Tuesday, December 22, 2009
How's Your News?
Okay, it appears that I've been given a tip off that there are some fun things going on at equine-ranch.com! Branik has made yet another change! Yay! Why don't you guys send me your thoughts on the endless modifications made to the game? You know, the ones that you didn't know were going to happen until AFTER you paid for your account?
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45 comments:
Somehow finding this site gives me a little sigh of relief. I was just banned from the game, and rather than get a reasonable explination, I got a horrible, "LMFAO@U" reply...somewhat less professional than I was expecting.
But on to topic, hmm. The biggest change I didn't like was how they made the pasture and feed setups. That page was much easier to read and understand before they made it so that only 10 horses showed, there was no real order to it, color coded...they kept breaking what worked just fine.
Of course, the not being able to show my horses for the last 2 weeks or so was a real bummer. Makes one wonder why we were breeding??
The worst change, that I didn't care for, was when every single stat dropped down to nothing, so you had to literally retrain the world champs if you wanted to know what they were in their better days.
I think the best change they could implement is to get a new owner.
At least getting banned from that game doesn't say anything bad about you as a person.
I've been hearing a lot of people complaining about changes and I completely understand that. Who wants to spend hours and hours on something and have it all thrown away? Ends up being a waste of time.
Who knows, maybe the owner will mellow out with age and stop making changes constantly. Might be easier for her to just stopped fiddling with equine-ranch and leave that so that she can work on somehorsegame like I thought was the idea.
You received several reasonable explanations but continued to harrass Bran until she got nasty back. I have been there watching the whole ordeal take place, and you should know that selling horses between associated accounts IS aganst the rules, no matter why do it. You were told exactly what happened with the foal in chat, and yet you continued to post on the commons about it. GLITCHES HAPPEN! GET THE FLIP OVER IT!
Because your little stunt took up so much time, Bran has been unable to work on scripts. It's obvious that you are not ER material so I must say Good riddance to you.
ummmm, Bluepony. Could I please point out that all you had was house arrest. Once that was over, I do believe you would have been able to go on playing just as you did before. With the ability to post on the commons removed.
Also, you can't complain about the changes one fucking bit.
I have played this game since v1 (yeah yeah, I can see it now, having played that long automatically makes me a bran supporter. You think that and you're a fucking smallminded ass.) I have played this current version since it opened, just as I have every other. Could I please point out that I LOST TWO ENTIRE RANCHES OVER THE CHANGES. Years of work vanished in a matter of moments.
Your horses stats dropping away to nothing? HAPPENED TO EVERY OTHER FUCKING PLAYER. Myself included, you don't hear every other player complaining about this.
And as mentioned before, these changes were planed in advance. WE WERE TOLD MONTHS AGO THIS WAS COMING INTO EFFECT!!!!!
The whole reason you were banned was because of one single person kicking up a stink about it. Were it not for that you would still be happy and playing the game.
Kindest Regards,
~Azura Rose
P.S Aleks, I must say. It's seriously sad that you still have an obsession with ER. It's been over a year since you were banned. Get the fuck over it and move on.
oh, and the changes were announced to the whoooooole game. Not just to paid players.
Sorry to disappoint you.
For what it's worth, I received two explanations, not "several". I didn't understand the first. I did understand the second, and was publically reprimanded for saying thank you to the nice person who explained it to me. No worries, B was nice enough to tell me I was, among other things, mentally retarded, so you don't have to :)
To the other comment, obviously you didn't actually read what I asked about. I asked about ONE ONE ONE, count it, ONE horse. One horse who's temper was a 3, instead of a 7/8. I didn't complain about all of my stats dropping. I did file a bug when horses died and I lost some money, but that was it. I just asked, being retarded as I am, I wasn't sure why the horse came out a 3 when it really was bred well.
As for saying it on THIS posting, I merely did because she wanted to know honest thoughts on the new changes. I didn't say anything of the sorts on ER.
I don't understand why you guys are lurking around here attacking folks who post. I haven't said anything nasty to B, or to you. Even in private e-mails. I've tried to keep it pleasant, because I think name calling over a horse game is inmature.
Why is it so against ER law to ask a question more than once anyway? I never, never ment any ill harm, to cause trouble, start rumors, anything. I just wanted to know if there was a foaling glitch (which after B hollered at me she then posted that there was, in fact, a glitch) or if I had made a really poor choice in parents.
Cadence you sound a lot like Branik with your over-the-top swearing and rude comments. You must feel very special to have such an extensive vocabulary.
As for your lost ranches, I do feel bad for you that you lost all of your hard work. You shouldn't have had to deal with that.
