*The State of Clubs

@Birchwood - I'm thinking of making groups have a monthly fee to keep them running, so there's an actual downside to having multiple groups open for no reason. Nothing huge, maybe $5k a month. This would stop people from "squatting" on a group name (e.g. registering the group but not using it, and preventing other members from using the name).

Hopefully it would also stop members making multiple groups that are essentially for the same thing as well.

I'm fine either way, but I'd rather see clubs improved in a way that encouraged participation.

I don't participate in clubs mainly due to one reason; there's no benefit. If there were some sort of tiny stat boost for registering horses, or breeding registered horses to each other, I think the clubs would have been more active. That, and a better way to interact with other members. The tiny-tiny chatbox doesn't give much room for anything, and the forum post is easily cluttered.

Now, member-run groups could maybe do better than the current club-system, but for it to work there would have to be some prestige in being a member and having horses registered in that particular group. I doubt enough players would be willing to unite and breed after a set standard for any group to really take off. If so, there would just be a ton of meaningless groups to everyone but the few who participated in that and this group.

I too would rather see clubs revamped and given a bigger/better function within the game. I had a bunch of ideas a while back, most of which I've forgotten (oops), but maybe I can try to come up with some again.

At the very least I'd like to see game-run registries for each breed, that will auto-register horses upon paying the reg. fee. No maintenance by a human necessary. Maybe said registries can serve as leaderboards/all-times for each breed, separate from the Hall of Fame. Maybe have breed achievements (separate from the current individual horse achievements) that a registered horse would automatically be granted once it hit certain points (just like the current individual horse achievements).

I like the idea of club/group combos but at the same time I would like to maybe keep being able to register our horses with the Quarter Horse Association or a Mustang Association. Just like in real life registered horses are more valuable registered horses in EV could be more valuable then one that had no registration

Dratini - if clubs gave a stat boost then they would be a requirement. I don't want to make clubs an absolute necessity to the game (which they would become upon giving a stat boost for obvious reasons), but obviously would want to encourage participation in clubs in some other way.

Since it's the players that really need to be encouraged to participate it's the players that should get a reward of some kind. What if after say 6 months of active membership they got a week of auto showing or auto care for free? Or perhaps they could pick 1 free Credit Shop item? The president of the club could keep track of how active they've been. Active membership would be entering contests, registering horses - things like that.

I do have one question. We put money into registering horses for clubs, would we get this back if the clubs are removed as they are no longer in a club registry book? Or would we have to pay again to register them in a group? For those of us who have a lot of horses registered - not me exactly but others I'm thinking about now - that could be a lot of wasted money?

What about those of us who registered horses in the clubs? I'm guessing that would be money that is simply 'thrown away' as well?

Sorry for my late addition, but here is my two cents.

I'm tempted to say I would vote against breed clubs merged with groups. Although I must say the idea of a club that appreciates high conformation, a certain discipline or it even as extra distinction for own bred horses with a certain goal in mind is tempting... And certain groups sure would be great with their own registry, like a registry for cream or Tobiano horses of any breed. (Would it also make it possible to kick a certain horse from the registry when a horse is registered to a driving club and gets converted to dressage, or when you don't want your newly brought horse to be member of the coffee lovers, like the example?)
If it happens, I think that creating a club that has the ability to register horses may cost more to create than one without that ability.

I do wonder if normal groups are active currently? Of what I've seen, they're not really active either, but I must admit I have not seen that many from the inside lately. If they are not, merging the official clubs with them won't make it suddenly popular and solve the problem.

Your suggestion of admins in a group could work well within the official clubs too in their current setting. That way, the president doesn't have to do all the work, even if for example, admins can't create mega shows or edit the homepage. (Or maybe for the president a small list of admins and after their name some checkboxes like bank, mega shows, pending applications, newsletter.. So that it gives the possibility to choose a certain task for your admins)

Most that consider going for president, as far as I read, don't do so because of the supposed work it wil take. If this is the case, they could appoint a few club admins or a vice-president to lessen the time investment a club takes and cooperate, perhaps making it more tempting for people to run for president. They could also work together, so that club registries and all become a more constant factor.
Perhaps this makes it more tempting for people to run for president and to continue, as it makes it a shared goal. If there is no president, and a game moderator takes up presidency, they too could appoint some club moderators so they can use their time on other things as well.
(I think being a club moderator would require being a club member for an x-period of time, but requirements for those would be another subject.)

