First off, let me start with being bold and telling you that this site enables Gambling, YEP!
How so?
This site is a pay-to-play website, you can pay for six months or a full year and a full year is like 25 bucks so it may not seem so bad. Now on this website they'll host events at a ridiculous rate (and complain they don't have time for anything else like idk, actual quality customer service) but they have this thing called 'Extravaganza' events which is four times a year. They'll release a whole bunch of little events, last one had 18 different ones, and not only did you have only a week orso to participate in pretty much all of them, the prizes for these events are hidden.
You don't get to see the prizes, ergo you don't get to make a well thought out decision on what you'd like to join in on. The fact that you have to pay REAL MONEY to use the site the fullest, including using the forums where these events are hosted, makes it feel like indirect gambling. Because you don't know what you'll get for which event, which causes 'Fear Of Missing Out' super bad especially if you're already sensitive to it due to neurodivergence or if you're a recovering addict. I did contact the mod team to file a complaint, but they basically told me they 'didn't have the time to make the improvements' and shrugged their shoulders.
I'm a digital artist and decided 'hey, maybe this is a fun little niche for my art!' and I DID get to make a few commissions which, might I add for the mods if they're reading this were all HAND. PAINTED. And I'm not going to respond to any allegations anymore. These moderators have been scouring the internet, reverse searching my art for assets and brushes that resemble things in my art. I paint a lot of shiny stuff that's quite complex and I kid you not, an opalescent gem was believed to be 'clip art' because I guess me being actually good at my hobby and passion is unheard of:)
Not to mention they don't know what fair use is. As an artist we all grasp a few basic principles: Nothing is original, credit the OP unless stated otherwise and references are okay, tracing is not.
I NEVER trace, I reference, the closest thing they could've caught me in 4K with is that I transform PUBLIC, FREE TO USE assets of which I DOUBLE CHECK that I can use them without credit because homies, fellas, if I had to credit every single brush, texture, asset, font everything, it'd be impossible to post and anyone who draws and posts their art to like, Deviantart, Twitter, Tumblr hell anywhere, knows this. It's universal knowledge. It's very much a no brainer on when something is okay to use, when it's not, when you need to credit and that if the OP literally says 'this is just a brush I made no need to credit' then you don't need to harrass someone for not crediting as OP's words are the final say in these things.
There's also the matter of me doing commission work and me 'selling stolen art' when I see professional artists using the same PUBLIC, FREE TO USE textures and selling them for hundreds, artists who work for big companies, have legal advice etc. So I don't see the issue here.
THE MODS HOWEVER? OH BOY. I spent the better part of a week on a really good looking tarot card as part of an art contest. This image wasn't even done yet but I can now delete it because 'the sunflowers in the background look copy pasted, we doubt the opals are your own work.' Which tells me these mods have never touched an advanced program like Clip Studio Paint, or even GIMP in their lives, good god. A digital artist painting one, two or three flowers and then copy pasting them to save their own wrist from horrible pain and injury? And to save time in an age where content needs to be churned out FAST or we lose our client base to AI 'artists'? Wack.
These mods need to go outside and touch some grass, or better yet, seek counseling because the only reason I can see for this behavior is that someone hurt them or they're suffering from a burn out because being in that clique CAN'T be healthy for your brain:/
Included is a screenshot of the ridiculous allegation and threat.
Don't, stay away. Parents don't let your kids on this.
So... I see a lot of counter reviews about how it's easy to follow the rules. And to be fair - it is! There are a lot of rules, but it's not that hard to follow them. What IS hard is finding MODs who are willing to enforce the rules equally/consistently across the player population.
There is definite favoritism by the MOD team. Once the wool is pulled off your eyes, it's even worse than what it sounds like.
For example, one of the rules is to not use chat speak or acronyms (this is because of the international community, to help with communication - and that's totally fine. It's a pretty easy rule to follow). Here's what I noticed when it came to reporting threads that broke this rule: if the player being reported was an unknown person in the community, their post would be hidden and I would receive a note saying thanks from whichever MOD took care of it. However, if the player being reported was a well-known friend of people on the MOD team, the post wasn't hidden and I would get a nasty response from the MODs explaining why it was actually okay for that post--even though it was the exact same thing that got the unknown user's post hidden!
