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 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 got introduced to the game in 2006 by a long-time childhood friend who was already playing. I remember my 16-year old self being really excited about having a bunch of guys with their own names who could play virtual football for me. It was also a way for me to connect with people from all over the world, and that was very exciting.
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 play Hattrick because it has become a sort of strange family to me. I've been playing since 2008 and I've met a lot of people here. Very interesting people, very strange people, all kinds of people. I think I'm still playing Hattrick because in this game I have found a lot of friends. Some of them are now very close to me and my family, they have seen my child's birth and Hattrick is still the place where I can find them.
What I like about the Hattrick community is that there are real people and you don't just compete against the computers. You play against each other, but you can also help each other in the forum and talk about everything.