, and I dont know if he says to himself "who do these assholes think they are " or not...but if he does , then Id like to say, if it werent for us the players, he woudnt have a game...and if it werent for him we woudnt have a game to play...so it goes both ways....
dontbetonme - U have good Ideas, I like 1. and 3. for sure....
Gather all ideas and add this video
Puddles should get inspired after watching this video and reading our ideas.
Thanks
Thanks Andy,
All I want to do here is see what the community thinks
Period. Without all of the bickering and nonsense that goes on in the forum.
Basically, I want BRAINSTORM to be the suggestion box.
Then we'll comb through the suggestions, consolidate the best ideas, and like JB has suggested, put it to the community in the form of a poll .
Everyone has posted some great ideas, and yours are no exception.
So probably, every Sunday, I'll post the blog and concentrate on one area or aspect of the trainer game.
I'm sure something good will come out of it.
Like Suncity had said before about Market Research, and that's all this is about.
Doing some player driven research, in order to improve membership and participation in tournaments.
JB
John, the video link is not showing up.
But anyway, I want you to be my partner in crime on this.
I think I've found a thingy to create the polls.
But that's down the line.
For now we just need to hear from more players, especially ones who don't usually post in the forum.
Puddles has asked for input and feedback on many different subjects before. But when the class system came out, he only conferred with a few members.
So this will be the other players chance to get in on the
"conference call", so to speak.
So I'm going to need your help, but the job doesn't pay anything.
Zero,zilch, nada. lol
You will just be doing "community service", I'm sure you know what that is. LMAO!
making things better
I think that we are suffering from too many changes in too little time. Some of the changes were good some not so good but i am clear in my thoughts that its just happening too quickly .Even the good changes are not being given a chance to work . The other thing about all these changes being implemented is the cost which we the members are obviously gonna have to help to offset . Some very good points made about the breeding and the flow of points in the community by sunny d ....if u can breed through 2 million points and not get a decent horse something is wrong and naturally there will be a reaction to that .
I agree
You're right Blair,
We do need to give things a chance to work.
And I think the tournament structure is perfect the way it is, especially the Generals now.
At the same time, something like the Instas, for example, have been given plenty of time to work. Everybody knows they are not working.
So what will it take to make them work?
That's all we're looking to do here. Not really make any wholesale changes, but offer HRF our ideas that will get us participating in the tournaments.
But this first blog, is open to Whatever idea any one has, then in future ones, it'll be more specific. But when you give Sundown the mike, he's gonna tell it like it is. He's the head MC of our WuTang Clan.
My Opinion
I read some great Ideas in this post and only have one in the BC finals we have had sometimes problems with the weights distributed and perhaps we should include the PP of the horse in the equation (except on Sprint Sand) we spend a ton of money breeding for the chance of getting a 130+ or 140+ so if your stuck 6 wide in the final turn what is that 130 or 140 going to do when the 120 on the rail with less weight carried will beat them every time. one great Idea was to control pace factor so you can dictate your horse to get position early but risk the fact he will not have enough to finish the race or slow him down and risk that will not have enough time to close on the leaders.
My 2 cents.
instas
i dont see anything wrong with the instas...they are an option when we have extra horses from a breeding frenzy and they go limp when we do not . i understand that there are players whose main action may be in the instas so their view may be different . the only thing that may bring them alive is if we make the claiming optional....then i may race a couple good ones for instant points without the risk of losing them ...
Great blog Vas
Some great ideas being voiced here and i agree with J.B on the voting idea in the forums,this would allow the less active members in the forums to answer with a simple yes/no rather than being in fear of a backlash from other members for posting a comment! JMHO. I also like the idea of the 20 horse stable and no fees for VIP members rather than the 6k free points,i would say this would practically guarantee tourneys filling up and lead to more lower sr horses being kept in play! IMO. I would also like to see the trainer tourneys run faster too as Suncity stated earlier as at least that would justify paying the stable fees on horses if they were running their careers a bit faster! ;)
Handicaping
A The problem with the Handicapping is that it isn't real handicapping. Real handicapping is the equalising of the fields as the handicapper (from his detailed database) judges and can support. As long as HRF stick to the stupid notion that handicapping is not to equalise the field and keeps the even more stupid restrictions on the weight bands then it just won't work. This handicapper refuses to be a "Claytons" handicapper:
Solution 1: If we want the handicaps to continue
Get rid of the stupid restrictions, let the races be handicapped as they fall according to the handicapper. Remember when this initiative was introduced it was open to "experienced handicappers" only. Not to every Tom Dick and Mary to get a blue badge. ie Claytons was a drink on the market down here that was advertised as "Claytons... It's the drink you have when you are not having a drink"
B Get rid of the reds, get rid of the blues and get rid of the instas because they are all set up wrong and programed badly to boot. They will ALL surely die because of the fatal flaws inherant in them..I guess the "Think Tank" that devised the rules around them must have been imposters if this was the solution they came up with to address the classless, sandbagging tournament structure that was getting bagged by the majority and abused by the owners of monsters..