It is against the rules to message someone who has blocked you from messaging them. Like, clearly it is an offense that is instantly ban-able. When someone (not a MOD but one of their darling friends) who constantly harassed me, PMed me from a sub account to *threaten* me, I reported them. And nothing happened. In fact, I was warned to leave the person alone. This person continued to harass me in the forums. Every time I reported their behavior (I never retaliated and any interaction I had with them was respectful, which the MODs themselves admitted), I was threatened by the MODs. At one point, I was told that if I reported this other person's harassment of me one more time, the MODs would ban ME. The victim of harassment. I was told essentially that my existence made me responsible for the other person's harassment of me.
Running macros for contesting is (or at least was) against the rules. At one point, a MOD had an active thread advocating contesting with macros (this was many years ago). I had to point out in as non-confrontational a way as possible that it's against the rules, and the MOD's response was "oh oops" essentially. So, using macros is a ban-able offense. Did this MOD who self-admitted breaking this rule get a ban like most other players would have? Nope, and to my knowledge they are still a MOD.
The administration of this site is a whole flaming hot mess of poop on a doorstep. Most players are adults (not a problem). The actual kids on the site are often bullied by other players (adults!) or even the MODs themselves, and nothing is ever done about it. They allowed entire threads in the forums talking about how terrible all kids who played were - which should be a problem if they actually care about being kid-friendly as much as they profess to!
The rules aren't the problem. The inconsistent enforcement of rules, harassment (allowed by the MODs and conducted by the MODs both), and bullying are. The gameplay is just not worth the headache especially with the switch from pony-focus to item-focus.
Just play with your ponies and stay out of the community.
Website
I played this game growing up, it helped me develop into an adult that has a passion for art, genetics and learn from my mistakes - though there are a decent range of problems you'd think given their success wouldn't be pervasive given their pay-to-play business model and over a decade to iron out problems.
Here's a TLDR - Potential security and financial safety hazards, lacks fundamental security features any other website these days would have as a minimum, focus more on whether they like users (for example children) when enforcing rules rather than assessing their claims and thus staff protected those who took financial advantage of minors despite the nature of the game itself, the admins repeatedly ignore serious questions and appear (from my recent experience) to treat those with neurodiversity as expendable customers rather than trying to address what is being brought up.
After 5-8 years of absence after some major issues when I played as a teenager - I thought "Hey, I should check out the game that was an integral part of my life for so many years" - this thought was a mistake and I'll explain why.
So, a few unique aspects of the game are the ability to have multiple accounts as long as you pay for them and that items/in game currency can be sold for real-world currency and as such despite being an online pony game - the audience and playerbase are older than you'd see on other games within the genre. When it comes to your "virtual pets", it's pretty unique and offers some cool challenges and advantages as it's genetic and colour driven giving users the ability to create ambitious projects with genetic combinations, multi-generation selective breeding plans and a creative approach to how the colours of these poinies can create practically infinite combinations - which, to re-iterate are commonly sold for real world money between players.
Now, let's talk about some of the flaws that I encountered on the less-than-a-week return as an adult and some I recall which were re-enforced from my time playing in the past.
Some websites will send you emails to the point you'd be frustrated - Ponyisland is not one of those websites. Despite being a platform that requires ongoing payment - you'll never get an email directly from them whether it be confirmation of you signing up, alerts to major changes to your account (for example someone changing your email or transferring your entire inventory and in-game finances to another account etc). Or receipts of any purchases made with them. Now that's a little worrying as if your account was compromised - how would you know if away from the game and if your email and password were changed - what could you possibly do?
Let's talk about my decision to return to this creative website and where the biggest issue I have really starts - like many users on the site I had many accounts and couldn't remember the login details so I did what most people would do - I searched my email, first my current, then the one I had when I was 10 and a few others but didn't have access to my school/educational email accounts for obvious reasons. I didn't have any hits anywhere, so I tried their general search with a few keywords however, no dice. When you try to reset your password you need to provide the username and email, which normally would be pretty standard but given my situation for example - I'm not sure whether my account(s) would be tied to one email address, or multiple, or what my usernames would be and what combination would work. So what can I do next? Contact support despite the low chance I'd be able to prove I'm the account owner - but you can't contact support without being logged in.
