Results of the 2025 HP Player Survey

Hello, and welcome to the results post for the 2025 HP Player Survey!

Earlier this year, we the HP admins posted a player survey. We were each seeking feedback on the areas in which we each are in charge of for HP: Koni regarding breeds being added/removed, BV regarding our social media presence, and I (Blitz) regarding new features and HPP/Achievements. 

We were blown away by the number of responses we received! In total, 44 different players responsed, giving us feedback on the above topics.

In the following first three replies to this thread, you will get each of our responses to our areas of the survey. Please note that, in a few cases, feedback was given in Blitz's section that fell under another admin's "umbrella". In those cases, I passed those along to their respective admin to have them address in their respective sections!

You are (obviously) welcome to respond to our feedback to your feedback on this thread. We just ask that it continues to be constructive feedback, and not turn into arguments. You are also welcome to ask questions based on our responses, and we will do our best to respond (although BV's responses may have to wait, as she is in the middle of moving and is sans computer for the next week or two!).

Thank you,

-Your admin team

(please note that while each of us wrote out our own responses, it is I (blitz) doing the actual posting, so it might take me a few minutes to get the replies on here and make sure they're properly formatted for HP forums! I will remove this disclaimer once everything is good to go.)

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Hey there, everyone! Firstly, I want to thank each and every one of you who responded to the survey. Hearing from you and seeing what needs attention is a huge help. The coolest thing to see, for me, was the time zones everyone is in! There were 7 time zones between the 43 legitimate responses we received. While we had 44, one person did not put their name, number, or answer any of the short/long answer questions. 

What is your Time Zone? EST,  HAST, GBT etc... (This helps us plan events for ALL Time Zones!) 

Eastern Standard Time: 16 Players

Central Standard Time: 10 Players

Mountain Standard Time: 3 Players

Pacific Standard Time: 4 Players

Greenwich Mean Time: 6

Central European Time: 1

Australian Eastern Standard Time: 2

Personally, I am part of EST, and it’s really cool to see that I know and have talked to people on the other side of the world! This will help us plan out events for sure. 

Should we automatically keep certain dog breeds regardless of their inactivity?

Roughly 34% of you said we should have a Short List of commonly recognized breeds

About 27% said that All Breeds should be open for deletion, as long as they meet a certain criteria for deletion. 

And the remaining roughly 38% of you said that you want every single breed we add to never be deleted, regardless of if they are being actively bred or trained. 

This was interesting for me to see, since it was so evenly-ish divided. With this result, all dog breeds will remain on HP regardless of breeding numbers. Please note this WILL create a very long scroll list for purchasing and searching breeds. 

Should we automatically keep certain horse breeds regardless of their inactivity?

About 36% Said to make a Short List of commonly recognized breeds

Another 29% Said that All Breeds should be open for deletion as long as they meet the deletion criteria. 

The remaining 34% said to keep all breeds regardless of training or breeding status. 

After the dog breeds list responses, this one surprised me even more with the Short List being the winning vote, however as it was fairly close, I will treat this the same as Dogs and allow all to stay. 

Should we keep all crossbred breeds (horse and dog) no matter their inactivity level?

A whopping 45.5% of you said yes, 34% said no, and 20.5% said maybe. All Breeds will stay!

When we delete inactive breeds, what guidelines do you feel we should follow? Example: A breed with no animals actively trained under the age of 40. (as in ignoring 16yr olds with 0 points)

There were a LOT of good responses here, most of which gave some helpful insight into why you picked the options you did above. Some of you weren’t sure why we did it, or if it helped with the game at all. Some of you just didn’t really have a preference either way, and some of you were VERY passionate about the annoyance of having to add them back if they were removed. 

*      *      *

Overall, I had some good responses to the survey from you guys. There were a few responses that kind of, well, were just plain mean. That aside, it was great hearing your side of things and gives me a lot to think on.  

Responses to items brought up under Blitz' section:

"The raffle system as it is now is confusing to enter and not updated frequently as to who has bought tickets. I’d love to see that programmed into the the game!"

I fully understand this! Unfortunately, the current raffle system is, well, just me! I try to post all the entries as soon as I read the messages. I do my best to get it done at least two or three days a week during raffle times. I will take a look into a better system though to help things go through a bit smoother! 