Solution: A proper handicapping class and classic structure..Very easy to program and implement.
1. Get rid of some of the options first and program accordingly. Surfaces 1) Turf: Hard, Firm and Soft only and Dirt: Hard, Firm and Sloppy only. Synthetic Hard only as is now. No more horses bred that act on other types of going yet have few races programed for them to race on. The playing field has now been simplified and levelled somewhat.
2. A tourney rating system now replaces the convoluted mess of instas, reds, blues and generals that has evolved to patch everyones bitching. How about this idea?
Claiming races: Open Moderate entry fee, Moderate stakes and claim price set by owner at nomination.
Maidens : Open to horses who haven't won at time of nomination. Small nom fee of $500 and smallest payout. Handicap only Prelims stake $50k
C4: Open to horses who have won 1-2 races only Small nom $1000 smallish payout. Handicap only Prelimis stake $100k
C3 Open to horses who have won 5 races or less. Nom fee $2000 small payout Handicap only Prelims stake
$150k
C2 Open Handicaps class for horses with 5 wins and more Nom fee $3000-$5000 good payouts prelims stake $200k
C1 High Level Handicaps and Grade races Open to anyone who wants to enter:
a)Handicaps All the worlds class handicaps and set weight races here: Melbourne Cup, Japan Cup, Ascot Gold Cup, Hollywood Gold cup etc etc. Entry fees $7.5k-15k Prelims $250k minimum Good points for final
b)Grade three entry same as Handicaps Prelims $300k minimum extra good points for final ...WFA only
c) Grade two prelims and final entry 20k-40k Prelims $400k minimum great points for final... WFA only
d) Grade one the Pinacle of races on HRF Entry $50k-$200k Prelims $500k minimum Huge points for final WFA only....
So when the big points are up for grabs its standard WFA no arguments, no questions as that is the way it is in real life.....Option to consider in a handicap if you dont like the weight your horse has been allocated you can scratch without being penalised a race year, same as now if the actual tourney is cancelled except you don't get your nom fees back if you choose to scratch.
No need now to cater for birth srs you just race in your class and if you have or are able to develop some cream then it can rise to the top. Again just as in real life,
Now we can all talk to each other again with civility and respect for each others opinion. One other thing and that is the stewards job will be to heavily fine anyone who makes personally directed, dispariging and vitriolic posts. Keep to the point of the the thread bag the message if you have to but not the messenger.
Thats this handicappers two penneth worth...
John is right On
John Is right on with his Ideas on Tournaments filling etc. My main complaints with the game are:
1.) Tournaments not filling: I love John's Idea of not having a months worth of blues listed at once fill the some before you start listing others. The theory of the reds in blues is right on and I believe is still the answer to our class system. Instas could be done away with IMO. I also see no need for the 2 entry fees in the blues and reds, get rid of the 2k tournaments and leave all of the 5 k's.
2.) Jockey Intelligence: Needs alot of work especially sprints
3.) Large fields in Sprint races: Need to be no more than 8 per race if it is a sprint with a turn.
4.) The BS in the forums: I don't what can be done, but i've gotten to where I don't even go in there anymore.
5.) Human Handicapping: I really think this was a good idea in principle, however I think this may be what is going to be driving people away eventually. ALL FINALS SHOULD BE SCALE WEIGHTS NOW there is no reason with the red and blues why this shouldn't be!!!! An this will get rid of the majority of the complaining and dissention in the forums IMO, and is a better option anyway. When you enter a tournament you know what you are getting NO SURPRISES in the finals.
6.) Tournament voting: I had a tournament voted on and approved for the 2nd week of July that still has yet to be published!!! I'm sure this is the case with many players. I've got over 20 horses sitting waiting on tournaments that I have voted on and know got approved but have never been published.
Thats all for now!! Great blog Vas!!!!!!!!!!
If the blues go, then some
If the blues go, then some players including myself will go. This should not be a breeding game. People would come on and join, and then realize that only the heavy breeders dominate, and then leave. That is not how you build a user base.
Personally I dislike the tournament structure. It ties up horses too long, and many of them get cancelled. Single races would be so much more exciting and people would be more involved on a daily basis. Then once a quarter or so there would be tournaments based on quarterly earnings or something in each class. I don't expect this ever to come about, but I can hope.
