Howrse Avis 62

- Try not to say anything too opinionated such as: "Why do teams take up all the competitions, it can make it very hard for newer players, is there not another way it could work?" your karma points WILL be taken or you will end up being silenced by a more popular (favourited) player or mod. They cannot take any slight critiques at all unless they state so in a survey forum post.
- Bans without warning: Myself and my siblings made accounts on Howrse, all with different emails but with the same computer, they banned us all for 30 days and took 6 (yes, 6!!) karma points for multiaccounting. When I used the "Contact Us" feature, all they said was their "new sophisticated technology lets us see into player activity" they also said their team agreed "unanimously" that we were breaching the rules, which was completely false!! For those who don't know, losing karma points affects the features you can use in game, as of now I have 5 karma points (out of 10) and 1 point is earned every 30 calendar days, with 5 points, I cannot access item trades which before my unjust sanction I relied heavily on, as well as forums and the help centre (I can't even see them) nor can I customise my own presentation on my profile, I have no idea what players who visit my page can see and if it's because of karma points that I have no presentation, I also don't know if my old presentation will still be there after I earn the amount of karma points needed.
- Expensive: If you are willing to spend the money and invest into your game, then fantastic! It will make you game much easier. However, I'm concerned for people who can't invest money into their game as I think it will be very difficult to progress...
- Favouritism: It is blatant that there is favouritism on Howrse, a way to avoid being sneered on (I'm not sure how to describe it) is to either stay quiet or quite frankly- kiss their backside, be that of moderators, administrators or highly ranked players as they can do no wrong.
- Other than these very negative sounding points: I do find Howrse an enjoyable game and there are some lovely people on there, just be very wary of the points above because it is easy to be sanctioned without warning/alienated from the community/being shunned or dismissed by others.

I’ve read a lot of reviews on this complaining about multi accounting bans, which I admit are an issue, but there’s a option for adults to list their children as their kids in the account settings to avoid this between families which you should use.

The mods are all great on all the servers I’ve been on - these people are independent and don’t have any connection to Owlient, they are literally just normal people there to advise and stop people breaking rules. They definitely don’t deserve the hate people are giving them.

Communication between admins and players is relatively poor - but they do listen to players complaints, that’s why they have surveys at the end of every event, so they can improve and modify that event in future. They do this often - events like the mazes are updated every time we play, usually based on players opinions.
The contact us section is good, they always get back relatively soon and issues are fixed soon. If they have an issue affecting several players, they put a notice up to say they are dealing with it and the issue is usually resolved by the end of the day.

Advancing through the game is actually fairly simple, once you get to 30 days and unlock everything. Events give you lots of free things and you can sell and buy horses easily. Passes can also be earnt quite easily - some horses you can win give passes, you get 100 every time the loyal player pass gauge fills up, you can sell horses for passes, you can stroke some special horses and win passes - the list goes on. They are also introducing objectives that win you passes at the end of the month which will earn you 210 a week if you complete then all.
Covering horses is based off a % of your total money reserve, so it can cost between 500 and 2500.
On the big servers like INT, the general ranking is very hard to advance in because there are so many players. On UK, it’s not too hard because there are only about 10 thousand players and many are actually inactive accounts because they aren’t deleted very often, unlike on International.
Overall it’s a great game, I’ve played since 2014 and seen many changes to the game - some good, some not so good - but I’ve always found it enjoyable, despite the small issues

It may say free to play, but you can’t get anywhere without paying for “extras”. Developers do not care about their costumers, they just want your money. They also discourage families from playing this CHILD friendly game but still say they are family friendly. Adimins and mods are useless, not helpful, and punish you for having different opinions about the game developments even when they ASK FOR IT. Do NOT recommend. Overall they should really just discontinue this site.

I have been a member of Howrse since the game first came online and shortly after my mom and sister joined. However, when my mom joined we immediately contacted them to ask about how this would work since we didn't want to get labeled as cheaters and ever since my mom and I have pretty much operated our accounts separately. Granted we are co-managers but rarely have we needed to use that feature. My sister lost interest in the site and deleted her account. Throughout all this time I've never had a problem with pass purchases, bans or anything and neither has my mom. When our accounts do interact on rare occasions it's to sell horses at fair market prices and again we've never had an issue with this. Granted in total 6 horses have transferred between the accounts and when I was younger my mom even paid for passes on all three accounts. I believe it's how separate we keep the accounts is helpful for us. I did have an issue last year with my account and the contact us team did the best they could to help fix my account, I am not sure how much I'm allowed to go into the issue. My account wasn't completely fixed but they helped me out enough to keep me wanting to play the game and my account has mostly recovered. So, I would still recommend this game and for anyone in families with multiple players I would suggest to contact them asap to establish what's going on so you don't get labeled as cheaters my mistake.

