So.. this may be a hot take.. don't come for me! I just have thoughts and HP is lovely about letting everyone share there thoughts .. so welcome to the brain of Sat! 


I feel like we need to "Thin the Herd" when it comes to clubs. We have 15 dog clubs, 13 horse clubs, and 7 other clubs. With the same handful of players running and managing the clubs each month. We have a club for just about everything and it seems like they've become more of a chore than something fun like they used to be! We used to get into voting competitions to run the clubs - now, there is basically no competition. 

"But Sat - the points and shows!" Yes, I know.. So maybe here's some suggestions? 

1. An Accept All button for clubs (yes I know there are things you can put on your computer, but a little button would be lovely)
2. Maybe a permanent layout for clubs? Like a basic HP generator layout that just stays on the club page each month that club prezzies can update info on or change completely with their own personal code. But, I feel like if we had a layout that would kind of just be there at the beginning of the month as a fall back - that would also take the stress off of some new players as they might not know how to code or might not want to buy a club layout. (Yes - there are free codes, I know).
3. Have a "starting pot" each month for clubs. I know that club bank's roll over with anything that is left and club prezzies get some percentage of that pot. But - many times.. Club Prezzies are having to personally fund these clubs each month to give players rewards. So - what if each month the clubs automatically started with like $20 mill in the bank? This way prezzies have something to work with when it comes to handing out awards. 


Now - Admin team, Am I dreaming a bit? Sure. Is this in a technical sense, not the easiest to accomplish? Probably. Do I expect you to take all my suggestions and run with them? Absolutely not. 

I am basically just leaving this here because thoughts LOL 

I like this thoughts, Sat.

I would like to be a club president, but I can't make a layout and the very thought stresses me out. 

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

I do think 'thinning the herd' or combining ideas for clubs could be very helpful! I love the club or two that I have generally been able to run for the past few months and really do enjoy it; but I have noticed that it is the same people time and time again. I do think your ideas could help with that!

Also I am not good at coding or anything but have been practicing and can at least make an image. I have found ways to make the pages fun without actually making a layout, etc.

I would be willing to offer my simpler services to ANYONE that needs it for free for a club related graphic, etc.

Also to point out when I was running clubs, there was very slim participation in any activity or contest I ran each month. If the community is not active with the clubs and entering/participating, then it really does seem a chore to run them. 

That is another great point moorfine. I try and make time each month to participate in other clubs contests. I have found better luck with certain contests then others thus far that is for sure. 

I kind of agree.

While I love the extra bonuses point wise, as a president the participation is not there; and then it seems to same people run clubs as participate on repeat :(

I know in the past - I also tried helping the admin team come up with ways to make the clubs more exciting! I tried doing specific registration requirements.. but noticed a lot of players didn't like that. (Specifically I would spotlight a different breed each month). 

I'm glad that I'm not alone in feeling this way though! I know that we can liven up the clubs somehow - I'm just not sure how to accomplish it. 

Yeah, i tried having more specific registration requirements as well because awhile ago when this was discussed in another forum, several players suggested having more specific registration requirements for each club versus jut an "accept all" policy. But I had several players messaging me asking why their animals were declined. Some of them very upset already, and some getting very upset after my response.

And I agree on the lack of player participation in club activities. It's not much fun to run clubs if no one is interested in the easy cash prizes, etc. I even had an HPD raffle where it cost absolutely nothing to enter last month, and still no one entered. I would have thought everyone would have jumped on that with the mascot contest starting this month.

I find clubs rather hard to get people to particapte in competitions, people dont want to read any entry requirements and get grumpy when you do try and enforce them.

I would all honesty rather see more doable things with the embassys, the club shows could be picked up by embassys being able to create breed specific shows, which would hopefully encourage more people to breed other breeds.

I just feel clubs are there for the sake of being there now.

I agree with most of what people said... 

I think there is just not a real interest in running because you can win with one or two votes. Part of the fun on HL was competing against each other. 

I'd like to see more done with embassies tbh

You have been City'd xD

Prepare yourselves for the Mango-Has-A-Really-In-Depth-Idea essay xD

In the time that I've been playing HP, we've gone through a whole cycle and a half of adding clubs, pruning clubs, and adding clubs back. Now we've returned to the suggestion of pruning clubs and I just kinda.. am of the opinion that clubs have run out of steam. Even if we had fewer clubs, it wouldn't encourage more participation from the community. They're just not interesting anymore. I would even go so far as to say that clubs overall can go the way of the dinosaur. I also fully support turning over those club perks to breed embassies - I'd love to see them given more power and weight in game.

That said, I have a suggestion. What might be worth bringing back (with adjustments) are player-owned associations. I hate that I just missed the timeframe on that - they were removed a few months after I started actively playing, and I was never able to take advantage of them (for the BA 2.0, Potterbred, the Prize Pool, etc).