Great Stuff!
You guys are too good. Excellent, excellent ideas!
Please,Keep them coming!
keep the blues
it guarantees certain horses have a place to run throughout their career and don't end up outclassed and dead in the water
Run for your money
I had someone, who shall remain nameless, say they only claimed my horse on the insta claim today because I had already paid for the races she was entered in! How about we come up with ideas for how not to get scammed by other players?! To me, this is taking advantage of a new player. I work for every bit of points I get and to have someone say this to me is maddening. Literally. What about people making rude comments or using people and then chatting them up for info about their horses? ? ! There is such a thing as decency but nobody cares about that here. I see why others have left. The Admin do little or nothing to change the forums, then they will lose in the end. I have no place to complain here, so that too needs fixing. I don't like PMing the Admin for every little thing. That isn't cool anyways.
I don't know much of anything about scale weights or handicaps so I can't contribute there...
If nobody likes my opinions then why should I stay and play?!
the head of a spirited horse, for by this sign
it was shown that the race would be distinguished
in war and abound with the means of life.
~from the Aeneid (I, 444)
well
we all express our opinions and ideas but very few are looked at, bottom line is that HRF has no friends here, their goal is to make a profit the best way they see....the forums are fine i dont see a problem with it cept few people who are upset about others stating their views, go to other gaming sites this is not sunday school but we can have some respect. I can tell you almost 99% of suggestion like these are all over looked it's HRF way or the highway.
Sundown
Well
Sundown,
You've been playing the longest, you're the winningest player, so your word is gospel. You know what you're talking about.
I also had a good discussion with another top player yesterday (not Racodo I talk to him everyday), and he also enlightened me about a few things.
Mike does listen to player suggestions all of the time, but it's a select few. What I'm trying to do is get more voices in his ear, that's all.
If 50+ players can come up with some solutions to make the tournaments run better, fill instead of cancel and get breeding to pick back up, then why wouldn't Mike listen?
It is about HRF making a profit, that's what this is all about in the long run.
You're right about,"Their way or the Highway", but that model can work if your product is that good. A perfect example is Seinfeld's "Soup Nazi", it's a real business. The guy says, "No Soup for you", but people still line up for his soup, it's that good.
So if HRF thinks it's product is that good, where they don't need to listen to a majority of it's customers, then fine.
Because to me, it IS that good! LOL
But it won't hurt them, to listen to our ideas. All we're suggesting is for little things to be added to the soup. A little more salt, maybe a little more chicken to the noodles, maybe throw a gumbo on the menu, that's all. Many of these Ideas, so far, are Genius.
When I was PM with Ronwar yesterday, he mentioned how he, you , Brian and others have cutback, and we discussed alot of reasons for this.
So my lightbulb came on, and I said maybe HRF should lower the price of NNs to $2. Make all General tournaments a Jackpot tourney with random Super Jackpots. Doing something like that will increase breeding and revenue for HRF.
They should take a look at some of our ideas, we're the ones who play the game.
I'm going to see what the new client brings before I post another blog.
In the future ones, I'll ask for ideas on specific areas of the game. Then find out if a majority of players agree, and present it to HRF.
It's up to them after that. But at least we tried and if Mike says,"No soup for you", then I'll just get back in line and try again.
Whatever you do, dont ask
Whatever you do, dont ask for extra bread.
Vas
What i am saying is that there is a clear difference with listening and and actually doing something about it, they will listen to a point and 99% of the time that's as far as it goes. They might make a phone call here or there to calm someone down and talk things over, now dont get me wrong i haven't talk with hrf in a long time and i have no problem with the game itself, its the people or person behind the game itself.
The game is a very good game but my opinion is that its lacking behind the scene, they are doing more than they should at the same time without fixing existing problems. The problems we are facing i posted about these months ago and almost everyone flamed my posts but now everyone is having the problems i discussed.
I still put a few hundred $$$ a month into my IDLE stable even when people going around whispering to each other about sandbaging if i didn't love the game my stable would have been shut down, i am just hoping they start doing the right things and CUT OUT THE BULLSHIT they have implemented.
Mike has helped me with a few problems in the pass and that's part of the reason why i am still here because its not all bad there's some good also and i know what this game can be with the right attitude and not the "its my game, it's my baby" mentality. They have to accept people's opinions and stop thinking someone's idea is an attack on the game.
Sundown
I agree
I'm 100% with you on your last comment, Sundown.
Which is great, because usually I'm only 95-98% with you.
LOL!
But for some strange reason all of my horses have been running dead last in every race, since Sunday. Hmmmm!