As for scripts, computers are really good at doing repetitive tasks on schedule. Branik has real problems if she has to run scripts and hired hands by hand. More than likely these are excuses she uses to cover shoddy coding.
wisdomsdoor
Oh I am special. You see, I know how to follow the rules of a game. I know how to behave myself. I am very proud of my extensive vocabulary it comes out when I am mightily pissed.
Also, I'm pretty sure the hired hands have never had a problem, the foreman problem wasn't cause my her, that was a server error if I remember correctly. Either way, it's been fixed.
These whole changes are to replace the shoddy coding Bran originally started out with.
~Azura Rose
'No worries, B was nice enough to tell me I was, among other things, mentally retarded, so you don't have to :)'
Can you please tell me where she did this? Because I don't remember seeing it anywhere.
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'I don't understand why you guys are lurking around here attacking folks who post. I haven't said anything nasty to B, or to you. Even in private e-mails. I've tried to keep it pleasant, because I think name calling over a horse game is inmature.'
*shrugs* Why not? Why did you bother to post here? This site is pretty much dead. From what I can guess, you were hunting around for others who were banned like you. Why can't we retaliate? We like to make sure people know both sides of the story if they come across it.
---
'Why is it so against ER law to ask a question more than once anyway?'
It's not, however it is downright annoying when you ask the same question twice when you already received THE RIGHT answer the first time.
~Azura Rose
Cadence - of course you didn't see the private emails calling my wife a retard. You also haven't seen the email sent to me that said I was "a nothing, insignificant waste of flesh." That email I have saved and I sent it to the BBB and the consumer protection agency along with our other correspondences.
Also my wife did not understand the first explanation, that is why she sought a second. This happens all of the time in human conversation WITHOUT people perceiving each other as rude or starting rumors. Tomorrow, for instance, somebody will say something to you. You won't quite hear it or understand, and you will ask for them to repeat it. I guess you didn't get the RIGHT answer the first time
I must admit, I am truly amazed at your dedication to the Anti-ER site. I mean, you obviously keep up on everything that is still happening in the ER world. How much time do you guys spend, in your dingy little basements, Pizza box cardboard furniture surrounding you, creating your own world where you are the victim, everyone is out to get you and you didn't do anything wrong?
Tell me honestly because I would love to have that kind of mentality and time on my hands.
I am not a long time player, first time chatter. I don't think I was around for V1, or V2.
I knew the changes were coming. It was POSTED EVERYWHERE. How could you NOT SEE THE POSTS? And if you had gotten off your lazy butts, and did some reading, you would have KNOWN. But nooo.. you want someone to hold your hands, play the game for you. If you had really read the TOS, you would have known the acts you committed were cheating! Sorry no one didn't spell it out for you, one word at a time. Thought you were above the elementary school reading level. You agreed to the TOS. You really sign stuff without reading? Are you really that DENSE? In that case, please sign here and here, initial here and sign here. I have some wonderful ocean front property in Montana I would love to sell you!
You guys are just pathetic. I can argue with Nikki. I haven't been banned. Wonder why? Oh WAIT! I did it in a respectful manner like most do, instead of crying "Foul!!" when you are the one committing the crime. I argue with other players. I am not banned. I don't kiss Nikki's butt. I just know how to argue without making myself look like a first class Jack Ass. I was not the only ranch to have suffered from the changes that I knew were coming. But I didn't throw a hissy fit. I didn't throw one when V3 became V4.. and I am not going to start that with the new changes. You want fairy tale? Go find a gay Tinkerbell.
I love how you guys are circling like a bunch of self-righteous hypocritical sharks during feeding frenzy, drugged by your spewing festering verbal vomit. Do you even read your posts? You guys talking about you did not break the rules, and YET HERE YOU ALL ARE, DOING IT AGAIN.
I can hear your minds "What is this psycho talking about? We didn't break the rules at ER and we aren't breaking the rules here."
nooooo... of course you never broke the rules. Well, not here. But several *cough bluepony cough* people have gone to other sites, blasting and being hateful, where, in the Forum Rules, it states:
By agreeing to these rules, you warrant that you will not post any messages that are obscene, vulgar, sexually-oriented, hateful, threatening, or otherwise violative of any laws.
Good thing Blogspot doesn't have that disclaimer, otherwise now, we would all be guilty. Thanks for bringing us down to your level *pokes a discarded pizza box* I think I saw a rat run by your chair.
Since you guys really have nothing better to do with your miserable pathetic lives, STAY AWAY FROM ER. GET ON WITH YOUR OWN LIFE.
