Player Contest Rules Clarification

If it is not called a giveaway then I don't see the problem. You are not technically giving something for free but for much cheaper then the horse would ever be in real sales. The host is just trying to being kind and generous to others not to make money and if they never say they are giving a horse as a gift then the rules of a giveaway don't apply. Anyone who enters understands that they will have to pay the fee for the horse if they are offered the horse at the end all they have to do is decline the sale if they do not agree with paying for a prize from a giveaway.

If somebody hosts a contest that asks what they would like (BMIs/a horse). Somebody who if they win does not want to pay can choose a BMI. If someone says that they would like a horse instead can say this. This would not be much different than someone who takes horse orders in their forum. The only difference is that they do not have to pay as much and not everybody will get something but this is true of any contest/giveaway. Not everybody wins a BMI or gets to buy a horse for 500e. Like I said earlier if they don't want to pay then they refuse the horse the host will not be upset about this! They are trying to be kind not make money missing out on 450e will not upset them!

Again, a deal or discount on a horse isn’t a tangible thing. There’s nothing being given and there’s no in-game feature to give a discount, it just depends on the word of the seller. Howrse would have no way to monitor that and they would undoubtedly be flooded with complaints about some such thing related to the discounts. Players on online games will always find something to complain about.

Since Howrse doesn't support giveaways or contests of any sort involving horses, I've decided to just pay it forward to any players I find that are in need. Then there's no contest, nothing that can be scrutinized or deemed to be against the rules.

Just today I saw somebody needed to win a rosette for an objective but didn't have a suitable horse, so I reached out and offered her a very high GP and inborn skilled foal for the price it cost me to cover his dam. For what the horse is, it's about as close to free and you can get, and since it was a completely private transaction, no issues with rules.

Again, this is just my method to deal with this, and it still feels just as good to surprise someone with a great offer like this than it used to feel to host giveaways.

I'm still not going to stop fighting for horse giveaways. Regardless of whether or not you believe the contests that used to be allowed (that allowed horses as prizes as long as they were set for the minimum price of 500 equus) were "giveaways" in the technical sense of the word, I don't think anyone can deny that the hosts of these contests were extremely generous. I personally won several unicorns and GA horses from giveaways like these, and I remember at least 2 or 3 giveaways where the prize was a Falabella divine for 500 equus.

Even if these horses weren't "given" away for free, they certainly didn't cause any harm. Hosts were allowed to have fun hosting a contest and participants had a chance at an extremely cheap horse.

There were multiple ways Howrse could have handled this instead of banning horse giveaways all together. They could have restricted the language - you could only call them "contests" instead of "giveaways" (I've personally had to pay to enter a few real-life contests, so there can be a fee associated with them). They could have developed a system to give horses for free, since the groundwork for this already exists in multiple features - the Love divines that can be gifted for free during February, the loaning feature for teams, the reserved sales, and the fact that horses can be donated to Ow.

Like ringettegurl1313, I've found other ways to be generous that are within the nonsense rules that Howrse has come up with, but I sincerely miss the unicorn giveaways I used to host. I do have BMI giveaways occasionally, but I can't host them as regularly as I used to do the unicorn giveaways.

All of Howrse's other rules, I can see the benefit of, even if I don't necessarily agree with them. No advertising in the Game Play forum? Makes sense, since players who actually need help might have their posts lost. No requiring advertising for giveaways? Personally, I don't like this rule either, but I definitely understand it, since people could potentially require lots of advertising, thus driving up their popularity, and then not give a prize out. No using horses to pay passes or equus for BMIs? Definitely makes sense, since people could get scammed. But not allowed a horse as a prize for 500 equus, when the participant can reject the sale if they don't want it? It's just a nonsense rule.

First, I did not say anything about a deal or discount in those messages. I merely said that the person entering the contest could say that they would like a horse/ certain type of horse or BMI/certain category specific BMI. This is not a deal or discount it is giving the host an idea about what that person would like if they win and that they are willing to pay 500e for horse or not. Second, if you have to have someway to track something and only have to go on the players word then it should not be allowed to sell horses in your forum in any way shape or form as this is just based on the players word. Also, giving BMI's is also completely based on the players word. The host could say that they are going to give somebody a certain BMI and not give it it to them. If somebody is a liar then they can lie about selling horses or giving BMIs just because you can gift a BMI does not make it so everybody will follow up on what they said they were going to do it does not stop with selling horses as a prize in a giveaway. Last, some players will always complain about something. sometimes it is justified and sometimes it is not that is just how people are. The key is to enter a giveaway but do not expect to get something specific or to win at all. The host could need to change the prizes or just quit the giveaway completely people need to understand this before entering these player held competitions. People will be people. Some will make mistakes and others will do these things on purpose.

