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5-23-2011 Editorial: Hattrick Widgets and Hattrick United

I’ve always loved all Hattrick managers who let their fantasy loose and create a lot of life around their clubs. To me this is one of the finest things in Hattrick and it takes the game to a whole new level. I’m therefore really pleased to say that we’ve made a set of tools to make this easier for you.

On hattrickwidgets.org you can find a nice collection of Hattrick widgets, to use on your site or blog for free. These widgets works on most platforms.

On hattrickunited.org you can easily create your own blog/site, and share all the great stories about your team and players with the rest of the Hattrick world. And it’s totally free.

On Hattrick United you will from now on also find our official blogs.

We provide a house. You fill it with life.

To me this is Hattrick in a nutshell, and it’s always been in the back of our heads when developing Hattrick. We create and provide the house we all live in, but it’s you who really fill it with life. And what I’ve always particularly enjoyed on this subject is reading all amazing stories about Hattrick clubs and players, or persons around a team which one didn’t even think existed. These stories fill our house with so much life; life which we all can enjoy.

It hasn’t always been so easy to create and share the life around your club, and especially not for non-Supporters. But with Hattrick Widgets and perhaps especially Hattrick United it’s now a lot easier to start creating and sharing the stories around your club, and there is a common shared place where we all can enjoy these stories.

Hattrick Widgets
On Hattrick Widgets you can find a lot of customized widgets which you can use on your current site or blog. And if you’re a Supporter you have access to more widgets. Hattrick Widgets is a CHPP product and work on most platforms (as long as the platform allows javascript).

Hattrick United – our blog portal
Hattrick United is based on Wordpress, the perhaps most powerful blog platform there is. It’s easy to start up a blog and inside you’ll naturally also find all Hattrick Widgets available. If you're a Supporter you have more possibilities to personalize your blog's appearance, and access to the extra widgets of course.

When you open a team blog on Hattrick United, you get a box with a link to your team blog added to your Hattrick club page. If you’re a Supporter the latest headlines will also be shown. Managers visiting your club on Hattrick will also find their way to your blog.

If you already have a blog, but want to move it to Hattrick United instead it’s fairly easy to import it. If you want more info - or if you just want to enjoy some nice Hattrick stories - visit hattrickunited.org.

Now I'm naturally aware that not everyone will start up a blog, but I can really recommend letting your fantasy and creativity loose. Not because it will spice up others gaming experience (though it will), but because I’m quite sure you will enjoy Hattrick a little bit more than you already do. It makes a difference.

Making the most out of Hattrick
In the big picture Hattrick Widgets and Hattrick United are steps in the same direction as the reopening of CHPP was late last year: We want to make Hattrick more open for users’ initiatives and to make it possible for you to be more creative and personal with the game world. We simply want to give you the tools to make the most out of Hattrick - wherever that may be. Because for us it’s much more important that you enjoy Hattrick overall, than that you enjoy it only on the Hattrick website.

We also know the majority of managers don’t actively contribute to the community. While I think most enjoy being part of one and enjoy the energy it brings to the game as a whole - many just want to see Hattrick as a game. This is something we just have to accept and adapt to. And therefore we need to keep a good balance between community features like this and the core game, and not let the former become too distractive from the game itself.

The perfect middle ground
What’s said above is one reason for why the blogs are on a separate site and not on Hattrick itself, but there are more reasons for this. One is that we could easily use a blog platform (Wordpress) which is powerful and already existing, we didn’t have to develop something from scratch internally. This also meant that we could let an external developer take on this project instead of having our own developers working on it; we could simply develop Hattrick United without taking any development resources from Hattrick.

More importantly I would say that Hattrick United creates a perfect middle ground for us where we can promote community-based ideas and initiatives with greater ease and without the risk of distracting users from the core game too much. It will also be a perfect place for us to connect and promote cool community initiatives that does not have a natural place on the main site, and which may because of this run out of steam and attention.

There will still be community content on Hattrick
Before I wrap this up there is one thing that needs to be said though: Hattrick United will not mean the end of HT Press or other community content within Hattrick. Our voluntary editors and all HT Press writers do a really good work for the community content in Hattrick, and it certainly deserves its place and attention as well. Hattrick Press will continue and it will develop as well.

The community has always been a lively and important part of Hattrick. With Hattrick Widgets and Hattrick United you now have more tools - and a shared space – to improve this part and expand the community even further. Not a bad way to start the week, right?