The pros of associations are that players come up with the idea/rules/etc themselves, so there's already at least one person who is very invested in the association and wants to make it successful. If we say that an association needs at least 5 interested players to be added, then we can be more comfortable with participation in that association. And we could also put an activity rule down, so that an association with no activity for a certain amount of time will be deleted - more motivation to keep them active.

We also keep the requirement that associations have to be purchased for a some chunk of HPD by an upgraded account - which is a nice limiting factor, so we don't get overrun with them. Whether or not the HPD is refundable in the case of inactivity deletion is up for debate. No refunds is yet another motivating factor to keep it active. 

Perks for an association? Association shows, registry, etc - like clubs. But the registry rules are set by the association owner (and here I'll suggest my idea again of the option to provide registry limitations right on the page - so presidents/owners can at least set a point requirement, and HP itself will check if the animals being submitted meet that requirement. If they don't, then the animals aren't submitted at all. That would cut down on the registry workload IMMENSELY). 

Now, for the parts that are different to clubs - Players can become members of the association, but they too have to be approved by the association owner. Making a player registry allows the Owner to make more certain that only interested parties are going to be active and participate - players who have an interest in the association's purpose, whether it be because they breed the breeds or provide that service or love the mission. And the Owners can remove players from the association for various reasons like inactivity or no longer meeting the requirements. This also encourages more competition/involvement in the whole association arena.

Making sure association members are interested/meet the requirements is important because - Owner and President can be two different roles in the assocation. Owners can be President if they want, OR they can select an option to allow their association members to run for President. The President can then host activities, accept animal and player registry, make shows, etc - like club presidents - and only for a month at a time, like club presidents. Owner still sets the registry rules and can turn off President Elections any time they want (but if there is a current President, they would have to wait for the month to end before taking over - to be fair to the President). This is a good option if the Owner knows they can't be active enough to keep the association going every month, or if they just want more community involvement. 

I actually have a lot of interest in this idea - and if it can't come to pass for associations, then maybe all of this could be applied to breed embassies instead :D I'm going to post this whole suggestion in its own thread since it's so hefty lol.

But addressing the clubs, I have another suggestion. On an animal's page, maybe down by Boarding and Delete, include a box for Clubs. That way players don't have to take the time to go to the club's page to register. They can do it when they're training. It can't include the individual rules for each club's registry however, so this would be good to implement the HP-checks-for-minimum-points suggestion I mentioned earlier. There can be a list of all the clubs and players check the ones they want to register the animal with, or just a button that says "Apply to all Eligible Clubs" and the animal will be submitted to all the clubs that will allow it (if it meets the minimum points requirement). 

The pro is players can still mass-apply by going to the club's page, or they can do it much more conveniently whenever they're training (I know I think about it all the time with my spare animals, but the idea of having to go to each of the club pages just makes me kinda.. meh). The downside is that club pages will get less traffic and so activities and additional registry rules will get even less attention. 

Mango - I've said it once, and I will say it again... YOU ARE A GENIUS !!! 

I love love loveeeeeee your ideas! And I agree.. it may be time to let the clubs go to rest. But I LOVE the idea of the switch to player owned associations and putting more focus into Breed Embassies 

I ran 3-4 assocations back in the day and sorry to say it was sorta like the clubs today, players some times would enter the contests but some times would not, but I did enjoy coming up with contests and the like for them to enter, what ever you guys decide will be ok with me :)

Mango I love your suggestion, its alone similar lines of something I've been thinking of suggesting for embassies. 

As it stands I see no point in embassies, yes I run the Connemara one, but actually what I can I do to actually get people interested?!

I feel you Mame. There's like 2 other SSA breeders out there and I've only gotten one to message me for the Breeders list. Embassies and Clubs are fading out. 

Currently I have a draft horse mascot contest going to try to gain some activity in the club. It's kind of working, a whopping 3 entries thus far!

I really like mango's idea but I feel it would likely make associations a thing of the past. I for one can't code worth beans and it's difficult to find someone who has the time to help make a club or embassy layout. So as that stands, I'd probably never spend a chunk of money on a club/association when I could just put that towards training a project animal. But it would definitely be a fun concept if it did come to pass.

I have had some good interest in my HP Stud Book monthly training contest. This will be the third month running. I obviously front most of my own money each month to cover it and this month I think I have 10 different animals entered which is pretty cool honestly. But for those who can't afford much (not that I'm wealthy) or who can't make/sell to offer as prizes it can definitely be tough. Some more help cash wise might help stimulate more for people to enter?

I am able to be selective in the club to an extent (I only accept studs) but I do not require much for points besides if they are retired. I feel fortunate people have interest in the club like they do so far

How about putting what clubs you are a member of on the players profile? I know the dogs and horses have them on their profile page.