Hattrick (video game)

Hattrick
Developer(s)	Hattrick Limited. (The game originated with ExtraLives AB, and large parts of the continued development are still sub-contracted to that company.)
Platform(s)	Any computer connected to the internet
Release	August 30, 1997 (V.1)
Genre(s)	MMOG
Mode(s)	Multi player

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 47 different language versions (since October 3, 2008). As of April 2009, the game had over 950,000 users, each with their own team.^[1] Hattrick is in its 38th season and has been running since August 30, 1997.^[2] Most users cite Season 11, 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 forum.

File:Hattrick Screen.png

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.

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.

Hattrick League Promotion and Demotion System
Position	Division I Result	Div. II, III, IV, V	Div. VI	Div. VII and below (odd)	Div. VIII and below (even)
1st	National Champion	Auto-promotion or Qualifier		Auto-promotion
2nd
3rd	Team stays in their current league
4th
5th	Relegation Qualifier*
6th
7th	Auto-Relegation*
8th
* - Except for the lowest division in the country

Winners in divisions II - VI will auto-promote if they are in the top half of the ranking among other winners in their league level, as determined by total points and goals. If the team is in the bottom half, they will draw a qualifier opponent. Winners in divisions VII and below automatically promote. In addition, depending on the level, teams who place 2nd in the lower divisions may also promote, as detailed in the table above. At every level except the bottom division in a country, the teams placing 5th or 6th must play a qualifier against a team from the division below them. Teams placing 7th or 8th automatically demote to a division below theirs, and are replaced by auto-promotees.

Hattrick's userbase of over 960,000^[3] from 124 different countries interact using a variety of tools, the in-game forum system, Hattrick mail (usually shortened to HT-mail), and offsite forums among them. Users who buy Supporter also have guestbooks and may join federations.

Forums exist for every series, country, region, CHPP Program, and federation in the game, along with a Global forum. In addition, there are forums for "newbies" to ask questions about the game, as well as both country-level and global "non-HT" forums, in which free discussion of topics outside of Hattrick may occur. The majority of forums discussion is Hattrick related and occurs in either Global, Newbie forums, Country forums, or Federation forums. The forum uses basic BBCode, and discussion is moderated by both GameMasters and Moderators.

Hattrick has five types of administrators, each with its own prefix for usernames. Every administrator also has a Hattrick account and team, just as normal users do. Administrators are chosen by many different methods, depending on the type of administrator, but there is no way to apply for an administrative position within the game.

The Hattrick Team members (more frequently referred to as Devs or HTs) are responsible for game development and maintenance, both software and hardware-related. Most HTs are hired by ExtraLives AB and work in Stockholm, Sweden. Hattrick Ltd, however, is registered in Gibraltar where HT-Johan (one of its founders) works. The servers are located in Switzerland. The devs are the only administrators who actually have special access to the game's code.

GameMasters (GMs) have many in-game responsibilities, such as processing user account creations, catching and punishing cheaters, and assisting players with various problems with their team.^[4] Two types of GMs exist - "Global" GMs, who are responsible for multiple countries and global problems, and Country-specific GMs, who are solely responsible for problems within their country. All GMs are also forum moderators. Generally the number of GMs within a country is proportional to the number of users in that country, though this is not always the case.

Forum Moderators (Mods) are responsible for management of the in-game forum system. Mods may issue conference bans for unruly users, move or close threads that are in the wrong forum, against the rules, or have gone off topic, and create "sticky" posts about important issues such as the offseason election schedule. Both MODs and GMs may issue bans for behavior against "the spirit of the rules"^[5] even if the action is not explicitly against the game rules. This discrepancy has led to allegations of corruption within the administrative structure, though such claims are rarely backed by legitimate proof.

Language Administrators are responsible for translating text into the many different languages of Hattrick. When a new language is released, LAs are usually behind the translation for the release. LAs also translate Hattrick announcements upon release and may assist with the communication between administrators or between users and administrators.

