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- Horseland - The Old Days
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| Horseland - The Old Days | |
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| Topic Started: Jun 26 2011, 02:00 PM (918 Views) | |
| Avalon | Jun 26 2011, 02:00 PM Post #1 |
MysticalEquine.com - Whats Your Colour?
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Don't ask me why, but I was pondering the other day about Horseland I played right from the start (I think I had account #172 or something) and I was utterly and hopelessly addicted to it back in the day Yeah, there was many many issues with it, but I kinda look back on it as a revolution at the time and it makes me wonder; what is the magic sparkle of Horseland back then that made it such an addictive game? It seems like with such a large amount of Horse Sims these days, creators and owners are always striving to add bigger and better game features and game play (this is by no means a bad thing) but sometimes I feel in doing so the basic concept is lost and sometimes games get so complicated and time consuming for the adverage player base that it becomes hard to hold their attention During my pondering I tried to pinpoint what it actually was that made Horseland hold my attention for so long (I think I played that game for near on 6 years!! and still hold account #489956 now) and you know what, I'm having difficulty actually deciding why. Anyone else play Horseland back in the day? |
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| Blackthistle | Jun 26 2011, 02:52 PM Post #2 |
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I think I had account #201 when I first joined. Somewhere in that area.. Played for about 3 years, left, came back, left, came back, and so on. Nowadays though I won't touch it. I've grown to expect more from sims and when they added dogs I wanted to smack them. Although I do think many horse sims these days are missing the basic idea and trying too hard to have big amazing plans, you can't have only the basic idea. I guess eventually I got fed up with paying a large amount for something I don't play often, if ever. But it was extremely fun once upon a time. |
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| Fayrii | Jun 26 2011, 03:15 PM Post #3 |
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I wasn't there as early as the above mentioned, but my first account was #700535. I have long since sold the account off lol, I don't even have an account at all there any longer..That seems so long ago. Lol, I was only like 13-14 when I joined I believe..(am now 22) I think I played for like 5 years before I found Furry Paws which then stole my attention. |
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| Sin | Jun 26 2011, 03:52 PM Post #4 |
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I remember playing a long time ago. I think that it held my attention because I was young and there weren't many horse sim games at that time (at least that I had found). I tend to stick with games that have a storyline behind them, or something that reoccurs to keep my focus. A good example of this is some games have included quests. Quests are something fun and rewarding for players. When someone finishes a quest, reaches an achievement, they feel like they have accomplished something. Now I have found that Sims set very high achievement standards and this involves more thought process. Currently I'm enjoying a game (K9) because of the depth of the game. Horseland didn't have a ton of depth (that I remember) and when we are young, we don't need a mind boggling genetic based game. As we get older we look for more of a challenge (at least I do). Do you think that this is why it held your attention? (Edit: What I meant is do you think it held your attention because as we got older, the game kept expanding and kept your interest? ) Edited by Sin, Jun 27 2011, 01:43 PM.
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| Hydra | Jun 30 2011, 02:20 PM Post #5 |
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I think Horseland held everyone's attention because there wasn't really anything else. And when Horseland went down the tubes with all its changes and lost an entire fan base, it kind of sparked this whole new breed of SIM gaming. You think about the big commercial games such as Horseland, Horse Isle and Howrse, and now you have all these sites that were born from the player's perspective that maybe aren't as big but have that "neighborhood" kind of feel. I was pondering the evolution of Horseland recently as well. I feel like its "death" is kind of what gave birth to what I like to call the "SIM era". You think back a few years, and what people could say they actually owned a SIM game? Literally almost no one. Now we have all these great minds who instead of following the beaten path have decided to take it upon themselves to revolutionize the gaming world. I think it's great. There's so much variety. I think I was seven when I started playing Horseland. So, it's been like 11 years. My first account was six digits. Started with a 2. Anyone remember when Horseland was starting to lose popularity, then Spiffy Horse popped up? Yeesh. I still have nightmares about the place! lol. Edited by Hydra, Jun 30 2011, 02:23 PM.
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| Paige | Jun 30 2011, 09:36 PM Post #6 |
fish ponies??!
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I was a hardcore HL player back in the day  I joined in 2004, my account was #1675948. It was the first sim game of any kind that I ever played; a friend at the barn had told me about it and I was totally hooked. I think one of the main reasons I was addicted and that HL was so great was because I didn't know there was anything else, lol. There were more options, but like others have said, nothing like we have now. I was actually googling an old version of HL the other day in the wild hopes that they'd have an older version of it online or something... obviously, no xD I do remember one of the internet archives has old (unplayable) versions of it though, which was pretty cool to look through. One reason I think horseland was so addictive was that it was HUGE and simple. I mean, there were a ton of players, and therefore a ton of horses, so breeds almost never ran out; there were always horses of any shape and size for sale. And the concept really was quite easy to grasp once you got started, but I could play for hours. |
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| Fayrii | Jul 1 2011, 11:03 AM Post #7 |
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Ya, at that time I don't remember ever coming across another SIM besides Horseland, so I agree with it having been kind of the only choice out there, at least in the early stages lol. It was such a new and exciting concept. |
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| Delpigeon | Jul 2 2011, 05:39 PM Post #8 |
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I had a 400k level account, I think. I had so many accounts in the end @___@ I swear I broke almost every rule on the site! Anyway, it was definitely a formative game for me. It got me into SIM games, for sure - and I think one reason WAS that it was the only major SIM around at the time. It was certainly the first to really couple artwork with the SIM community, a link which I think is still extremely important. I still remember great HL designers who did photomanips (the main currency image-wise :P) such as the person who ran Anaconda Designs - and also those horses where the owners had put a lot of effort in, like Just Better! Crazy stuff. You definitely got out of that game equivalent to the effort you put in, and I think that was its appeal. A few nights of sitting clicking show entries gave you loads of kudos, and all kids love horse riding. My friend and I made so much HL money and raised so many epic horses on that game. I remember it mostly because I live far away from my friends and it was a way to stay in touch after school besides the phone. Then again, back in those days, the internet still went dingly dingly beep when you turned it on so yeah xD; |
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| Akelaa | Jul 7 2011, 08:33 PM Post #9 |
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I started playing horseland on Jan. 9, 1999.... wow it's been along time but I had account 9054. I'm actually the one that programmed the Java based showing witch happened in 2004-2005. I remember using the autoclicker bot to enter show after show and then sale horses for millions that have like 25000 shows each over a period of time. Does anyone remember breeding sporks and other random things? |
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| Paige | Jul 7 2011, 08:51 PM Post #10 |
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fish ponies??!
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Wow, Anaconda Designs... that brings back memories Anyone remember Emblas? She had all the best tutorials imo And Ebony Graphix. I had no idea photoshop existed until I played horseland and NEEDED to know how they did "pro pics" lol... so I can kind of thank HL for where I am today, probably wouldn't be majoring in graphic design if I didn't play it xD That's really neat, Akelaa.. I joined in 04 so I don't remember much before the java showing. As for breeding sporks... gahh that rings a bell but I just can't recall it. |
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