Hey everyone! Hope you're all doing well! I'll be posting a bit more on the podcast soon, just wanted to let everyone know what's going on ^^ Thank for just being awesome supporters!
I love your showcase of this scam. It’s such a funny throwback having seen it back when it was happening, but I had no idea how detailed it was and how it intertwined with the old alicia so thank you for all of that research and information. I just remember people showing off pictures of their foals on FB, and at the time I didn’t really understand the concept and had no money so thankfully I didn’t buy any fake foals 😂
Hey NP! Thanks for checking out my vid Violet! (Love your vids ♥) It's sad that so many people were taken for a ride, thankfully they stopped before they did a really big crowdfunding project. But the hopes and dreans that were placed on the game and subsequently crushed is heartbreaking. Thanks again for checking out my vid! ♥♥♥
After two years, I started feeling like it was a scam. Especially when their models looks a lot like those you saw in other art, like they were just purchased and not created.
Holy shit im laughing so hard at the part where u list all the stuff they promised, like u said it just sounded too good to be true xD When a game hands out an endless amount of promises i personally become skeptical unless there's like legit gameplay footage or/and the company have a history of good games.. It's sad that it has to be that way tho. Anyhow great vid!
i can understand that. if we take astride for example of games coming out soon, if there wasnt footage of them actually doing stuff for the game, it would be really suspicious but atleast in theyr discord they post stuff of theyr progress and how they are probably going to start testing this month
I remember this "game"! I was excited but nothing ever seemed to happen with it so I just thought it was abandoned until people called it a scam. Love your content Rattle!!
Ahh! Thank xkyren! ♥ I came across the game a little after they abandoned it, but I was still easily drawn in by the art. It was quite a fun video to research! ^^
I remember riding high, it seemed so promising, I think magic was also going to be included. I was almost going to help fund them but somehow I felt like not doing it and I thought the progress went too slow. Glad I listenend to my intuition.
@@YTRattle I totally agree! Too bad riding high was a scam, could have been an amazing game. Looking forward to rein ravine, thathorsegame and astride, especially now since sso isn't so interesting anymore. I checked today, they released a new horse breed or coat variation every month this year so far, june is going to be the haflinger, it's what we predicted.
I actually came across the game when I was looking for horse games a LONG time ago, I actually started looking forward to it, but sadly, by then it was already revealed to be a scam. But I'm glad you enjoyed the video Abigail! ♥ Thanks for checking it out!
"Riding High" how fitting, i guess the so called "devs" were really high on something when they were desperate to fool the community lol anyways, good riddance.
Wow I remember being so hyped about this lol. I was just recently wondering what happened to Riding High, but google found nothing valuable. Thank you for your research!🤗
"Players need to be patient" Funny how it remembers me what we hear each time SSO promise quests or new content. I remember that I was very impatient the first year for Riding High then just went on GW2 and forget it as it never gave real news but damn it looks so good !
The difference is that SSO is consistently providing new in-game content every week. It's true that players need to be patient as game development does take time, some people just use that to work scams.
I remember that Riding High livestream, the bunny mask thing is true, was honestly one of the most bizarre livestreams I have watched even to this day. I heard about Riding High via the Howrse community, a lot of us where really excited, so when we heard about the livestream we went to watch it, and after watching it I remember thinking it all seemed so unprofessional and the wearing of the masks by those on the stream, did make it seem like something was up, like they didn't want their identity known, which considering how everything ended, not a surprise at all. I knew some Howrse players back then had bought foals and donated etc to it, so they managed to hook into that community too, thankfully I never did. When the studio page came up, and things progressed it became clearer and clearer it was a scam and those who invested from the Howrse community where not getting their money back, they would post promising to reveal new things soon every time people clapped back at them, then the post would come and it would be another concept art or render from the tutorial you mentioned. I continued to follow it, checking in every few months to see what new "promise/excuses" they had on the page, they kept it going for a very long time. I can say it was the game that made me skeptical of every game (horse games especially) promising the world there after, and for that reason even though we have all these new awesome projects showing up, I keep that skepticism very close. Years later anytime I saw a new horse project I actually use to check to see if any of the same people from Riding High were involved, encase it was another scam, so yeah your 100% correct, if it its too good to be true, then it very likely isn't genuine. I will always remember Riding High, and for all the wrong reasons....