For crying out loud, I thought honestly you guys were straight out of junior high school clique getting pissy because the cheerleading squad didn't pick you to be on the team.
I can see you guys are sooo over ER. *snickers* You are obsessed with this game. You left the game, wether by choice or by law. You have cried your river. Now, put your Big Girl Panties on, and get over it. Or in Blue Pony's case, have your husband pull them up for you, since he is the one who seems to be the one threatening with lawyers and such.
There are always two sides of every coin. Remember that.
Sorry I guess we are just a little sore from yesterday's verbal tongue lashing by a mean-spirited person. I guess us people who live in the sewer are just used to being treated with a little more dignity.
'Cadence - of course you didn't see the private emails calling my wife a retard.'
Wait, you mean the emails which are posted all over the commons? They are there for all the players to read. Of course, Bran has done the nice thing and removed all personal information about. Wasn't that good of her.
I believe you are talking about this comment here: This has got to be an act just to annoy me because -nobody- can actually be that stupid unless they are mentally handicapped.
The way I read it, Bran did not call your wife a retard. She said that your wife had to be intentionally trying to annoy Bran, because she didn't believe a person could be that stupid, /UNLESS/ they are mentally handicapped.
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'You also haven't seen the email sent to me that said I was "a nothing, insignificant waste of flesh."'
You mean the email that reads: You are a nothing, an insignificant waste of flesh with lacking ethics, thus your opinion and your complaint are meaningless just like the other cheaters that filed with the BBB.
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'Also my wife did not understand the first explanation, that is why she sought a second.'
So why not ask again in chat for it to be clarified? Why not ask in chat, instead of taking it to the commons? I know for a fact there were more people in there at the time. I'd only left the room minutes before, and I can't see 10 people disappearing in that time.
I'm sure had she have asked in there, a second explanation would have been offered. And it would have been given a hell of a lot faster then a post in the commons would get.
----
And would you quit calling me Cadence. I've posted my name in all but one of my replies on this site. I'd appreciate it if you would use it.
~Azura Rose
Azura Rose - you can spin her hateful comments anyway you like, however they are still hateful. I get that you are sticking up for your friend and that you have an invested interest in the site. I just hope that 13 year old never crosses Branik for the poor kid might be in for it. I said what I said and did what I did for the sake of my wife, whom I only wanted to stick up for. When Branik was done with her that first night, my wife was in tears because she just couldn't understand why she couldn't figure out the explanation and why Branik was treating her so meanly. At that time, we didn't even know who Branik was, seriously we had no clue. Only after my wife was banned from the commons did I get that Branik must be the owner. We are just a little shocked at all of this. Normally, business people are helpful and understanding. It has been over ten years since someone has treated me as rudely and arrogantly as Nikki, my adult life. I am so out of practice that I forgot how to deal with it. However, thank you Azura Rose for you have reminded me. I am sorry for anything that I have said that may have offended anyone. I also forgive Nikki for her harsh words and conduct. I pray that God blesses her.
I want to clarify. I really am sorry if I offended anyone, and I do forgive Branik. After this post I am moving on. Please no one take me as being sarcastic. I am truly sorry for any of my harsh words in this sordid affair.
Thanks
I only post here when people emailing me and request it. I don't hang out at the game and watch all day long. Either way, this page was made for people to vent and I'll be the scapegoat as long as I need to be. Trust me, it takes less than a minute to copy and paste some text into a blog.
What I think is funny is that there are people following the blog here, to tell how other people on the blog are so obsessed. Err..if you aren't following it, how could you be here to post? For all your criticism, you read the entire thing, and took the time to post. If you truly thought it was such a waste of time, why did you indulge?
I happen to agree with the others. Branik's site has issues. All of the mess with lost stats could easily have been avoided by backing up the database before she tried to kick off the new stuff. She's the programmer, of course that whole mess was her fault. Was someone else sneaking onto the computers to tweak her code?
And the fact that there was no apology or recompense for blithely destroying months or years of hard work of her paying players was some of the worst customer service I've ever seen. Yeah, yeah, I've read the whole as-is thing, but one would think that if she expects to make a living out of it, she just might want to at least try and make people want to be there. I recently saw a response to a post talking about how the forum used to be unfriendly. I'd have hated to see it, because right now it's like a shark feeding frenzy.
I understand that she has a hard time relating to people. But she's the one that chose to make her living on other people's money. when you do that, ignoring that paying customer base is just flat bad business. If she can't deal with people, then she should just stay out of the forums.
