hattrick.org > Reviews (5)

Hattrick is one of the most popular browser-based onlinegames, which is no surprise considering it's free, deals with the peoples' most popular sport, football, and it's the best at what it does. Starting as a minor network game between a company of Swedes back in 1997, hattrick has expanded to cover over 100 countries, around 1.000.000 users and it just keeps on growing. This exponential growth, however, is also the basis of most of the shortcomings, as the server load keeps mounting and new players have to be thrown further and further down the league system.

***The Game***

Signing-up for hattrick is standard-fashion easy. You fill a quick form, confirm your e-mail address and… wait. First the GameMasters validate your team's name and verify you entered the proper country, something that takes 2 to 3 days. Then, an actual team from the bottom two divisions of your country must be freed for you to manage, a process that widely ranges in time depending on your nation's user base. Currently, activation for an English club takes at most 5 days, while Spain has one of the most legendary waiting periods with several months being required. It's important to note that you must apply for a team in the country you currently live in; otherwise your application will be rejected.

In the meantime it's heavily recommended to slowly but surely go through the "Rules" section of the site, which thoroughly explains how everything in hattrick works; from club sponsors to user behavior, everything is covered. An equally good idea is to also check some of the linked fansites, such as Hattri-X Files, which offer a more clarified and comprehensible view of the game's mechanics, as well as additional guides and strategies for your perusal.

League size is dependant to player demand in a given country, with more levels allocated as the user-base increases. In the first level we only have the first division, such as the English Premier, Championnat and Bundesliga, with every lower level containing a "power of 4" number of divisions. That is the second level has 4 divisions, the third 16, the fourth 64 etc. and every division containing 8 teams. "Bots", simple computer-controlled teams, fill the leagues until a real user comes along.

No matter in which division you land, each new team is similarly powerful, with most of the original players barely knowing how to kick the ball and only a handful of them really worthy of a first-team slot. Chance plays a slight part here, as one new user might get a star goalkeeper, while another might find a prolific striker, but everything else is standard for every club.

Each one gets 100 supporters, loyal subscribed fans that are reflective of the crowd turnout for the home games, at a ratio of about 20 to 1. Their numbers rise quickly at first, especially if you keep them happy with triumphant wins. A stadium of 7,000 terraces and 5,000 seats is available for them to fill, which you'll eventually want to enlarge with roofed seats and VIP lounges.

A handy tutorial is up for completion at startup, progressively unlocking the full sum of £200.000, making sure you get a feel of the game before you go ahead and spend all your money. Your funds are used to pay weekly wages and arena maintenance costs, as well as temporary expenses like buying players, changing coaches, or enlarging the arena. Your income lyes in sponsor money, gate receipts from cup, friendly and home league games, as well as selling players. The game allows for credit that allows you to go up to negative €500.000, albeit at hefty interest fees. Should you pass that limit you'll have 4 weeks to get back into reasonable credit, or it's bankruptcy.

One season, or in-game "year", lasts a little less than 4 months: one week of pre-season with the updates and the start of the cup, 14 weeks of home-away league games and one final week of post-season for the qualification matches.

Clubs that finish in the bottom two of their division are automatically relegated; unless playing in the bottom division of course! Those placed 5th and 6th have to play qualification matches at home, against a team from the lower level. If they lose they exchange places, otherwise they remain as is. There are cash prizes for 2nd, 3rd and 4th, but obviously the most money goes to the champion. In addition, half of that level's champions automatically promote to the higher level, while the other half can gain promotion by winning the qualification matches.

Mid-week we have the cup and friendly matches. Should you be seeded for the cup, you begin with a match during the pre-season week and one match every week after that until you are knocked-out. The "draw" is automatic according to last season's league positions, with the best-positioned clubs playing away at the worst-positioned clubs. That is to say, should the reigning English Premier champion progress until the final, he would have visited each round's bottom-seeded team. As such, since when you play at home it is with tougher and tougher teams, it is a solid success to play more than 2 home-games during a cup-run.

After your cup encounters end, you are allowed to play friendly games instead. You can challenge any team in the world, provided they aren't otherwise engaged and flag-collecting is a nice little hobby for some hattrickers. Every time you visit a new country for a friendly, or a club from a foreign country visits your stadium, you earn their country's flag in your club information screen. Although it is virtually impossible to get them all, it's pretty fun to try and collect as many as you can.

Of course, collecting flags isn't the main reason for arranging friendlies: training is. Each week you are allowed to train one skill group and only players fielded in an appropriate position get full-training, so an extra game effectively doubles your trainees. When training scoring, for example, only those that played as forwards during the week manage to get the most of it. In surreal fashion, only the coach's skill and the players' age factor in the training progression; every player is considered to have unlimited potential in every single skill.

