Hattrick
Encyclopedia
Hattrick is an online
, browser-based
, football
management game (MMOG
) developed in Sweden
. Currently the game contains 128 different countries, each with its own league pyramid
, and 51 different language versions (as of march 2011). As of October 1, 2011, the game had over 700,000 users (although the user base has been declining since February 2009), each with their own team
. Hattrick is in its 45th season and has been running since August 30, 1997. Most users cite Season 11, which began October 15, 2000, as the beginning of Hattrick as it is today.
The game is free to play, though there is an optional premium Supporter Service as well as a Mobile Service, both available by in-game purchase. As with any manager game, the player must assign positions to the players and choose among some basic tactical and strategic options. Hattrick is always under development
, and the game developers often add new features to the game. These additions, and proposed ideas, are usually accompanied by debate in the game's forum
.
The basic idea of Hattrick is to manage a football
team wisely, whether it be in buying and selling players, setting the team's lineup, or expanding the arena to the perfect size. Every user in Hattrick has a team of his/her own. The user has wide control over their team, and gameplay is mainly limited by economic and tactical restrictions. Many different types of teams exist within Hattrick; the team's type is generally shaped by the training program set up by the user, as well as the formations played.
; depending on the division level of the team and the team's relative performance when compared with other winners from their level, the league winner either auto-promotes to the next level or plays a qualification match against a team from the higher division.
Winners in divisions II — VI will auto-promote if they are in the top half of the ranking among other winners in their league level, as determined by total points and goals. If the team is in the bottom half, they will draw a qualifier opponent. Winners in divisions VII and below automatically promote. In addition, depending on the level, teams who place 2nd in the lower divisions may also promote, as detailed in the table above. At every level except the bottom division in a country, the teams placing 5th or 6th must play a qualifier against a team from the division below them. Teams placing 7th or 8th automatically demote to a division below theirs, and are replaced by auto-promotees.
s" to ask questions about the game, as well as both country-level and global "non-HT" forums, in which free discussion of topics outside of Hattrick may occur.
Each included country also has a national cup that is played by all teams through a knockout system.
The winners of the top division and cup of each country gain spots in the Hattrick Masters. If one team is champion of the crown and major league, it is the sole representative of its country.
The countries with the largest number of users are Argentina
, Denmark
, Germany
, England
, France
, Italy
, Mexico
, Finland
, Sweden
and United States
. The United States and England are in the 41st season of league.
The purchase of Hattrick Supporter unlocks a number of optional features. "Hattrick Supporter will not give your team any in-game advantages, but rather deepen your experience of the game," according to the game developers.
outside of Hattrick.org which use any form of automation (such as scanning pages) must be CHPP certified. CHPP Applications take many forms. Manager Assistants such as Hattrick Assistant Manager (HAM) and Hattrick Organizer (HO!) generally help managers by organizing various team data graphically and archiving that data. Manager Assistants also usually offer some sort of lineup calculator that calculates the ratings teams will achieve with a certain lineup. Match Viewers offer an enhanced method of viewing matches live beyond the in-game HT Live. Statistics scanners such as Alltid offer in-depth analysis of Hattrick data. NT/U20 Trackers such as HT-World and Türkiye U20 Player Database help NT/U20 coaches to follow players easily. Other CHPP applications include Friendly Cup Assistants, browser
plugins, and even online betting. Applications that are CHPP certified display a CHPP logo, and Hattrick users may login to the applications using their Hattrick username and password which produces an OAuth token for use with CHPP.
case study into whether online simulation games, such as Hattrick, could be used as a business model for online betting and gambling businesses. The conclusion was "Online gambling on simulated sport events is a very interesting proposition with good prospects in the future; further research and piloting projects are however needed before one can give any conclusive answer to the actual future value of such services."
It has also been used as the basis for a Lund University
academic paper, "Time Extraction from Real-time Generated Football Reports", presented at the Nordic Conference of Computational Linguistics in Tartu, Estonia, 2007. The paper proposed sorting events in football match reports, per sentence, based on a classification scheme
(e.g., result-change, save, finish, pre-finish) and implemented the approach in proof of concept
tool. For Swedish
, the approach was better than naively assuming that events occurred in the same order as they appear in the match report.
initiative, through banner adverts on the Hattrick website and financial donations matching those of Hattrick players.
