#howrse customization

[howrsememequeen]

New donkey coat <3

[horsegamergirl]

BM customization items ↓

Item: Magic Hat

Effect: turns your horse into one of 4 mage coats

Coat: Evil Witch

Choice: random

Item bonus: +11 for all skills

Coat specific bonus: inflicts 3 penalty points to all opponents in every competition (except in Grand Prix)

BM price: not purchasable

Item: Helios' Ray

Effect: changes the background of your horse to a player created one

Name: Forest Serenity

Creator: Jey KK (RU)

Colours: black, blue

Choice: choosable

Bonus: keeps the horse's morale to 100% at all times

BM price: 95 passes

[420technoblazeit]

19 for the homestuck ship quiz- any headcanons for any of your ships?

19. Do you have any headcanon for any ship?

equius would make fucking spreadsheets playign howrse. he runs that shit like the military, joins horse breeding teams, and min maxes all his horses' stats. does anyone know what im talking abt btw howrse is like. this virtual game where u can raise and breed horses

it doestn sound that complicated but you can really get strategic with it by distributing ur horse's activities between like. training and competitions adn all that shit u can find actual 50 page google docs on how to best train ur horse for specific stats it's a whole thing

anyway he ropes nepeta into it but all she wants to do is customize her horses adn they end up having like no stats bc she's not interested in the competitive side of the game at all and he's always like nepeta this is disgraceful. princess glitterhooves is placing last in all of her cross-country competitions what have you been doing with her. clearly you need someone to show you how to properly train her

and she's just like teehee what do u think abt the custom coat i gave her, equius? :3

homestuck ships ask game

[lovelsnotover]

i missed howrse SO MUCH

[lionews]

"None of us can buy things because there's no gb going around. We're all poor as shit. So where is the gb? In "collector" pockets, obviously."

Gb is still going around, just in different circles of Lioden right now. The lions are worth less but decors have been getting to be worth more recently imo. Custom decors over 12gb (thrice the cost of a low gen mutie) are selling like there's no tomorrow and I just bought a fluff decor for ~30gb. OFC I want my G2 Pies to sell for more than 1-2 GB but honestly I don't see that happening for a while.

So, maybe get into art. Even if you don't think you're good at it, people will buy any quality art here on LD. Of course your skill level does equal value, but this community is very open to newer artists and commissioning them with ingame currency.

And if you don't wanna be an artist, then hunker down with those nice items and wait till things get better, either through staff action or community action. Or buy GB.

Also, GB is constantly flowing into the economy. There isn't a limited number of GB from what I"ve seen. That's another reason why it's worth so little right now, because people are able to buy it whenever they want. Its why black Friday crashed it (imo.) It's not like half of the game is made up of members who hoard.

Ofc there's the ones who hoard like TyCoon and stuff, but you know what's nice about this game? You can play your way. Not the way others want you to play (cough cough howrse)

And cookie clicker isn't nearly as fun as 'hoarding GB' it's not multi-player. I have quintillions of cookies on that game but my 100-200gb that I manage to get to sometimes makes me feel way happier :)

Ofc trickle down economics don't exactly work on a pixel game nor does it work in real life. But also in real life you can't exactly buy money. In Lioden you can. If you're THIS butthurt about a game of pixels, maybe you should, idk, get a job and buy GB if you're able to. Or just stop complaining. Or find a way to get GB/SB. Create the next trend of Multidawns or something. Maybe 10x gilded lmao

This game is about saving and learning how to work with what you got just as much as it is a game about pretty lions.

.

[howrsememequeen]

Two more of the horses I've known growing up that I've loved.

Dixie (right) and Priscilla (left)

Dixie was the first horse we ever owned. I was very young at the time so I don't remember much, but we sold her some time later because we just couldn't afford her anymore. She was actually bought by the family of one of my classmates though, and went on to have a fairly successful barrel racing career! She was a chestnut quarter horse (and we're fairly certain she was a draft mix but never got confirmation of that because she was BIG for a quarter horse)

Artist Credits:

Coat: Дончо by Kисуля_31 Background: Stay calm, breath by ptagopisk

Priscilla was the lesson horse I rode the most! I remember being told I was the perfect match for her since she liked to act up and I was one of the few students who wouldn't let her lol. She was a chestnut tobiano Tennessee Walker! This GA coat was the closest thing I could find and I spent a few hours going through them.

