Why we (still) play Hattrick?

No matter we speak about users that are playing since 2002-2003, 2007, 2010 or even 2016, we all have a reason to start playing this wonderful game and to continue being close to it.

For me, there were some signs that showed how the time flies, but, after such a long period, I am still here. So I decided to start writing an article about this and I invite you to stay close to me in this story which will bring you from my childhood to the man I am today. Are there a lot of changes?

This article is a translate after (19698), written by Ibiza_ (598361) and published in Hattrick Press Romania!

Vacation, 2016, abroad. As everyone, you are looking for a free Wi-Fi trying to get some Internet, instead of paying from your pocket.
Finally, I found some! So, having decent signal, I open the browser with four tabs - one is about sport activities (ehm, Olympic Games took place in that period), a news one (I want to be in contact with what is happening into the world and Romania), YouTube (from time to time, a good song is sending me in a great mood) and Hattrick; yeah, exactly, I don't have any Facebook account!

On the sport page I found what I was interested about... We didn't manage to win any medal yet and we weren't even close to that. It doesn't matter, I will always hope for better, but, for the moment, I decide to close the tabs. Disappointed, but maybe the future will be happier for us. On the news page, I see a lot of bombings, crimes, suicides and some cases of rapes - neah, I'm not that attracted to this. Sure, on YouTube I prepare the song that I wanna listen to.

On Hattrick, I read about our national teams, opinions pros and cons about the start-up formation, I send the orders for the future matches, many messages written by my friends on the forum about the next place we'll finish all the beers, a lot of posts on "Sad about my match" (Translator note: this is a topic in the Romanian forum where the users are complaining about the way they lost the match because of random and stuff). I read about our future big football Hattrick meeting that will take place next year (even though there will be about 8 months until then). That sounds much better for me. :) So, "navigating" through all those tabs - even though I guess you know on which one I'm spending most of my time -, I woke up with a fatherly rebuke (to translate - a slap in the neck) and a sentence that sounded like: "Can't you let down that Hattrick at least into our holiday???".
As the slap was received from my wife, I gotta offer some explanations. I show here the four pages and I ask her which one she would prefer.
Even though she has no team, she does know very well what I'm doing on the site that I'm spending many hours in Romania, too (because, without really wanting to, I tell her about) and, no matter she wouldn't understand a thing, she would still prefer a site where I communicate with peoples than one where I read about persons that are hating the others... While his palm is heading back to it's place, I am thinking about the fact that my wife is right. It's our first holiday after four years, we should profit more of this. Why after four years? Because we're humans, we can't always do what we just want to. But you know what? That friendly slap (or not? :D) made me laugh, I remembered for how long I play Hattrick and how many wonderful things happened in all this period.

I have this team since 2003, I'll soon reach 13 years with it... Incredible, how the time flies.

How everything started? I honestly don't remember exactly. I think it was around 2001-2002, we were like 14-15 boys with less or more same ages - the building was raised in 1980 and our daddies started "working" on their families. :) From all of us, only three guys had a computer in 2002, and everyone was dedicated to Alert and Quake (if I'm right). As we all had a common passion - football -, it was easy for us to get in love with games that were football related, the WC 2000-2001 game being the one that drove us crazy.

I remember the fact that we met and we were losing a lot of nights by playing WC, even though we knew that we won't finish more than a season, some of us falling asleep before clicking on "next". It was much more safe for us when we brought the laptops, being sure we won't asleep.

At one moment, some of my friends heard about Hattrick. What came after? In two days, we all applied for the teams - into the past, it was harder to receive them - and, in around two weeks, the fun started. As from 15 boys, we had only three PCs and as many of us were not hired, on Wednesday and Saturday, at 10 AM HT-Time, we were all meeting in a place to enjoy our matches.
It was really fun for a period, until we all lost our teams (no one was using the logout button, no one discussed with the GMs on explaining our situation, etc). It was a mass execution, as we said at that time.
Absolutely all of us requested new teams, so it started a new period when we were all meeting on Friday night at some Internet Cafe, looking for free computers just to send our orders for Saturday and Wednesday. The one that was managing to do a transfer was a master for us, considering the fact that all the location was full of people trying to play different kind of games and renting a computer for at least 12 hours.