And Azura..It's almost embarrassing that I ever went to you for advice after reading your comments here. How sad that the only way you know to argue your case is to swear and scream and stamp your feet in tantrum. Really, you're doing more harm to Nikki's case than you can even imagine with these posts.
I personally feel like this game has gone to shit. I USED to love E-R, I mean LOVE E-R! Before all the changes I couldn't wait to see my next batch of foals, or how this horse or that horse was going to train. But, now I really feel totally disconnected from the game. Like the horses I have on my ranch are not mine and I have no attachment to them whatsoever. They could all vanish due to a bug, glitch whatever and I don't think I'd seriously care.
E-R really sucks.
So there's a new 'feature' available now. For 15 dollars a year you can buy fly spray. Now, this is to reduce the chance of EIA on the game. Let me get this right..
EIA is pretty rare, but you have to euthanize your horse if you get it. The flyspray doesn't prevent EIA, just reduces the chance to have your horse contract it. And it costs MORE than a years upgrade for everything but a Blue ribbon.
Yeah..that seems worth the money to me.
Really what it means to me is that the owners can now CLAIM that your horses have a reduced chance to get it, and not change an already rare disease. either that or she's going to up the chance for everyone in a desperate bid for more money.
She also has a thread on there now asking 'what kind of player can make it on E-R'. I had to laugh when someone posted the players have to have humility. Good god...why should the players when the owners don't!!!
Maybe she's bumping up the percentage of EIA cases, to "encourage" the purchasing of said fly spray. lol. I'm glad there's other games out there. The one I'm playing now, the owner actually HELPS folks out. She's a sweet heart.
Yeah, that's what I figure will happen, or perhaps already has.
She has to do something to make it worth more than flat out buying a red-ribbon account.
It amazes me, if she would just let someone else deal with the people there, or use mods (of which she has several people who would make excellent ones), and not let herself get distracted by the drama, she would make money hand over fist from players.
I don't discount her disability, or her inability to deal with people, but good lord, don't set yourself up for what is essentially a customer service job if you know you can't do it.
Jesse, what game is it that you play? I may have to check it out.
Highly Amused: so I'm not allowed to get angry and start swearing when a friend is insulted? I'm supposed to sit back and watch it all happen, agree with you perhaps?
It aint happening. This was one of the few instances where I've actually lost my cool and sworn. Shit happens, build a bridge and get over it. I'm sorry you've decided to change your opinion of me because I got angry. Oh well, I have no idea who you are, so my care factor is 0.
Also, I'm pretty sure that Jim is the one who takes care of most of the customer service. Things generally go to B when people go directly to her.
I'm pretty sure I've managed to get EIA at the same consistency since the game began. No change in how often I've had it.
Jessie: I'm pretty sure I'd be the first one to get hit if it the rate was increased. I've been hit more often then any other player. Since I've noticed no change, I doubt there is one.
Azura,
Highly Amused: so I'm not allowed to get angry and start swearing when a friend is insulted? I'm supposed to sit back and watch it all happen, agree with you perhaps?
Please don't put words in my mouth, thank you. I said nothing about you not allowed to get angry; everyone gets angry. I was just surprised and disappointing by the form it took.
And I certainly don't expect everyone to agree with me! How boring would that be?
I like most of the changes that have been made to ER like the feed and pasture setups. I like the layout o f ER and (where she's updated it) the fonts.
But, I don't like other changes such as the brand appearing on the horses shoulders. It takes way more time than it used to to load individual horse images and with my crappy unreliable internet at university it's turned into a nightmare, literally. I HATE how she has the ranch pages set up. HATE IT.
Also, I really wish she would get on the ball and get the game back to being fully functional and running 100%. It is really upsetting to pay to play this game when half the features don't work, most of these features have been nonfunctional for months now and it's getting really annoying. She should make LS resetting an automated feature because, obviously, she can't be bothered to manually reset them promptly at the beginning of every month. I WISH she would get ranch pages back to working order, at least to where you can view the information about them or something.
Don't even get me started about Virtual Pony Rancher. Why the hell did she even open that game again if she isn't going to make it "fun"? There's no commons, no in game messaging, NO horses for sale on the open market and this game has been online since September '09 and she hasn't done a THING to it. I think I played for two months before I said "to hell with it". No wonder why the game hasn't really taken off.. you can't do SHIT in it.
I completely agree. It gets tiring to click five times just to session ONE horse ONE day, let alone 30 days. the tabs were a good idea, but I'd rather have the old way back if she can't be bothered to get them working.
