Horse Isle

Hate Connie first of all. Like everyone else, they have problems with the staff but Connie is the worst. When I made a new account years ago and had the user "KittyTacos" (I was like 13) she told me I couldn't use the user name because there aren't tacos in the game and pulled some other stuff out of her $#*!. I wish I could play again but the staff are so toxic it's crazy how they still have a base.

This game is by far the most poorly run I've ever seen throughout my years and years of gaming. The environment is incredibly toxic and dangerous to lgbtq or otherwise 'different' players. The mods are so hostile and unforgiving toward even brand new players that don't even have a grasp of the controls yet. New players are penalized for typing into the wrong chat all the time when it's a simple accident. This game is 100% inappropriate for children for the above reasons, as well as being complicated at times.

The moderators are unbelievably discriminatory, rude, and impose unwritten rules they just make up. I think the owner is well aware of their behavior and instead of addressing it, he chooses not to deal with it and let these narcissistic moderators run wild. Connie seems to be their ring leader and is particularly nasty. Even when presented with irrefutable facts and evidence, she shuts down and refuses to change her stance no matter how nonsensical. She is either incapable of admitting to making mistakes or incapable of ruling with logic. And she is encouraged by Kat who supports her blindly and at any cost.

I recently had an experience where they displayed extreme hypocrisy in that they can have elements of death in the form of horse death, cemeteries, literal bones, and more ingrained into the game, but I can't use those same items as art because they're inappropriate and somehow related to the pandemic. So not only was I discriminated against, they used the millions of dead to justify it. I was astounded by how low this was. And to make it even worse, she did not remove the other headstone art in the game. All of it that I've seen is just fine. So this was in fact discrimination. At the time of writing this, she's had plenty of time to do it.

I would not put any time or money into this game as I see players becoming inactive left and right. The (already tiny) community of players appears to be in decline. It's a shame because the game is a good idea but I don't know if it's going to survive with such disgusting moderator behavior along with a rewarded tattle tale system.

Also they can't figure out how to keep your screen settings on windowed after an update even though you click the box. It always takes a bunch of tries to get the game loaded correctly. And often times it crashes my computer so bad I have to hard restart it.

I was banned within the first 24 hours of creating an account because they claimed I had multiple accounts when I didn't? I can't access the game and have had no answers from the help desk or whatever they call it.

I'm very glad I didn't spend any money on this game or else I'd be charging it back. Avoid at all costs, the game wasn't worth any hassle they give you for just signing up.

The support staff literally hate the player base. Connie is by far the worst - she does nothing helpful for the game, but still has her job after all these years.

The game is marketed as family friendly but is littered with references to mature TV shows such as Game of Thrones and WestWorld. Players are allowed to freely brag about inbreeding horses with no consequences. The game itself would be tons of fun if the support team and moderators actually did their jobs as opposed to picking favorites and slandering players.

I have been playing the game since June 15th 2019. I have spent exactly 283.8 hours on the game and spent too much money,$285 to be exact. All to have it stolen from me with no explanation whatsoever. I'm extremely disappointed and frustrated. Because today 10-1-2024 I have just found out that I've been banned for simply flagging someone who said a bad word on the game. And to be fair I still don't know IF thats the reason I was banned because they're refusing to tell me. Not only is my account banned but my entire laptop is banned meaning I can't even make a new account. Yes I did try. I HIGHLY suggest NOT supporting this game. They will only steal your money like they did to me. I have sent multiple messages to them to try and resolved the issue and they haven't given me a reason as to why my account and my laptop was banned. I'm very upset considering the hours and money I had spent on it. I truely did enjoy the game but to be robbed from the one game you have loved for years is a whole new level of disappointment and betrayal. Don't be like me. Don't trust them because you'll end up banned like me for simply trying to make the community better for kids.

Reading all of these angry and unjust reviews makes me very angry, so I feel it necessary to give this wonderful game the review that it deserves. HI2 in particular is a very enjoyable game, although all three platforms are amazing to play. They have many educational benefits and references, teach children about finances and about problem solving, and offer a great, safe environment with their strict rules and filter. Those who evade the rules are muted, given warning violations, or banned.
I and several others and a particular instance with stalking and persona information from a player that will remain unnamed, and the Horse Isle staff quickly took care of it and permanently banned the player. Through the few support issues that I have needed to send, the Staff have been very supportive and I haven't had any complications. I have no idea why other reviewers are showing the Support Staff in a bad light, as the mods and admin are all friendly and easy to talk to.
There is no "swindling of money"; Horse Isle does not by any means force you to purchase tokens to play the game. Inflation is not the staff's fault, and one reviewer claiming a ridiculous theory of staff conspiring with players to raise prices is absolutely absurd. Inflation is a natural thing that happens in today's society, and with the game working in the way of that society (mostly) inflation is bound to happen. You are perfectly able to play the game without a subscription, with I myself doing that for many years on Eternal. It is just more fun to play being subscribed, as you can focus on other things besides quests, such as collecting horses and starting a large breeding program.
In short, this is an amazing game, with amazing support staff. I am appalled that these reviewers would want to slander the game this way, but I suppose that it goes to show that some people just have to find something to gossip about, even if it's a harmless children's game. If you follow the rules, you won't get banned. There is no favoritism. There is no unfairness. If you follow the rules, your account will not be banned, and it's as simple as that.
Thank you for reading.