So here's the conflict, do you give up on your nostalgia and the desire to help keep a game afloat by chucking them a few bucks to re-live such an integral part of your life for a little while or buckle down. I should have given up here, but alas I chose another option that in retrospect, caused far more harm than good.
So after exhausting the normal ways you'd access an old account with no avail, I opted to register for a trial account for one purpose: The advanced search.
Signup is easy enough, a short form of the basics with confirmation you agree to the rules and terms of service - no mention of users being unable to delete these accounts and details explaining that if you've got multiple trial accounts or both a trial account and a paid account you may have a week's suspension - that's reasonable as I was intending to delete the account once I'd located my other accounts using the search tool exclusive to logged-in users. So it turns out, you can't delete these accounts and since they don't send confirmation emails I'd point-blank forgotten the username of my trial account as it was made at 1AM after a night of pre-new years celebrations with friends and my sobriety was questionable at best.
I was able to recover my old account and paid for it and 2 other of my old sub-accounts and figured it would be a major waste of staff time and resources to request they locate the account I'd made in a haze (especially the week between Christmas and New year as staff would likely be pre-occupied) simply to ask "hey can you find this account that was used for an hour and has absolutely 0 in-game assets which I don't have any way or desire to access" so, left it be and enjoyed 6 days of playing with genetics and exploring the game that hadn't changed since my youth.
So, I broke a rule and I own and accept that, however, there is absolutely no other option for people in my position to take and that's an integral flaw you'd think a paid service that's been active for over a decade and should easily be resolved when talking to support with evidence of the extended inactivity on my long-dead accounts, the choice to pay for multiple accounts and that the trial account in question was clearly not used in a negative intent given no assets were generated/used and it was abandoned entirely.
6 days later, I'm banned for two weeks for having an unpaid trial account. I opened a ticket asking for more information and requested to know what the username was as I had no details of it emailed to me and couldn't recall it, I explained the situation and my attempts to access my accounts prior to creating a trial account and queried why my ban length was double what is stated in the rules. Now, if it'd been a week, as said in the rules, I'd have tolerated it - I mean it's just a digital pony game. The issue was that these ponies die, and the 2 week time-frame meant that I'd have 17 ponies die and recovering them costs significant in-game premium currency which as I mentioned earlier, has out of game value and that seemed a pretty unpleasant and significant penalty for someone who tried every other possible avenue to recover their old accounts, it was evident the account was not accessed since or used for any of the game mechanics and I'd tried to explain this to and propose resolutions. Costing players significant ingame premium currency, which in this situation would have needed me to spend actual money to obtain because I needed to use a search tool after exhausting methods you'd use on any other website, free or not - that's not a healthy environment for people to engage in at any age.
So, in short, my recollection of their Mod staff's behavior prior to me leaving the site in the past hadn't changed. Honestly, until this point, I'd figured I was misremembering how they treated me in the past and assumed my child-brain made it worse than I thought. Well, I was in fact wrong.
After explaining the situation, proposing a variety of possible resolutions (including deletion of the account, transferring one of my paid memberships to it to avoid infraction etc.) they were repeatedly ignored to the point I wasn't sure if my enquiries were even sending within our support ticket (they were, they just chose to ignore them).
Now, in my situation, I had a particular kind of ban on my accounts permanently which has always raised red flags with how it was handled, however, I had accepted it as something I'd always have to deal with if returning to the site and taught me a lot of life lessons in its own way. I don't want to name names or go into explicit detail as it's old and doesn't bother me much now but at the time, 8-9 years ago as a high schooler working 2-3 jobs to earn money and the other users involved being adults who's minimum wage was around double that of mine - being scammed out of hundreds of dollars by fellow "artists" on the website, publicly shamed for being unable to dedicate as much time to this website as a child with multiple jobs and effectively losing the ability to participate in the community without other users bullying me for this - I ain't gonna lie I got upset and practically begged the staff to help me recover whatever I could at the time and it hurt. At the end of the day, I didn't handle it right as a kid who's community and financial situation was destroyed and I got banned from art permanently on the website with staff members calling me a troll. I bring this up as the artists involved are all now permanently banned themselves, at least one for them for a major reason I was upset - art theft.