Artist Credits:

Coat: Snowfall by Aldebarán Background: Hemisphere tulips by suzigama

[obsidiannebula]

*begins vibrating in horse girl (gender neutral)*

Ok ok I have Additions

First of all Horse Tales is really good and a favorite of my 3 year old's and mine! It has no story, the 27 or so missions function more as an extended tutorial, but if you like racing, horse breeding, base building and riding along gorgeous trails it's SO worth picking up (especially when it's on sale)! Also the wikis was made by a really really cool person wait who said that ANYWAY heartily recommend this one

Second some notable browser games missing are Morning Dust Ranch, which is fantastic if you like to come back and check your horses every day and breed them for competition, conformation, color, what have you! Also if you like a super friendly community! It IS extremely slow paced especially in the beginning, but it picks up as you get more horses and user points. And it is entirely free to play with only customization items and some QOL improvements purchasable with real-life money. It's basically the anti-Howrse in all the necessary ways.

Speaking of which, Howrse is one of the best-known horse browser games, I'm shocked it's missing! But in fairness it's extremely bloated, pay-to-win, the breeding is very simplified (can't breed for conformation at all, coat color is determined by a probability table unless a premium-currency item is used), inflation is out of control. It's... rough. I don't recommend if you're not already deeply invested.

Equine Passion is another browser game, one I have not played myself but which I know many a fellow horse gamer to greatly enjoy! Has involved breeding like MDR, less punishing if you need to take some time off suddenly.

Only so many games can fit onto a single post, so if you want a truly comprehensive list (or the closest thing there is- new additions are made all the time!), I cannot recommend the Horse Game Database enough! It is a wiki actively maintained by numerous horse gamers throughout the world, and even available in multiple languages!

A Somewhat Comprehensive List of Horse Video Games

I will be editing this original post with new games, new information, and so on. If you see a reblogged version of this post, it is worth going to the original post to see if updates have been made.

Ahead will be a list of games that either were released recently and/or are being actively maintained. I have not personally played all of these games. Do not take this list as my personal recommendations.

If you have games you would like to suggest for this list, please let me know!

Some games are listed in both the Single Player and Multiplayer sections. This is due to them having the capability for either.

Single Player

The Ranch of Rivershine [Steam]

Horse Tales: Emerald Valley Ranch [Website, available for PC and consoles]

Rival Stars Horse Racing [Website]

Astride [Steam, Website]

Horse Club Adventures [Steam, also available on consoles]

Horse Club Adventures 2 [Steam, also available on consoles]

Wildshade Unicorn Champions [only available on consoles]

Multiplayer

Rival Stars Horse Racing [Website]

Astride [Steam, Website]

Horse Isle 3 [Website]

Alicia Online [Website]

Star Stable Online [Website]

Star Equestrian [Website]

Browser

Horse Reality [Website]

Ropin' Ranch [Website]

Wild Horses Valley [Website]

Hunt and Jump [Website]

Mobile

Wildshade

Equestrian The Game

Star Equestrian

Rival Stars Horse Racing

Star Stable Online

Equestriad World Tour

Honorable Mentions

These are games that are not horse games technically but may have good horse gameplay, either in the base game or via user created content.

Red Dead Redemption 2/Red Dead Online/RedM

Minecraft

Roblox

The Sims 3 Pets

The Sims 4 Horse Ranch

Black Desert Online

Upcoming

Some but not all of these games have demos or paid beta testing, though none are officially available yet.

Fernhoof Grove [Trailer]

Unbridled: That Horse Game [Website]

Tales of Rein Ravine [Patreon]

Horse Life Simulator [Patreon]

Canter Crossing [Steam]

Pro Show Jumping [Steam]

Horse Project [Website]

Horse Trainer [Video]

Details about some of the games:

Rival Stars Horse Racing

Rival Stars has two versions. Desktop via Steam and Mobile. While the gameplay itself (e.i racing, breeding, etc) are identical there are massive differences in how it functions. Mobile has micro transactions and limits on how much you can do a day without paying money. The desktop version has no micro transactions and no limits on how much you can do at any given time. Desktop, however, does not get updated as often as Mobile. I could go on and on listing various pros and cons between the two versions, but ultimately I personally prefer Desktop due to the lack of micro transactions or wait times and in addition Desktop has the ability to make custom horses, which is quite fun. It's worth checking out the mobile version first, however, so you can see if the game appeals to you as the Mobile version is free to play.

