The reality is this is much more of a "collector's" game and that's where the money is, literally and figuratively.

A long time "wish list" of mine is a trading platform or auction style (ebay) that let's people sell within the game landscape for cash. They would take their cut and people could choose to withdraw or put the money back into the game as passes.

Battle mode sounds extremely silly on a horse game, but if it's just an optional side thing I can ignore I'll ignore it. I don't play the game to make my horses fight each other (or other player's...?) and they already enter in competitions.

If the whole game switches to "battle mode" I'll just quit, though, because that's not why I play, and I'm not redoing my playstyle twice in one year just because they want to keep making pointless changes.

I wish they would give us a way to sell our unwanted BMIs back to them for passes

This is just speculation of course, I'm just reporting what the other forum is saying.

Maybe we're SUPER wrong and what it actually is... is a dress-up mode! Like the old Diamond apple or the Decoration event, that has been transformed in this new Decoration mode where you put tack and dresses on your pixels!

(Restriction apply. New graphics horses only. Must pay 100 passes to access mode. Additional accessories may be purchased with passes)*

It would be cool if they brought back the DA somehow! I know there were issues with it before, but they had issues with companions and got rid of them and then brought those back (ad nauseam, for that matter )

These servers couldn’t even handle a riders event let alone a whole new gameplay. This is going to be interesting lol

The issues with companions were not technical though, but gameplay related.
The system was tedious to say the least. 600 hours of play time to get 60 skills? My man, my dear devs who work in Paris, who **came up** with that?

Meanwhile the Diamond apple was just plain broken for technical reasons

I see. Well, if they ever want to try and fix it I'd be interested.

... Provided, of course, they don't release some horrible new game overhaul that makes me quit next week.

Hmmm, isn't this kind of backward then? Why take a game that has had success for years now, and try to model it or make it like a previously tried game that "closed very quickly"...doesn't sound like a very good strategy to me?

Which is why I said this is all speculation.

From what we know, which is nothing, they might as well be bringing Howrse Cup back. We only have those two pictures to stare at and speculate.

Yeah I'm a bit worried about the message too, I guess we will just have to wait and see.

My gut reaction was are they going to force us all into the mobile/app version of play, which would be horrendous. I haven't really considered/thought anything beyond that, and as for the hints, well they have passed me right by as ever

I've also received that message and I'm really afraid. I return back to game about two month ago and I was really shocked. I spent a lot of money here and have just found my goal in this game. Hope the game won't be completely redrawn, we tested future events for some reason. My hope is that the game will stop being so dependent on donations, but of course it's impossible

I just hope that it will be a sort of new competition. If they will get us to play only in mobile, I'll quite this game. I hate mobile games.

The message reads,:

"we've developed a new game mode and we'd love to hear your feedback so that we can adapt it as closely as possible to the way you play!"
---

First of all, I don't know what 'new game mode' means and second of all, when have they ever really adapted anything at all?

My gut feels sick.....

I'm not going to stress over what I don't know.

Here is what I do know. Other than occasionally my kids all play wild horse island now. They like the role play part better. They like the coat designs better and they just enjoy the feel of the game better.

Maybe the new mode will reward game play. Say take a horse for a ride for a minute and forest rides are done, then find a mountain and repeat. The only way people will adopt that mode over traditional modes is making new modes worth while.

All I hope is the new mode allows me to do more with less of my time. I honestly have no problem saving passes to pay for features and horses that do this. Also no problem spending real money for these features.

Why are Balios and Croesus so over valued in my opinion? Because they fit this more with less mentality. My personal valuation of a horse is based off the value of their perk monthly or yearly and valued out at a 2 year payback. Ie a balios I "created" is worth 13800 passes to me, a bought Balios is only worth 4600. Likewise a Croesus is only worth 2600 passes to me.

Like I said we will have to wait to see what it does for game play.

this new development could very well be the end of howrse.

a LOT of players have been saying the same things for years.
and years
and years
and years.

we have an entire FORUM dedicated to our ideas and what does howrse do?

ignore 100% of them and go on with whatever ridiculous thing corporate says will work.

did we want 90% of the changes youve implemented over the years?
no we did not.

no one is asking for changed gameplay. we are asking you to STOP PRICE GOUGING US. we are in a recession. most people cant afford food and rent and OWLIENT acts like we have $300 to blow on a silly pixel pack for useless divines with perks we didnt ask for and we cant even sell them.

not online that try to make ANY money back that youve sunk into this losing game and they will ban you and your IP so fast your head will spin.

I saw the rise of howrse and now im eating popcorn while it burns itself to the ground. we tried to tell you how to keep players playing but you dont listen to your players.

ce la vie right?

Like someone mentioned a way to add and get value out like auction services would eliminate their trafficking headaches and allow them to be the middle men. That would be genius on their part. Make all divines sellable and all horses sellable. Have a stored cash account on each person's account. The ability to buy old accounts that people want to sell. This would add a wild west feel at first but it would help their bottom line, help players staying looking for value and help players that want a cash value for their accounts.

they would have to HEAVILY regulate it. Personally i have bought over $4000 worth of passes. My account is worth about $1000 or more. With sums like that and kids involved, there would be scams left and right. Unless they were in charge which means that they would probably want 10-20% commission.

Kids have to go through parents anyway for bought passes so I can't imagine it would be that bad but maybe. Also the middle man part for howrse would be how they would make their money. That would be the greatest motivation for them. Sadly I feel the different servers would have such different values.

I'm just coming in from left field and completely derailing the current conversation, my bad but Its nagging at me that the front silhouette looks like it has an old roman empire style helmet and the sword through the shield is giving gladiator Spartan vibes, or given Howrse's penchant for Ancient Greece things, it could be something in that direction.
Now the second silhouette has had me down a rabbit hole for the past 15 minutes. I can't place the armor (if it is armor, it is giving me medieval vibes somehow, like a jousting horse ) however the spear/lance/javelin whatever it may been seems to have a pennant flag attached I pulled the meaning from google so it may be a reach " 1. : a flag with a usually tapering or forked tail that is used especially for signaling. 2. : a flag that serves as the emblem of championship."
I've just been going down an absolute warren so If my theorizing is way off, oh well I learnt new random things and had fun

Me: watching monkey head spinning for 4 seconds after every click.
Howrse: let's go testing all together and crush last speeds we have c:

Has anyone tried to figure out what the letters spell? In the various announcements there are some letters that are different style than the rest and I believe the PM even said that they had hidden clues in the announcements. Has anyone given going back through all of them a try to figure out possible answers?

It's honestly sad that mention of a big change causes tons of anxiety with the player base. I am going to hold my judgement and see what happens, but I can see why other players are so anxious.

People on the Discord did, but it doesn't reveal any more hints.
They spelled:
New Mode
coming soon
more info on
Wednesday

They just pointed to the message sent out today