I bring this up as I figured I'm already dealing with moderators, I might as well ask if I could get clarification from their side on what determined me to be on that list, clarification of the limitations (as their rules didn't go into it) and if, given the other users being banned for exactly what I'd alleged after I left the site for treating others similarly; would be either a) related to why I was treated with a harsher ban than the rules stipulate or b) if an appeal were ever possible for the art ban given the time since and what transpired following it.
Staff told me my reactions and how I handled myself at the time (as a child) were the reason I was banned and that they aren't going to reverse or handle an appeal for it, and I accepted that. They explicitly said maturity and respect - and I was an upset kid back then so I left it at that and said I accept that decision and outright apologized.
Now, days of going back and fourth later, staff were ignoring my inquiries, telling me how they can have leniency for users in my situation but not me and despite me being clear, factual, respectful, and simply - blunt: I was being called immature and disrespectful - I'm a grown adult with qualifications and awards in customer service - I didn't once make any comment like that towards staff, however, apparently those who are on the autism spectrum wanting to revisit a game that frankly has many attributes that would make it very popular with the crowd - aren't capable or trained to treat people like that with dignity or respect and that's bad for a free game let alone one that costs $14USD for 6 months.
I contacted Paypal with evidence after 8 requests for a refund if they're not willing to discuss this with me, pass on feedback or treat me with any level of dignity/respect and that was initially my last-resort solution.
I didn't come back to a website that facilitated me being scammed by an adult as a child and called me a troll when I begged them to take it seriously - to be treated as if I was acting maliciously or to be punished excessively when there is a major integral flaw in their systems that forced me to break a rule that they've told me they're lenient to other users regarding but had no way around. If they'd stuck to what was in their rules, honestly, I'd have probably accepted the punishment despite everything - but they didn't and the way they treated me proves not only is this website not particularly safe for kids even 8 years later, but it's probably a bad place for those who aren't neurotypical too.
The only reason they have 2/5 not 1/5 is simply because the premise has merit - it's a good idea and really inspired me to study veterinary nursing, game design and pursue my passion for art. Maybe the way the admins treated me as a kid pushed me to be blunter and state the facts when dealing with conflicts it customer service as an adult - since having emotions will only hurt you but that doesn't make their reputation for treating paying users of any age, mental capacity/divergence etc. poorly any more forgivable.
- Update my review was deleted so that was cool :)
I've have been the artiest of Ponyisland, drawing the ponies and pony characters for each page plus the splash page since 2005. I have seen so much change and degrade it's very sad to see. I was the only Artiest for years and one day I told VeeZ that I needed help so I started an artiest group. I rarely seen ZarqX. The only time he shows up is to fix the website or update it. VeeZ would ok any project the Artist group had or pony drawings I did. Suggestions and criticism went well to help improve the artwork for PI.
When the Admins decided to improve the website making it better looking, the art on the splash page was redone by someone else, replacing my art. The pony character for each page were also replace by someone else's art. Over time any items I did was also redone by another artist. When ZarqX and VeeZ split. Things took a nose dive fast. ZarqX, the only admin on the site decided to have leaders to run the website for him. So an Artist leader was chosen and a moderator leader was chosen, giving them free rein in how to run Ponyisland. In 2018 the Artists group leader kicked me out of the group that I started. In 2019 when new breeds were being made I tried to remind them that the breed has to have a pony look to them. The website is called Ponyisland for a reason, the whole theme of the website is in the name. They wouldn't listen no mater how many times I tried to explain it. A mod was getting annoyed with me and called me snarky. After that name calling I decided to leave ponyisland. I saw their ideas for Ponyisland and what their future plan is. The future breeds will not look anything close to a pony.
They were happy to see VeeZ leave and have Zarqx as their only admin. They couldn't wait to get rid of me, now they have complete freedom to do what they want with the website.