I definitely agree with everything Goat_Girl said. You can easily decline a horse reserved for you if you don't want it!

Yes you did:



I'm not trying to argue with anyone about whether or not giving away horses is good. I don't have an issue with implementing a feature like that. All I'm trying to do is explain why the game mechanics and definitions from Owlient don't allow the suggestions in this forum, because some players are asking why XYZ isn't allowed. I'm merely offering an explanation as to why.

That is a different different post. I was talking about my two most recent posts in which I did not mention a discount.

If the reasons applied to not using horses as a gift or selling them as a gift were applied to BMIs then they would not be allowed to be gifted either. The reasoning does not make sense for BMIs to be gifted and not horses. The reasoning behind it is item trafficking like the post by OW says. Items can be trafficked just like horses can easier in fact because you don't have to pay for them! You could send all of your items to your second account it would just take a little bit longer!

Most of my responses have been general. Sometimes my responses with a quote are only partially referring to the quote.

You don't need to give anything to receive an item via the Exchanges. You need to give at least 500 equus to get a horse, even at a 'discount'. The Exchanges allow for actual gifts, horse sales do not.

I'm not really sure where the confusion lies? I understand that trafficking items is easier, but item exchanges are limited every week, whereas horse sales are not.

Like I've said numerous times, a giveaway gift cannot be something you need to pay for. With contests, I would assume prizes are the same; you can't require payment for a prize, i.e. a discounted horse, because that's not really a prize any longer. The problem lies within the payment part. If you want to sell horses for cheap, you can; it just can't be attached to a contest.

There's only so many times I can try to re-state the same thing in different words, so that's the end of my piece. I'm all for a horse gifting feature, I've just been trying to explain why *existing* features don't allow for horses as prizes.

I appreciate you continuing the discussion. I feel it's important to talk about the features on Howrse in an effort to improve them, even if it seems like Howrse doesn't always listen to our suggestions. (I certainly hope they're paying attention now. The fact that we have so many new Admin and a new Ow makes me hope they'll be more receptive to Howrse giveaways.)

I think a lot of the anger about this rule, at least for me personally, stems from the fact that it used to be allowed, and neither I nor any other players I spoke with ever saw any issues with having horses as prizes for 500 equus. Therefore, when Howrse banned it and couldn't provide any reasonable explanation other than "horses can't be given away," many players found it extremely upsetting and unfair. I remember a lot of players quitting after horse giveaways were banned - I myself took a semi-hiatus to give myself a bit of distance from the game, but after a year, I came back and started playing again. This is also when I really started pushing for horse giveaways to be allowed again.

I'm glad that we can agree that a horse gifting feature would be a positive addition to the game, though. Fingers crossed we see this addition soon.

I think the definition of giveaway really depends upon what each person personally believes the definition of a giveaway is. With certain rules that have come into play... players have found it necessary to change their definition... "tweak" it, so to speak.

Whatever you want to call a giveaway is your choice.

I think the real issue is whether gifting horses should be allowed, as Goat_Girl mentioned. Personally, I'm on the "allow gifting horses" train. Some people wouldn't dream of boarding this train, some linger in the distance, not really sure what to think.

I have rarely seen people complain about purchasing a horse for 500e. I can't survey all of Howrse... so I'm not saying absolutely no one complains about purchasing a horse for 500e.

You know what I think? I think because purchasing a horse for 500e was the closest thing possible to gifting a horse, players tied both of them in the same bundle. Since Howrse has "changed" the definition of gifting, I think those who feel comfortable doing it ought to speak up about creating a gifting feature. Anyone can do what they like, but I'm sure most can agree that there is immense satisfaction in gifting horses.

Yes... there's always a possibility of scamming, lies, etc., as is a possibility with all deals. Unfortunately, this issue can't be dealt with on a screen, it's an issue with the person behind the screen. That is not something Howrse or rules can ever keep away completely.