Astride

Astride is in "early access" on Steam, though that can be misleading. What is currently available is little more than a tech demo. You can create a horse and ride around an area on it, utilizing Astride's unique jumping system, and you can given play with friends. However, it is extremely glitchy, the lighting looks awful right now, and overall it just... isn't good. That said, it is still in progress and I personally have hopes that it will become a full fledged game as promised someday. That day is not today and so I personally recommend not purchasing it until it has gotten a few good updates, unless you just really want to financially support the developers.

Horse Isle 3

Oh boy. I'll just point you towards this article about some of the issues with the community management of HI3. Be warned if you intend to play, moderators are inconsistent about the rules they enforce and you can very easily get banned for saying harmless things. Personally, I stay out of the chat and I'm careful with what I name my horses. Horse Isle 3 is a one of a kind game, sadly, that allows for extremely detailed breeding. Realistic genetics combined with the ability to breed for all sorts of shapes makes it a very compelling game, which is why so many people continue to play it despite... the issues. It is free to play, though there are paid aspects to it. However, you can earn the premium currency within the game and utilize paid features without ever paying your own money.

Minecraft

Minecraft can be a fun horse game using mods or server plugins! The mod SWEM adds a lot of content that makes for good realistic horse roleplay, though doesn't fit well in survival style gameplay. The mod Realistic Horse Genetics actually doesn't change much of the horse functionality, making it a really good fit for survival gameplay, but adds lots of realistic genetics and a better system for inheriting stats than vanilla minecraft. The mod Genetic Animals will be adding horses soon.

Red Dead Redemption 2, Red Dead Online, and RedM

While it is not intended to be a horse game, RDR2 has horses that feel so very real. They are well animated so they feel alive and they respond to their environment in realistic ways. Many people purchase the game purely because of the horses. There are mods you can use to improve the horses in Single Player, though I've never used any so I can't offer suggestions. Personally, I really like Red Dead Online for the horses because the horses can't die and there are a few more breed options. You also can look into joining a RedM server. There is one called Rift that is specifically meant for horse enthusiasts.

Roblox

I know nothing about Roblox personally, but I know there are several worlds (games? I don't know what they're called) in Roblox that revolve around horses.

I will add to this as I think of more. If you are viewing this as a reblogged post, it's worth checking the original to see if it has been updated.

Please feel free to request more information or suggest games or add your thoughts.

[lilu-the-almighty]

Ok so I just spent like two hours searching for horse pet sites and this is the data I have calculated

Star stable: 0/10

Bad graphics, could only be a girl, couldn’t pick my own name (had to pick between a scroll weal option) had to download shit to my computer so I didn’t even get to play, heard the controls are dog shit tho

Noble horse champion: 5/10 Had a lot of promise, I definitely liked the graphics, but it’s still in alpha and I’m to impatient to wait for full release. Also there’s no adds so it get full access to stuff u gotta pay

Howrse: 7/10 First game with a tutorial! The traffics looked very good and there was a lot of customization! But there was WAY to much reliance on micro transactions, so I couldn’t really do anything, and it called English riding “classic” and it just made me a bit angry cause that’s not what it’s called. ALSO ONE OF THE GAME MECHANICS WAS THE BLACK MARKET. IT WAS LITERALLY CALLED THE BLACK MARKET AND YOU COULD BUY MAGIC HORSE SEX WANDS AND IT WAS SO FUCKING WEIRD ISHSKHDKH

Horse reality: 9/10 Definitely the best one so far! Very good graphics, functions very similarly to an actual stud farm would. A lot of cool mechanics and a lot of different breeds! You could pick your own pronouns and they had an option for they/them 🥺🥺🥺. And you can freeze horse jizz. Which is an actual thing breeders do I just think it’s funny. (Also the foal caretaker NPC is hot so that’s plus 👀)

[horsegamergirl]

BM customization items ↓

Item: Iris' Coat

Effect: changes the colour of a horse with a colour of a rainbow

Colour: yellow

Choice: random

Bonus: +5 for all skills

BM price: not purchasable

Item: Helios' Ray

Effect: changes the background of your horse

Name: Shine on Me

Creator: Shaliya (FR)

