Hattrick

Infobox VG
title = Hattrick


developer = Hattrick Limited. (The game originated with ExtraLives AB, and large parts of the continued development are still sub-contracted to that company.)
lead designer = originally Björn Holmér, now Johan Gustafson
released = August 30, 1997 (V.1)
genre = MMOG
modes = Multi player
platforms = Any computer connected to the internet
media = Website
requirements = HTML-compatible web browser, Macromedia Flash Player (Optional Features)

Hattrick (commonly abbreviated to HT) is an online, browser-based, football management game (MMOG) developed in Sweden. Currently the game contains 124 different countries, each with its own league pyramid, and 46 different language versions (since October 4, 2008). As of August 2007, the game had over 960,000 users, each with their own team. [cite web
last = van den Hoek
first = László
year = 2007
month = August
url = http://websec.science.uva.nl/~lhoek/allgraphs.php
title = History of Global Number of Users (Graph)
format = PHP
work = Maptrick
accessdate = 2007-08-05] Hattrick is in its 36th season and has been running since August 30, 1997.http://www.ione.se/content.php?article.220 Hattrick - The History] Most users cite , which began October 15, 2000, as the beginning of Hattrick as it is today.

The game is free to play, though there is an optional premium Supporter Service as well as a Mobile Service, both available by in-game purchase. As with any manager game, the player must assign positions to the players and choose among some basic tactical and strategic options. Hattrick is always under development, and the game developers often add new features to the game. These additions, and proposed ideas, are usually accompanied by debate in the game's conference system.

History

Hattrick was launched in 1997. At that time, Björn Holmér was the sole developer of the game. Its initial launch lasted only seven weeks (or rounds), and all changes to the team were made by submitting a HTML form with the user's username and password, meaning that the user never actually logged in to the interface. The release was re-coded and Version 2.0 was launched. The new release allowed for a total of 680 teams and added a few features still available today, such as the transfer list and a league pyramid (though teams' positions in the series were determined by random selection during the offseason).

A new version was re-launched the following season, and this release marked the debut of friendly matches and cup matches. The following season, Season 4, also added features such as training types beyond General, Set Pieces, and Stamina, and an expanded set of in-game skill levels.

Season 7, which began in July 1999, marked some real progress in the game. New tactical options were added so that teams could change their formation from the fundamental 4-4-2. Teams could also set their players' individual tactics, such as offensive or defensive. After Season 7, ExtraLives AB was formed and the team began development of Version 5.0.

In late 2000, Hattrick 5.0 was launched, and with it, the current GUI. At the launch of 5.0, the game had a user-base of roughly 10,000. [http://hattrick-tulln.blogspot.com/2005/08/interview-mit-johan-gustafson-ht-johan.html - Johan Gustafsson in an interview in german language] Version 5 saw the addition of separate countries; users could choose among 11 of the most popular countries. The launch shaped the game as it is today, adding features that made the game more of a real-time experience.

Season 15, which began in January 2002, marked the launch of Version 6, the current version of Hattrick. Version 6 added the first official National Teams, and with it World Cups and International Friendlies. 6.0 also added Special Events, which allowed players with special traits (such as Powerful or Head specialist) to perform a certain way in a match, whether by scoring a goal, surprising an opponent, or growing more tired due to the sun. At the end of 2002 Hattrick had more than 60,000 users [http://computergames.ro/ro/articole/viewitem/id/96/name/johan-gustafson-hattrick.html - Interview of developer Johan Gustafson to computergames.ro] .

In April 2006, Prior to Season 29, the league reform project was completed. At this time, the game's membership was 800,000, and the largest countries had swelled to over 60,000 users each. The league reform intended to solve the problem of league pyramid capacity, since the growth of larger leagues, such as Netherlands or Sweden, had made it necessary to add a new pyramid level almost every season. Before the league reform, the league pyramid only expanded in size from division 1 to division 6; pyramid levels in division 6 and below were all comprised of 1024 leagues. To alleviate this problem, the league structure was changed so that levels 8 and 9 would double in size to 2048 leagues, and 10 and below would increase to 4096 leagues. For Season 32, a major addition to the game was introduced with the Youth Academy, which was presented as an alternative to the relatively simple Youth Squad system. Whereas the old youth system was a straight weekly payment, allowing up to one player with semi-random characteristics to be promoted to the squad every week, the new system introduced a two-tier setup where prospects (suggested by 1 to 3 scouts) may be taken up into a separate youth squad, with its own separate matches and training. When a player is estimated to have reached his full potential, he can be promoted to the regular squad, revealing his skills in the traditional way.

