Hattrick (video game)
- See hat-trick for the generic term meaning
Hattrick is a web-based football (soccer) management computer game based in Sweden, currently made up of seventy-six national leagues and more than 250.000 managers and their teams from all over the world. It combines management with some good, clean fun, thanks to the worldwide community built around the game.
After a short registration, the user receives a team. Nearly always, the newbie takes over someone's old, defunct team, on the last positions on the league and, with a initial set of players, a coach, a small stadium, fanclub, and many other features, the player must try to win the following game. After that, the player starts to manage his or her squad, sell and purchase the players, define a training scheme... If the player is successful enough, he or she is granted qualification to a higher league the next three-months-long season.
There is much of customization a user can do to his or her own team, such as renaming the arena, changing the training type, or even acquiring a new coach. But, as with any manager game, the player must tell his or her players what position to play, and how to play that position, if he or she wants to be successful.
The game community is one of the most wonderful aspects of Hattrick. Interacting with the other Hattrickers is very enjoyable. Nearly all of the active members in the community are very helpful to newbies, and there is a lot of knowledge to be acquired from these veteran players.
Another great thing about Hattrick is that it is always under development. The game masters are constantly adding new features to the game and enhancing the current ones. They always listen to the users' wishes and, often, those wishes are incorporated into the game in some form or another.
Hattrick's leading leagues are Sweden, Netherlands, Argentina and Switzerland, although countries such as Poland, Estonia, Finland, Romania and Germany, among many others, are heading for the top positions. The first country to win an international trophy besides Sweden (which has the advantage of time) was Romania.
There are many third party softwares avaiable to help and enhance the user's gaming experience, such as match viewers and team administrators.
External Links
Hattrick: http://www.hattrick.org/
Criollo Viewer (match viewer): http://www.criolloviewer.com.ar/
HattrickPoli (administration tool): http://www.hattrickpoli.com/
Hattrick Assistant Manager (administration tool): http://www.lokesoftware.dk/osr/hattrick/ham/
Mactrick (administration tool for Macs): http://www.x-sync.co.uk/mactrick/