I watched a GDC video from a guy who's job was to listen to game pitches, and then decide if the company he worked for should fund them or not. He said before any other consideration, he asked himself two questions; "can this game be made," and "can this team make it."
I remember this fake game well very early on the most noticeable thing was they promised everything that pepole commented they wanted no matter how big or small. Yet for a very long time all we had was pretty pictures and nothing that looked like a 3d horse game in the works. It was all very suspicious and I was sceptical early on. In a way it was a good lesson for the horse gaming community.
This! They seemed to try and please everyone, they never said 'no' and kept on adding promises after promises, I didn't even cover everything they wanted to add. It was downright insane at one point.
Ah yeah, I remember this so called 'game', it was exactly like you said, I and a couple of my friends were devastated that Alicia was closing down, and at least I was soooo hyped when I saw Riding High and I just couldn't wait, I counted how many likes there were until they will finally launch the game, as they promised One of my friends actually said it's probably a scam, cuz it sounded too good to be true, but I didn't want to believe, I just wanted some other game to fill the void after losing Alicia, I remember how happy I was when I finally could play Alicia, after 3 days of installing, making account and preparing everything, it wasn't easy these days, I genuinely cried when I had my first race and I know some ppl also have these feelings for Alicia, even if they stopped playing now After waiting and waiting for any info about launching Riding High, I gradually stopped visiting their site, I understood they really are a scammers, and I felt more and more sad, without Alicia, without Riding High to play, I remember trying various horse games, like secret of the magic crystals, SSO which kept me for a while, but it wasn't the same feeling, etc. I just had a blank space in myself which I tried to fill in, but couldn't until Alicia returned in December 2014 I stopped playing long time ago, but Alicia still will be my favorite game, and Riding High be one of my bigger memories connected with it Thanks for this video, it's important to spread awareness about thinking who you should support in making games, and who isn't worth trusting
Oh I remember this. There was a huge hype and some of my SSO aquaintances donated money even though me and a bunch of other people were calling out the scam and telling them not to do it 😬 and we were even called haters for acting suspicious, like come on. It was way too good to be true. Thanks for the video, loved it
i find the type of graphics they promised, quite frankly, hilarious. no person within their audience would've had a machine that would be able to run such graphics, and i doubt that there even really was a machine at all in existence back then, that could render such graphics in real time, in an acceptable FPS. or if there was, such hardware sure as heck wasn't available to consumers.
I think I remember seeing this back then, and thinking it was definitely shady. The inconsistent art style and different types of graphics just screams "SCAM" in bright red text to me.
Some of the shown foal artwork look quite similar to designs from Howrse as well as some of the promised features like the possibility of managing your own stable, breeding different horse breeds and get pets (okay in Howrse they are companions for your horses), etc.
Gosh, I remember this.. I was there around the time Riding High appeared, although I wasn't from the Alicia Online community. I never got involved much and I was a kid so I couldn't donate money, but I remember really wanting the game to be real. I also remember reading the skeptical comments and how they would constantly postpone the promises of animation videos etc. Being a naive teenager I didn't know what to believe 😅 Until I remembered this game a few years later and looked it up, only to realize pretty much nothing had happened and I could confirm it was always a scam. So crazy to look back on. Great video - you made me subscribe! 💙✨
Not sure if this was called out, but their company logo with the deer head? That’s stolen too. They traced a frame of Bambi 2 or maybe just Bambi but it’s adult Bambi or his dad. I wanna say Bambi 2 but the frame is a very common one and I knew I recognized the traces shape for their company/studio logo.