Colours: yellow, green

Choice: choosable

Bonus: keeps the horse's morale to 100% at all times

BM price: 95 passes

Item: Medusa's Blood

Effect: turns your horse into a pegasus

Bonus: Stamina +3, Speed +4, Dressage +4

BM price: 95 passes

Item: Button Braided Mane/Button Plaiting

Effect: changes the horse's mane into Button Braided

Bonus: +2 for all skills

BM price: 60 passes

Item: Tail Braid

Effect: changes the horse's tail into Braided Tail

Name: Flower Braid

Choice: choosable

Bonus: +2 for all skills

BM price: 60 passes

Item: Custom Clip

Effect: creates a clip design on your horse's thigh

Name: Flower 3

Choice: choosable

Bonus: +2 for all skils

BM price: not purchasable

[raymondshieldsofficial]

anyone else play that virtual baby game like 10/15 years ago??? the one that was made by the people who made that howrse(?) and all these teenagers were teaching themselves HTML in order to make layouts for their pages, like carrd but less fucking incomprehensible? and you had, like. custom shit. hair, and that. seeds. or was this an insane fucking fever dream???

[cybercybertron]

true! nah, Howrse has a in-game function where players can upload their custom art for "coats" instead of using the in game boring stuff.

I wanted to say that I absolutely ADORE your horsie great lakes lighthouse map. I kinda wanna do something similar for a howrse coat now but, obviously with my own spin on it and I wanted to ask and see if that was ok? (i'm kind of a simp for the great lakes so yeah 😅)

Great Lighthorse of the Lakes

hell yeah! I'm super open about people taking my stuff/inspiration and spreading it around, modifying, using, etc. As long as you don't make a profit off it, it's fair game! This is especially true for community participation posts like the high geologist.

Technically "horse based off the great lakes lighthouses" was @punkitt-is-here's idea first lol.

So if you're selling it for money we gotta talk.

Either way, anyone can toss a coin to your humble horses here! punkitt, shirecorn

[anyponyrequests-archive]

to all the mods, how did you get into mlp and who is your favorite background pony :0?

i got into mlp around age 7 or 8, and i dont quite remember how lol. i think it either just was on the hub a lot and i watched it out of curiosity or it was all over the internet and i watched it for the same reason...i always loved horses though!! i took horse riding lessons as a young kid and i also collected bella sara cards and played howrse competitively! my fav background ponies are probably dr whooves, muffins vinyl and octavia though! i also quite like zecora and luna but i think theyre both secondary chars lol. - mod twilight

I got into mlp through one of my friends when i was fairly young!! we liked to watch the old movies on vhs!!! and my favourite background ponies are Lyra and Bonbon and also Dr Whooves - Mod Braeburn

I liked it a little bit as a preteen and a kid, I had a few of the toys (brushable rainbowdash was my fav) But me and my gf both got back into it fairly recently!! My favorite background character is probably DJ pon-3! - Mod Rainbowdash

I got into in young and it was the only thing i ever drew and since I connected so deeply and loved art it was my favorite thing. (up until the show ended) Ive also been rekindling my love for it with this blog and art! I also LOVE thorax - Mod Big Mac

I was in love with it when I was a kid and enjoyed it in secret in middle school but now that I'm older I feel more comfortable in enjoying it again!! Me and my partner got back into it together! I think the character design and pleasant friendly atmosphere was the biggest draw for me :) My favourite background pony is Fleur De Lis -mod starcatcher

I grew up on g1 and g3 so those gens were my introduction!! My mom handed me down her g1 toys and vhs’s and I watched and played with g3 as it came out. Hasbro has a customer for life lol! And I know it’s a bit of a basic answer, but my fav background characters from g4 have to by lyra and bonbon. The absolute joy I felt when I saw that representation for the first time comes back to me every time I see them onscreen ;-; - mod applejack 

i was (and still am, i guess) a massive horse girl, and i spent literal hours watching my little pony clips wherever i could find them, it didn’t even really matter what gen it was, usually gen one or three . it wasn’t long before my parents noticed, started getting me stuff, and it kind of became my thing, so whenever holiday seasons came around everyone knew what to get me . lost my mind when gen 4 came out, jumped into the fandom, had a blast, and now i’m back here lol . my favorite background pony is screwball ! <3 - mod luna

ive always loved mlp since i was a kid! my love for it reemerged about 2~ years ago & now im here! i grew up solely on g4 so i havent seen any of the other generations yet! i think the thing thats keeping me so invested is the culture surrounding mlp & its fandom. its very lovely and im so glad to be a part of it <3 my fav bg ponies are probably muffins or bonbon/lyra! - mod button mash

[lightvveaver]

can u imagine if fr allows us to make custom Scenes like on howrse...