And the LS thing is so much BS. I'm very glad I'm paying for that feature. I believe the bug reports even say it's resolved...just like the tabs. Knowing there's a problem isn't resolution; having it work like it's supposed to is. Otherwise, it's its in progress
still in progress
Ah, you should see all the new changes now- I don't even know why I still bother
I was just thinking about E-R today and how I used to play it until last December. I just decided to Google it and see if it was still around since I was wondering how long a business can survive when they talk down to customers and fail to provide good customer service.
I got pissy "customer service" when I dared ask about an unannounced game change. I was never rude in the game and basically asked, "What happened?" One of the administrators gave me a snippy, pissy response talking down to me and basically blaming me for the changes that happened to horse health when it was the parameters of the game that had changed.
I didn't argue. I don't need drama over a GAME. I just abandoned the game. Voted with my wallet. I encourage other consumers who value polite, reliable service to avoid this game.
Glad to see this site is here as a potential warning to others so they don't waste their money.
was told by a few people that...well..the game is still not totally functioning. the new artwork she has to put in looks like a giraffe crossed with a horse (although the coloring is stunning)...and she's running off more and more of her established players. Way to go Nicole!!!!!!
...anyone want to start a betting pool on when the game collapses? I wish I could post a big warning sign on her front page: "Do not enter unless you're ready to be abused and cheated of your money"!
Oh lordy, if this is real this is funny:
http://www.akama.com/company/SnowWolfe_Games_abb682590720.html
Apparently Bran had an 'eleven year career in the pizza industry' and whathisname, her husband, spent 'nine years at McDonald's working his way from grill to Management' before working a futher eight years in pizza stores!
Oh guys, I was angry, but upon seeing this I've realised that we don't need to get too worked up about these losers. Their website was a good idea, but the design is awful, the navigation is terrible and the gameplay is clunky, slow and awkward. Good ideas that aren't executed properly will be appropriated by others and done better, and in the end ER will fail because other people will be offering a better service, plain and simple. And Bran and her husband will be back at Pizza Hut being the King and Queen of their little store and bossing around their employees just as they do to the users of their website now.
Let them enjoy this ER 'power' while they have it, because these people will have nothing when it's gone.
No...we do not adore your work Nicole. At least not the turn you have taken it. The whole site is one big miserable mess. And no, I was not banned. In fact, I still play sometimes when I have time to waste a few hours on the internet. I've found a few other games here in the past couple of weeks though, so leaving yours will be what happens. These 2 other games will take the place of your less than stellar one. For one, after just being at one for 3 days, I can already tell the customer service they provide is far superior to yours. FAR. In fact, I found many old friends from ER of years ago that have joined one of these two games. Reconnecting with them (and no, not all of them were banned either...just one of them, the other 17 quietly left, probably without you noticing them, even though they were once prominent players.) has been a joy. In fact, I hadn't even realized a few had totally left the game.
Talking to even more players of this game in their chat...I soon found out that they had heard of your game...but had heard you were too crackers to even bother with.
You can't even be bothered to stay up to date on the newest genetic research. Now that I've started chatting with these people from these other two games, do I now realize how far behind in genetics Equine Ranch is. I didn't even know that there was a test for splash until today! And it's been out since the beginning of the year. I guess if I owned a real horse and were a part of a horse community online outside from your game, I would have found this out...but I would have thought your game, of ALL places, would have made mention of it. Prominently.
And seriously...no, you've never done anything to outright personally make me angry/mad/upset. In fact...I've never even talked with you! But I observe. And I see what has happened. And I know you are the laugh of the internet in many circles. Dog and fake horse. I've seen your decline in personality from VHR days. In fact, you are a laughing matter over there as well. I've even stood up for you over there, but over the past few weeks realized how much they have said is true. You are self centered and an attention seeker. You get bored. You go hunting for a reason to lay blame on others, but never yourself. Or you make up some personal vendetta someone has against you....and blog about it. I've even heard from one of your "good buddies" in chat---that you talk about people behind their backs in the game, and play all nice-nice to their face. And then pull them into your circle. I've heard you make up things just to blog (and gripe) about.
Seriously. You are a grown woman. You'd seem far more mature if you didn't pull stuff like that or go hunting around for things to complain about! Go enjoy your life! Improve your game/work on your game--and enjoy it as well! Play it yourself every once in a while. You are angry because you dwell on things. Please don't. It's not good for you and it makes you look like a horrible person.