Basics

The basic idea of Hattrick is to manage a football team wisely, whether it be in buying and selling players, setting the team's lineup, or expanding the arena to the perfect size. Every user in Hattrick has a team of his/her own. The user has wide control over their team, and gameplay is mainly limited by economic and tactical restrictions. Many different types of teams exist within Hattrick; the team's type is generally shaped by the training program set up by the user, as well as the formations played.

Gameplay

Hattrick combines elements of economic management, tactical football management, and community interaction. To consistently win, it is necessary for a manager to utilize all three of these elements. The main tasks of a manager every week may include choosing a friendly, setting the optimal lineups for both the league game and cup/friendly game, "pulling" a player from the team's youth squad and properly integrating that player into the squad if needed, monitoring the team's training program to track the progress of the trainees, and tracking the economic progress of the team from week to week to make sure the club is making a profit over time. During almost every week, a dedicated manager completes all of these tasks.

In addition, teams have a number of tasks that must be monitored and completed if necessary, including transferring players as needed, expanding the arena if necessary, and hiring the best staff for the team's needs. Hattrick is never-ending, [http://hattrick.org/Common/default.asp - Hattrick Introduction] but the vast majority of teams play with the aspiration of winning games and ultimately reaching the top of the league's pyramid. Managing a Hattrick team to success takes both patience and skill, as well as a little luck.

easons

Hattrick is played in real time, meaning that matches take 2 hours to complete, and teams only play one league match per week, mimicking real life. To accelerate the flow of the game, however, the "offseason" time is reduced to only two weeks. Every team plays a schedule of 14 league games per season: 7 games at home and 7 games on the road. Every series is made up of 8 teams, and teams play each other twice during a season. The exact schedule is determined based on the team's previous position in the league, and remains constant for all series in Hattrick from season to season.

Teams generally spend the 14-game season managing their team tactically and occasionally making economic moves. Managers are responsible for scheduling friendlies, which occur during the week. If the team is still in the National Cup, a single-elimination bracket-style tournament among the majority of the teams in that nation, then that team does not have to schedule a friendly. Though friendlies are not mandatory, teams use friendlies to play their backup players and trainees from their training program who did not play in the league game.

During the two-week offseason, teams take the time to manage their team economically and buy or sell players to improve their team's chances in the approaching season. The offseason is the most popular time to use the transfer market, as teams generally have more money due to prize money from league position. Managers may change the name of their team or change regions within their country during the offseason. In the conferences of each country, election threads clutter the forum as the country selects the next manager of the National Team in the next World Cup. After the offseason has commenced, the next season of 16 weeks begins.

League Pyramid

Each country has its own league pyramid. Abandoned teams in high levels of the league pyramid are not given to new players until the team demotes to one of the bottom two levels of their country's pyramid. As a result, new users begin at the bottom of their country's pyramid and have to work their way up by winning their division at each level. Each division has eight teams competing for the league title. When new players join, their division is randomly selected by the administrator who handles their registration application. If a player is successful enough to win their division, he or she has the opportunity to promote to the next level the following season; depending on the division level of the team and the team's relative performance when compared with other winners from their level, the league winner either auto-promotes to the next level or plays a qualification match against a team from the higher division.

International Play

Since Hattrick Season 15, countries have been competing against each other. Very similarly to real-life international play, each country forms a National Team and a U-20 National Team comprised of the players the National Trainer and U-20 Coach judge to be the best in that nation. Owning a National Team player is considered a great honor and also has the benefit of a wage reduction. Each country selects a National Trainer and U-20 Coach through an election during each offseason; terms last for two seasons and are staggered so that only one election occurs per offseason.

The World Cup Qualification round takes place over the course of the first season of a national manager's term. If a team qualifies for the World Cup, it competes in a group of four, with the top two teams advancing from each round. After four rounds, the number of teams has narrowed to four and the semifinals and finals occur. After the final match has taken place, medals are awarded to the top four teams in the cup: gold for the first place team, silver for the second place team, and bronze for the two semifinalists.