I remember the ‘developers’ saying it’s going to have triple A graphics but it’ll be able to be played on lower end computers. That’s not how it works. A game like they were promising would need a high end gaming PC to run. And no small Indie studio can make a Triple A MMORPG as their first game. They just can’t. MMORPGS are the most difficult and expensive games to create, we’re taking millions not children’s pocket money you stole off them. This ‘game’ had so many red flags.
Their excuse for being an indie is not very believable. Indies may actually have much more time than bigger companies to be with their community and showcase what they got thus far. MMORPGs are indeed very time consuming and costly projects, however there is still plenty of time to show what you got. If you assure your audience that there is work by using legitimate images and videos, they will care to wait patiently. It isn't a surprise they get called out for being fake when they make a lot of excuses and no proof of their work
Good video💗I remember this game circulating after Alicia Online shut down when I was in middle school. I only kept an eye on it cause even now I know I can’t really help in terms of money for crowdfunding and also just in general I rather see the product first but when I saw the videos of their “animation video” I thought it was a model showcase cause I only been checking on it every now and then until I saw the comment section of people roasting and exposing it. Sadly it would’ve been a brilliant game if it was in the right hands with a company that would actually do it but even then it was a scam and thankfully Alicia Online was revived like a phoenix by another group instead of falling money wise for riding high but yeah. Hopefully one day there’s a game like that in the future but not in the form of a scam
I am slowly building plans for my own game, An Unknown Fate: Online. However as I have no expierience, all I can do is get the expierience in a team, get my name out there and slowly build my game plans and have them ready for when I can finally publicly show the game. What I learned from all these scams is to never ask for funding on a game that doesn't exist yet, have something to show first, let people play it and then gain funds.
as soon as you started listing off all the features i was immediately tipped off. i was also asking myself "okay... but who's working on it?". ppl call themselves a small indie team and it turns out to be only 2 ppl. this stuff dont happen out of hopes and dreams
I was thinking about this game the other day! I couldn't remember what it was called but it's absolutely the reason I'm so scared to put money into new games in development these days because I had been SO excited for Riding High
@@YTRattle right! There's an up and coming game that I'm super excited for but extremely wary about right now BECAUSE of Riding High. I won't be supporting games unless there is concrete proof of the game actually existing, even that that's entirely possible to fake
Thank you so much for this!I am avoiding,Equestrian and any other fake games.A lot of games only want the money and nothing else.I’m so glad you made this video and your channel.I wish you the best on your journey.
I remember this scam, I can't 100% remember the name of the site but it was proven they were buying their horse models off a 3D model site. Stick them in a render program and taadaa thats all the pics they gave us.
I remember seeing a lot of people bashing the game back in the day saying it was a scam and little ol' me (a horseloving male teen at the time), who desperately looked everywhere for a fun horse game sent an email to the "developers" to show my support. I even got a response! I don't know if I still have these emails around somewhere. Of course as I got older I realized that it was a pure scam.
i'd bet that a lot of that promo art is AI generated. It has such an uncanny feel to the head shapes and such, reaaaally creepy lol edit:: nevermind, got to the point where this was happening 2014, AI art didn't exist yet.. guess they just hired some really inconsistant artists lol if it isn't just ripped straight off deviantart or something. that deer logo looks extremely similar to disney's bambi, i wonder if its traced from a frame of animation in the conclusion, what's that horse running through a cliff region from? that looked really cool
Would you be so kind to do such a video about the Riding Out scam? It's just another horse game scam. It's available on steam to buy, but it's the beta version and they haven't worked on it for years. Obviously a huge scam.