CHPP administrators are responsible for managing and certifying CHPP applications, third party products that are approved to function as a supplement to Hattrick. CHPP admins verify that applications are within the rules for third party products and also provide assistance with coding CHPP products to function with Hattrick.

Continental Distribution of Hattrick Teams [6]
Continent	Leagues	Total Users	% Users
Europe	47	785,950	81.9%
South America	11	117,930	12.3%
Asia	36	31,843	3.3%
North America	13	17,661	1.8%
Oceania	1	4,613	0.5%
Africa	16	2,017	0.2%
Total	124	960,014	100%
Data current as of 23 Feb, 2009

Data indicates that the two largest markets for Hattrick are South America and Europe, very much unlike most other MMOGs where North America and Asia are the largest markets. Several countries have taken an unusually large interest in Hattrick, such as the Faroe Islands, which at one point had a user base equal to 1/69th of the country's entire population.^[7] Currently the most concentrated nation is Liechtenstein, with just under 1% of the total population signed up as members (according to the HTs on 20/02/2009). Finland, Switzerland, Denmark, Portugal and the game's home country of Sweden are also among the largest percentage userbases in relation to their population. On the other hand, countries such as India, China and Japan have existed for a long time in Hattrick, but have failed to attract a large userbase.

Past World Cup Winners[8]
Cup	NT Winner	U-20 Winner
I	Sweden	Sweden
II	Sweden	Sweden
III	Sweden	Romania
IV	Norway	Norway
V	Sweden	Romania
VI	Sweden	Estonia
VII	Sweden	Norway
VIII	Germany	Sweden
IX	Estonia	Germany
X	Portugal	Estonia
XI	Czech Rep.	Romania
XII	Russia	Italy

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 composed 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.

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.^{[citation needed]} 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.^{[citation needed]}

Because of the recent changes making the game simplistic and eliminating the strategic nature of Hattrick gameplay, many users^[who?] remain in the game mostly for the community aspects, invested in the National and regional forums 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.^{[citation needed]}

Recently, Hattrick featured a frontpage announcement regarding the dismissal from the game of 3 GM's or gamemasters for cheating, notably USA's GM-idigum. 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 wrongly 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.

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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 forum 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."

Though Hattrick is free to play, the game has an optional pay-to-play feature called Hattrick Supporter. Hattrick Limited earns additional revenue through the Hattrick Mobile service, and through the more traditional merchandise offerings in the game's shop.

File:Hattrick Bob.png

The purchase of Hattrick Supporter unlocks a number of optional features. "Hattrick Supporter will not give your team any in-game advantages, but rather deepen your experience of the game,"^[9] according to the game developers. As of February 23, 2009, Supporter costs $31.82 per year (or $9.94 per quarter), and is a non-recurring purchase.

Supporters can join federations, which are essentially extra forums. They 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. Pay-to-play users can also see the faces of the players in Hattrick, choose jersey numbers for their players, retire their players to the hall of fame, and write text for their players to say to anyone who happens to view that player's page. They receive a flag collection page, may design the appearance of their stadium in various different ways, receive in-game training reports which document level jumps in skill, and may access a number of other statistics involving many aspects of the game - both about their own team and about the league.

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. The Mobile service was expanded to include interactive options; users could send commands to the Hattrick mobile number which performed basic team functions, but this has now been discontinued. The HTs justified such a withdrawal of service by highlighting the very low number of users utilising it, and the rapid advancement in mobile internet technology making it increasingly redundant.

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.

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 Hattrick Assistant Manager (HAM) and 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 Hatstats offer in-depth analysis of Hattrick data. NT/U20 Trackers such as NT-database and 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.

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.^[10]

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.^[11] 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".^[12]

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.^[13]

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. ^[14]

• Hattrick: http://hattrick.org
• Hattrick Wiki: http://wiki.hattrick.org
• Extralives: http://www.extralives.com