I never felt it was right to release so many items during events but they wouldn't have listened to me if I said something. First it was 5 item, then 10, then 20. Even during the Christmas events they release more that 25 items. Sometime it's 2 or 3 in a box. For rare items there truly is no such thing as rare item.
I've seen it with my own eyes, Rules are made by mods and artiest, they run the website, they make all the decisions. If you post your opinions or disagree, they will delete your post or thread. If you run into a problem, don't expect a mod or artiest to help fix your problem.
Play the game at your own risk.
Hello Everypony! Today after looking over the extremely biased reviews of this game. I am going to give you all an honest look at Ponyisland.net. A webgame that I am still active on, and do still enjoy, and if it's worth your time and money.
So sit back, relax, and I will tell you more about this game than you ever wanted to know.
I: My personal History with PonyIsland...
So, I think the best way to start this off is to give a short rundown on how I became a member of this website. It's a funny story actually. I had made the first account for a friend, since she did not have internet access, and could only really play at my place. Initially I was one of those guys who thought that ponies were not cool, and was just doing it because I knew she enjoyed them.
The way the game is set up however, made it so that you had to take care of your ponies or they'd die. Of course it had to be me since I was the one who technically owned the account, and with both of us working together to maintain our ponies, while also coming up with characters for them, it didn't take long for my friend to get me hooked to where I made my own account.
To this day, I have not one single regret, but is this game worth the price of admission? Short answer yes. Long answer? Read on and see.
II: Gameplay
Ponyisland at the time of writing this has twenty breeds of ponies, and countless sgenes which are split into four different catagories. Body, Hair, Leg, Face. Some genes are more realistic, and some, the breed specific in particular are downright fantastical, and the breed selection in very inventive with some breeds such as Unicorns and Pegasi being iconic, however there are also some very unique breeds as well. Phoenix Ponies and Merdragons coming to mind, alongside Kitsune Ponies, and Dino Ponies.
The Breed Specific Genes also add a great layer of diversity as well, although not every breed has theirs yet.
What is there though offers quite a few options for those who want to breed some interesting combinations.
The genetics are a fickle thing to work with however, so please bear with me as I try to break them down in simple terms.
During Breeding, the genes and colors are chosen from the parents in a way that will attempt to give the offspring a combination of both parents colors and genes. If the parents are identical, then the offspring with look identical to them. However there is a bit more to this system.
To get the most out of breeding in this game, you have to create a good pony within as few generations as possible. The first generation as in ponies you've generated should have the blueprints you need to create a DVSO from them. (Double Visible Starter Offspring.) Which is generally what most breeders do in this game. There is lots of terminology to learn, but to put it simple, a Starter is a pony that is fresh from the generator, and will like have the genes you want but will not show them, once the offspring is bred they should have the genes present.
Confused yet? Probably, but I'm likely making it sound a lot more complicated than it is. I'll admit that I don't make a habit of breeding very often, especially since it can be hard to know what genes a pony has unless there is a note with them listed. It can be fun to breed random ponies and see what you get from then.
Breeding isn't all this website has going for it although that is probably the number one reason aside from just being a fan of ponies.
There are other things you can do though.
For one, you are going to need to feed and vet your ponies which costs PG (Ponygold)
This is not optional as if a pony dies, you will have to obtain a resurrection scroll, which cost BP, or Bonus Points. You earn PG and BP by contesting and Questing your ponies, which also allows you to level up their stats so that they can do better in the next contest, which can lead to some huge payoff in the end. Just remember to vet your ponies after each contest, as they will get hurt.
In addition to this, you can also customise your interface, as well as how your home island looks which is a pretty cool feature that a lot of websites like this lack. Here you can actually have a visual representation of your stables which makes it easier to get attached to your collection, or herd, or what ever you want to call your ponies.
There are also countless artists, adoptables, and even forums and groups that are filled with additional and often times exclusive content, and most people on the forums are quite friendly. Which leads me to.
III: The Community.
Okay, so this is where I'm going to be stepping on some toes. Please keep in mind that I do not intend to be hurtful with what I'm going to say, as this is just what I've experienced personally.