I completely agree with everything in this quote. As soᴘʜɪᴀ stated, there is a certain "satisfaction in gifting horses" to other players. Even though we cannot "gift" horses to other players, purchasing a horse from someone for 500e is a very nice deal, especially if it is a valuable horse. I wanted to host a (high GP) horse giveaway, but learned that that was not allowed along with some other rules.

I am pretty new to this game, but am also upset that we cannot offer horses as a gift/prize. Does this change if the contest in an EC forum was a question and whoever answered it correctly first would be able to receive a horse?? If you think about it, it is the same concept as answering the Divine horse, Archimedes' questions, so why is this not allowed with contests and the prize being horses? I understand that this question could be controversial, but like soᴘʜɪᴀ said, "I think those who feel comfortable doing it [gifting horses] ought to speak up about creating a gifting feature."



I don't understand why we can gift items, but not horses. The only difference is that the horses are the center piece to the game, right?



If there is a scam, why not disapprove of it by placing a ? There may be other ways to deal with this, but I believe that everyone on this game could greatly benifit from being able to gift horses. Here's my reasoning: One, the person gifting the horse(s) feel good by being able to do so. Also, it is easier for me (I don't know if it is the same for other Howrse players) to concentrate on becoming more successful when I know I have done something good that someone else can benifit from. Two, the person receiving a horse(s) as a gift can also become more successful because they have another horse.

If horse gifting is ever to be allowed again, I will definately do high GP horse gifts because it gives me more of that positive "satisfaction" (quote from soᴘʜɪᴀ). If horse gifting is not allowed, I might just as well delete my account. There are several reasons: One, making others happy is the only reason I am happy. Two, if I cannot be happy by playing a game, there is no point in playing it at all.



I have done my part. I hope this does not raise an argument within the forum because of what I have said.

Disclaimer: I don't know if it is okay to post this type of message in the forum, so don't hold me to it.
~Matthew10:10

I completely agree. For years I have offered horses for 500e on my different accounts from year to year. But I can see the slightest reason in this, the howrse community has become extremely rotten. Howrse no longer trusts us because of the players who cheated or worse. And it's something we can't really change. If we can no longer offer horses in our giveaways, it's because people can cheat on you and it cannot be safe. But howrse shouldn't consider everybody a hacker the way they do. It just makes the game less enjoyable. I love to give horses away and when people can just reject the horse what is the point? I just don't really understand this rule when it doesn't make much a difference. After the economic change, everything has changed for the worse in my honest opinion. I just want an old, layed back howrse community again, instead, we got hackers destroying are game and because of them the makers of the game started making rules to make our community worse. It just really aggravates me.

Also little update. Why can we donate horses to Ow but we can't donate horses to other players? Just saying.

My latest back-and-forth with Contact Us. No real news really, but thought I would share here anyway:

My Message:


Howrse's Response:


My Response:


Howrse's Response:


And that's when I decided to close the request. Even if they did have news about a horse gifting system, I didn't really expect them to share it. That seems like something that would be shared in the Preprod server/Spoiler forum, if anything.

Still, that random response about gifting items? What's up with that

Regardless, I cannot stress this enough, PLEASE message Contact Us and let them know you want a horse gifting system! If you've already sent a message, send another one! If you haven't sent any messages yet, please do so! Often Howrse gets its way with changes when players get used to how it is (most players are now used to the taxes in the sales and the notification system, for example, and don't complain about them anymore). Don't let time settle this - keep on asking for a horse gifting system and horse giveaways!

Does anyone know if we can give bmi's in giveaways??

Yes, that's allowed, because you can gift BMIs to other players for free.
Back in the day, you used to be able to gift horses, too. Since 500e is not technically "free", and Howrse wanted to "unify all servers", they cut out gifting horses completely. As you can read through this thread, a lot of players aren't too happy about that, and rightly so.

BMI's and regular gifting is still allowed

These rules are so stupid. I'm just gonna tell people I'm "selling horses for 500e" instead

I don't recommend taking these rules that lightly, you can lose karma or get cheated on but if your just selling them it doesn't matter

Then again I mostly agree that these are exactly necessary so what can I say

are not** my typing skills. I need to take a class or something