Clubs and embassies don’t do anything in the game and only serve as a way to earn achievements. Give some reason to exist/make people bother with them. 

 I agree to a point, and we are doing our best to figure out a way to make these more exciting and useful to players. Any suggestions are welcome! Feel free to PM me or enter it in the anonymous feedback. 

"I think the club/embassy dynamic needs to be finessed a little bit, but I don’t really have a great idea on how."

I totally understand! Please see above. 

"I think adding things for breed embassies to allow us to make them more fun would be cool. Maybe Emb shows (same category as club shows), allow us to post in chats, embassy spotlight, etc. "

Oh this is a great idea! It's going to be a bit difficult to code but we’ll look into these ideas! 

"Clubs - I think there should be more to them."

I agree! If you have any ideas for what to add or how to improve them, please send them to my inbox or into the anonymous feedback form!

The breed embassies. I’d like them to have a solid purpose to the game and be more involved and also be an incentive to run them. I am interested in starting one but not sure it would be worth my time and effort. 

Just like above, I fully agree! If you have any suggestions on how to improve them and what incentives would draw you in/make you commit to an embassy, please let me know either via PM or in the anonymous form. 

Thank you to the 44 players who’ve responded to our feedback survey!

I know that in order for our posts to be seen by others not currently following us, it is based on people’s interactions with the content shared on the platforms. Many want to see HP succeed and grow, but we need your help to do so! A little like or heart can go a long way and would be very much appreciated!

Do you currently follow HP on Facebook or Instagram? 

Yes, both! - 14 votes
Just Facebook - 10 votes
Just Instagram - 3 votes
HP has social media accounts? - 17 votes

* Looking at the pie chart the winning vote was players not knowing about our social media accounts! Sad day! D:

* To help you find them we have little icons at the footer of every page, underneath the “Connect With Us” area. Found on the right side of our “Recent Forum Activity” section. You can also access them on the main Site News page on the right hand side in the “What’s Going On?” section above “Subscribe To Our Newsletter!” area. 

What would help you engage more with our Socials because it's a tough cricket crowd right now and we would love cicadas instead! (If you don't currently follow HP on either social account, what would make you want to follow and engage?)

The three most common responses were…

1. I don’t use or follow socials, so no help there
2. I don’t like having my rl interacting with my hp life, so not following or interacting
3. More contests

* I’m going to focus on #3. More contests!

- What kind of contests would you like to see being held on the socials?

- I know more than a few don’t like sharing their hp player info on socials, so how would I work around that in order to verify and award any in game prizes?

* I’m also happy to share more things from other pages about horse & dog & gaming related content!

- Are there any pages that we currently aren’t following that you’d recommend?

Should we change our hashtags to help draw more attention towards the game? If so, any ideas on what?

We currently use:

#horsephenomena #onlinesim #onlinegame #horsegame #horsesim #virtualhorsegame #doggame #dogsim #virtualdoggame #virtualgame #virtualpets #horseanddoggame #horseland #animalbreedinggames #dogshowinggame #horseshowinggame #horsebreedinggame #horsepeople #dogpeople 

* The three most common responses were…

1. Nothing, No ideas 
2. Those are fine
3. #dog, #horse, #equestrian, #onlinesimgame, #oldhorseland, #nostalgia

* I’m more than happy to add those in going forward!

What would YOU like to be seen being featured on our Socials? 

* The three most common responses were…
1. I don’t use socials, so no help here
2. More player, animal, mascot, hp animal spotlights
3. Graphic artists spotlights

* Absolutely! I’m more than happy to add more featured spotlights!

- Any graphic artists out there okay with us sharing some of your work? - Please send a message to me (BV #22700) with some examples of your works or your DA

- Same goes for any coders out there! Your talent should be featured too!

* I’ve also read a couple responses about doing prize offers and giveaways

- Happy to do some of those as well! Though I’d have to figure out how to connect from a person interacting with the social media post to who they are in game, so we can make sure the prize is going the the correct player.

Should we get rid of our Socials entirely? 

