As of August 04, 2019, I have suggested a 'Rookie Rankings' to the Owlient development team that would take general player ranking and seniority into account. Theoretically, higher general player ranking and lower seniority would yield a higher ranking in Rookie Ranking. Seniority would probably contribute more heavily to this ranking with 60% - 70% weight, or maybe there could be a seniority cap and general player score would be divided by seniority. Of course, there are problems such as not everyone is willing to spend money on a game while others do, which could spoil the gamesmanship of the concept. On the other hand, beginners may be more motivated to buy the two starter packages to be competitive. I will be sure to update my presentation if and when I hear back from them.
From what I've heard from several other players most would like to see the best upcoming players on Howrse. Let me know what you think because I am interested in others' take on this. If there is criticism involved, please try to make it constructive. If you don't like the idea, tell me why you don't like it.
Update (8/5/19):
Hello AmaraFairchild,
Thanks for contacting us! We're not sure who told you that feedback was not welcomed, however, that is not the case at all. We always welcome feedback, both positive and negative, and all feedback is shared with the entire Howrse team.
We appreciate your suggestion of creating a Rookie Ranking specifically for players with lower seniority and we'll be sure to share it with the rest of the team. Please keep in mind that changing the game is complicated and any suggestions have to be carefully considered. If they are adopted as changes to the game it may take many months for them to be implemented. Additionally, even some really great ideas just aren't feasible for reasons that aren't always apparent. Those ideas will, sadly, never make it into the game.
Thanks again for sharing your thoughts and please do not hesitate to write to us again if you have more feedback to share.
Happy Howrsing!
Kind regards,
The Howrse TeamMy Take On Their Response:This is pretty much the response I would expect from any game dev team, so I'm very satisfied with their response. The only question I still have is why they shut down the Ideas Forum. I understand not all suggestions are practical in execution, but I'm hoping my suggestion on Rookie Rankings is easy enough to complete. They probably have all the code they need to implement another ranking system, and the algorithm I suggested is rather simplistic. They can also make changes to the algorithm as needed after implementation. I also understand that coding any changes into the game are going to take a while to execute, because coding is hard. I hope to see this idea integrated into the game relatively soon.
This is my dog, Sasha