I have a pretty good sprinter who won his first prelim last Thursday,in his last 2 races the sob won't even come out of the gate.
My Stable comes before honor, duty and service to the community.
Sorry friends, I gotta shut 'er down.
LMAO, just kidding.
Sunny D, we're still going to try this.
I like JB's first comment.
The whole idea is to get Puddles onboard.
We will use the power of persuasion, numbers and profit incentive.
"we gonna make him an offer he can't refuse"
MY Humble Opinion
1, Instas too expensive for little reward
2, Handicappers are doing a very good job. (Better than we have ever had before)
3 Handicappers should be kept anonymous to the community and only stewards should be able to see who capped a race. That way a question can be asked to steward who can investigate. This will eliminate the public executions we have witnessed.
3 Class system is ok but low grade tournies should be low grade price and increase with the quality of horses.
4 6k points is a joke. Free stable fees even for 15 horses would be better.
5 VIP bonuses suck since the nominations came in.
6 auctions, businesses etc where have they all gone. who took the carrot away and left us lost with nothing to chase.
7 breeding is crap. I have no problem breeding horses and getting crap sr's. But in the thourough bred list that is there for all the newbies to plan and strtegise their way into the new game. so they breed ferdinand and Zenyatta so they have a champion closer (when truth is they have just bred the coldest combo there is) and the strategy was worth nothing. they are left with an 80sr frontrunning below ave speed everthing donkey that runs using penguin flippers or something.
I can cope with low srs if the bloody horse ran at least a few of the traits its parents had. Breeding is aweful in the game.
Game is getting costly and I am struggling to get the students enthusiatic when they realise that to do anything in this game will cost a fortune.
there you go I said it.
sassteve
Yeah, you said it right...
the head of a spirited horse, for by this sign
it was shown that the race would be distinguished
in war and abound with the means of life.
~from the Aeneid (I, 444)
Ok... Nice blog
But I have to ask... Why is it in a blog and not on the forums ???
This game used to have the best community forum I have ever ran accross. It was both fun and informative. I really don't know what is going on but I don't like what I'm seeing. The greatest forum on the internet seems to be dying.
I don't blame Puddles for keeping a low profile right now. It's seems like everybody and there dog has an idea how to make the game better and that seems to be all anyone wants to talk about now. I personally think the game was funner 6 months ago when I started than it is now. Sometimes you can take something that's really great and completely destroy it simply by trying to make it better.
When the red and blue tourneys come out I thought it was going to be great... We definately needed a grading system and this seemed to be it... However I am not so sure now. Now it seems if you have a horse that's lower than sr125 your training and evaluation process has drasticaly been cut. Rather or not it is a descent horse can now be defined by rather or not it likes fast dirt or firm turf... If it doesn't like either one then it's trash. That fact wasn't true 6 months ago, but it is now and I don't think that was a good change. I personally think that this games greatest asset was the variety of surfaces you could run your horse on. To me that gave every competitive horse some potential... I know of some really descent horses that were retired because they could no longer compete on their best surface. To me that is just wrong. So I say... undo some changes.
~~~CalifOkie Stables~~~
Ok
Don't hold back, Steve.
Lol
I hope Mike and HRF doesn't take this blog the wrong way.
It's not a slap at them, it's concerns that we as players have.
This blog is just a way to bring it to their attention, and offer suggestions/solutions to address those concerns.
We all love the game itself, it's just little things here and there that make playing the game frustrating.
I hope HRF understands this.
its not about shooting the
its not about shooting the creators of the game down its higghlighting the views on where the game needs improving.
Precisely
Precisely Steve, you old fart!
The creators?
Are we taking the shooting the creators off the table? I thought that would have been a good bargaining chip. You people ruin all are creative ideas.
Now that was a joke
haha hehe
Califokie
You're right about the surfaces and you're also correct that a class system was needed.
No one here thought what we got was going to be the reality.
Not many that have posted here were in on the decision making process for the changes.
So that is what this blog is for. Just giving HRF some more opinions, that's all.
You say you want more surfaces in the Blues, well so do most players.
So let's see if we can come up with a solution that HRF might be willing to listen to.
There is to much back and forth on the forum, that's why I moved the discussion over here. It's a little more quiet, alot more civil.
Because the breeding is as
Because the breeding is as it is, and not stategy base there is little or no place for distance and mid horses. Particularly in the blues.
there are millions of sprinters filling the game and not enough longer horses. Consequently the longer distance tournaments do not fill. Surely they need to fix this one way or another
LMAO
for those of you who took part in this thread Mike will be done with the new client or errr be back from vaction on Sunday be warned you will be dealt with.
sundown