Oh, I do remember this project! At first, I felt in love with all these screenshots as expected; but later I've started to realize it's too good to be true. MMORP is a really big and complex thing to do plus realistic graphics on screenshots are hard for any regular player's computer to run. So now it's not a big surprise for me this all was a scam! Thank you for your video
I remember this project , back then I was wondering what was taking soooooo long to release the game ( i never donated). And then suddenly, i discovered that the Facebook page no longer existed haha I didnt know it was a scam omg
I remember seeing this game when I was 13 and was so excited that I kept checking in on it for months until I got tired of waiting for any proper news that I forgot about it till I saw this video
honestly, the biggest giveaway of this being fake is how little they know about game development. the fuck are you making characters and horse models for when you don't even have so much as a test map with some basic functionality??
Hey guys it’s SSO’s extra evil twin (jk) but seriously I remember this game. I was a lot younger and kept asking my parents to help donate so I could have an amazing game to play. Thankfully they never gave in and after everything hit the fan I was glad that I had actually found and loved Sso a lot more.
DreamBringer...a studio with a stolen disney asset in it's logo. I think we should have seen that giant redflag plastered onto a metal baseball bat, huh? ovO;
"We're sorry that some of you don't seem to be able to wait. We promise to work as fast as we're able to. Have a lovely day!" Yeah, that kind of passive aggressiveness is a major red flag.
I haven’t been able to play that because I have a Mac but the demo right now seems pretty detailed for what it is. Also Maia has been actively posting developments on Instagram for all of May..however I do get this vibe right now from Astride unfortunately
I used wayback machine for the whole video! But their FB pages are still broken, and their website isn't working XD Not even wayback machine wanted to save this scam XD
ehe, I'm listening to this (apparently YT reads my mind) exactly as I painstakingly model a 3d horse. I have an idea and a dream... but I'm being a responsible big girl and banking the cost until I have something viable, eh.
The sad thing is, those promises could very well be made -- BUT what's not realistic is promising those features outright and straight after release, at that. And the difference between RH and Astride is that RH wasn't showing progress, made too many empty promises, and the "devs" seemed to not communicate well. Astride actually has grounds to back-up their claims, they don't outright promise seemingly impossible things, but they listen and add suggestions to the list WITHOUT promising it. Sure, they don't give an ETA, but WolfQuest: AE and Palia don't give ETAs either and they're legit, despite being small teams. They're all also very transparent with the behind-the-scenes work and post updates regularly! Just a comparison for those who may be skeptical of Astride after RH's fiasco
Riding High and Blackblood Alliance were my introductions to Fake Crowdfunding. Mount&Blade was my introduction to what real teams of Qualified people can do. So was Ark Survival Evolved. Horse Isle was designed by what? 20 people? 30? There's no excuse. So in an era where 2 people can make, at the very least, a rigged model to walk around a pre-generated forest in less than 4 months if a Crowdfunded/Kickstarter game can't show so much as a Video in 3 I'll call Bull**** as loud as anyone will hear it. I told the backers of CoE their "Game" was a crock of **** repeatedly. They're still pissed I was right.
Just a note: the screenshot at 3:13 has absolutely nothing to do with Alicia Online’s original shutdown in Korea. That was simply a fan wanting to support the people who run the current servers.
Hey! Thank you! I should have been a bit more clear, but I do state in the video "The petitions for Alicia Online were still in full swing and hoped to bring the game back through crowd funding." Anyway, thanks for checking out the video! ♥
@@YTRattle Thank you for replying, I was confused because the events you were referring to in the video happened in 2013 and the screenshot you used was a fundraising project from 2020.