Yes - 4 votes

No - 40 votes

* Agreed! I don’t think we should get rid of our socials entirely either!

* I wasn’t a marketing major in school, so I’m just trying my best to learn and push forward hoping to do good for HP.

Explain your response to the previous question about the future of our social media presence. 

* Majority of the responses were to keep the socials as socials are the future and that’s how the world interacts. It’d be bad business to drop the socials and make us look less official/professional as a game. Some people don’t like using social media, which is fine and to each their own, but having these outlets help keep many connected.

…Passed Over To Me From Blitz…

What existing feature/aspect of HP would you like to see changed/overhauled/updated and why/how?

“This isn't really a feature, more an activity suggestion I guess, but another dog game I used to play (before I rediscovered HP and it stole me away from that game :D) would occasionally hold breed boosting training contests to help promote interest in the rarer breeds on the game and just for fun. The mascot contest is fun to watch but is a little too time intensive and intimidating for someone like me to enter. But maybe having a more casual training contest as an activity some time during the year would be fun? I don't know if anyone else would be interested in something like this but thought I'd throw it out there.”

* Thank you for the idea! :D 

* I think that would be pretty fun and could possibly help encourage others to pick up a new breed or just to help support another who’s trying to promote their breed.

* Like make it a month long, everyone starts out with a Store/Cash Shop pair and we have 1 horse breed & 1 dog breed players can choose to boost? Should we have an enter-all category & a hand train category? What other rules/guidelines should be implemented to keep the contest as even of a playing field as possible? What kind of prizes would you like to see? 

Thank you to everyone for your responses! Please note that, as always, June is a super busy month for me at my day job, as I'm closing up two school libraries solo before having July and August off, so anything below that I'm looking to implement likely won't happen or start to be worked on until July! I just don't have the brain capacity for much in June unfortunately.

Recently, a long-time bug surrounding player achievements handing out HPP like candy was finally fixed. Now that HPP handouts are more controlled, how should we adjust the game to make them still attainable and useful?

59.1% - Come up with other ways to achieve HPP
29.5% - Lower/adjust the trade in rates for HPP to upgrade time, HPB, HPD, and points
11.4% - Change the HPP system so that certain harder-to-achieve player achievements hand out more than 1 HPP (eg. 1 billion HPD could give out 2)

Blitz: My current plan is to combine the two top options. I’m looking at adding more achievements and expand on the current ones (eg. currently, forum posts achievements only go up to 10,000, but we have players who have more than triple that amount). I will also adjust the HPP trade-in rates, as I believe they were raised back when the glitch was originally discovered. I’ve created a separate forum post in the suggestions area specifically for achievements, in hopes to get some ideas for new achievements you’d love to see. As always, no guarantees that they can/will be added (as some are just not possible based on the way the game stores information/data).

Keeping in mind that HPP isn't meant to be handed out like candy, like it was previously with the bug, do you have any other ideas other than what was expressed in the previous question on how players could still acquire HPP to trade in, without making it as freely accessible as it was? Note: "undo the bug fix" is not an acceptable answer (lol)

(note: This was a long answer question)

Summary of ideas submitted: 

• Have breedings still give HPP beyond the initial ones, but more randomly or with a higher birth points rate.

• Manually awarding HPP for social media engagement

• HPP from random events on animal pages (eg. randomly from grooming on occasion)

• Make it harder to exploit the breeding HPP rewards, eg. they don’t get awarded until after generation 3.

• Only award HPP for one breeding per pair of animals, with the exception of retirement breedings.

• Making it a prize for monthly activities

• Make some of the achievements give out HPP repetitively (eg. every time an animal is trained past 1 mill points) - incentive for actively training animals to hit milestones, not just as a one-off per account.

• Changing the threshold for when HPP is awarded (eg. Instead of 50k points born, make it 200k which is more rare).

• Breeding achievements: make it only award every X number of times it’s done, not every time.

• Link animal awards to HPP

• Whatever is decided, making HP more accessible for those who don’t have the ability to drop lots of RLD to get ahead.

Blitz: Before I get into it, I just want to note that I did start a spreadsheet and input the ideas for actual achievements that were suggested in this question, which I’ll also be including on my suggestions forum post about new achievement ideas. This is why I didn’t list them above. 