Just to try and bring some balance ..

I have been using this site for more than 5 years and there is more than one player in my household.

The bad: The administration team who man the "Contact Us" and apply sanctions against accounts are not direct employees of Owlient/Ubisoft. Administrators are not at all and have never been "players", their understanding of how the game works in practice is severely limited and they have no investment in the sites success. Most adminisitrators are simultaneously administrating for many different sites, not related in anyway to this game.
In my opinion this leads to a great deal of frustration when trying to get assistance. information or guidance from them and is one of the most significant sources of frustration and poor customer service.

For those that have been penalised for multiple accounts. The guidance has always been that more than one player in a household can be done without issues as long as: you never never (not even just the once) log onto someone elses account. Not even accidentally. You do not traffick items/in game currency/horses between accounts sharing an IP address. Accounts tend to be picked up as being linked where there is significant activity between them (they are being used to cheat basically)

For those that believe there is favoritism: I have made complaints about a moderator and they have been upheld. Understandably I didn't get copied on all the correspondence between whoever was manning "Contact Us" and the moderators concerned, just as I wouldn't expect to if I complained about someone at work, but action was taken.

In summary: the game is fun, it's an excellent time vampire but you need to be careful to stick to the rules, as with all online services you must read the terms and conditions (if you can't understand them ask someone else to help you), the administrators (basically the public face of the site) are pretty much terrible and I agree with the fact that cutomer service is non existent. In other words it's not a scam but is decidedly average in terms of user experience

My sister started me on this game when I was about 7 and she helped me learn the rules. She knew my password then so she could help. Now I have been playing for about 7 years when they shut my account down and said their programs found a break in the rules. I loved the game but I never broke any rules and then I try to log in and it says I can't. Howrse did this to my sisters account to but then it went away. It was horrible and a waste of time for me. Do not recommend this game.

My kids and i joined... each with separate accounts. I spent money on each person's account. We were doing it as a family fun thing. Within 4 days they blocked all of out claiming that i had multiple accounts. NO. I appealed and explained that the 4 accounts were for myself and my three children. Separate people, separate accounts, separate emails, separate computers/tablets. They refused to reinstate our accounts and ignored my request to refund my money. Basically they called me a liar. I don't know how their "sophisticated technology" works but it screwed up for us and I have to wonder how many others this has happened to. Seriously ticked off. I called my credit card company and they said I have no grounds to dispute it because I have one ip address and one method of payment so Howrse see it as one user. Next time I guess I should have my kids move out and use their own credit cards? Kind of hard as they are all too young. Ridiculous. Infuriating.

Perhaps one of the the worst games to exist. Incompetent administration, corrupt moderations and a gaggle of players who can do no wrong.

There is no free speech on this website called howrse.con. Any complaints about the company will get you docked karma (their magical system for silencing players) and they will restrict your gameplay functions. Anything said MUST be sugarcoated or the admin or one of their brainwashed moderators will target you for the rest of your game.

Their "contact us" is the WORST. Administration do not have provide proof for any of their actions, citing "privacy reasons". I'm pretty sure that's illegal or something, but since Howrse is an obscure game, they can skirt these regulations. Their behavior is also hilarious. Replies seem to be automated, and there is no consideration of the human behind the screen. You have no rights on this game, and admin can and WILL sanction you and ban you.

Their game rules are not "exhaustive", which means if they don't like you, they will find a way to make a rule so that you can be sanctioned. They must be getting pay rises for banning the players honestly. Just a power hungry corrupt team of incompetent "people".

Now, the game isn't sucky at all. It's quite addicting, with a handful of decent players. But do I recommend it? No! You'll be screwed over sooner or later.

If more curious about the human rights violations that go on at this game everyday, join a Facebook group about Howrse. Howrse Drama Support does a good job of outlining the abuses.

Me and my sisters got banned without warning because they thought it was one person managing them all. And even if someone breaks the rules they won't give you a second chance. They say people learn from their mistakes, well the howrse team don't even give them the chance

My husband created an account and spent a good amount of money on this foolish game, I logged in on his account once or twice from another computer and THEY DELETED HIS ACCOUNT. I tried to email them and explain but they said their rules were clear and they wouldn’t lift the ban. I’m furious, their customer service is atrocious. Do not waste your time or money!!! This game is a huge SCAM and should be shut down. DO NOT SPEND ANY MONEY ON IT

Just the improvements are bad. you cant sell 10 passhorses for 7 passes. no new updates that are actually nice.

got 8 karma removed and cant do anything for 3-7 months except collect Aging Points. I was a well paying person for overpriced passes but howrse you messed up.