[emo-eyemakeup-evildude]

wow they're all so different. the only thing about howrse is they all look really similar unless you customize them and I have way too many to do that lol

I can try to think of dragon names but I'm so bad at names. all my horse lines have very strick naming guides because of that lol my donkeys are named after Zelda npcs. Rauru's parents were Sidon and Yona

I have Baby Dragons

I also randomly generated a pretty one

I forget what the genes were but it looks nice I think! Do you wanna help me name the two unnamed baby dragons also :0

oh my goddddd they are so shapes 🥺

speaking of babies here's my rare baby

donkeys can only be bred three times and unicorns have a one in five chance of producing a unicorn. his parents had a uni baby on their first breeding. also donkeys only have a 20% chance of having a white coat

[architecturexoil]

Howrse login page

DOWNLOAD NOW Howrse login page

A “ cold-blooded ” draft breed, they are calm and collected. All of our horses are registered in the Koninklijk Friesch Paarden Stamboek (KFPS), the oldest, largest and most reputable studbook of the Purebred Friesian Horse. America, and if you take a look at our testimonials, you will see how happy our customers are with the horses they purchased from Black Sterling Friesians Inc. GRAND PRIX FRIESIAN For Sale! Amazing Dressage Schoolmaster w/ ALL The Buttons. Are you a lover of Friesian Horses, follow us for fab pics and videos of Friesian Horses from around the world. 3 hands (63 inches, 160 cm), though in recent years it has become common to buy Friesians that are taller, up to 17hh (68 inches/173 cm), particularly for use in shows. The neck is typically well muscled and arched at the crest, set high above well developed withers. 00: Horse must be of Friesian heritage or in foal to a horse of Friesian heritage. 25 tons, and towering 6ft 6in at the shoulder, Chilli dwarfs most horses, is the same height as a small elephant, and could provide Friesian Gelding (6 yrs old) Arriving on November 20 Price & Details. Unisex Hoodies 3D Print Galaxy Pullover Hooded There are a lot of conflicting opinions about the Friesian graphic, it retains much of the old look which players did not like. Shop tote bags, hats, backpacks, water bottles, scarves, pins, masks, duffle. A champion at both dressage and driving, the breed is also known for excellent pleasure riding. Over the ensuing years Grace's affection for Friesians grew into a. We often have several nice brood mares in foal available. Feel free to call us anytime with questions on a particular horse. Discover (and save!) your own Pins on Pinterest Country of Origin: England. Registered Friesian Heritage Horse, DNA verified.

Looking at these proportions shows that this breed is small for the type of horse it is.

DOWNLOAD NOW Howrse login page

[writingonjorvik]

Can We Discuss Why Reducing the Price Will Help the Game?

Don’t get me wrong. I get there is a business to funding SSO. The whole thing must cost millions to produce, in euros and in USD. I don’t want anyone to take a pay cut to get SSO out. And it’s not like I stand to gain any discounts from saying this, I got Lifetime for $50 when it was still the annual membership price. However, with the current pricing scale, the dev team isn’t really keeping up with their competition. That’s bad for the game overall, and if the devs can’t turn a profit in a year then there’s no game. As such, let’s discuss.

I will acknowledge a few things. One, the dev team keeps the lights on and they are expanding the company. I am not one to say that the game is failing. But it’s also not making a profit. It is increasing its size enough to expand, but it’s also keeping its gains about equal to its losses. That’s not bad, that’s most indie companies, so this is a plus overall. Two, SSO’s membership does reward members with Star Coins each week which is, complicated. Because while that is a service that may take away from sales over all on their micro-transaction front, there’s also no production cost on a Star Coin. There’s no work lost on that service as it’s an entirely computer generated good, no employee involved. But it is an overall plus for the company.