So to start with the most obvious controversy, I do agree that some of the rules on Ponyisland are a bit stingy. The thing that I've noticed however is that many complaints are coming from a place of fairly biased anger. Why is that? I'll explain. The whole idea behind the paid subscription service is to disincentivise trolls and other toxic influence from taking root in the community, while still leaving the site open to the general public.
This was not always the case however. When Ponyisland was first created, it was meant to be little more than a club, for the admin and her friends to hang out and share there passion. Of course with the Internet being the Internet, what started out as a fun little venture by a few close friends, ended up becoming an actual web business. While it paid off initially, some of the new obligations plus the ever increasing demand for innovation, caused a rift to form in the community.
Now the webside is divided into four camps. Those who still hold loyalty to their friends, and are now bitter at how some things turned out. Those who were part of the old guard but now hate their guts.
The average consumer (Me) who is just enjoying the site for what it is, and the consumer who wants their dollar to mean something.
It's a vicious cycle, and it makes it really hard for the mods, many of which were part of that initial golden era to hold an unbiased attitude. Does that excuse some of the things that have happened. No. Absolutely not. Especially when there are as many bad mods as there are good. In my experience though, especially as sort of a random nobody, I can say that the mods I have interacted with were very fair, and willing to help accomadate my requests. I have also noticed that they are actually far more lenient that the rules would make you think.
As to the location of rules, (In their respective forum) I don't really see an issue with that, in fact that seems to be the most common since way to do it, since you don't need to read the rules on making a post about the new project you made, if you're actually going to be writing fanfiction.
It is really not a big deal, especially since combining all of the rules into a single page would not only be overwhelming, but counter productive since it would mean more forum hopping, in order to check the rules, in a forum, and then have to travel back to said forum in order to post.
IV: In Conclusion
Ponyisland is 23$ per account, per year, however if you make a point to hoard PG, it is possible to never have to pay for a subscription again, as you can sell PG and BP for actual money, and that is just if you don't take commisions.
Really though the game is solid, with some very interesting ponies and countless projects for you to breed, or just lots of pretty ponies to collect.
The community is at odds with itself on where and how the future of the site should be handled, but as long as you're not being a D*** about how you express your opinion, then it really isn't nearly as bad as people are making it out to be.
The mods do have some bias, but that comes from the fact that they are a close circle of friends, and may even feel that this club that Ponyisland used to be for them is being taken over, by people who don't have the same connection that they do, but at the same time have shown a great deal of professionalism.
I actually was a part of the movement that was trying to ressurect the sites RP storyline, and was a bit of a pest for the mods during that time, and yet was never attacked or banned for my thoughts or requests.
The only post that was deleted was a religious conspericy on how Wishing Ponies and Valkyrie Ponies were the PonyIsland versions of Angels and Demons. I don't think I need to elaborate further on why this post was deleted lol.
Overall I probably left out more than I included, but that is because, even though this game has it's shortcomings, I still think that if you are a fan of Ponies in any way, that this site is still more than worth it, to at least try.