Your rule system is outraged. No multi-accounts? if you don't want people taking adventage of extra accounts then just make it so they cant. don't just make it a rule to have no multi-accounts.

The punishing system is also useless. give a ban for a month don't just leave a player doing nothing for months because you cant come up with normal punishments. GIVE A BAN LIKE A NORMAL SERVER DONT JUST TAKE AWAY ALL THEIR GAME STUFF WHAT MAKES HOWRSE FUN.

because now I wont recommend anyone to play howrse FIX YOUR RULES. this server will go down within 2 years.

Howrse is probably the worst company ever. They remove people with no warning. The whole team is dumb. They think they know what they are doing but they always remove innocent players and they cant even make their own stable game economy. They are all total idiots in my opinion and they need to learn how an economy works before doing stuff like this. They are all also rude when you try to express your opinion and they do not handle things in a professional matter. Here is something I wrote in a professional matter because here is what ZOwey wrote in one of her messages.
“Can you imagine how much feedback we get every day?”
I understand you get a lot of feedback. But don't complain about your job. You put yourself there, you can get yourself out. Go put your resume in somewhere else if you're so miserable.
Here is how I would respond to players in a PROFESSIONAL matter. Because the players are paying me to be kind and respectful of their opinions.
When you respond to someone you say “Hello, thank you for writing in today. We appreciate all feedback sent to us however I regret to inform you that we do take note of all we receive but we cannot implement every change. We are currently working every day to come up with a better game for the players and we do use the feedback we receive. Thank you. Howrse Support”

As poor as poor can be.
As poor as you make your players with your over priced in game currency and high demanded usage of it!
Removing accounts without warning holding over 3000passes worth of Items/horses/currency.

Madness.

I joined the international server in 2010 as a young teen and loved Howrse. It was my way of enjoying horses because I didn't have my own real horse. It was fun as it was in its simple state.

2017: It has gradually gotten more and more money focused. The prices of everything has gone up. I nearly died when I bred a horse today after being away for a few months. Now you have to pay the covering fee AND another 2500e or more for Vet fees? It used to be 500 or something around that for the last few years. That is stopping me from breeding so much. It will prevent beginners to breed to which isn't very fair as they already don't have access to unicorns, donkeys etc. Is that the aim of the price? I don't know but I do know I'm not happy with it.

I never had a problem with deletion for no reason, and fingers crossed I don't, even after not logging on for over 100 days several times. I just forget about it due to life responsibilities and then come back and enjoy it again, even as an adult. It's a cosy game where I can just focus on my own little breeding lines.

I love the way there are all ages on it. Despite it being a rather cartoonish game, there are both young people and adults online sharing their interest in equines without the weirdness or creepiness one gets on social media. I've never got a random friend request, everyone has always been polite and introduced themselves beforehand.

I have never experienced any problems with Mods or nastiness but then again I don't use the Forums much unless I'm really stuck. It has become very strict due to snowflakes though.

I don't like how it is impossible to move far up any ranking, despite how much you log on and how much activity you do. The same names stay in the top ten for years! Yes years, I can list out several names I have seen all my Howrse life. Fair play to them, or is it? Does paying more money get you higher ranks? We need to know!

I cannot get my Equestrian Centre past 3 stars for some reason and believe me I've spent a lot of time and money during the past decade.

The games? Oh you need lots of Equus and passes for them so they're no fun. You might win a few apples but then to continue you have to pay up. This is depressing! The games are imaginative and beautifully designed but I don't play anymore because they're impossible to complete without paying.

Training horses is hard unless you're on a team and the stars barely go up no matter how much training you do without using special items. It's incredibly slow too to make you feel like you want to buy them. I have never been on a team because of the toxicity and financial and emotional pressure most put on their members. (heard enough stories!!)

I love the detail that goes into the game- it really is something else. The percentages, the graphs, times, the accurate measures, the art- it makes it more mature and realistic, and adds to one's enjoyment.

However, the game needs to step back from the overly complicated stuff and the money grabbing and go back to the friendly, fun outlet it used to be. I understand that it needs income but isn't there another way? Or a way to be less in your face about paying for things.

I was looking at my Friends list- most of them hadn't been active in over 100 days or more. People that used to be online every day have become unhappy with the game and that's so sad. But it's because of developer greed..

I created accounts for my kids a few years ago under the rule under the age of 13 had to use their parents email address. They started to have fun and put real money into their games - Christmas, Easter and birthday money- and without warning the administration deleted the accounts of three of my kids.
They were heart broken.