That said, some of SSO’s prices are way out of line when compared to their competition. To start, let’s look at a few other popular MMOs. Here is a list of some of the most popular MMOs and their membership prices. SSO’s monthly payments are about average, if not a little lower, with most MMOs at $8.50, but the issue with monthly payments is convincing people to keep paying. Buy-to-play and one time purchases are much more appealing model to most players because it’s the most financially responsible decision, and most MMOs with membership options have much larger free to play sections with membership just having some added benefits for show and level gain. So with SSO’s limited demo area where it’s much harder to get a sense of the game compared to the wider demo sections or completely full free versions of some MMOs, SSO might be a little harder to sink $8.50 monthly, and definitely is a hard sell for $75. Why spend that on a relatively indie game when you could sink your money on a more established MMO with about the same deals?

Now, that’s not an entirely fair comparison. SSO has a niche market it’s playing to. That’s fair. SSO is one of the few fully open world horse centric MMOs out there. Again, credit where credit is do. But again, let’s have a price comparison to some other popular horse MMOs and online games. Alicia Online, free with micro transactions to be added. Little trickier to get because of the wonky install, but free. Riding Out, in beta, but it’s only $20 and on Steam. Riding Club Championships, free. Horse Isle, both of them, free. Ostwind, $15. Any number of browser based games like Howrse, White Oak, Pony Isle, so on, all free with micro transactions. And this is all before we start getting into just horse games, to which there are numerous for cheaper one time purchases, the highest being about $30 based on age and active bidding. SSO and its franchise are about the only exceptions to this, with the old CD-ROMs being about $40 a piece on average.

No part of this is saying that SSO isn’t worth the price. To me, it always has been. But I fit the market and have the funds to afford it. I am a minority in that statistic. What I’m saying, with SSO’s competition in and out of this niche, they don’t hold a candle. Why pay SSO for what you can get basically get for free somewhere else? Sure you lose 3D graphics and some of the open world nature, but for free? Most people would settle those loses and chose the free option. In fact, most people do. Howrse is still way more popular than SSO. In particular, most parents would settle. And I know this from experience. No only can I personally not get any of my friends to try SSO because of the price, but I can see first hand these prices being more than most parents can afford. 

I work at the Boys & Girls Club of America. For those of you who don’t know, it’s an organization that provides opportunities for kids in families that aren’t doing great financially. It’s kinda like a cross between a daycare-like service and Scouts. And at my club, I’m the nerdy teacher. I know about video games. A lot of girls at my club play SSO, or played. When they found out I play too, the first thing they asked was how many horses I had. How many regions of the map I had unlocked. It was 60-ish at the time, and all. They nearly lost it when I told them I had all, at the time, six of the color changing horses and Spirit. Absolutely thrilled. But when I asked them how many they had and how far they had gotten, most of them said they had their starter and could only play for free. And that they couldn’t play anymore. Their parents couldn’t afford membership and so they gave up on the game.

Look I get pulling this statistic is kinda a low move, but I think it’s fair. Mostly because it’s not just kids at Club, and also because the families who come to Club buy other video games, cheaper video games. Kids I used to babysit had their parents say the same thing, and those families were well off. So for families of all income brackets, SSO’s prices are too high to consider when there are cheaper options. SSO has potential customers who would love to play their game, but their prices, in particular the most financially reasonable price of Lifetime, makes the game unobtainable for new fans. It gates the game off to the super fans who have the means to afford the game, and thus SSO develops its own echo chamber financially. SSO is funded by its whales. Its numbers are largely stagnant, and it’s not going to expand. The average family simply can’t afford it.

I’m not suggesting SSO wildly changes its prices. No, not at all. Mostly I’m just suggesting that the purchase of lifetime drops to $30-$50 USD, the average price of an indie game. It’s more expensive than most horse games, but it’s lower than most modern games and MMOs. It’s a nice balance between niche competition without selling SSO’s devs short. They are making a quality game, and they deserve to make money. But the devs need to be reasonable with where that price point is for most families with young kids. Further, SSO needs to have standardized payments for Star Coins. The fact that the prices are different on the Friends app compared to on the website is confusing and weird.

To compensate for lower prices, the dev team could instead offer more low priced digital goods. For one, there are dozens of hard core fans and old fans of those games who would buy digital downloads of the old CD-ROM games, since according to everything we know, SSO owns all the rights to those and they should be able to rerelease them. Not to mention that generates money for the devs instead of only online auctions holding those funds. Also, a $10 game or a $30 bundle of four is an awesome deal. It would certainly make SSO more interesting to have access to all of previous entries, and finally add a unique option to their gift store.