While the feedback to this question for the most part gave me a lot to think about as far as ways to offer more HPP to be achieved, it did also remind me that this whole HPP achievement thing is a complicated issue. 

To refresh your memory, the HPP glitch was being loopholed by a bunch of players for an indeterminate amount of time (with or without realizing they were loopholing!). This was done by players moving animals around their accounts that needed enough HPP to trade in for a 1-month upgrade, breeding them together (even if they weren’t close to when we typically would breed them), immediately marking the offspring for deletion, then transferring the animals back to whatever account they should be on. Doing this was giving achievements for breeding. Leaving the animals on accounts overnight if they had over 1 million points, and you’d also get 2 more HPP from the 1 million points on an animal being awarded twice with the nightly achievement crons. So right there, that’s 3 HPP. Do that with a few pairs of animals, say, 1 pair with 1 mill points, 1 pair with 2 mill points, and 1 pair with 5 mill points, and that would give you 9 HPP in, say, 10 minutes not counting the overnight stay. Throw in a few super old retired animals overnight, and there’s your 15 HPP to get that 1 month. Then wait another month and do it all over when your upgrade is about to expire again. 

Knowing how it was being done, if you re-read some of the above suggestions, while they’re really good suggestions, they wouldn’t stop it from continuing to be too easy to transfer animals around to get the achievements and do similar to the above. 

All that being said, plan is still to lower the trade-in value, add more player achievements, take a look at seeing if some of the above suggestions could add HPP (eg. the animal achievements suggestion), and possibly look at awarding more than one HPP for the challenging achievements that can’t be easily achieved by transferring an animal to a different account (eg. say 5 HPP awarded if the account hits 1 bill player points, seeing as player points can’t be transferred in any way…and that HPP rate in the example is random, not indicative of what will actually be awarded). 

If Sam's RL bank account looked like what account #1's does and she could hire the world's best website coder, what new feature would you want to see added to HP? When answering this question, please consider the following: 

- would your idea drastically change the core of HP? (eg. when HL went to cartoonland)

- would your idea take away any of the "challenge" of playing HP and/or make it too simplistic?

Note: "Add cats!" or any other species is an automatic NOPE ;P

(note: this was also a long-answer question)

Summary of responses:

• More achievements, including obscure ones that would require a different kind of player engagement to get

• Vet/groom-all option

• Higher-priced upgrade option to allow one horse and one dog breed be specialty on the same account

• Lots of comments along the vein of “I have no idea”

• I love what HP is, Keep it simple, etc - several comments along this vein

• “Executive” accounts that would let you set up shows for all your other accounts, collect from the bank, etc.

• Animal genetics. This was suggested a few times, with one suggestion specifically saying the option to have Prism actually coded into HP so foals born would show the genetics stuff Prism does automatically.

• Upgrade the chat - “it’s almost too nostalgic for me” (Blitz: this comment made me LOL because it’s very true)

• Another way to earn HPP and HPB

• Premium shows for high-pointed animals only

• An HP App

• HP 2048 or some other new mini-game

• Cats (Blitz: NO!)

• A more inclusive, less clique-filled game

• More layout generator options (tabs, etc)

• Feature to design a graphic for your animal (although not HL-cartoony)

• Update the forums

• Update messages

• Cows (Blitz: Also no, but nice try!)

• Make my RL bank account look like my HP one (Blitz: Believe me, if I could make this happen, I would not still be living with my parents!!!)

What existing feature/aspect of HP would you like to see changed/overhauled/updated and why/how?

(note: long answer question. Any comments I have will be in italics!)

Summary of responses I’m “entertaining the idea of” (aka I’m open to making them happen if it works with the way HP functions on the back end without rewiring the entire game):

• Overhaul of the achievement system. Add more interesting ones.

• More breeding incentives/risks to add diversity and challenge.

• More rankings - weekly, monthly. Players and animals. Most player/animal points gained per week. Most first places (per week/month? In general?). All-time and “living” rankings for each breed to encourage newer and more casual players, as it can be really hard to “break” into the current rankings. Yearly ranking for animals similar to the current one for players (based on birth year?)