I love this game to death, I have played since HI2 eternal and loved HI 2 life cycle. I am now playing HI 3 in addition to HI2LC. I love breeding ethics and all the other stuff entailed with it. HI 3 definitely gets you some interesting foals. I would recommend it to anyone!

However! Beware!

It seems that they are tracking computers and phones that log into your account because without giving them any info, they somehow have all of my computer information and phone information. I feel they are using this to track every players movements. This makes me very uncomfortable in a lot of ways because that in invasion of privacy. So if you do play, be careful!

I have played HI2 for a few months and in that time I loved it. And here I am talking about the actual GAME, not so much about the staff. The players I met were fun, horse-loving people out to adventure, make friends and quest. I had no troubles with them. The game itself is unique and while HI2 had many limitations (like chat filter strictness, the things you could do with your horse, uniform horse appearance in-world...) I was addicted. It was just so beautiful.

I had no experience with admins myself, but my sister got banned accidentally. She sent a mail to support and they very kindly apologized and got her account back. End of story.

HI2 was runied by inflation (mostly) and is pretty much dead now.

I play HI3. This game is still in development but I absolutely adore it and will never leave. The width of the world, horses, people, all of this is amazing. We need to be more considerate when rating the content because this is still under very heavy development. I say it is fantastic the way it is and keeps getting better. THE GAME I MEAN.

Now, people. Most of players are great guys. Once in a while people come from social media to HI3 and bring their drama with them, their text language and treat the game as what it is not - a chatroom and a social media type. I hope we don't get more of those.

As for the LGBT+ thing, I don't think that should be rated mature of treated as anything offensive and the staff SAID in the notice that they aren't against it. Dunno about Connie, but one person does not represent the whole game. This is a HORSE GAME. Boyfriends, girlfriends, relationships and sexuallity are not important here and should not be the focus. I mean, you can mention the person in chat or your relationship, but why on earth would you need to discuss your love life on Horse Isle?

While being inclusive towards LGBT+ is definitelly something to be done here and would be common sense, if there is no need for a relationship to even be mentioned, don't do it. This is not a dating game.

There are rules, follow them.

And don't bring any of the drama.

This game will take your $100 and ban you within hours for asking if you can name your horse "pissnog" oh and they wont refund btw. Don't waste your time on this game. Others were discussing relationships in global and i got banned for talking about mine.

Love the game, but the staff is horrible. I caught my child with a buddy who was talking about sex, drugs a other inappropriate things in game and had her report it and remove the bud. We also contacted support because this is a family friendly game and this individual is friends with a ton of minors on the game, and should not be saying such things.
Nothing has been done as of now to this person and the Horse Isle Staff keeps giving us the bland response of "they do it for attention" and "we are working with them".
Seems unfair when others get permanently banned for doing a lot less and not being gross around minors.

I've played Horse Isle games for a while (since 2013), and while the games are generally fine, the staff is absolutely atrocious. In all the time I've played, I've seen multiple accounts of staff abusing players, throwing down permanent bans and mutes for the smallest of issues, straight up lying, protecting harmful/toxic/predatory players, and generally have a difficult time agreeing on what actions require what level of discipline. This becomes much more obvious when you attempt to report a legitimate concern and you get banned for something completely unrelated while mods claim you are the only one doing a certain thing. There has also been mass banning/muting of players for no reason, and significant backlash from staff over players voicing legitimate concerns about how they treat their playerbase as well as what should and should not be deemed inappropriate (see the Gulag Incident of 2020). Your safest bet to avoid any and all emotional damages that could possibly occur is to steer clear of this game completely.

I love horse isle and have played since 2008, but they need to get new staff members who actually care for improving the game. I have had a glitch in the game ever since May of this year,, I have posted in forums and contacted them several times, and nothing has been done. They keep blaming my computer and settings when I have done everything on my end to ensure that it is not my computer. Also they refuse to price cap mobia and so the game's economy is gonna ruin the game.