I've played PonyIsland.net pony breeding sim game for 11 years. I've created countless fellow PI players pony art since 2012 (fellow player's ponies in a retro 80s MLP style in baby pony form) I finished one such art piece for a player and she was so happy on how it came out that she posted it onto the forums. That's where I got caught for the first time. The offense was - copyrighted material even of a screenshot photo image found online not allowed in artwork or any kind is considered stolen, art theft... Well, the Mario Bros game play screenshot was found on Google, which means it is Free Fair Use as long as no real money is exchanged for said art commission. (I chose the screenshot cause I did not want to paint the image onto the blank space on the paper, I wanted to do something different) The MODs don't understand this at all. Because I was not allowed to plea my case, I'm suspended until November 23rd and this means all my ponies will be dead. It takes a lot of BonusPoints and PonyGold to buy up as many Ressurection Scrolls to bring back ponies I want... Enclosed are screenshots of the sitatuation that unfolded with other evidence of their double standard of accessories on ponies can create a fact simalily of any style of already copyrighted images from movies, cartoons, TV shows and fictional novel characters. (For example, Stephen King's IT character can be expressed with accessory items and named Pennywise, this means that basic image is being created by a paid account, therefore money is involved)... The 'rule' of no copyrighted material allowed on PI is strict beyond strict and does NOT give warnings for first time offenders. They don't even hear your plead case like I tried to do. The MODs rule the site and the Admins just gather all the goods of playing favorites... I'm not angry like this over being suspended it is that I'm angry cause their 'iron clad' rule is falsely destructive and hurts the chances of future players buying an account. As in the screenshots provided below, their player base is leaving. 10 years ago the game developer had 10,000 or more players. Then just 5 years ago that number went down to 5,000 to 3,000 players. Currently, from a vote on how many players wanted the Halloween Items to come out early and it was 94% of players said yes, while the others said no. The number of players that voted was 1,300. This means, their player base in a 'Special Club' of paid members. Even the PonyGold (in game currancy) the Trial Members can't buy anything until they pay for the account. Mind I've played this game for 11 years, I've seen things get worse ever since... All in all, this game is not worth your money. $23 a year, that's per account you buy. Think on this - one user has 80 accounts. I counted them myself and they are still in use. $23 x 80 accounts = $1,840.00. Then you put it as $23 x 1,300 players =$29,900. This game is a cash cow. It takes money to maintain the servers of course, but the developer could do so much more to keep up with the times. App games make thousands more dollars in comparison in a 24hr period. If the rule of this 'copyright / stolen artwork' BS was changed to give a warning and to clean up what had happened, then I would not be fussing. But this game is not worth $23 considering all the nasty back stabbing bs that the MODs seem to have power over.
Spend your money on better games and always check if the MODs have God power. If they do, leave. It's a waste.
1) Admin not involved at all, give MODs full power. Admin didn't even come up with rules of site, their lead MODS did, which the MODS don't even follow lol. MODs determine the "cool kids". Give expensive and special items that they receive for Modding to cool kids. Free speech not allowed. You're not allowed to say "hey I'm saving up for this item so I'm selling stuff!" Not allowed to capitalize more than 1 letter a sentence. If there's a "discussion" in the discussion board and you post something the MODs don't agree with? They'll erase it and say you were being "mean-spirited". MODs will ban you, a paying customer, for the simplest of mistakes. For buying a pony from the pony market on a trial account before making it a sub. For typing "zhe" even if by accident and you meant "the" because "Chat speak isn't allowed" (Even though one of the MODS uses chat speak with her character).
2) Rules are pages, upon pages, long, and also there's more rules for each forum which you HAVE to read and that's your responsibility as a user and you'll get banned if you don't follow each and every one of them.
3) Can't bump threads for literally weeks. You have to wait til your thread falls off the first page, which is formatted to be ridiculously long, and due to the amount of dwindling users due to the MODs bullying users, can take weeks.
4) Nothing is rare, or allowed to be rare, even if it was promised to be so. Items that were told to be one time release are now being re-released. The "Generator" (Where you create ponies) has been calibrated twice. With the original, white and black was hard to gen, so people spent lots of money and time breeding and genning white and black ponies. Then BOOM, after 9 years of having this gen, they changed it. White and black severely easy to get. However, you can now not - as in it is impossible and not achievable - to get close to red, blue, green, yellow, cyan, or magenta. So, all those white and black ponies you have stored up and built your little pony castle on? Worthless. So back to square one. You store up old ponies, that aren't able to be genned anymore. 3 years later... BOOM. Generator changes, with no communication either time. The literally $100s of dollars worth of ponies you've saved up? Now again, worthless. But at least you still have your rare items throughout the years! Nope. Now those are being re-released as well.
Overall - amazing concept. The artist on this site are amazing, the breeding possibilites are sooo addicting, but the admin has absolutely no respect for their long-time users, and #1, the MODs, are absolutely atrocious on this site.
I say this as a user that has played many, many, many virtual pet sites throughout the years. The MODs on this site are (not exaggerating) 20x worse than any other MOD I've encountered on any single site.