• More mini games - HP 2048? I’d have to look into 2048 being officially added vs. it being a mini-game, as I’m sure 2048 is likely copyrighted.

• Tweaking current game so it pauses and functions better overall

• Additional options for searches

• Field for “minimum age” in animal searches similar to max age

• Field for maximum points for animals

• Searching shows by entry fee

• Option to enter-all shows with the lowest number of animals currently entered in each. Possibly as a Cash Shop-type added perk? Would make shows more evenly distributed.

• Overhaul the chat rooms design. OMG yes I already mentioned that to Sam even before the survey lol

• More competition on the daily, more incentive to train. I’m open to ideas on this, I’m not sure what that could be though outside of the other related suggestions above, like more specific rankings, achievements!

I also want to include the below responses that, while I appreciate that they were suggested, they are not possible and/or will not go forward at this point (my reason is in italics for each!):

• Uploading animal photos right to hp. This can’t/won’t be added, as the size of that many high-quality graphic uploads would eat up a lot of server space, and if we adjusted the resolution to make the files not as big, it would affect the quality/clarity. Additionally, that type of uploading leaves HP open to people trying to upload malicious code to hack the game.

• Cap on the number of upgraded accounts allowed per player (reason given by player was that it’s unfair for everyone if some people have a lot more than others). I know this is coming from someone who has ~100 upgrades (me), however it’s taken me the duration of HP’s existence to build up my numbers to that. Putting a cap on upgrades though…end of the day HP is a business. Why would we want to put a cap on our possible profits that fund the game’s existence, pay staff, etc.? That’s not good business practice for anything, let alone an online game with a limited market like HP.

• More public shows per account. A month or three ago I raised the number of Auto shows/day. Players currently can do 2 public for each species if they’re upgraded. If animals aren’t getting as many points from shows it’s either because a) players aren’t creating their public shows, b) players are entering mass amount of animals, or c) all of the above. Plus, if I change it to 3 shows per species for upgrades, it’s just adding to the workload for the nightly show crons that I’m already very much over fighting with constantly, as they time out before they can finish due to the volume of entries they’re having to process. Adding more shows into existing would just spread out the number of entries, but not reduce them in overall numbers/week. Plus, it could also encourage people to own more animals of any given breed, thus overloading the system further, making points spread thinner with shows...it's basically a big circle.

• In-game prices of graphics and layouts and a more inclusive pricing system. They’re not accessible for newer, and/or less established players. While I 100% agree with you that they often aren’t accessible, HP has 0 control over what players choose to charge for graphics and layouts…no more than we can control what you choose to sell an animal for. I’m sorry :(

• More visible generations on the pedigree pages (they requested 10 and said they could zoom). Dude, do you know how long and how challenging it was to get it to have how many it does now?! (Which I added another gen or two to I believe last year after it was requested to show 5 like TBs do offline). Screens aren’t big enough for ten! lol

Any responses pertaining to embassies, clubs, events, etc. I passed along to BV and Koni to have them respond to them as part of their report on the survey.

I have so much to say about all of this, but I need to put a toddler to bed first.

First thing I will say is that a survey was done of embassies in November (pretty sure) which many embassy owners filled out... so where are those responses? Koni asks for suggestions but suggestions were given months and months ago.

https://horsephenomena.com/viewpost.php?id=306226

The HPP issue is much more than calling it a "glitch" (which in itself drives me mad). Have staff not noticed many people cutting down on accounts and breeds? HP is a ghost town, because something so fundamental - and by admittance of staff- a "glitch" that was allowed to be carried on for 10 years aka a fundamental part of the game. It's a shame to see people dumping breeds/quitting/dropping accounts as what is the point? HP simply does not have the player base to keep losing players. 

Rosa is awesome, Rosa is fine, Rosa didn't write this...

Dude, how can you have so much to say on all this, when you didn't even wait for me to post our three responses before stating that? (serious question, not trying to be flippant!)

RE the embassy survey....that's not what this survey is about outside of the few responses to my section I passed to Koni, however I have just asked Koni if she'd be willing to post a similar survey summary to this one, if that is what people want. Obviously won't be instant, as it does take time to go through each response and write out our own response.