In hattrick each player has 5 primary and 3 secondary skills. Goalkeeping, Defending, Playmaking, Winger and Scoring are of the most importance when a player is fielded in the appropriate position, while stamina, passing and set-pieces can be important for everyone. There are 21 denominations to classify the actual ability of a player in a given skill, from non-existent (0) and disastrous (1) to outstanding (10) and divine (20). Every level covers the same "stretch" of ability, so solid (7) is as far away from inadequate (5), as mythical (17) is to titanic (15). Different skills, however, rise at different rates.

Like all managing games, hattrick also requires a "hooking period" before you really get into it. Unfortunately, as matches are played in real-time and not at your own leisure, it is difficult to become immersed in the variety of tactics and systems you have at your disposal. Instead, the transfer market offers some excitement as bargain buys pop up all over the world for you to snatch. In eBay-like fashion, players decide on a starting price for players they wish to sell and a deadline is set for exactly 3 days later. Some users like to pose large bids to let other interested buyers know they mean business, while most prefer to jump in at the last minute in the hopes that they'll catch the opposition unawares, even with the 3 minute extension that takes place.

Definitely one of the best parts of hattrick is searching for ideal players for your team, coming out on top in the ensuing bid-wars, while being careful not to spend too much on them and it is something to keep you busy between matches. Finally, another such feature, even if I personally don't use it, are the conferences. A forum of shorts, with threads ranging from controversy in your division, to World Cup debates and even political affairs.

National teams also exist, complete with their U-21 variant, with each country's users voting for their favourite candidate. Anyone can run, although top division players, or teams that perform well in the cup, dominate the elections, but it is a nice aspiration to hope to manage your national team for even a single term.

***The Complaints***

Hattrick is constantly evolving and while most of the adjustments make the game more interesting and challenging, they also further the gap between existent teams and new users. Original hattrick teams begun the game with 50 times more supporters and construction costs for the arena have quadrupled in the past couple of years, for instance.

Obviously earlier teams must have an advantage over newer ones, but that advantage is impossible as it stands now and only enlarging. Dreams of one day playing in and winning the English Premier are all but futile for new users and there is little chance of actually lifting the English Cup. Besides the obvious prestige of such accomplishments, they are also the only ticket for the Hattrick Masters, a fast-paced cup competition involving teams from every country and takes place mid-season.

The fact that you are pitting your wits against actual humans is a very gratifying part of the game, but it may also be cause of frustration. Some players throw matches in order to get into a division they think they can handle and then proceed to eternally finish first and promptly lose their qualification matches away. Rare as it might be, it is also very unfortunate should such a team get in your way.

Server issues have always being a problem, with the site being closed for hours on scheduled maintenance and a big deal of unexpected downtime. This ties directly into the match engine and the questionable results it often gives, discrediting the tactics' effect to the outcome of a game. Many users think that the servers can't handle the enormous amount of matches that are being played simultaneously and some of them are handled mostly by chance.

Even so, a survey amassing the opinions of 191.000 hattrickers showed that 9y% of them were willing to recommend it to a friend. Even if the people participating in that in-game survey obviously were those more into hattrick, it still is a pretty impressive percentage; indicative that even with all the complaints, hattrick is a fun experience.

***Supporter Subscription***

With a lot of similar games offering extra transfer money, competitions and the like to paying customers, Hattrick honourably gives *no real advantages* to its Supporters. There are some nifty tools for subscribers, but they are mostly of aesthetic value, designed to make the experience easier and more enjoyable.

In the "useful" category the "bookmarks" take the crown, as Supporters are allowed to
"shortlist" players, teams and games for handy reference. This is most useful when hunting for transfers, but it is nothing that can't be done with a small pencil and piece of paper.

Player photos, ability to design club kits and assign numbers and picture of the arena are some of the additions that have purely aesthetic value and simply add colour to the game. Supporters are also able to pick badges for their teams and hold press conferences for all in their division to see.

In all, paying the £16,5 for a yearly subscription (or £5,2 for 3 months) is mostly about supporting a game you like and remains free for hundreds of thousands of people; not so much for the extra goodies. I'd recommend playing at least a couple of seasons before subscribing, in order to more accurately judge if your interest for the game is going to fade anytime soon.

***OVERALL***

Considering it's free, there really is no reason not to give hattrick a try; well, unless you find football incredibly dull that is. The nature of the game is ideal, as it allows for players with different time schedules to enjoy it equally. Whether you want to log in half an hour each day, twice a week, or even once a month, hattrick demands exactly as much time as you are willing to put into it. So if you want some fresh football rivalries in your life, besides the derby of Manchester and Chelsea versus Barca, go ahead and sign up along with a couple of friends, spark some new ones.