In-Game Problems

Economy

Beginning with a series of changes introduced initially to enhance gameplay, including a "transfer compare" feature (a feature designed to limit "daytrading") and increased wages for certain types of players, the Hattrick economy has experienced dramatic deflation. The primary method, historically, for users to generate funds was through a training program which sold "trained" players to generate funds to purchase new trainees or players for the non-trained positions on the field. This economic structure was essentially a Ponzi scheme dependent upon the growth of new managers entering the game. However, the growth of the number of new managers playing the game was not ultimately sustainable. Changes were made to the economic engine of the game to artificially inflate the money supply within the game at the behest of longtime managers whose tactical decisions within the game were not conducive to the new equilibrium within the player transfer market. Changing the economic engine to permanently increase the money supply to reflect growth in the game that was no longer sustainable resulted in the equilibrium values in the player transfer market skewing in reaction to the artificial demand. These changes benefited long time managers who had not been able to adjust their in game strategy to changing economic conditions, and derailed the long term approach of a younger generation of managers that were adept at playing under the new economic conditions.Fact|date=August 2008 The changes were made in such a way that the longer a player had been playing the game the more resources they had to compete with. The game has been criticized within its internal community as no longer being a game of tactical and strategic decision making but rather a game that could be played "mindless as if on auto-pilot" following the changes.Fact|date=August 2008

Because of the recent changes making the game simplistic and eliminating the strategic nature of Hattrick gameplay, many usersWho|date=August 2008 remain in the game mostly for the community aspects, invested in the Natinonal and regional conferences and private federations. Gameplay has become increasingly secondary to the community as the amount of time one has played Hattrick has become the determining event in the resources the manager has to compete with. Despite efforts by the development staff to unveil new features with some regularity, the most recent being the introduction of the Youth Academy, the simplistic nature of the game works against long-term retention of players, despite increasing the accessibility of the game to broad age, socioeconomic, and geographic ranges. Despite these issues, and membership numbers levelling off (they had almost continually risen from the games creation until this point) the feared decline of membership or mass exodus did not occur despite these problems and membership remained hovering just below 1 Million, and there are no signs so far of long-term users leaving in unsustainable numbers.

Interestingly, prior to the recent economic changes Hattrick had experienced a renaissance where tactics and strategic decisions dominated outcomes, yet alienated and entrenched populations of managers that felt a certain entitlement toward succeeding. The Hattrick community accused the economic changes as being the equivalent of a dictator rewriting the rules of sport so that certain competitors always emerged as champions.Fact|date=August 2008

Administrative Staff

Recently, Hattrick featured a frontpage announcement regarding the dismissal from the game of 3 GM's or gamemasters for cheating. This was potentially damaging as much of the collective goodwill and trust of the Hattrick gaming community towards the game staff is required to continue important aspects of the game. Problems such as these are compounded by a rule within Hattrick which forbids Hattrick users from discussing actions of the GM's against or towards users, which eliminates any transparency which might discourage abuse of GM power. Despite the fact that HT-Tjecken, one of the game developers, stated on May 23, 2005, that it was, in fact, permissible to discuss GM decisions in the abstract. The rule forbidding discussion of GM actions, which often leads to being banned from the game, is and can be used to cover up abuses of discretion by the game staff per HT-Tjecken's editorial.

Since May 2007 there is the ability to appeal against GM or Mod decisions. A group of experienced GMs and Mods handle those cases. Before you can appeal you should first try to solve it with the acting staff member. If you still feel treated wrong you can appeal by using the contact form (senior GMs for appeals against GM-decision, Senior Mods for appeals against forum decisions by Mods and GMs.) The Senior group can change decisions, not only lowering the punishment, but also make the punishment more severe.

candal

The rules of the Hattrick world are enforced and executed by the Game Masters within the game. During a recent U-20 World Cup event a country was very harshly sanctioned for violating a new "rule." Previously, only players that were younger than 20 could be fielded on Under-20 teams, but with the introduction of the new aging system (previously all players within the Hattrick game aged on exactly the same day) each player now had a differentiated birthday at which point they would age and thus had an age in terms of years and days. A "rule" for the U-20 World cup event was posted in an English only conference for the respective managers of the various 118 U-20 National teams. The new "rule" was not made as a change to the actual "rules" of the game, but was rather just a comment made as a sticky thread in an English only forum. The "rule" changed how old U-20 players could be to participate in the event. After one country filed a protest after losing a match where players that violated the "rule" were fielded, the Hattrick administrators dismissed the U-20 National Team manager of the country (Algeria) that had fielded the players that were under 20, but with an age that was too many days old under the new system, and additionally banned that country and its manager from the remainder of U-20 play.