More seriously though, the dev team needs to change the prices on Star Coins. The prices are abusively high. I’ve said several times, but SSO’s current prices abuse people with whale tendencies, people who psychologically and biologically have the need to spend that kind of money on prestige items. I said this before with my silver fox comments, and perhaps I should have clarified it better. SSO does not have a pay to win or gambling situation, but the mentalities that come in to play when talking about whales is very, very similar to how casinos abuse people with gambling addictions. There was a Game Theory about this recently, or if you want a less nerdy source, look at Adam Ruins Everything’s episode on vacations and his comments on slot machines. Or, here’s Extra Credits on whales and this exact topic. 

To clarify the difference though, imagine a loot box system with 30 prizes in it. You can buy individual tickets for $10 and randomly get a prize, or just buy all 30 for $270. Someone with a gambling addiction would individually go through buying one or two at a time until they got the prize they wanted. Someone with whale tendencies would buy the whole pack. But both come from hormonal imbalances that give these people higher endorphin releases for doing so, and both end up spending unhealthy amounts of money in the end. SSO generates situations of the latter.

It was very easy for a lot of people on the silver fox controversy to say, “Well, I have self control, so others must too.” And I don’t want to keep dragging this up to beat a dead horse, but that’s extremely simple minded. Just saying “Adults with control over their finances make smart choices with their money, always,” but even with people who don’t have gambling addictions or whale tendencies struggle with this. You’re telling me that you’ve absolutely never splurged with your money? One tiny feel good purchase? Never ever, on anything at all? You really can’t, particularly if you bought anything from SSO. That’s not a need purchase, even if you were in your budget when you bought it. Now, your one feel good purchase could be 1 to every 100 purchases you actually need in your life. Good, that’s normal, and there’s nothing wrong with buying feel good purchases every now and then. But people with gambling addicts and with whale tendencies have a much harder time saying no to those impulses. SSO, with limited events and $30 horses, can make it a lot harder for someone who’s mind is biologically feeding them hormones to “have everything” to turn that voice off. So they sink the money, and with the prices so high, sooner or later that gets people into financial trouble trying to get everything. And SSO doesn’t encourage people to be responsible with their spending, unlike most gambling businesses who are legally required. Most video games aren’t, and that’s not SSO spearheading that problem. But that doesn’t mean they should be a part of it.

Another argument is that Star Coins are given out once a week, and that buying 100 Star Coins is just advancing a week in allowance. So why is that advance worth more than half of the membership to get it? Think about it, it’s $8.50 USD for one month of membership, again, a really fair price. But 100 Star Coins, an extra week so to speak, is $5.50 USD. How does that add up? Supposing that at minimum half of $8.50 USD is for the game itself, $4.25 USD, then the other $4.25 USD is for 400 Star Coins over that month. The next increment up for 500 Star Coins is $17. How is that a fair deal? Even supposing we give an expediting fee for skipping a week, 100 Star Coins still shouldn’t be worth more than $2. Not to mention that micro transactions work because of low prices. Why would SSO just ignore years of empirical data showing that the lower the price, the more likely people are to buy more of digital currencies? Also, how many of you would buy more Star Coins if a horse was $8-$10 USD instead of $30 USD? And more often? More for your money, and suddenly more Star Coins doesn’t sound so bad too a lot of you. And without being whales, I think a lot of you would be more eager to help support SSO financially, with a little more freedom to be able to give that kind of money.

SSO deserves to make money as a business, but the prices they currently have make the game inaccessible to most and dangerous to many. Cutting the seriously high prices for Lifetime and Star Coins would not only makes it easier for new players to join, but it would also protect people who biologically can’t really help that they tend to be whales. I know the short term of this would be a dip, but if the dev backed it up with merchandise that gamers actually wanted, like posters and games and books, or even shirts with actual SSO related content, and not all generic horse shirts, they’d probably be able to minimize those costs fairly well. Like, who would buy those sweaters from Jarlheim with the Soul Riders’ horses? Or a shirt that had a big SSO logo? Things that actually relate to the game. You could probably buy a “horse heart” shirt a dozen other places. And without going into that other topic, SSO could easily compensate loses from lowered prices by introducing merchandise that people would buy, and then have player’s friends ask what game was that shirt for. 

End of the day, I’m not a business person. I don’t know for sure if this would work. But when compared to dozens of games on the market today, maybe the other guys have some pretty good ideas too. And maybe it would help SSO to take some notes so they can start turning a profit in more years.