Online game
An online game is a game played over some form of computer network. This almost always means the Internet or equivalent technology, but games have always used whatever technology was current: modems before the Internet, and hard wired terminals before modems...
, browser-based
Browser game
A browser game is a computer game that is played over the Internet using a web browser. Browser games can be created and run using standard web technologies or browser plug-ins. Browser games include all video game genres and can be single-player or multiplayer...
, football
Football (soccer)
Association football, more commonly known as football or soccer, is a sport played between two teams of eleven players with a spherical ball...
management game (MMOG
Massively multiplayer online game
A massively multiplayer online game is a multiplayer video game which is capable of supporting hundreds or thousands of players simultaneously. By necessity, they are played on the Internet, and usually feature at least one persistent world. They are, however, not necessarily games played on...
) developed in Sweden
Sweden
Sweden , officially the Kingdom of Sweden , is a Nordic country on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe. Sweden borders with Norway and Finland and is connected to Denmark by a bridge-tunnel across the Öresund....
. Currently the game contains 128 different countries, each with its own league pyramid
League system
A league system is a hierarchy of leagues in a sport, usually with a system of promotion and relegation between consecutive levels of the hierarchy. They are often called pyramids due to their tendency to split into an increasing number of regional divisions the further down the pyramid one descends...
, and 51 different language versions (as of march 2011). As of October 1, 2011, the game had over 700,000 users (although the user base has been declining since February 2009), each with their own team
Team
A team comprises a group of people or animals linked in a common purpose. Teams are especially appropriate for conducting tasks that are high in complexity and have many interdependent subtasks.A group in itself does not necessarily constitute a team...
. Hattrick is in its 45th season and has been running since August 30, 1997. Most users cite Season 11, which began October 15, 2000, as the beginning of Hattrick as it is today.
The game is free to play, though there is an optional premium Supporter Service as well as a Mobile Service, both available by in-game purchase. As with any manager game, the player must assign positions to the players and choose among some basic tactical and strategic options. Hattrick is always under development
Software engineering
Software Engineering is the application of a systematic, disciplined, quantifiable approach to the development, operation, and maintenance of software, and the study of these approaches; that is, the application of engineering to software...
, and the game developers often add new features to the game. These additions, and proposed ideas, are usually accompanied by debate in the game's forum
Bulletin board system
A Bulletin Board System, or BBS, is a computer system running software that allows users to connect and log in to the system using a terminal program. Once logged in, a user can perform functions such as uploading and downloading software and data, reading news and bulletins, and exchanging...
.
Basics
Football (soccer)
Association football, more commonly known as football or soccer, is a sport played between two teams of eleven players with a spherical ball...
team wisely, whether it be in buying and selling players, setting the team's lineup, or expanding the arena to the perfect size. Every user in Hattrick has a team of his/her own. The user has wide control over their team, and gameplay is mainly limited by economic and tactical restrictions. Many different types of teams exist within Hattrick; the team's type is generally shaped by the training program set up by the user, as well as the formations played.
League pyramid
Each included (not all fifa countries are, but they are added when needed) country has its own league pyramid. Abandoned teams in high levels of the league pyramid are not given to new players until the team demotes to one of the bottom two levels of their country's pyramid. As a result, new users begin at the bottom of their country's pyramid and have to work their way up by winning their division at each level. Each division has eight teams competing for the league title. When new players join, their division is randomly selected by the administrator who handles their registration application. If a player is successful enough to win their division, he or she has the opportunity to promote to the next level the following seasonSeason
A season is a division of the year, marked by changes in weather, ecology, and hours of daylight.Seasons result from the yearly revolution of the Earth around the Sun and the tilt of the Earth's axis relative to the plane of revolution...