You had posted several replies by the time I had replied, both Koni's and BV's so yes, your response came across as flippant...

And again, in Koni's response she asks for suggestions to be sent to her, yet a survey was done almost six months ago with no response from her so my comment is completely valid. 

Rosa is awesome, Rosa is fine, Rosa didn't write this...

👀 oh how wonderful! Love the feedback and ideas from everyone. 

As an embassy holder I don't really see the sense in having one currently. I do sell/give away AQH embassy lines and such, but there isn't much to do on the page? no one interacts when attempts have been made so really I'm not sure what else there is to do. I'll try to think up some ideas, but other than that idk haha...

As for the cap on upgrades, I agree with blitz.. without those buying/selling/upgrading their own accounts, HP wouldn't be able to buy anything such as server, workers, ect.... so that suggestion is way out there. As for the amount of animals in shows(yes I have a lot as well as others), I think it would be nice to have extra public shows, but that is what the cash shop is for! It'd be great if they were a little cheaper, but.. alas.. they are not. I would think people having animals was a good thing, it keeps HP going... if we all got rid of everyone, where would hp be then? But I understand the amount of animals in shows is a lot.

As someone who has poured a lot of RL money into HP over just this past year, I'd love to see some new changes and implementing of more rewarding things for the player base. I just personally feel like the responses as a whole was a bandaid to hopefully calm a wide variety of concerns the player base has given. Not trying to come off as an ass or anything, just stating from a persepective of someone who actually loves the game and doesn't want to see it go anymore downhill than it has. -insom

I agree with Insom on the whole pouring alot of RL money into upgrades for my OWN personal accounts over the past year and a bit. I'm also a person that really LOVES the game and I don't want to see HP go downhill anymore than it already has. 

I feel like there is always going to be 1 or 2 ppl that aren't satisfied with how things turn out and that's okay, we're all allowed to have our own thoughts and opinions on things. 

I don't think it's fair to state that City's mention of the embassy survey is somehow irrelevant or unnecessary on this post, since it directly relates to Koni's request for embassy/club suggestions. The player base presumably filled out that survey, and so with the knowledge that those results have yet to be even acknowledged, much less posted, I think it's fair to question why suggestions are being asked for yet again instead of the survey itself being addressed, even just to say that it's been circled back to and will be addressed soon.

Which brings me to my next point (that I made sure to mention in my survey answers but am aware it's unlikely to be addressed here and I'll admit, that's disappointing). As City stated, it can't have gone unnoticed that many players have taken drastic steps back from the game, whether it be cutting down on animals, upgrades, both, or even just time spent here. And I believe it to be a symptom of the player base feeling unheard by staff (much more than just one or two). Even being asked here to make suggestions yet again for ways to both entice new players and keep the current base active and engaged feels as if effort is unfairly being put on us. Many players have made suggestions for new features, and almost every one is shot down whether it be due to cost, coding, some mix of both, or simply because it'll turn the game "too cartoony". Or it gets filed under a "to be researched/addressed"- and in that vein, I absolutely do see the responses from Blitz and understand why certain things just aren't attainable.

However, I know other players have stated it, but HP really has entered the "pay to play" era of SIM games, but unfortunately, the current features aren't keeping up with that kind of model. We grew up with the old-style HL, but that nostalgia doesn't exist for the younger, newer player base. It's just very discouraging to see suggestions be denied for even just optional features to offer some variety in playing styles or different achievements to strive for simply because we want to hold onto that nostalgia. In addition, removing features that allowed new and smaller players to get ahead feels counterproductive to the ultimate goal: bringing life back to the game.

We as players understand that decisions often have to be made that aren't going to please everyone in order to prolong the longevity of the game, but some decisions and the defense of those decisions sometimes come across as "this is how it is, deal with it". For the most part, we have and will continue to do so, because the future of the game matters to us.

But I think the true issue is much, much bigger than just asking what about the game can be improved upon and arguing over new ideas; the community as a whole needs some improvement in how we interact with one another, whether it's staff to player base and vice versa or player to player. 

