Horse Racing Fantasy Community

My partner, Gary, and I have learned quite a bit on this venture. There have been changes, adjustments and modifications every step of the way, but the one thing that has never changed and that was our intention from day one - to build a horse racing game/community like no other out there. Reviewing all of the other horse racing games and who their audience is presented us with a real problem. Who did we care about more - the hard core horse fan, the casual gamer looking for something different, the novice horse fan looking to learn more about horse racing or the hard core gamer who loves to be in the midst of battles and triumphs, and what about the strategist, the people who love very intense, detailed simulation-strategy-type games, and last but not least, the gambler, the guy who wants to have fun and wants to be rewarded when he wins? The answer to this question, believe it or not, is that we have built a product that actually appeals to all. The benefits of that are tremendous. The downside is that it may take a little bit longer than normal to get the knack of the game and, more importantly, what you want the game to be for you. What we can guarantee you is that whatever classification you might fall into mentioned above, this game will entertain, intrigue, excite and leave you wanting more.

Let's start out at the 10,000-foot level and break the game down into several major pieces and zoom in from there. As we move along, you can check with the forums for additional help and support, with certain blogs, with soon-to-be video as part of our Horse Racing Fantasy Video TV, and with a very detailed Help File that's tied into every single aspect of the game from screen-to-screen. Just simply click the Help button and read away. Between the community, the forums, the videos and the Help File and in just a very short amount of time you'll be a master of whatever aspect of the game you want or multiple components. It's really not that difficult. Please keep in mind that no matter what mode of game play you're in, or if you're in the actual community itself (logging, posting, etc.), everything you do as a member/player earns oints. The points are your currency for accessing all the added benefits and bonuses the game has to offer. Points are your gateway into tournaments. They are even a great way to acquire valuable gifts in our Online Store. We'll talk more about points later on. Back to the 10,000-foot level. Let's cut the game into two segments or play modes -

• Private Mode, which basically means that everything you do is done solely on your computer and not shared with our community and community members. In private mode, you can play by yourself or you can set up to 8 additional accounts where you can compete against friends and family. Think of it as Monopoly on steroids. Why sit around and play a game on a flat one-dimensional board when you can get truly engaged in something very interactive with full, 3-D graphics? We'll come back to the Private Mode in a minute for more details. One other factor is that Private Mode play earns significantly fewer points for tournament entries and store items than Community Mode play.
• Community Mode Here, everything you do on your computer from our game standpoint, whether it's training the horses, jockeying the horses or betting the horses, the information is shared with the Community. It becomes part of your profile. It's your way of telling the Community who you are and what you're capable of, at least in this game. The Community Mode is a single mode, only one Community Mode per computer. Playing the game in this mode is a great natural tie-in into our Community. It helps you meet new friends with similar skill sets or even interact with friends who have higher skill sets who can help you learn and get better. And, of course, you can help those newcomers with less ability. The Community Mode is all about status, reputation, credibility and respect. Please remember that when you are playing in the Community Mode, you are given the opportunity to earn a substantial number of points based upon specific actions and goals achieved. As stated before, earned points are your currency and can be used at our online store, for entering tournaments with great prizes and gifts, as well as a way to access special online store items that are offered free or at substantial discounts.

Before we get into more details about the two modes of the game, our actual Community itself is a great place for you to interact with people of the same interests, share ideas, share new ways to play all aspects of our game, share pictures, meet new friends, participate in events, earn points, check out tournament schedules, learn about our prizes and everything else you would expect from a top-notch game community.

Well, that's relatively simple. Let's zoom in a little bit further now. Let's go back to the Private Mode and talk more specifically about what can be done in the Private Mode. First and foremost, the Private Mode is where we find most of our new players practicing before they ever go into Community Mode. They may go into the Community to ask questions ,make friends and share ideas, but they keep the game in Private Mode. As I said initially, Private Mode is a great way to enjoy a night with friends, family and lovers. I've even played strip-racing - each player had to take a piece of clothing off! A lot of fun. In Private Mode, when playing with other people, there's basically three sub-games that can be played. Don't get nervous. We'll walk through each one and it's not going to be that difficult.