Sole had created a wonderful award for the Andalusian club, how cool would it be if things like that could show up in your display cabinet? Even if a club can only handout ie. 4 of these each month, I'm sure some people would love to collect these. To avoid abuse of this I would say there should be a maximum of awards to hand out each month and there should be a time frame before member # can get another award, or something like that.
Perhaps horses registered should get something to improve their worth but I have no clue what could work at the moment. Maybe a small breeding benefit?

I would love to see club competitions, in which the different clubs compete against each other. Only horses in the club registry can enter in those. The main price could be something big or rare. Or at least, bigger than the price of a normal competition.
For example: the EV Cup takes place once a month. Each club can appoint a team of 4 horses in each discipline. The winners then compete against the other winners and so on. The winning team members get a price (maybe 1 EVC each or special items/decor) and a small price for other active members of the winning club (500 EVD?). This could potentially increase the worth of registered horses, as they have another dimension in the game.
Or maybe a different version, like the snowball fight, where you actively had to participate (click to throw snowball) to members of the opposing teams (/clubs) where it's the members that score points instead of the horses.

I have also thought about breed specific tack, like an Arabian set, only to be bought directly from the club (and perhaps only fitting that breed too) but to me it feels like that would be too much of a hassle.

As member, the thing that bothers me most in clubs, is the combined part of the forum. I know this is stupid of me, but it bothers me that I have to search for the club topic that month. I know I could just bookmark it. And often the url is mentioned in a newsletter but my silly tablet won't let me click or copy just one sentence in those. Would perhaps an own part of the forum, (accessible only through the club,) be possible? Here you can have breed specific questions, sales, breedings... And official club discussions.
Or else a simple shortcut, perhaps near the old newsletters 'click here for the official club tread', to move more wandering club members towards the current topic could be helpful.

That's it for now. Please note that I am only thinking out loud here.

^ Some great ideas here.

I definitely think both horse owner and the club owner/admin should have the ability to withdraw a horse from a registry, such as when a horse no longer meets registry requirements or when the owner simply no longer wants their horse in that registry. This will be especially relevant for discipline or colour based registries, since these aspects of a horse can be easily changed.

I also really like the idea of clubs being able to hand out trophies or other awards, which could perhaps be displayed on player pages or in display cabinets. Even if these offer no benefit beyond bragging rights, I think these would be awesome.

I love the idea of competitions between clubs. It could be quite a social and fun thing, like the snowball fight was, with the clubs effectively acting as teams. Getting the horses involved would be a great way to encourage registration. The great thing about the snowball fight was that people were motivated to participate without the incentive of a prize. We need something similar with clubs.

One point i have not seen any one bring up is groups being "clicky" not allowing a member to join their group because, they are new to the game, they only want to chat about art, they don't like the stats on the members horses........ the topic of one group being more popular then another and not being open for any and all to join i see as being a problem. I have seen this issue on other games because the member wanting to join doesn't follow the norm of the group...... with that being said the popular group could exclude people and horses that they didn't want part of their group.

I also for see horse being registered to many groups which could be an issue for finding one horse in a search.

To use the example from the start of the topic Coffee Lovers allows Paints to be registered to their group. Then the owner joins the Paint lovers group as well and registers the horse there. The same paint is now part of two different groups. The paint that was registered with both groups is also a stallion and is now registered with the paint stallion group... and then the paint lovers group and so on and so on......... my point is that the registry for all those groups would get really long if one horse can be registered to many different groups at the same time.

Multiply that by all the active members on the game and how many horses each member can have. I for see really large trophy cases.

I am not saying don't do it i am just pointing out possible issue.

As i could see the unlimited ablity to create groups and award things being abused. Maybe limit the number of groups one member can start and be in charge of.

Just to keep all club-related things in one place, I'll just add this suggestion here: http://equiverse.com/topic.php?id=100324

Essentially it involves giving the clubs/groups the ability to have multiple registries, or sub-sections within their registries, so that they can split horses into groups according to whatever criteria they like. For example, all dressage horses of the club's breed could go in one book, all high conformation horses in another, etc. Some horses could go in multiple sub-sections. This would resolve the potential issue of having a dozen different Arabian clubs/registries, and splitting players and horses amongst multiple clubs who do effectively the same thing, just because they have different requirements for their registries.