• Option to enter-all shows with the lowest number of animals currently entered in each. Possibly as a Cash Shop-type added perk? Would make shows more evenly distributed.

as someone who has put in the time and effort ever since I started playing to meticulously hand train many of my animals and pick through shows to find the least flooded shows on the daily, please no. 😅 

On the Role and Functionality of Embassies:

As someone who has considered starting a breed embassy, I’ve hesitated due to several concerns. While there's an expectation for players to invest considerable effort into launching and maintaining an embassy, they currently serve little functional purpose.

For example, when a group of us approached Koni expressing interest in creating an embassy for the Mearas breed, we were denied on the basis that there were four of us involved. However, through collaboration, we would have maintained higher activity levels, and after thoroughly reviewing the rules, we found no mention of a restriction against group-led embassies. Clearer guidelines or clarification on this matter would be appreciated.

Suggestions for Embassy Improvements:

Here are a few ideas our group came up with in discussion:

Treat embassies more like clubs, allowing them to host exclusive shows. Perhaps a limit of two shows per week could be a starting point, though this is flexible.

To enter an embassy show the animal must be accepted into the breed embassy first and once it is accepted increase the point reward for animals accepted into an embassy. Instead of the current 1,000-point boost, a 10,000-point increase would better reflect the higher standards embassies are expected to uphold.

Expand the number of embassies players can hold. Given the shrinking player base, allowing each player to manage up to four embassies (e.g., 2 for horses, 2 for dogs) could help boost engagement and encourage players to breed and train multiple lines.

Regarding Upgrade Caps:

While I understand concerns about perceived imbalance, limiting upgrades would ultimately be a poor business decision. Players like Insom, Blitz, Lakra, Nyt, and myself contribute consistent revenue that helps keep the game running. Penalizing committed players because others may not manage their spending responsibly seems misguided.

Overall State of the Game & Community Frustration

As someone who has spent more on this game than my husband will ever know (and likely more than I care to admit!), I say this from a place of love and investment: the game needs revitalization.

Current Player Sentiment:

Stagnation: There is a growing sense that the game has plateaued. Without fresh features, engaging content, or responsive updates, even the most loyal players are beginning to feel burnt out.

Feedback Fatigue: Players are regularly asked for their ideas, feedback, and suggestions—yet, from our perspective, these ideas rarely see implementation. It’s demoralizing when thoughtful proposals are repeatedly dismissed or ignored with little transparency or follow-up.

Value Misalignment: When players continuously invest time, creativity, and money, they naturally expect the game to evolve in return. At the moment, it’s becoming increasingly difficult to answer the question: What exactly are we paying for?

We all want the same thing: for this game and its community to succeed. Many of us are here not just because we enjoy the gameplay, but because we care deeply about the relationships and stories we've built around it. With some transparent communication, clearer expectations, and a few well-implemented changes, I believe we could see a powerful revitalization of player engagement.

I hope this feedback is taken in the spirit of collaboration and passion in which it is offered. We’re not trying to criticize for the sake of it—we're advocating for a game we genuinely love and want to see flourish.

-Iri

Back in the day we used to be able to request different clubs, IE German Shepherd Club and then it got switched to the clubs we have now and embassies. 

Everything else, in order for this game to grow and continue to suceed it needs new players.  but new players are not going to stick around when the goals for them are unttainable and the currency in this game is to high; this game isn't for new players.   I am beyond frustrated with this game and am downsizing both my animals and how many upgrades i buy.  I don't want to do it anymore.  Its hard to compete with players that have unlimited funds and upgrades and so have unlimited access to horse and dog tickets to get there animals to the high numbers, and the comments regarding limiting the upgrades proves my point and i feel things will not change. 

I am not tied to this game as some other players seem to be, but i do enjoy it. but a revitalization of the game does need to happen.  But i am just 1 player and my opinion doens't matter in the grand scheme of the game. 

I am also wondering if there should be more Mods (not me!) that can help with the every day to day to help with the work load. 