But, finally, we were managing to reach our goals, we didn't leave that place until all the orders has been sent. I have to say that we weren't spending any time on reading the forums, we were just having our private chat behind our block of flats, uncensored, of course! The guys that had computers at home were more dedicated and up to date with all the changes into Hattrick - it's definitely easier to be more addicted from your home armchair than on the uncomfortable seat of an internet hall. So, they found out about a friendly cup that we could have played between us. Ideal!

This is how we created the "Gambrinus Cup", because we were drinking Gambrinus in that period, and Wednesday transformed from two hours on watching the matches, into "Hattrick Day". After Wednesday, we were meeting for some discussions and, of course, to boast; those who win, obviously.

Now, behind the block of flats, the time flies extremely fast, since there is no one anymore! Into the past, there was a lot of activity. Because it was always Wednesday. How many of my 15 friends are still playing Hattrick, I don't know exactly, but at least four of them, definitely! There is also a picture of that edition, when the winner is getting his well deserved beer box, which is, definitely, the prize! I won't show it to you, all I can say is that the 15 guys weighed around 750 kg, being some happy kids. The same kids are now having around 1250 kg, but even if they would reach 2000 kg, they would still not be able to overcome the weight of that picture from Gambrinus Cup!

What came after this? We now moved over from the black sneakers that were in a good condition for maximum two days on bitumen to the ones that we were wearing for even two weeks. From a 35 old ball model to the new Jabulani. Quite too fast, if I'm thinking a little bit now.
There were more computers, so we didn't meet on the Internet halls that often, our Wednesday meeting was shorter because the next day we gotta go on our working program. The yard behind the block of apartments is now getting too big and in the past it was too small... One by one, we moved out, we got married, became fathers, we simply followed our way of life. That means that we had less users for Gambrinus Cup. But I remained here. In all this time, I changed my username, the name of my team, even the logo twice.
The proud picture of my dog disappeared, being replaced with another one. That's again because of the course of life.

And I changed something else! The community of 15 users that I was part of is now bigger. And I love it. What I regret is the fact that our yard completely disappeared. But when we still meet at our block - rarely and not all of us into the same time -, we meet into the same location. Because it's simply the place where it all started!

This is my short story about me in Hattrick and I guess it's less or more the same with yours. Even if there are 13 years since I have this team, I didn't have any notable performance, because this wasn't my goal. For around 5 years I wasn't dedicated to Hattrick, for some reasons, but I made it, managing not to lose my team in all this long period.
Eventually, in a game like Hattrick, you can hind behind your username. You can call yourself "the old guy", even though you're 15 years old, "boy62", being a girl or "the fat one", having 50 kg. "Hulk", having a normal face... And that's not a bad thing, sometimes we need an identity that we can shape as we want.

However, the title of the article is "Why we (still) play Hattrick?".

Answers?

Personally, for the community; maybe you play it for other reasons. I met special people because of this game, I went to weddings and baptisms together, we drank, played football and cried together, too.

This is why my team will always be here, because of the wonderful community that hides behind all those numbers. There are always new people that take part of it, who are interesting and special. You can be friend with some of them, or you simply couldn't. That's exactly as it happens in real life. All this rainbow of different characters needs a picture. A picture that has to stay there for eternity.

Unfortunately, we have people that left Hattrick or this world, but we'll never gonna forget them. Never! Because they were part of this picture and there is no remove button, only the add one.

And now I open YouTube - I search for the song that inspires me when I'm thinking about the past, or, better said, when I remember about something that happened into the past: Katana - Childhood memories, (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=223sZrofOOU). I definitely recommend it to you, even though it's in Romanian.

I write this article fully by myself, but I still feel the need of an approval or at least an opinion. And I request it and, after she reads the article, the slap from before transformed into a lovely caress. She knows the yard, too... Maybe it's a sign that she forgave me because I logged into Hattrick into our holiday and she understand what really this game means for me. Eventually, she also met users from this community at different events and she is still interested to meet new people. I now realize. The community includes also peoples that are not playing Hattrick! How awesome is that!

When we started this game, we were children. Now, most of us are having children.
What could be more wonderful than this? :)

If you like the article feel free to click "Like" and/or leave a comment. You can discuss the article on the forum: (17023209.1).

Previous article: U20 World Cup - Round III (19720)

وصلة مباشرة إلى هذا المقال (HT-ML ، للمنتدى): [ArticleID=19735]