I like that Hattrick is a slow game. Here, I have time to think everything over. I also appreciate that Hattrick gives everybody the chance to be the best because you can't buy in-game advantages.
I would say the community is the strongest reason I have stayed in Hattrick for so long. The game too of course. After having trained my players and played in the French Division 2 for a while, I started focusing on training international players to help the Moroccan team. Today 80% of the defense of the Atlas Lions was trained by me!
I ended up playing Hattrick because I used to play some MMORPG in the past (like Dark Age of Camelot or Ultima Online) but they were totally absorbing and some of my friends described Hattrick as "easy and casual", and I believed it (lol). I couldn’t really guess, at that time, how much time and passion I would end up putting into this game.
I play Hattrick because I am a big football fan and I have always liked to play football manager games, like the German game "Anstoss" or "EA Football Manager". I play Hattrick since 2002, even though I had a break because of the birth of my daughter. So Hattrick has been with me for most of my life, you could almost call me "addicted” to Hattrick!
The best moment for me is when a youth player finally has finished the training you envisioned. I still remember the key players from my time in Hattrick. Josip Dumont-Damien was one of the first ones, Luc de Romrée de Vichenet and Mamadou Toure are players I remember fondly from my last generation.
One of the best parts of Hattrick, for me, is the fact that you can somehow massively relate to a bunch of fictional players with fictional names and treat them like they're real world players.