Hey! You're 100% right! I should have read the comment a bit more carefully XD Don't reply to comments before you've had coffee. lol! Looking at it again, I absolutely used the wrong screenshot. I'll try and be a bit more careful next time. Thank you for pointing it out! ^^
You put so much effort in your videos, doing all the research and such, hope u keep on posting things like that, it's really interesting! Your voice is really soothing too btw :)
Thank you so much! 😃 I am thinking of doing more of these deep dives, but only if I find an interesting topic that hasn't been ridden into the ground XD Thanks again, oof! ♥♥
Ah this brings back memories I remember when they first came out I even followed their Facebook page! It took the developer of Alicia to call them out that made me stop following them
Great Video. Their was also a good game which never came back called ,,cavalcando‘‘ not a scam but maybe interesting. :) And Riding out is a game available on steam which was very promising for many people but they stopped updating the game. And for some people at this point the game don‘t work for them. Maybe you could research on that game and warn people about it? Greetings from Austria :)
I laughed aloud at that spinning horse video. Such animation skill. I know literally nothing about equestrian things but TH-cam blessed me with this video in my recs so thank you
@@YTRattle apparently the models are bought, too many promises and the owner is a doosh that bans ppl however they want(?). that's what I heard. there are a lot of videos about it!
Are there any current horse game projects that are giving of scam vibes? There's been quite a few popping up lately and i'd like to know which seem worth backing.
Not that I've personally seen. That Horse Game has a demo and they keep working on it. Rein Ravine has a demo and keeps working on it, and Astride is also pretty solid, although no demo so far. Horse games are pretty niche, so scammers haven't been jumping on horse projects just yet. Although Equestrian the Game annoys me, I can't exactly call it a scam XD
It's a chore, the gameplay is boring, repetitive and overall the only thing it has going for it are the pretty horses. Apart from that, what exactly are you doing? upgrading buildings to get better horses. And once you've done that? Rank on a leader board. It's just too boring XD
@@YTRattle i highly agree with that, i get that its in the early stages, but if people didnt pressure them to release it so early on i feel like it wouldnt be this boring!
I remember following this back in the day as it all went down,im sad I was never able to play Alicia online it looked quite fun though it looks like Wild Shade is following in its foot steps. I wanted to say also that i have been having loads of fun playing Wild Horse Island on roblox its still early in dev but there making awesome progress I made a account JUST to play it.
That was not Riding High, it's Alicia Online. Yeah it's similar to Mario Kart but with horses. I played only Wildshade but it's a similar game on mobile
All the stuff they promised didnt dound to too good to be true, but too BIG to be true. Like, thats LOTS of stuff. what high tech computer would have been the minimal requirement to play this in the end? I find the reason why games usually concentrate their efforts to one discipline and maybe offer some more or less related stuff is quite obvious. It takes a lot of time and effort to make this as good ss possible and the more the team has to work on at the same time the slower the overall process will be. And also all that stuff requires in-depht knowledge that most people would even expect. For example id love a game about carriage driving (i only played one ever where that was a plotpoint once) with dressage drving contests and obstacle courses and anything but as soon as i start to think about all the stuff necessary to make it believable and good i go bury my hope bc its so much - not really worth the effort since it seems to be more like a special niche anyway, unlike eventing, horseracing, showjumping, dressage, western riding or trail riding in general.
My favorite online horse game so far. My gaming computer is having some charging issues lately so I don't know what my recently foals look like :( I remember seeing Riding High lucky I never donated money to Riding High.
Are the clips at 18:24, 18:40 and 19:18 from a real horse game? I love the graphics! Could somebody please tell me the name of the game if it actually exists?!!?!
Only the second one! It's from Shadow of the colossus. The first one is just an animation demo for a horse, and the other is a 'how to' animate a horse. Sorry! I'd actually love the play the third one XD
according to a rattle’s reply in someone else’s comment: the first one is from shadow of the colossus and the second one is actually not a game but from a video about how to animate a horse
Yes you can! It's 100% free aliciagame.com/ If you struggle to get it working, just go to the Alicia Online facebook page, they should be able to help you :)
Well im glad i didn't hear anything about this horse Game bc i would be so naive.. Just the fact there still doing the Lies after get exposed from Alicia online.. well I'm a Person who install a game that didn't cost bevore playing just bc i want a demo.. so to compare with sso, you can play for free up to lvl 5 to get an idea. But if this information comes like: paid in advance... ehhh no Just one question could you make a video about Fe.ral from Wildworks because they have completely closed the game but start with cinder..and this Cinder sounds really weird to me because you have to create and buy the characters before the release
![[Live สด] การออกรางวัลสลากกินแบ่งรัฐบาล งวดวันที่ 16 พฤศจิกายน 2567](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/wPd7VFfWHIA/mqdefault.jpg)
Hey everyone! Hope you're all doing well! I'll be posting a bit more on the podcast soon, just wanted to let everyone know what's going on ^^ Thank for just being awesome supporters!