• Jockey Game A fun, fast-action game that allows users to compete with each other as jockeys. The computer will randomly generate races and each user will take a chance apiece in trying to ride their horse to victory. Each user will be set up with their unique ID on the computer and the computer will simply keep score by awarding points based on your jockey efforts. As long as you are in Community Mode, the points you earn not only show up as part of your score or ability as a jockey, but they also add to your point totals to help toward tournament entries as well as qualifying for discounts and free items you will find in our online store. It's that simple.
• Betting Game Works just like real betting on live horse racing. Each player will have their own account set up (up to 8 accounts). The computer will randomly generate races. Simply proceed to the betting page, choose your account ID and make your wager. Each player starts with a specific amount of money. After a certain amount of time (1, 2, 10, 20 races - you, the players, decide), the person with the most money at that time wins. When the master user is playing in Community Mode, successful betting strategies earn additional points toward tournament entry fees as well as online store discounts and even free gifts. More about points later.
• Training Game This is a little bit more complicated than the jockey and betting games. Players are given the ability to purchase horses at the beginning of the racing season using a specific allocation of money. Each player buys their horse(s) and strategically places those horses in races during a 12-month fantasy calendar and attempts to win the most amount of money with those horses by December 31st. Players can play en entire season in a day or over a period of a few weeks - they set the tempo, enjoy the game and have fun. Part of the training game is actually training the horses prior to the race, which needs to be done in a way that keeps your horse in top shape. Because we understand that this game will require a little bit more time to master, when setting up your training game, you have the ability to control the difficulty level of play. When the master user is playing in Community Mode, points are earned that can be utilized for both tournament entries, online store discounts and even free gifts.

Summary: The length of every game, whether jockey, betting or training, is controlled by the players. At the end of each game, you can delete everyone's stats or reset them to zero and play again. It's really that simple.

Everything mentioned above, all three games, can be enhanced and made more challenging by turning on certain features inside the game. All of those features can be discovered by going through the detailed Help File, going into the forums or reading the blogs. If you're playing with your wife and your 12-year-old daughter, keep it simple. If you're playing with your best buds and a filet mignon dinner is on the line, take advantage of the sophisticated bells and whistles that can make the game super-challenging that even the best players find difficulty mastering.

What else can I do in Private Mode? For the real horse enthusiast, the guy who remembers Secretariat's Triple Crown victory in the Belmont, for the guy that watched Winning Colors go wire-to-wire in the Kentucky Derby, for the fan that absolutely feels that Smarty Jones should have won the Triple Crown, or better yet, for race horse enthusiasts who would absolutely love to see match-ups between historical horses and current horses, your dreams have just come true. You'll notice throughout the game and throughout the Community, the constant reference to what we call "horse files". To appeal to a part of the audience we wanted to reach , Gary and I have re-created horse files that represent true-to-form the attributes and abilities of some of the greatest race horses ever - from Seabiscuit, Seattle Slew, Secretariat, Barbaro and almost 6,000 others. Inside the Private Mode, a player by himself or with friends and family can re-live history and create races that "might have been" or "should have been" and watch history unfold. We offer approximately 50 race file packages which include the greatest horses of all time. Purchasing these files or combinations of files will allow players to re-create or create some of the greatest matchups that were or could have been. Players can build races using horses from various files and completely control the parameters/conditions of those races. Do you want the race at Belmont, Churchill Downs, Del Mar? Do you want it on turf, dirt or a synthetic track? Do you want it on a fast or sloppy track? Do you want it at a mile-and-a-half or a half-a-mile? Do you want one horse to carry more weight than another? Do you want the race to unfold as the computer believes it would or do you want to give the jockeys their instructions on these champion horses? And, let me take it one step further, how would you like to ride Secretariat or Barbaro? And, of course, place your bets. In summary, this part of our Private Mode allows the user to do everything he can do in our traditional Private Mode except he does it with the greatest champions of all time. Play by yourself, which I appear to do a lot lately, or just get together with friends and family.

Let's zoom in a little closer now on the Community Mode. The basic difference between Private and Community Modes, besides the fact that whatever you do in Community Mode reports to the Community, is certain limitations on what can and cannot be done when creating races. There's a simple reason for that. In Private Mode, we let you do whatever you want, match any horse against any other horse (in theory you can put great horses against poor horses and win every race), set the race up at any distance, any track, any track condition. The bottom line is, basically do whatever you want - just have fun! You can set your own rules in Private Mode when playing by yourself or with friends and family. In the Community Mode, sorry, we want the Community members to know your true ability when playing our game. Therefore, although you have the ability to set up a lot of the parameters - such as racetrack, track condition, etc. - there are certain things we just will not allow you do in order to keep the play fair and to let the Community know just how talented you are. Sorry, in Community Mode you cannot pick the horses. Our computer matches them up. You can pick the race distance, but there are limitations in order to keep it honest and fair. In Community Mode, you cannot give jockey instructions to the other horses if you're riding or betting in the race. That really wouldn't be fair, would it? Also note that in Community Mode, the Master Account Holder can still play against other players on this computer, but the other player information will be kept private and not shared. The Master Account Holder, if he is set to Community Mode, will have his race information sent to the Community. Another big difference when playing in the Community Mode is that everything the user does (from running races to riding, betting and training) gives the user the opportunity to earn points based on not only his game play choices, but also his skill and level of success with those choices. The better you play, the more points you earn.