I'm sorry that my time is coming to an end on ER, because at one point I truly did love the game. I hung on, hoping things would get better...but they haven't. I wish you the best with your future in this game. I just no longer adore it or the work you have put into it. I hope it does not continue in the downward spiral you have started it on.
nah...Jim seems too worthless to go back to working. He'd probably sit on his ass all day and make Branik work. If she can crawl out of bed that is. He seems like a total asshat and she could do much better without him sucking her dry of all energy. She'd probably be in a better mood too. I mean, she spends all day working on ER. And what does he do? You think he'd clean their house or something, it always looks like a fucking pigsty in the pictures. I'd be embarrased to post pictures of my house looking like that. Oh well, one of my game friends who is friends with her on facebook said they are losing the house anyway for failure to pay taxes? WTH? Isn't that why she runs specials? to pay her bills? Nah...Jim probalby goes and buys prostitutes or lap dances off of craigslist or myspace with it.
The way I see it. Equine ranch has lasted 8 years, yes. But for many of those years it was a great game. The last couple of overhauls have totally knocked it down. It may HAVE been successful, but at the rate it's going--I'd say not anymore, and soon enough it will be shut down due to being unable to pay for its own upkeep
I used to play this game long time ago... Was never banned or anything bad happens to me. The owner does not know a thing about programming - that's why we kept loosing all the hard work... She is basically a white trash - and not because she does not have manners or education. But because she is very narrow-minded and yet she thinks she knows a lot. I was actually surprised that anyone could allow her to threaten themselves with legal actions : where could she possible get money for a good lawyer? if there is anybody who wants to sue her - she is screwed.... So... I am actually surprised that the game lives so long - it is mainly probably because the users are mostly kids...
Ugh... I hate ER. I used to love it and now...just ugh. The advanced game is so difficult to navigate. The classifieds the main ranch page. It's fucking disgusting!
This is the only place I feel like I can vent my frustrations. EVERYTHING ON ER IS BROKEN! And the owner doesn't even give a flippity fuck. There had been a problem with rehoming for MONTHS probably close to a year. Bran finally fixed it while working on another problem. The training messages don't work. And for someone who complains so much about needing more money and that the game is close to closing because sales are down - why the hell is half the ER store gone? No more ranch upgrades or LS credits. Utter Bullshit. This is the only place I can say anything. ER is struggling for its last breath.
Fresh Anon here:
NOW Local Stock horses and their descendants have dwarfism in an attempt to force what few players there still are to abandon their existing lines and buy all new lines.
The excuse is that all Local Stock "had" to have the exact same dwarfism genetics because that's the "default" LOL because giving them a random height/build would have made too much sense. Local Stock don't all have the same color or stats, just the same dwarfism.
Also Local Stock don't exist to buy anymore. Now there's "Native Breds" which are just mare-only horses using the same recycled lines LS had except now you have to set their breed. It's not a custom, you don't get to pick anything about the horse but the breed. For $5 a pop, frankly I expect more than a likely low quality mare that may or may not be useful to me and damn sure ain't gonna be useful to anyone else unless I pick a popular breed to play with. Not at all a decent value compared to most games imho.
Also the site is still buggy and SLOW as hell. Why should it take 100 clicks just to train one horse for one day, waiting for the page to load in between each click? It easily takes an hour a day just for one horse, and that isn't even fully training it either. That'll take you at least a couple irl months to do.
And an example of something that should have never been a problem if the site was coded decently: if you show your horses and then for whatever reason the shows don't run on time, if you dare continue entering shows, then when the backlog of shows do finally run your horse is likely to be injured for 'over showing' it. That is an extreme logic failure that needs corrected like, years ago. I saw someone post a complaint about this happening and permo injuring their horses. No response from the owner, of course. Just a bunch of members acting like this was a well known situation and that player should have known not to show their horses.
When your site is so broken players have to tell other players the solution is to just not play it and it's their fault if the site fucks their horses up... just, LOL.
Also I noticed the owner spends a lot of her time trolling other forums like VirtualPetList.com while the site is down. It's like, dude, work on your own site before you brag about how great you think you are on another forum.
The site is almost dead. There's maybe 30 studs, all breeds, that have semen up for sale (basically no studs standing live of course, since live breeding will permo injure or kill your horse). Even some of the million dollar futurities have zero entries, and the rest five entries maximum.
There's only like a dozen people who post on the forums (understandable if even a few of the rumors are true).
It's kind of sad to see any game die, but well, when not even the owner plays their own game...
You know, on a lot of levels, I really enjoy playing the game. Messing around with genetics is fun. The horses are pretty. It's really addictive. But there are so many issues.