; depending on the division level of the team and the team's relative performance when compared with other winners from their level, the league winner either auto-promotes to the next level or plays a qualification match against a team from the higher division.
| Position | Division I Result | Div. II, III, IV, V | Div. VI | Div. VII and below (odd) | Div. VIII and below (even) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1st | National Champion | Auto-promotion or Qualifier | Auto-promotion | ||
| 2nd | |||||
| 3rd | Team stays in their current league | ||||
| 4th | |||||
| 5th | Relegation QualifierExcept for the lowest division in the country | ||||
| 6th | |||||
| 7th | Auto-Relegation | ||||
| 8th | |||||
Winners in divisions II — VI will auto-promote if they are in the top half of the ranking among other winners in their league level, as determined by total points and goals. If the team is in the bottom half, they will draw a qualifier opponent. Winners in divisions VII and below automatically promote. In addition, depending on the level, teams who place 2nd in the lower divisions may also promote, as detailed in the table above. At every level except the bottom division in a country, the teams placing 5th or 6th must play a qualifier against a team from the division below them. Teams placing 7th or 8th automatically demote to a division below theirs, and are replaced by auto-promotees.
Forums
Forums exist for every series, country, region, CHPP Program, and federation in the game, along with a Global forum. In addition, there are forums for "newbieNewbie
Newbie or noob is a slang term for a novice or newcomer, or somebody inexperienced in any profession or activity. Contemporary use can particularly refer to a beginner or new user of computers, often concerning Internet activity, such as online gaming or Linux use...
s" to ask questions about the game, as well as both country-level and global "non-HT" forums, in which free discussion of topics outside of Hattrick may occur.
League and National Cup
Each included country has a league which is divided into series. The series below the main divisions are also groups, where teams play each other in two legs, the number of sets and groups are defined according to the number of users in the country.Each included country also has a national cup that is played by all teams through a knockout system.
The winners of the top division and cup of each country gain spots in the Hattrick Masters. If one team is champion of the crown and major league, it is the sole representative of its country.
The countries with the largest number of users are Argentina
Argentina
Argentina , officially the Argentine Republic , is the second largest country in South America by land area, after Brazil. It is constituted as a federation of 23 provinces and an autonomous city, Buenos Aires...
, Denmark
Denmark
Denmark is a Scandinavian country in Northern Europe. The countries of Denmark and Greenland, as well as the Faroe Islands, constitute the Kingdom of Denmark . It is the southernmost of the Nordic countries, southwest of Sweden and south of Norway, and bordered to the south by Germany. Denmark...
, Germany
Germany
Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...
, England
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
, France
France
The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...
, Italy
Italy
Italy , officially the Italian Republic languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Italy's official name is as follows:;;;;;;;;), is a unitary parliamentary republic in South-Central Europe. To the north it borders France, Switzerland, Austria and...
, Mexico
Mexico
The United Mexican States , commonly known as Mexico , is a federal constitutional republic in North America. It is bordered on the north by the United States; on the south and west by the Pacific Ocean; on the southeast by Guatemala, Belize, and the Caribbean Sea; and on the east by the Gulf of...
, Finland
Finland
Finland , officially the Republic of Finland, is a Nordic country situated in the Fennoscandian region of Northern Europe. It is bordered by Sweden in the west, Norway in the north and Russia in the east, while Estonia lies to its south across the Gulf of Finland.Around 5.4 million people reside...
, Sweden
Sweden
Sweden , officially the Kingdom of Sweden , is a Nordic country on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe. Sweden borders with Norway and Finland and is connected to Denmark by a bridge-tunnel across the Öresund....
and United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
. The United States and England are in the 41st season of league.
Premium features
Though Hattrick is free to play, the game has an optional pay-to-play feature called Hattrick Supporter. Hattrick Limited earns additional revenue through the Hattrick Mobile service, and through the more traditional merchandise offerings in the game's shop.The purchase of Hattrick Supporter unlocks a number of optional features. "Hattrick Supporter will not give your team any in-game advantages, but rather deepen your experience of the game," according to the game developers.