I started playing this game in pre beta. Four years later, very little has changed. The game claims "infinite wilds" but it is just a repeat of the same biomes over and over, so exploring quickly loses its appeal. The graphics are childish. The mini games are monotonous. The player base is cliquey. The staff are rude and play favorites. Unless you are heavily into horse genetics, don't mind spending lots of irl money to "super" a breeding herd and your goal is to breed the highest stat (pick a breed) horse, you will rapidly run out of fun things to do. And if it's not fun, what's the point? You CAN play the game for free, but the grind to earn currency in-game is mind numbingly relentless. Again, not fun. Not to mention, this game has made the same fatal error as the two previous versions: putting the sale of currency in the hands of players, leading to game crushing inflation. I've given up on Horse Isle 3. I think Joe (the developer) has, too. It's been a year since he "took a break" to deal with irl issues. There was a 11/2022 post promising "proper game developments coming soon", but seven months later, nothing but tweaks, bug fixes and radio silence from Joe. No worries, though. There have been a whole host of new horse games released and under development that are aimed at adults, have better graphics, better game play and, OMG, an actual story line! So if HI3 has let you down, walk away. You have other, better choices.

The graphics are elementary, the size is ridiculous, and finding a place you can place a club or buy a parcel is nearly impossible. It has no fulfilling objective. You'd think they would be able to create a better game after all these years but they prioritized having a godawful sized game over any actual substance.

Beware!

It seems that they are tracking computers and phones that log into your account because without giving them any info, they somehow have all of my computer information and phone information. I feel they are using this to track every players movements. This makes me very uncomfortable in a lot of ways because that in invasion of privacy. So if you do play, be careful!

My friend wrote this review and I want to share it again because Connie said "no one from your location may play this game" - this was after I made a new account from a new computer, new IP address and new email, made me instantly think they obviously have my either physical address or near to it... made me VERY uncomfortable.

- I want to add to this that I was banned within less than 24 hours meaning they obviously check the LOCATION of every IP that joins. It's a bit invasive if you ask me.

While the large, open world map and variety of tasks in this sandbox game are fun and engaging, the moderators of the game make it an unwelcoming place.

At least a dozen friends I've played with have been penalized or outright banned for doing things such as decorating in-game items with pride colors ("not family friendly"), standing in a circle together ("cult like behavior"), or having a username with "Trains" in it ("gender content"--because "trains" sounds like "trans"). There is a reason this game is popularly known as "The Homophobic Horse Game."

The game would undoubtedly be a lot more popular if there were publicly displayed, sensible rules and they were consistently and fairly implemented. Instead, players expect to be punished for arbitrary reasons.

I like this site I really do. But there are pros & there are cons, as every site has.

The support staff is off & on. They're nice if you get the right one (Connie, Joe or Miranda). Autumn is nice but not my most favoured support staff. I admittedly made a moderator rant video that I neither regret nor am ashamed of. I made it well aware of what I was doing. I had 5 likes & 3 dislikes but took it down because people wouldn't stop contacting me about IT, nothing else. Just "the video". Hey, I think we all know that there are some mods that aren't the best. But with the way the players took it, I e-mailed support. I was excited that Connie replied. She created a forum & I noticed the mod that I usually disliked was different. It was a good change.

I also have found myself asking about violations many times. Some of them make sense but some of them are ones that make you laugh. Sometimes when I would write in the forums, I found that some players would take it upon themselves to take the matter into their own hands when they knew little to nothing of the matter. There are some real suck-ups.

But that's it: Every game is made up of players. & the players aren't the game. So with the "Mute" player feature, my playing has been enjoyable besides the two little obstacles.

Extremely overbearing mods who will ban you for anything and everything. Don't get too attached to your account, one accidental misstep and you're likely to recieved a temporary, or even permanent ban with 0 warning. They employ a visible "mod trust scale", and I can only imagine this has caused much distress to kids who play that accidentally acquire a low one. Just cruel to do in a game directed towards kids.
Not to mention the overt homophobia. So much as mention that you have two moms or dads and you're out. Any mention of LGBT people, or even just pronouns, is strictly forbidden. This is disgusting. LGBT people aren't inherently not child friendly. It's obvious this is based simply on the mod teams moral views, not actually to protect young players. They allow far less child-friendly concepts to get through no problem. Hell, someone in my group found a wild horse with the game generated name of "Heaven's Gait". A reference to a suicide cult that took a number of lives. That's more acceptable for kids than someone having two moms is?
There's a reason this game has quite a small user base, only those who play it exactly how the mods want them to and never try to have some fun with it survive for long.
They also give out lighter bans for those who have purchased memberships, which seems unfair. I got twice the length of ban a friend did, who was actually involved in the situation we were banned for, while I had little to no direct involvement. I was largely just standing nearby. Only difference is that I do not buy memberships and the premium in game currency.

