I started playing Hattrick in the summer of 2002 when a friend, who I played "Fantasy Wrestling" with online, told me about Hattrick. I made many mistakes in the beginning. At that time there was no such thing as mentors or beginners' guides. So my very first club was bankrupt after only a few weeks. Luckily, I was able to restart with a new club shortly after that and then I did a lot better.
I am one of the old users who likes to do my own research to learn how the game works. I like that this is a thing in Hattrick. Not everything should be mentioned in the rules. I also like the federations where you can have some real tight friendships. More than some friends call Hattrick a forum, with a soccer-game attached to it.
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.
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.
I started playing Hattrick because some of my co-workers absolutely wanted to introduce me to Hattrick. When I finally tried, it was the Valentine's Day of 2009 … and I am still here, ten years later!
When I registered, I liked that Hattrick has fantasy names instead of real players. That got me hooked. I also liked that all opponents were people of flesh and blood… and also that they turned out to be really helpful, showing me the steps you need to take as a new user to improve your team. Today, I am a good mentor myself.