There are so many bugs! Everything is constantly being changed, and while some of the changes are pretty cool, it feels like it's being cobbled together haphazardly and nothing really works well. And every change takes so long to implement. For the longest time, you couldn't even train your horses! If you have a ranch of any size at all, you probably get a lot of your income through showing horses, and it's pretty hard to do that if you can't train! And even now, training is very glitchy. But, instead of fixing the glitches, instead we've gone on to changing how the foals display pattern. Which means that all patterning has been removed from the foals. For nearly a game year. And running. My new crop of foals? Yeah, no way to tell if they have a pattern you can't test for.
Now that the training is working more or less, it's pretty cool in a way. You have a lot more control over how you train your horses. Unfortunately, it also takes FOREVER! It takes, what, seven clicks for ten minutes of training? It's kind of doable, if you only have a couple horses to train, or if you're doing absolutely nothing else with your life. But if you're like most people, who have a job and a family and cooking or cleaning or home repairs or hobbies or a social life, well, yeah, it just doesn't work. I get that we're going for hyper-realism here, but if I wanted to actually spend that much time on a horse related activity, I'd just get a real one. It's a game, but to play it with any real success, to get in depth with it at all, you have to play it like a lifestyle.
Another big issue is how long it takes for administration to respond to tickets. Trades sit in the forums for weeks awaiting a confirmation that would take mere seconds. It's a travesty. I've gotten to the point where I won't even bother. I don't know why anyone would use trading to get a gift certificate when you probably won't even get that GC that breeding season. You can have everything planned out so neatly, and it won't matter because Jim won't get around to confirming anything. So you'll have to sit on whatever it was you needed to trade - whether it was ER money (better not spend that, no matter how long it takes!) or a horse in trade (that animal better not get sick or injured in the meantime!) And if you've got a glitch of some kind that's messing with your ability to breed or train? Well, it sucks to be you!
And, as mentioned, there was the dwarfism thing. For a game that claims to be oh so realistic, there are sure a crazy amount of dwarfs! Using local stock turned out to be the world's biggest bait-and-switch! Oh, you thought you were helping your herd by introducing new blood? You paid actual real-life money for that stock, thinking you were getting a certain kind of horse? Well, let's suddenly change that for you! Let's turn all your already purchased and already used local stock into animals you wouldn't have touched with a ten foot pole if you had known, let alone bred into your best lines of carefully molded champions! Your well-trained Thoroughbred that was winning all the races and had an extraordinary in speed? You invested hours of time into training him, buckets of game money (and probably real money) into the horses that went into his breeding? After months of patience, he's won a World Championship and you hoped you could make a killing using him as a stud? Ha, sorry, he's a stubby little dwarf now and no one will touch him with a ten foot pole.
You know, cool, add a dwarfism feature. But, at the very least, make it rare, and for crying out loud, don't just sweepingly decimate the value of a whole category of horses, especially if every single one of those horses represents money paid directly from the player to you, expecting to get the valuable horse that was originally advertised. It's nothing short of a scam.
Then there's the way that the forums are so very hostile to anyone who is trying to figure out how to play the game! God forbid you don't read the forum in its entirety before asking a question! (Never mind that most of the information there is hopelessly out of date, and the knowledge base hasn't been updated in god knows how long.) Or god forbid that you try and play the game but haven't worked extensively with real horses, because the go-to answer is always "just do what you would do with a real horse." The big pretense is that Equine Ranch is just exactly like having a real horse. Except, of course, it isn't. It's pretty close in a lot of ways, but there are a million more ways where, sorry, real life just doesn't work that way. Things are simplified, things are guessed at. It's not exact, not even close. But if you dare to mention this fact, you will get POUNDED. There is nothing Nikki pounces on quicker than anyone who dares hint that ER is not exactly like real life, except maybe someone who catches her in a mistake. The snark is strong with this one. She can never address things directly or professionally. It's all heavy sarcasm, escalating to ad hominem attacks and full-on verbal abuse. As publicly as possible. I remember trying to ask something once about a genetic thing, just honestly interested and trying to figure out how it worked. I got shut down with a "how is it in real life?" response. Thing was, I had already researched that thing in real horses, and I wasn't coming up with a conclusive answer. I asked for clarification, and she decided that I was "contradicting" her and got really sarcastic and dismissive, treating it like a personal attack on her intelligence or something. But, in her sarcasm, she happened to drop a couple more hints, some terms to describe the genetics, that gave me another clue. I searched the internet for those terms, and could not find them in connection with horses, but did find them in connection with dogs. In fact, all the information I could find was very clear - laid out as unmistakably as "in horses, it's this way, but in dogs, it's this way."
Of course, I knew better than to share that discovery in the forums. I had already seen how Nikki can build an attack out of nothing, and then "counterattack" in the most appalling, brutal, and juvenile way imaginable. It is forbidden to challenge the myth that ER is exactly like life, or that Nikki is infallible.
