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Saved by the Break: A Newbie’s Tale

Original article written by Amanda Haderthauer posted 11 years 2 weeks ago

I joined the SIM at the beginning of week 16, in Year 33. As a fan of horse racing I loved the idea of the SIM and was eager to jump right in and spend some of that $100,000 in my bank. So after skimming the help page I began purchasing, training, and racing my new horses. Then this strange thing happened. I couldn’t find races to run my horses in. After some searching I discovered the game was entering into ‘the Break’.

My first reaction was dismay. I mean I had just joined and now I have to wait two weeks before I can do anything with my horses. Little did I know this break would prove to be very beneficial.

After buying a few more horses, more out of boredom than necessity, I started exploring the other features of the SIM. It was then that I found the three things that may be the most important tools that a newbie like myself can have. Those tools are the forum, the search page, and The Featured Race.

In my opinion the forum is the most important tool to utilize. I had so many questions answered in the forum and I didn’t even have to post anything! Everything is labeled and organized, so it didn’t take me long to find what I was looking. The ‘Advice for New Players’ section was very helpful. Just reading question that others had posted answered a lot the questions that I had. I also learned about the Dare to Dream program. Hopefully I can take advantage of this truly wonderful program. Plus I found that sometimes other player will have there own contest on the forum, with prized ranging from horse to game points. Any new player that hasn’t been to the forum yet needs to get there as soon as possible.

The search page is also very helpful. As a new player in the SIM world, the pedigrees don’t really mean that much to me yet. Yet thanks to the search page I can see of the breeding of certain lines has been successful in the past. This has made researching pedigrees so much easier. Using the search page I can see what type of offspring a certain Sire (or Grand Sire) and Dam (or Dam Sire) have produced. You can also search for a certain type of horse, for example a Dirt Miler that is no longer a maiden, or whatever type of horse you would like to add to you stables. I used the search page to find a nice steeplechase filly that is “a natural”.

The final thing that I found was The Featured Race. Here you can find all kinds of article on various different subjects. It has its own New Players section, which is filled with good advice for other players. There is another plus with The Featured Race. When you write an article for The Featured Race you get paid. For a new player this can be especially helpful. I doubt my horse are going to bring in a million bucks in Year 34 (more than likely not even close), but I can supplement what they earn with money made from writing articles.

So what I thought would be two weeks of boredom, was anything but. I learned from the mistakes of others. I also learned what mistakes I had already made without even realizing it, and how to make the most of them. So any fellow newbie’s out there, if you haven’t already checked these things out, you need to. There is a lot to learn and these are a great place to start. Happy racing!


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