Recently one of my daughters - whose account wasn't deleted- decided to go back and play casually. I decided to join her and they banned my account for 60 days under the claim that I had multiple accounts and signed in on someone else account. I contacted them explained that I didn't have more than one account, that my daughter and I share a computer and that she had originally signed up with my email address but they refused my request to lift the banned on my account.
They stated that they have "effective tools" that help them identify when rules are broken and that this make the punishment justified. They have refused to talk to me any further on the matter.

If you enjoy disappointment and love to be taken advantage of howrse is the game for you.

P.s. The high ranking breeding teams on this website seem to run things.

Mods will get you in trouble for no reason. Most players are annoying 10 year olds who act like idiots. Impossible to be successful unless you're part of one of the exclusive, stuck up big breeding teams, mostly full of people who have no lives outside of the game and pick on others just to make themselves feel good. Game team makes changes most of the players hate.

Rules to Stay Alive:

1 Kiss the moderators asses
2 Make sure to not use freedom of speech (This will cost you karma)
3 Kiss the moderators asses
4 Make sure to never stick up for anyone (No one is going to help you, so don't help anyone else)
5 Kiss the moderators asses
6 Pay at least $100 every few months to maintain high rank
7 Kiss the moderators asses
8 Don't ever call customer service about anything related to CUSTOMER SERVICE
9 Kiss the moderators asses
10 Make sure to be Favorited or else the game gets harder (Or you get docked karma, banned, stalked, threatened, and/or even sworn at publicly by mods)
11 Kiss the moderators asses
12 To get divines/special horses or better skilled horses; cheat/repeat step 6 as much as you can afford

I had played for a few years, all was good but then the corruption an favoritism became OBVIOUS.

The game itself is okay, unless you have someone to teach you, your SOL.

Moderation and Administration play favorites in PUBLIC forums, you can watch a few special players break rules, run amok, and have NOTHING happen to them. But if a regular player were to accidentally say someone else's user name they would get a forum ban.

There are no warnings for breaking rules, its either you kiss as s and become a favorite or you are constantly a target. They will find the smallest excuse to ban you they can find.

They will claim that your messages within game are private, and will reassure you. But if you say something against them via PM they will somehow suddenly have it. It could have been a message to yourself, so no way for someone else to report it. No privacy what so ever

There contact us support is pointless, when it is ran by the same administration that has control over the site. If one of their favorite players is reported, it is automatically not true and the person trying to report it is at fault and normally gets banned.

Do not bother ever even signing up. Its not worth the time or the efford to get a good game. The game has become focused on nothing more than getting money from the players. You will have constant offers and awesome things you can get for your game if you buy passes!! It is one big pull at money

All in all, just dont waist you time, this game is nothing like it used to be and honestly is going into the toilet fast.

I logged in a month ago to find half of my 'in game' money removed, all the 'social' aspects of the game locked to me and unable to obtain passes, even the free way. There was no email warning or explaining why, no indication of what I had done wrong. I finally had to contact the company and ask for an explanation. To which they replied that they had 'sophisticated' tools to detect cheating, and therefore the punishment was fair and non-negotiable. The topic was then locked to prevent further reply from me.

(Which, apparently I was cheating, but I did not know. After reading through the terms multiple times, and running word searches that came up empty, I thought it was ok. I STILL do not understand why it would be considered cheating.)

They consistently 'make up' rules on the spot. Not all of these so-called rules are written down. The written rules are inconsistent (Ie, some show up on the karma page in simplified form, a lot do not) and their 'terms' page is verbose and Hard to find answers to a simple topic. Yet the company does not care. You should just 'know' these things.

Their moderation and customer support is extremely rude.

The game is fun enough - if you can slide under their radar. But you will still run into issues in their unfair platform which allows relatively small groups of players to gain, and hold top spots with little chance of newer players EVER reaching the top spots, winning in the Prix or holding an above average horse. Just heard about howrse and started this month? Well, enjoy your lowly status. You'll be there until you quit.

Howrse was a nice game, but new "improvements" and Black market items are ruining it. Every time a howrse gets more valuable, they place the items on the market, which you normally cannot buy. Gone value. Also there are some people on there which are arrogant and warn mods without reason.As long as these people are in top 100, their warnings are judge grounded, so that you get a warning with no reason. Finally when there is a lotery or other possibility to win nice items, the same names always show up. It are always the same (paying) people who get the nice prices or divine horses. And believe me, that is not only while they use more passes! I have gone far from this farcade. hope many others will do the same.