I hear a lot of people defending her because supposedly, the people she goes off on had some sort of violation of the rules in the past, and thus "deserved" it. As far as I'm concerned, there is no excuse for that kind of behavior in a professional setting (or, honestly, any setting.) If someone breaks the rules and needs to be reprimanded, that reprimand should be delivered privately, and professionally. If someone needs to be banned, then ban them. But going off on tirades and attacking people personally - yeah, that's just nuts. And, honestly, I have yet to see anyone speak to Nikki the way she speaks to others. Even when people are upset, they still tiptoe, they backtrack, they try to placate her. But she invariably reacts to a mosquito bite with a nuclear bomb.
You know, this game could be really, really good. But what Nikki and Jim don't seem to realize is, no matter how good the game, if you can't keep your customer base happy, your game will fail. It is not all about you, your ego, your manias. If Nikki spent half the time she spends trying to "upgrade" the game, and spent it in trying to control her temper and maintain what she has, ER would be in far better shape.
I'm yet another anon. I have to say that this game really really does suck now. All I ever see in the forums is either the owner complaining that if sales don't pick up the same will close, and a few players desperately holding on trying to convince others to buy stuff. Oh and the amount they pledged is laughable compared to what sales would need. Oh and a few months ago the owner was begging for her players to donate money for her dog's surgery. It is ridiculous!
I am not comfortable putting time and effort into a game run by someone so bad with money they have to BEG. Seriously, if you can't afford a relatively cheap emergency surgery maybe you shouldn't have 5 large dogs? I mean my bulldog's breeder even had it in the contract we needed insurance. And it's cheap! OH and then she COMPLAINED on the forum that it flopped. People donated over $500 to her dog. What an entitled bitch. That really rubbed me the wrong way. It was so unprofessional.
Like the poster above me, I too have seen the owner's rude and mean behavior. Of course because she has aspergers isn't held accountable for it. She even went so far as to put it in THE GAME RULES. No wonder people walk on eggshells.
Of course the owner has been throwing temper tantrums long before I joined so most of the players just got used to it. That's not why sales are tanking. That's because the new changes makes the game unplayable for the people who can actually afford to buy stuff: people with jobs. Training takes too long. It wouldn't be bad if you have 1 or 2 to train. But you HAVE to train multiples just so you have enough competition. Competition took a hit when they hired trainers went away and now it is even worse. There is no point in training at all. Not enough competition to title.
Which leaves breeding. Except now it takes almost an entire month to get your foals. This game has gone from something I played every day to something I only need to log into every 2 weeks. My bank account is better for it though I haven't bought anything for ages. And apparently that is becoming the norm.
ER is going to close down from lack of sales. I've put up all my stock for sale for those who want to sink with the ship.
And now there are new "updates." Do they fix any of the previous issues? Can you take pictures of your horses again? Can you see your foals' pattern?
Nope.
Now, a quarter of the screen is taken up by a chat window THAT IS IMPOSSIBLE TO CLOSE. You heard me. You are forced to be in chat at all times. And you have to use a scroll bar to see the entirety of your normal window.
And what do we get in exchange for this forced chat? A screwed-up and glitchy herd explorer, an inability to move horses around from pasture to barn, completely non-functioning frozen semen page, and god knows what else. Yeah, that's right - to get this freaking annoying permanent chat window, you now can't access your frozen semen RIGHT IN THE FREAKING MIDDLE OF BREEDING SEASON!
Has Nikki lost her freaking mind?
I guess this is the first half of a two-part "update," but considering she never resolved the foal pattern thing she started, who knows if this will ever be finished?
Apparently people haven't been able to order imports for a while, and it's still taking forever for trades to get approved. If they're hurting for money, why make it harder/impossible to do trades or imports? That's a potential huge source of income! It makes no sense!
Training is impossibly slow, breeding is now screwed up, so what on earth is left to do on ER? Oh wait, I know! Chat!
ER sucks because the stupid fucking chat window. I don't like being forced to interact before the forced window the only one ever in chat was the game owner. What? Was she so lonely she had to force people into the chat window? LMAO
What are the alternatives to ER that you guys have flocked to?
Vintage is still up, but Advanced seems to be MIA... thoughts? I wonder if it's finally gone for good. I invested a substantial amount of money in the game during the time I played it (2010 - 2015), but as soon as they switched to the new images things started going downhill. I wish I could just play the game that I personally started with (which, I believe was V4?).. I also believe that that was the peak of the game's revenue. Whenever I think about it, it's truly baffling why anyone thought things needed to be changed.
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