Outside
The large Hattrick community has expanded the reach of the game well beyond the hattrick.org website. Many supplemental websites for the game seek to explain the game's inner workings to new players, while others simply offer easier methods of calculation and organization.CHPP Applications
Certified Hattrick Product Providers (CHPP Applications) enhance the HTML-based game by accessing various site data from the server and using it to perform useful functions. ApplicationsApplication software
Application software, also known as an application or an "app", is computer software designed to help the user to perform specific tasks. Examples include enterprise software, accounting software, office suites, graphics software and media players. Many application programs deal principally with...
outside of Hattrick.org which use any form of automation (such as scanning pages) must be CHPP certified. CHPP Applications take many forms. Manager Assistants such as Hattrick Assistant Manager (HAM) and Hattrick Organizer (HO!) generally help managers by organizing various team data graphically and archiving that data. Manager Assistants also usually offer some sort of lineup calculator that calculates the ratings teams will achieve with a certain lineup. Match Viewers offer an enhanced method of viewing matches live beyond the in-game HT Live. Statistics scanners such as Alltid offer in-depth analysis of Hattrick data. NT/U20 Trackers such as HT-World and Türkiye U20 Player Database help NT/U20 coaches to follow players easily. Other CHPP applications include Friendly Cup Assistants, browser
Web browser
A web browser is a software application for retrieving, presenting, and traversing information resources on the World Wide Web. An information resource is identified by a Uniform Resource Identifier and may be a web page, image, video, or other piece of content...
plugins, and even online betting. Applications that are CHPP certified display a CHPP logo, and Hattrick users may login to the applications using their Hattrick username and password which produces an OAuth token for use with CHPP.
Award
Hattrick has won the Multiplayer Online Games Directory's "Game of the Month" Award on three separate occasions: October 2002, April 2004, and most recently in November 2006.Academic study
Hattrick has been studied academically, for example being used in a University of HelsinkiUniversity of Helsinki
The University of Helsinki is a university located in Helsinki, Finland since 1829, but was founded in the city of Turku in 1640 as The Royal Academy of Turku, at that time part of the Swedish Empire. It is the oldest and largest university in Finland with the widest range of disciplines available...
case study into whether online simulation games, such as Hattrick, could be used as a business model for online betting and gambling businesses. The conclusion was "Online gambling on simulated sport events is a very interesting proposition with good prospects in the future; further research and piloting projects are however needed before one can give any conclusive answer to the actual future value of such services."
It has also been used as the basis for a Lund University
Lund University
Lund University , located in the city of Lund in the province of Scania, Sweden, is one of northern Europe's most prestigious universities and one of Scandinavia's largest institutions for education and research, frequently ranked among the world's top 100 universities...
academic paper, "Time Extraction from Real-time Generated Football Reports", presented at the Nordic Conference of Computational Linguistics in Tartu, Estonia, 2007. The paper proposed sorting events in football match reports, per sentence, based on a classification scheme
Classification scheme
In metadata a classification scheme is a hierarchical arrangement of kinds of things or groups of kinds of things. Typically it is accompanied by descriptive information of the classes or groups. A classification scheme is intended to be used for an arrangement or division of individual objects...
(e.g., result-change, save, finish, pre-finish) and implemented the approach in proof of concept
Proof of concept
A proof of concept or a proof of principle is a realization of a certain method or idea to demonstrate its feasibility, or a demonstration in principle, whose purpose is to verify that some concept or theory that has the potential of being used...
tool. For Swedish
Swedish language
Swedish is a North Germanic language, spoken by approximately 10 million people, predominantly in Sweden and parts of Finland, especially along its coast and on the Åland islands. It is largely mutually intelligible with Norwegian and Danish...
, the approach was better than naively assuming that events occurred in the same order as they appear in the match report.
Charity
ExtraLives AB and Hattrick support the Homeless World CupHomeless World Cup
-The Cause:There are one billion homeless people in our world today. This is a global issue that affects every nation.Homelessness can force people into isolation, which affects their ability to share, communicate their thoughts and work with others...
initiative, through banner adverts on the Hattrick website and financial donations matching those of Hattrick players.