Please google Esrohs Blog and read the thread about homophobia on Horse Isle. As many other reviews state, the whole HI team, the rules, & the ways they enforce them is quite messed up. This game is fun for sure, but the staff & support team really do ruin the experience. This is quite unfortunate, as the game itself is a fun way to pass the time. I am hoping that HI3 will be more lenient & fun, as the staff claim.

I started playing about 2 months ago and loved the game and would never leave it for anything! I would fully recommend the game... but CONNIE is SO rude I was enjoying the game when I got kicked off and couldn't get back on, I asked HI support and connie replied saying 'You have been banned NO one from your location is allowed to play' WTH DID I DO? Don't SUBSCRIBE! THEY TAKE YOUR MONEY AND RUN! The owners of HI3 need to boot these **** and get some decent support people.

*I did have proof of CONNIE saying this to me on support but my account was DELETED before i could even SCREEN SHOT IT!

I've been playing this game for a little over a year, i think. I'd seen the reviews as well as share a home with someone who used to play but, mostly due to the lack of anything to do in game, no longer does. I was warned to stay away and to definitely not spend my money here, but i wanted to see for myself, and now here we are.

It's important to note, as two people who share a location, that my roommate and i also share an internet connection, but we do not share a computer. Apparently i've now been banned for "multi-accounting" even though this account was my one and only. In any other game like this, i would probably reach out to staff at this point to talk to them about it, see if maybe there was a mixup and they meant to ban someone else with a similar user, or if this has something to do with my roommate and i both having accounts; and if that's truly the issue, then explain the misunderstanding and see if the ban could be reversed. However, knowing how they tend to handle being wrong, i really just don't feel comfortable with initiating that kind of interaction. Some of the confrontations i've seen frankly just turn into bullying on their end, and i'm not at a mental state where i can really handle that right now.

I think i'm mostly concerned about this in particular because the game is aimed towards children. What would happen if, in a family setting, a parent and their child or children all signed up to play together? A good parent might want to play alongside their child, or at least check out the game atmosphere to make sure they feel it's age appropriate, they feel comfortable with their kid in that environment, etc. it's important to note that their game rules DO NOT make exceptions of multiple accounts tied to one household for multiple people, including family members, which in itself doesn't really make this game in any way safe for kids, especially when noting in some other complaints and reviews i've seen that there is blatant evidence of predatory behaviour on this game.

While i'm here, i figured i might as well add in some other things that make me feel this game is worth one star, as listed below.

- the game is advertised as being a sort of open world adventure, but there's no adventure to be had. The landscape is absolutely devoid of life, the ambient soundscape is ear grating and blatantly fake, the music is so annoying that i had to mute it. The only incentives to explore are the ridiculous amount of space you need between each ranch/club, and a handful of features that are neat at first and get old extremely quick as they are reused to death.
- making money is extremely difficult. If you are not in the top 1% your horses will never sell except to the traders at extremely low prices. Collecting any items worth selling is boring, repetitive and very time consuming. Some of the places needed to access for the most desired resources are locked behind a paywall.
- there are no quests. Not even a main story. The only consistent entertainment in the game are the hourly mane events (some you may not be able to participate in as they're player built and sometimes have arbitrary, exclusionary rules), and frequent game events which basically cycle through the same handful of server wide "minigames".
- the chat filter is atrocious. I really appreciate the attempt to block profanity, but i've seen inconsistencies like "boob" is blocked but "boobs" is not; maybe not that specifically, but i'm sure you get the jist. I think "vomit" was also blocked for some reason. There's some i found that are really, really vile, to the point where i can't help thinking they may have been intentionally left unblocked because there's no way the devs didn't know to block them.
- graphics are sub-par. They're so ugly they're charming, but the animations look so robotic and janky they've caused me to have motion sickness. When the changes were made, i noticed many other people complain of the same thing, but were basically told to suck it up because that's how it's going to be now. Can't help but think they're trying to get on the level of starstable or upcoming titles like astride, ranch of rivershine, tales of rein ravine, that horse game, etc. unfortunately, people are leaving because they're bored and changing the animations isn't going to fix that.

All in all, my recommendation would just be to not bother. In the time that i played, i followed the rules, bred some really nice horses, easily spent over 1k on mobia to support the devs, and accepted the flaws for what they were without complaining. I tried to have fun in my own way, never stirred the pot, but was punished for something i didn't do with no explanation at all after playing for over a year. Save your money. Play literally any other game, just don't bother with a barebones sandbox game that will waste your time and money.

Staff are disgusting. Especially Connie. I felt threatened and the way she words things is terrible. If they expect to keep a gaming service around, they should think twice about the staff they're choosing.

Wouldn't recommend if you can't or don't want to keep up the subscription constantly.

When a player is over their horses limit your inventory gets blocked, no matter the amount of items in it. Basically, you can't even play the game cause your inventory is needed for questing or gathering!