Scandal ensued, when it was revealed that other nations had committed the same infraction, the same penalties were not applied. The HTs issued a comment that protests for the rule violations committed by the other countries had not been made within "a reasonable time." Nothing within the rules of the game has ever established such a concept. The internal Hattrick community was incensed and analysis of the decision revealed that politics were afoot. Ultimately, the original sanctions were called off, however the Hattrick community became concerned over the lack of a "rule of law."

Premium Features

Though Hattrick is free to play, the game costs money to run and requires a certain amount of income in addition to advertising revenue to stay functional. The game's shop offers a few different extra features in addition to the more traditional t-shirt offering and, occasionally, a Hattrick calendar designed by the same artist who designed the Hattrick graphics.

Supporter

The most common purchase is Hattrick Supporter. The purchase of supporter unlocks a number of features considered by many to be the best features of the game, such as federations or the arena designer. "Hattrick Supporter will not give your team any in-game advantages, but rather deepen your experience of the game," [http://www.hattrick.org Help » About Supporter] according to the game developers. Supporter costs roughly $30 per year (or $9 if purchasing for three months) and is a one-time non-subscription purchase. In addition to receiving a star next to their name in conference posts and on their team page, supporters also access a large number of premium features.

Supporters can join up to five federations, which are essentially extra conferences. Some federations offer additional off-site features to members, such as an automated logo designer or team statistics. Federations commonly organize friendly cups amongst members or interfed cups against other federations. Anyone can start a federation, so long as they have Supporter and an empty federation spot. However, federations must have at least five members within the first week of federation creation (and for every week after that), or they will be deleted.

Paying members have additional customization and interaction options on their club pages as well. Supporters can display their own team logo, design their own match kits, write press announcements, and view notes written to them in their guestbook. Only supporters can sign guestbooks, though anyone can view guestbooks. With Supporter users can also see the faces of the players in Hattrick, choose numbers from 1 to 99 for their players, retire their players to the hall of fame for their club, and write text for their players to say to anyone who happens to view that player's page. Supporters who viewed the team page of Bob Sunesson, a special player on one of the developers' teams, were treated to an easter egg in the game - Bob's face was covered by many different objects and changed upon each view. Bob was fired after Season 28 for an unknown reason, though it likely had something to do with the large amount of notes regarding Bob that HT-Tjecken, his owner, received. [http://wiki.hattrick.org/Bob_Sunesson Hattrick Wiki - Bob Sunesson]

Supporters receive a flag collection page, on which players can view their flags in five different categories: countries from which their supporters hail, countries their team has visited, countries their team has been visited by, countries from which their players originate, and countries in which players who originated in the squad are currently playing. Flag Collecting is a very popular hobby amongst supporters, particularly in the category of visiting countries. It is not uncommon for teams in small countries to receive upwards of 100 friendly requests in a week, since small countries are the hardest flags to collect. Those who enjoy designing buildings can design the appearance of their stadium in various different ways - choosing the layout of seats, adding a roof and lights, choosing the surrounding area in the city, and choosing colors for each addition, using the flash-based Arena Designer.

Supporters receive training reports which document training pops, or level jumps in skill. Supporters can also access a plethora of other statistics involving many aspects of the game - both statistics about their own team and general statistics about the league, including the top teams in certain criteria. Hattrick also offers several minor features to paid members, such as bookmarks and a notepad. Users may also support other teams, both supporter and non-supporter, and view the teams that support them. Finally, Supporters have the option to purchase a website for their team called a clubhouse. Clubhouses have many intricate statistics features and offer automatic updating of many team statistics. Users can customize many aspects of their clubhouse, similarly to the options available from a low-priced webhost.