I used to think the worst thing in life was to end up all alone. It's not. The worst thing in life is to end up with people who make you feel all alone. Robin Williams

Firstly - thank you for addressing the survey results, it is nice to see that there is some willingness to communicate with players and potentially help the game evolve in some small ways that might help it to stay afloat. It would be great to see the socials become a relevant and meaningful point of engagement, and any edits to the gameplay experience that help to freshen the game up and keep it from feeling outdated (without greatly altering the general style of the game) would be very welcome. I love the idea of monthly, game-wide training contests, though I'd personally like to see them be public-show and non-ticket only to make them as accessible as possible - leave the 'big stakes' to the mascot contest. However, I must admit that I remain sceptical as to what the end results will be. 

As has been mentioned above, there have been several occasions on which players have been asked for their input where that input doesn't appear to have been seriously considered or implemented in any way. The Embassy situation, for example, has had not one, but two surveys: this one in January 2024, and this one last November, and as far as I can tell a sum total of nothing has happened to move on any suggestions or feedback that was received from either of those surveys, even though it's now a year later than the first and 6 months later than the second. We have already given our suggestions twice now, so being asked to give them yet again does make it seem as though the results of both those surveys were either ignored, or received no consideration (though I love Iri's suggestions above and hope that they will be considered!). As a result, people feel frustrated as it seems like the opportunity to offer feedback that may result in action is more of an illusion than an actuality, which can leave them feeling as if they've been misled. 

I understand that changes can be difficult to implement in-game, that the staff team is small and often taken up with real-life concerns. However, if there are situations where, actually, you don't think it's plausible to update and improve certain features - such as embassies - I might suggest that, as dissatisfying as it might be at times for us players, it would be preferable to simply straight-up state that you don't intend to make any changes to those features for the forseeable future. At least then the playerbase knows where they stand and what to expect, and aren't continually hoping for improvements and changes that are routinely teased but never actually come about. 

I would also ask that if there are updates that you wish to make that would help the game evolve, be open and forthcoming about the process of making those updates so that we, as players, can both understand the time-frame and plan for any alterations to how we play the game in advance if necessary. 

This doesn't have to be done in a vacuum, the staff don't have to do this alone. There are plenty of us who would love to help if given the opportunity to do so, plenty of creative players on HP who'd happily bring their minds to the table and help in the implentation of new ideas if only given the chance. Which brings me onto what is probably my primary concern...

As both Iri and Lunarie have mentioned, I feel that communication - both between players and, in some situations, between staff and players - over the last year or so has become rather fraught, often with high levels of emotions involved (because we all care about HP and many people have invested a lot of time, effort, and money into the game) and resulting in people - again, both players and staff - responding in reactive ways to perfectly reasonable comments or questions. This fosters an atmosphere where, although players are being invited to offer their opinions, to express themselves and their ideas or frustrations, it can sometimes feel as though those opinions - even when expressed without emotive criticism and diplomatically put - are not only not of serious value, but also open that player up to criticism or dismissal. Everyone, regardless of their role in the game, needs to be able to read constructive criticism objectively and understand that disagreement regarding elements of the game, even if it opposes what they themselves think or believe, doesn't necessarily equate to criticism or disagreement with who they are as an individual.

Not a single player on HP wants to see it flounder or fail; every one of us wants it to thrive and continue to do so for years to come, because we love not only the game, but the community that we have found here - a community which at times feels increasingly scattered and polarised. So, my plea to both players and staff would be to try and not see any opinion that counters your own as a threat, to try and understand the frustrations and limitations of every other player in the game, and in general to have empathy for one another (especially in the present world climate).

On a more 'specific to me' topic: graphics prices. So, I don't advertise this because that could become a really slippery slope, but I've routinely done 800x600 images either for free or at a significant discount for new players who are trying to get a foot-hold in the game and can't easily afford graphics (though there are many talented graphics artists who charge less than I do, happily!). I can't say the same about layout images because they are often a lot more time consuming and I just can't be giving away upwards of 10 hrs of my time for free or for minimal return on the regular, but new and as-yet unestablished players are always welcome to message and ask. I'm not gonna bite, I promise. 

I do the same as Uta. I purposefully keep my graphic prices low in general so that everyone can afford graphics for their animals. I do the same with my coding prices. I have also done free layout codes for new players too. So if anyone knows someone new, who doesn't have a layout up, by all means send them my way. Like Uta, I do so because I want to encourage new players so they will hopefully stick around long term.