How to get karma

OK, so karma seems to be a bit of a 'secret' topic on Howrse as you're not allowed to discuss it in the forums. We're not entirely sure why (maybe it's to stop a deluge of questions) so we've put this post together to give you the basics of how karma works, how to get it and how to lose it.

This is what Howrse says about karma:

'Karma responds to your reputation within the game. The higher your karma, the better your reputation and you gain access to more areas of the game. Likewise, negative karma is a sign of a bad reputation and may limit your access to certain areas or features of the game.'

Here's how you can earn karma:

• You get a karma point for every 30 days registration on Howrse
• You get a karma point for every set of 10 passes you buy
• You get a karma point every time 5 people you have sponsored reach their first karma point.

These are the only ways to obtain karma. Occasionally you can also win karma points in contests and promotions such as the recent jigsaw puzzle contest, although these occasions are rare.

Well, once you've got karma you can do several things with it:

• You earn 1 pass for every 5 karma points you collect
• You gain access to the private sales once you have 3 karma points (although new players can now 'buy' their way into the sales by purchasing the Business Key, even if they have less than 3 karma points)
• You can create 1 affix for your horses for every 2 karma points you collect
• You can create breeding farms once you have 3 karma points

You will find that players with higher karma command more trust and respect on the game. It is a measure that you are a longstanding and fair player. For example, if you are trading horses or BM items with another player it is usual for the player with the lower karma to fulfil their part of the trade first.

And don't forget, if you break the rules you can also lose karma in several ways:

• By posting rude or offensive messages, advertisements or spam via PM or in the forums
• Having inappropriate content on your page or in your EC forum
• Selling a horse for more than 20 passes or a divine for more than 200 passes (using other horses to do so)
• Cheating
• Having more than one account (multi-accounting)
• Trying to steal other players accounts

That's a quick overview of karma - remember if you play the game fairly you will never have any problems about losing karma.

You can check out your karma by going to profile - my account - my karma.

Lucy

Harrassment and bullying on Howrse

Here at Ultimate Howrse, LucyLou and I enjoy helping players, giving advice and news as well as seeing all the chat and help our readers share in the Comments sections. Generally, everyone is polite and friendly but sometimes we receive comments that are rude, offensive or unkind. Fortunately, all comments that are sent to Ultimate Howrse have to be approved by us before they are published. Now we are pretty easy-going here, but occasionally if a comment is too nasty or impolite then we simply delete it.

And this brings me on to Howrse. We were asked by a player to write about bullying and harrassment in the game, and how to deal with it. The player concerned had themselves, been subject to harrassment whilst playing Howrse and so wanted to help other people who had similar experiences.

So here is our advice for dealing with bullies on Howrse:

• 99% of the time, people who send you offensive or threatening emails do not know you in 'real' life. You are just a name on an online game. They know nothing about you - where you live, how old you are or even if you own a horse or not. So these emails/messages are often sent to loads of people in order to get a response. It's often just attention-seeking. They don't know you! So always ensure you do not provide any personal information on your Profile. If you do, that's your choice, but it's safer to keep your private life, well, private.

• When you receive a nasty email, Howrse has two brilliant ways of dealing with it. Firstly you can simply report the sender. I've done it loads of times - but ONLY if the email breaks the rules set down by Howrse of course. This is what it says on your Private Mail page: "Never use personal messages to send advertisement or spam. If you encounter an abuse please report it by using the link Report an abuse located at the bottom of each message." And believe me, Howrse DO take action against players. They will (and do) dock the karma of offending players. Very satisfying to see! The second thing you can do is to block the offending player from sending you any more emails. Next to each email you get is a simple link, underneath the Report an Abuse link which allows you to block the player - for ever, if you like. 

• Now players are also harrassed in their forums. The forums don't have the same 'report' and 'block' features that you find in Private Mail, so what should you do if someone is leaving nasty messages? Well you can report them to a Moderator. I've done it before and the person had karma docked. Players who post offensive things in your EC forum are rather stupid because other players can see what they're writing. You simply need to ignore it - let them keep writing their silly, attention-seeking messages, and inform a Moderator.

• Myself and LucyLou are adult players, so have seen plenty of times when people have tried to bully or intimidate someone. It is important to remember, that, unless you actually know these people in real life - there is NOTHING they can do to you. To be honest, much of this sort of thing (not all of course) comes from younger players who are just behaving immaturely. I ignore most of the stupid or offensive rubbish that arrives in my Inbox on Howrse. But as soon as something becomes unacceptable, I just hit that Report an Abuse link, and get on with playing the game. I never get into a discussion - that's what these immature people want. Ignore and report is my advice. 

• But what if, on those rare, rare occasions, you DO know this person in real life? Well, again, because they are not especially clever, you already have something to help you - their bullying, harrassment is right there, in writing. Whenever someone emails you or posts in your forum, they are leaving evidence. Proof of what they have said. So, if you know this person in real life, tell your parents/guardians or someone you trust. Show them what's been said and let them help you sort it out.

