An April’s fools joke should in my opinon walk the thin line between truth and obvious joke. At the first (and second perhaps) glance it should look like it is for real, but when you really start thinking about it you’ll soon find out that it has to be a joke.
With this in mind I have to say that our fools joke this year was really good, and from the reactions on the forums so did most managers. Far from everyone fell for it naturally, but some did and others were convinced it was a joke – but had to set their settings anyway as they felt they weren’t 100% sure.
What I think was really cool was that there were so many who openly confessed on the forums that they had fell for it, and I especially enjoyed reading about those who first rushed to the forums in anger over the stupid new feature (but then calmed down when they realized it was just a fools joke). Confessing like this is quite uncommon for humans I think, as we in general rather don’t tell anyone that we’ve been fooled if we don’t have to. But here people confessed and then had a laugh about it; just shows that Hattrickers are something extra.
Anyway, 47778 mangers set their pitch settings. Which doesn’t mean all of them are fools, quite naturally many did it just for fun. The most popular grass type was Kentucky Bluegrass followed by Perennial Ryegrass. Conclusion: We like homegrown oldies?
Gradient is not common in real life when it comes to football pitches, and neither here in Hattrick. Some 65% had set their at 0. Only 15% set the gradient to 15 degrees or more by the way. Further more it’s clear that the grass is kept relatively short in Hattrick, about 80% had it at 50mm or less. The rugged area around the keeper was also mostly kept at 0, and the 2/3 choose round goal posts.
The most interesting stats are for the cut pattern though. My personal favorite was the star (if I’m allowed to say so, I was really satisfied with the silly description “All players that get more stars than they should get an additional star”), but “only” 8% choose that one. The most common cut pattern was the diamond (30%) followed by the labyrinth (26%) and then the stripes (19%). So, conclusion is that people rather want to impress fans/sponsors than getting a very nice benefit (opponent having it harder to score). How sweet. π
And just for the record, and as a reply to those who think this joke took a lot of time/effort and could be better spent on other things. It didn’t take much time to do this and it didn’t require much dev effort. Remember, we didn’t have to think about game balance, testing etc etc. All that was needed was a “dummy” page which close to no logic behind and some decriptions. And when you just can let your creativity go nuts to 100% without thinking about balance restrictions and what not, it’s a pretty fast job.
We did this joke and earlier ones for the fun of it. No more, no less. We have a lot of fun creating them (and I know most of you enjoy them as well) , and I also think it’s nice to show another side of us. One doesn’t need to take oneself too serious, you know. There’s a time for everything, and I certainly believe that jokes of this kind have a place in Hattrick as well. Because having a good laugh is never a bad thing.
knowing it was a joke i cannot deny that i would have been glad to see the pitch settings implemented π
It was a really good joke.
Some of the options I wish they were for real to be honest. Great job and keep it up, This time I’m enjoying hattrick way more than I did in 2004.
47.778 people crazy about Hattrick! π
It was a very nice joke. It made me laugh when I saw the option.
Keep on going with this pratical jokes, love them!
I was one of those many fools. It looked so real. I didn’t expact that much effort in one d*mn good aprilfool prank π I almost sold some of my players, based on the posabilities of the pitch settings.
Muy buena la broma al principio de verdad me engaΓ±aron busque por todos lados como cuadrar lo de la grama y nada jajajaj chistes y bromas como estas a veses son muy buenas ya que la mayoria de los fanaticos y los que queremos mucho este juego nos tomamos muy en serio estas cosas un abraso
I really enjoyed it very much… π Please keep it up…
Thanks!
I appreciate that staff does think about nice atmosphere in a hattrick environment and i must say that I was tricked too π
Funniest things of those was 45 degree pitch(!) and damn long grass π
Thanks.
We had much fun with gradient. Can you imagine 45Β°? π
good joke. and a good function without the gradient and all the fanciful descriptions of how the cut and the length of the chosen grass can affect game performance. a star-shaped cut is unheard of in real football, but we do have the striped cut and square cuts. anyway the function lives on in the selection of the grass, so thanks for introducing a small function and a new dimension to the game
I thought it could very well be real, but that’s not a compliment to the developers — in any other game it would have been obvious that kind of ridiculous changes can not be true, but in Hattrick just could not be sure.
knew it was a joke, been waiting what HT will do on April 1 after that clown speciality last year
Is this the thing you guys were working on like you mentioned in the previous post? Because when it is I hope you will never blog on a new feature again.
If this isnt the option you were blogging about, then im still curious what it will be. Plz tell me!
regards,
This pitch settings fools joke is not what we invited testers to our office for, if that’s what you mean. That would be a waste.
2 hours of my life wasted.. I’ve got a paper full of useless whats for what grass settings now. Thanks a lot π
great joke, totally fell for it π respect
Stupid joke. In the spirit of the aprils fools joke it should about something that one could easy understand was a joke if you use a litle comon sense. Not something so close up to reality that people become in doubt. The spirit also tells that it should be about something that so the victim will get relifed when he becomes aware it is a joke. Not disipointed. In other words; you failed about this.
I Knew it was an April fools joke but I set my pitch anyway because… why not? π
It was fun. Loved the ones who thought it was real, they were a laugh π
Anyway, it was much funnier and fun than the annoying ball from last year π
cheers
We want better engine !!!!!
It’s useless and wasting your time , energy. Better for you to launch the real improvements in the game.
And the most important thing is: my friends and I agree that IT IS NOT FUNNY AT ALL.
@Brillant-Manager => Do you have a lot of friends ? And wasting time to play hattrick ? Remember it’s a game, just a game, and some time it’s good to take a break.
Well “bon travail les gars*” (*= Good job men )
I didn’t think for a second that it was real, and I must say that your translators to other languages were equally inspired. In croatian version, there was an option “Plava trava zaborava” (in english that would be something like “Blue grass of oblivion”), which is the name of a rock band that was popular here some 20 years ago π
Even though it was a joke, I thought some of this could be implemented for real. For example real or artificial grass could make a difference in the end result of a game. It could influence players with a certain speciality.
Nevertheless; this was a good joke π
Nq.
Those who think this was not funny are probably the ones who fell for it and are bitter about it. Best April’s Fool joke I’ve seen so far on HT, and one of the best in general. Grats to the HT developers!