I was suspended for a rule I knew nothing about (multiple unpaid accounts with my paid accounts) because of the fact that the "Rules" link on the sign up page goes directly to the TOS page and not to any official rules page. I didn't know of an official rules page (because of the link error) on the forums until a mod sent me the link in my resolve ticket. It was the first time I saw the "official rules".
I informed the mods about this (and I took screen-shots of my communications with them, as well as a video of the faulty "Rules" link) and asked to be un-suspended seeing as this was an error on their part and told them I had fully intended to pay for the remaining 4 accounts this payday (08-26-16). They still ignored my pleas to be un-suspended and asked me to mark the ticket as resolved even though they left me suspended and the issue unresolved.
I sent several more messages and waited for over 3 hours with no response. I finally clicked the resolved button since they chose to continue ignoring me and decided to resolve it myself by getting a full refund on all of my accounts since I feel IdzTech/Pony Island is being purposefully malicious by lying and withholding information upon signing the contract and is causing me to lose time and money that I put into the game by penalizing me for something I was never informed of as well as leaving their error unfixed.
A contract that does not provide full information upon signing cannot then suddenly have that lack of information enforced on the signee/payee. Seeing as Pony Island refused to be ethical and seeing as they have not fixed the link to the rules so that others dont have this issue, I will discontinue my business with them forever.
I also did research and found I am not the only one who has this issue. So this is an ongoing dilemma with other players. I feel the IdzTech/Pony Island is an immoral business that purposefully tricks its users and then penalizes them for something they could never have known.
This was my message sent to PonyIsland.net through PayPal as I intend to get a full refund. If they do not refund me, I will inform paypal of their deceit as they have now closed my accounts as soon as my payment reversal and this message was sent to them. I have yet to see any money back from them, but I will give them the traditional 3-5 business days.
Here you have a fun concept, and a very nice set up. However the mods do not fully obey their own rules, find walk arounds, and hand out far too many bans for very harmless mistakes.
Here are Some Examples
Examples:
Repeatedly posting too many sales threads too often-Forum Flooding. Too often can mean more than 3 in a week.
Art Theft- Although this is to protect many users, a friend of mine was banned for "Art Theft" for stealing their own art... because they were reported to have art by a user by a different site... which was them. Their ban was lifted but their money for lost time-It's a pay site was not refunded and no apology given.
Forums are constantly modded to the extreme, even if your topic matches the forum post if one small part could fit in another topic it is hidden, deleted, or removed. If this happens too often you can get a ban.
Example: Say you have a breeding project and post examples in a Discussion forum, your still adding content, the admins will move your topic to Show and Tell, then delete it because when you finish it is not a "Show & Tell" This has happened to alot of people.
Site is unstable and no money is refunded for downtime.
Admins are having ownership issues and are limiting new content updates.
You are never allowed to say anything about the way the site is ran, modded, ect... unless you know the mods personally or you will likely get a ban or worse.
The Mods can and do make fun of the players.
Great ideas have been proposed in the ideas forum and one of the mods or art crew has openly made fun of that players ideas, drawing different versions of his/her ideas and making the user feel poorly.
Another downside: The rules are not in a clean, easy to read guide. They are scattered all around the site and you can easily get a ban and lose real money for it by obeying the rules but "not" knowing where to find all the rules.
You are responsible for folling all the rules weither they be in the official guide that most of us go to read, the forum headers, forum topic headers, forum topics, admin chat windows, admin forum topics... see the problem here?
With no absolute guide that lists all the possible rules you can get banned for you have to go on a rules scavenger hunt to make sure your not breaking any. Many new members get a ban in the first week, not because their rule breakers but because they simply cannot find all the rules, or the side guide is unclear or doesn't cover all the rules made within the sites history.
Yes there is an old pony island and if the admins forgot to transfer old rules to new PI you are still liable for knowing them. Should you break them and get a ban you can lose large sums of Money!
No refunds are given to banned accounts, even if you have been a long term member & Paid for your account for 3-4 years... Bad Business! The No adds is nice but they make it difficult for new players to understand and enjoy the site. -Avoid!
If you did that you would get Banned, They do it frequently.
The Upsides: The non-mod community is friendly, caring, and sharing. The gameplay is fun *If you can do anything without a fear of a ban.