Mobile

Hattrick Mobile is a service available in most of the world to anyone with a cell phone and the ability to receive text messages. The service uses SMS and requires in-game purchase of "credits." HT-Mobile costs between 12 and 17 cents per message received (per credit), depending on the credit package chosen by the user. New users receive a few free credits to try the service. Mobile users can set the server to send them a number of different messages, including their weekly training report, match reports instantly during a match, and transfer market updates. More recently the Mobile service has been expanded to include interactive options; users can send commands to the Hattrick mobile number which perform basic team functions.

Outside

The large Hattrick community has expanded the reach of the game well beyond the hattrick.org website. Many supplemental websites for the game seek to explain the game's inner workings to new players, while others simply offer easier methods of calculation and organization.

CHPP Applications

Certified Hattrick Product Providers (CHPP Applications) enhance the HTML-based game by accessing various site data from the server and using it to perform useful functions. Applications outside of Hattrick.org which use any form of automation (such as scanning pages) must be CHPP certified. CHPP Applications take many forms. Manager Assistants such as [http://www.lokesoftware.dk/ham/ Hattrick Assistant Manager (HAM)] and [http://www.hattrickorganizer.net Hattrick Organizer (HO!)] generally help managers by organizing various team data graphically and archiving that data. Manager Assistants also usually offer some sort of lineup calculator that calculates the ratings teams will achieve with a certain lineup. Match Viewers offer an enhanced method of viewing matches live beyond the in-game HT Live. Statistics scanners such as [http://maptrick.nl.eu.org/~laszlo/ Maptrick] and [http://www.hatstats.info/ Hatstats] offer in-depth analysis of Hattrick data. NT/U20 Trackers such as [http://www.nt-db.net/ NT-database] and [http://www.ht-turkiye.com Türkiye U20 Player Database] help NT/U20 coaches to follow players easily. Other CHPP applications include Friendly Cup Assistants, browser plugins, and even online betting. Applications that are CHPP certified display a CHPP logo, and Hattrick users may login to the applications using their Hattrick username and a special security code for use with CHPP.

Award

Hattrick has won the Multiplayer Online Games Directory's "Game of the Month" Award on three separate occasions: October 2002, April 2004, and most recently in November 2006. [Multiplayer Online Games Directory - Game of the Month: Available: http://www.mpogd.com/gotm/?Date=10/1/2002 Accessed: 11th May 2008.]

Academic study

Hattrick has been studied academically, for example being used in a University of Helsinki case study into whether online simulation games, such as Hattrick, could be used as a business model for online betting and gambling businesses. [New Business in Computer-mediated Communities. (Helsinki, 2004) (Patrik Ajalin, Tomas Granö, and Kaj Nyberg) Available: http://www.cs.hut.fi/~rsarvas/Sarvas_etal_NewBusiness.pdf Accessed: 11th May 2008.] The conclusion was "Online gambling on simulated sport events is a very interesting proposition with good prospects in the future; further research and piloting projects are however needed before one can give any conclusive answer to the actual future value of such services."

It has also been used as the basis for a University of Tartu academic paper, "Time Extraction from Real-time Generated Football Reports". [Title: Time Extraction from Real-time Generated Football Reports (Borg, Markus) Description: Proceedings of the 16th Nordic Conference of Computational Linguistics NODALIDA-2007. Editors: Joakim Nivre, Heiki-Jaan Kaalep, Kadri Muischnek and Mare Koit. University of Tartu, Tartu, 2007. ISBN 978-9985-4-0513-0 (online) ISBN 978-9985-4-0514-7 (CD-ROM) pp. 37-43. Available: http://hdl.handle.net/10062/2516 Accessed: 13th May 2008.]

Charity

ExtraLives AB and Hattrick support the Homeless World Cup initiative, through banner adverts on the Hattrick website and financial donations matching those of Hattrick players. [http://www.homelessworldcup.org/ and http://www.justgiving.com/hattrick Accessed: 11th May 2008.]

Global Football Monitor 2006

During two weeks in May 2006, more than 196,000 Hattrick members gave their opinions about the upcoming World Cup in Germany, making this the largest ever football survey. [http://www.globalfootballmonitor.com/ Accessed: 14th May 2008.]

References

External links

*Hattrick: http://hattrick.org
*Hattrick Wiki: http://wiki.hattrick.org
*Extralives: http://www.extralives.com
*Game View 101 review of Hattick: http://gameview101.blogspot.com/2008/10/hattrick-review.html