Tournaments

Now we're really going to have some fun - because tournaments are not you playing against your wife or 12-year-old daughter or your blind neighbor (!), but you're playing against the thousands of members in our Community who are out for blood. So, what is a tournament? A tournament is an invitation event restricted to a certain number of members. Every player has the opportunity to enter tournaments as long as they meet the tournament requirements. Premium monthly subscription members have preferential treatment to tournament entries. As the Community grows, it may get harder and harder to get into the tournaments you want to enter. Be part of our subscription program and that problem virtually goes away. The reason is - subscription members not only have VIP status, which in itself is a classification qualifying for a lot of tournaments, but they also have a much greater opportunity to earn points - the key qualifying component for any tournament. Every tournament is played for a prize - could be horse racing memorabilia, trips to the Kentucky Derby, weekends at Saratoga, NY or Del Mar, CA, dinner with one of the nation's top jockeys, gift certificates, cruises, cash, etc. Our tournament schedule is found on the Community home page. Entering tournaments is as simple as 1-2-3 with a confirmation following as to whether you have been accepted. You may qualify for a tournament, but we may have already met the number of entries, or your qualification was met but passed the tournament entry date. Again, membership subscriptions make tournament entries more accessible. Once a tournament has been set and you have been recognized as a tournament participant, a special file will be sent through our platform to your game. The tournament file can be accessed only through the Community Mode. This makes sense because tournament scores are shared with the Community and tournaments are only available to the Master Account Holder inside the game. In other words, one per computer. There are three types of tournaments - jockey, betting and soon-to-be training. Tournaments follow the same methodology as when you're playing with friends and family with the exception that all the conditions of the tournament including number of races, horses, etc., have been pre-set. Tournaments have time schedules. Some tournaments may last 48 hours, some can last two weeks. The actual participation in the tournament can be as quick as 20 minutes or as long as the player wants, depending upon how much detail and research into the event he wants to do. It's similar to when you go to the racetrack, if you've ever been. You can pick a horse by his color or his name or the jockey's silks, or you can go through the detailed information provided and strategically plan out your play. In our jockey tournaments, you simply decide which horse you want to ride and then race against the others controlled by the computer. After each jockey tournament race, the data is shared into our scoring system and tallied when all your races have been run. The person with the most points earned during the tournament wins. In the case of a tie, other factors are used to determine the winner. When playing in our betting tournaments, players are given a specific number of races in which to wager and a specific bankroll with which to make those wagers. Simply place your bets on the desired horse and the computer will calculate your scores based on the results after all races have been run. The person with the best ROI or most money, depending upon the tournament, at the end wins.

Our training tournaments, which will usually last from one to three weeks, allow players to buy as many horses as they wish from a pool of approximately 1,500 horses, utilizing a simulated bankroll and then race those horses through our racing calendar. The player who accumulates the most money from his winning horses wins the tournament.

Summary There will be new tournaments almost daily. Most tournaments are open to everyone (as long as they meet the qualifications), but some tournaments are specific to certain members of our Community. For example, we may have tournaments for Community members who have been active for six months or more. We may have tournament for members who have run over a thousand races. Or maybe for members who have referred 10 friends who have signed up. There will be tournaments restricted to men or women. There will be tournaments by age group. The most frequent restriction are tournaments that are limited to our VIP paid subscribers (those tournaments tend to have big prizes so sign up as a full subscription member today). And, there will be tournaments for the most active people in the Community who post the most in the forums or have the most Community friends. In other words, the parameters of tournaments and the variation of tournaments will be substantial, creating a fun environment and giving everyone the opportunity to truly enjoy themselves. Always remember that the one consistent factor in entering tournaments is tournament currency - points. For more details on points and how they are earned, please see Points, Badges & Awards.

Getting Into Details

So, you've just gotten the basic drift of our game. Not bad at all! The good news is, this may be all you ever want to know and as far as you want to go. Just have some casual fun, kick back and enjoy. The better news is, this game was built over a period of 9 years with several hundred thousand lines of code and over a thousand features and functions. The very in-depth player can find himself learning something new almost every day he plays. Imagine controlling the betting pools. Imagine controlling the take-out of the betting pools. Imagine only jockeying in races with 20 horses. Imagine re-living and re-creating very specific races that might have occurred weeks, months or years ago. All of this and more is available to a user who wants to get more detailed. Our game was built with the idea of creating a platform that would allow users to become comfortable with the play, they would at the same time become more familiar with live horse racing. In fact, to further ensure that this would happen, we partnered with some of the best jockeys and trainers to participate in our game and in our Community, and they are accessible to players through their blogs and profiles. You will be able to interact with the top names in the real world of horse racing. So, whether you're 18 wanting to play with your 13-year-old brother, or you're a 25-year-old gamer or a 40-year-old novice horse fan or a 50-year-old racing fanatic, we got ya covered! Please enjoy Horse Racing Fantasy and tell your friends.

Gary and Mike
Co-Founders

P.S. Don't forget - for any help go into the Community forums, into certain blogs, read the detailed help throughout the game or even email in your questions. Thanks for being here!