• Bullying and harassment from an unkown person is often scary because you imagine all sorts of things about who they are and what they are going to do. In reality, they are probably a girl or a  boy who is actually rather insecure and can only make themselves feel better by sending nasty emails to a heap of people, just hoping to get a reaction. If they get a reaction it makes them feel like they have acheived something. So ignoring them is a simple and brilliant way to deal with them. They CAN'T do anything to you. They just need to grow up and realise that they will get so much more out of life when are nice and kind and respectful of other people. Just like here on Ultimate Howrse!

• Finally, if you find that you are still worried, scared or upset by things that people may be saying to you on Howrse, please tell someone, such as your parents. It's always better to share your concerns because it makes eveything seem so much better. Remember, Howrse is just a GAME and you have every right to play the game however you want - as long as you play by the rules and treat others how you want to be treated.

I hope this helps any of you who have had problems whilst playing the game. Now as this a sensitive subject, we ask that you don't send comments for publication as we won't be publishing them. This is only because this article was written to give some help to those who need it. It is not really a Howrse-related subject but we felt it was an important issue that LucyLou and I wanted to address.

So play Howrse, enjoy the game and HAVE FUN!

Patsy

Win a new Emerald Divine horse

As expected, Howrse have announced the arrival of Emerald, the new Divine horse in the game.                                                                            
You can get the chance of winning an Emerald buy opening a Horn of Plenty between now (23rd September 2011) and the 27th September at 8am Game Time.
Although Howrse seem a little confused as it says 10am on another page!



Here's the Howrse announcement:

Emerald is in the Horns of Plenty! - 23rd September 2011 Try your luck at getting an Emerald by opening a Horn of Plenty!

Today 23th of September, you could get lucky while opening your Horns of Plenty ! Everyone has a chance to catch their own Emerald by opening a Horn of Plenty until Tuesday 27th of September at 8am game time! For those who haven't met Emerald yet, she is a Divine horse and she can be bred with Sapphire to give birth to the new divine Topaz.
If you have won an Emerald in a Horn of Plenty don't worry, sometimes she takes a few minutes to get to your account. And don't forget the Calendar this weekend, you could get lucky too!
We wish you luck!
The Howrse Team

So at present you can only get an Emerald in a HoP, IF you're lucky.  Now this is what we know about Emerald Divines' right now:

• They are female and can reproduce but ONLY with a Sapphire Divine
• Emeralds will give birth to a Topaz Divine horse
• They have 1200 skills in total

Plenty of Emerald Divine's have been won already, so if you're feel lucky, try a HoP. But beware - they cost money!

Good luck,

Patsy

September Calendar continues

The September Calendar giveaway continues and so far, all of the daily objectives have been pretty straightforward. This is great as it means almost every player can take part, which is good news for everyone.

And to be honest, the prizes we've all been given have been rather good too. Today, 20th September, the objective for the day is to congratulate three players. Lovely and easy. But it gets better. The prize for completing this simple task is a Horn of Plenty. Amazing!

So with all the Black Market items, cash and more we've all been collecting, the September Calendar is proving to be a huge success for all us intrepid Howrse players. Let's just hope the daily objectives stay accessible to everyone.

Enjoy September!

Patsy

Equestrian Centre - boxes needed for max lesson gains

We often get asked how many boxes you need to achieve maximum lesson gains for your EC. This has always been a tricky one to answer because so many factors affect how well your EC ranks. Obviously you need to have excellent meadows, competitions, mashes, carrots and stables, with the largest boxes as well as horses with high dressage skills and the right number of employees.

However, a key factor has always been the number of boxes your EC needs in order for you to achieve high lesson gains, with a 60 equus price. Well the moderator Zepharo has today confirmed that players need just 20 boxes to achieve this.

Now be careful with this statement. If you just buy 20 boxes, you won't achieve a high lesson gain and high prestige. You need all of the other elements in your equestrian centre to be at the right level too. So for example having horses with 350 in dressage will not result in a high prestige EC.

This confirmation from Howrse does help those of you who are starting out and need to have some sort of guideline regarding box numbers. So good luck with your EC and remember to rotate your fields so you always have 100% fertitlity.

Good luck,

Patsy

The September Calendar

To celebrate the end of summer Howrse have today introduced the September Calendar.

You can win goodies such as as saddles, turnips, equus and Black Market items by logging into Howrse each day and visiting the calendar page. The calendar can be found by following the link at the bottom of your home page when you log in.

Each day you will need to complete a mission to be able to open the calendar door and get your prize.

Today, 1st September, the mission is to give 5 apples to other players horses. Once you have done this you can go to the calendar, open the first door and win the prize - a Pluotos' Parchment.

To win all the prizes you do need to log in each day. If you miss a day you can't go back to complete the missed mission you can only do the current day's.

So keep logging in and happy calendar opening!

Lucy

Updates to Equestrian Centres

Howrse have today (August 30th 2011) announced some small changes to the way Equestrian Centres run.

They have increased the wages (which is good news for employees, maybe less so for employers!) on all Equestrain Centre jobs. The game will have automatically changed your current employee salaries to match the new maximums and minimums.

You can now also set the maximum length of boarding in your Equestrian Centre. Simply go to the boarding tab in your EC office. You can set it anywhere between 5 and 30 days. This is great if you want to stop players leaving their lower skilled or ill horses in your EC for a long time.

Howrse have also introduced some new animations that you can add to your horses page for free. The range now includes balloons, fireworks and lightning (all quite scary for horses!).

Lucy