Can't wait!
The way back machine doesn’t turn up anything?
I love your showcase of this scam. It’s such a funny throwback having seen it back when it was happening, but I had no idea how detailed it was and how it intertwined with the old alicia so thank you for all of that research and information. I just remember people showing off pictures of their foals on FB, and at the time I didn’t really understand the concept and had no money so thankfully I didn’t buy any fake foals 😂
Hey NP! Thanks for checking out my vid Violet! (Love your vids ♥)
It's sad that so many people were taken for a ride, thankfully they stopped before they did a really big crowdfunding project. But the hopes and dreans that were placed on the game and subsequently crushed is heartbreaking.
Thanks again for checking out my vid! ♥♥♥
Oh hello! Love your videos :D
@sum_kat_animates Hello to you! And thanks! ♥ :D
wow, i didn't expect you to be here violet!
Violet!! OMG you and rattle are so good!
After two years, I started feeling like it was a scam. Especially when their models looks a lot like those you saw in other art, like they were just purchased and not created.
It's really sad that they abused people's hurt and passion so much.
Holy shit im laughing so hard at the part where u list all the stuff they promised, like u said it just sounded too good to be true xD When a game hands out an endless amount of promises i personally become skeptical unless there's like legit gameplay footage or/and the company have a history of good games.. It's sad that it has to be that way tho. Anyhow great vid!
LOL, yeah, their expectations were a little high XD If a kickstarter promises the moon, run like hell in the other direction!
i can understand that. if we take astride for example of games coming out soon, if there wasnt footage of them actually doing stuff for the game, it would be really suspicious but atleast in theyr discord they post stuff of theyr progress and how they are probably going to start testing this month
So the foals were basically just early nfts but somehow with even less value?…🗿
Oh God, I hadn't even thought of that, that is brilliant, and depressing all at the same time 😂
I remember this "game"! I was excited but nothing ever seemed to happen with it so I just thought it was abandoned until people called it a scam.
Love your content Rattle!!
Ahh! Thank xkyren! ♥ I came across the game a little after they abandoned it, but I was still easily drawn in by the art. It was quite a fun video to research! ^^
I remember riding high, it seemed so promising, I think magic was also going to be included. I was almost going to help fund them but somehow I felt like not doing it and I thought the progress went too slow. Glad I listenend to my intuition.
Good thing you didn't! Intuition is the best thing we can listen to when it comes to these projects.
@@YTRattle I totally agree! Too bad riding high was a scam, could have been an amazing game. Looking forward to rein ravine, thathorsegame and astride, especially now since sso isn't so interesting anymore. I checked today, they released a new horse breed or coat variation every month this year so far, june is going to be the haflinger, it's what we predicted.
The Cavalcando horses artwork also looks disturbingly like the horses from Howrse.
Amazing video! I had never heard of this game, but the backstory is fascinating and rather sad.
I actually came across the game when I was looking for horse games a LONG time ago, I actually started looking forward to it, but sadly, by then it was already revealed to be a scam. But I'm glad you enjoyed the video Abigail! ♥ Thanks for checking it out!
Their promises make sso seem like they act on every suggestion given to them
LOLLOL! True XD
That's because unlike Riding High SSO is a real and successful horse riding MMO. They don't make false promises like the Riding High team did.
"Riding High" how fitting, i guess the so called "devs" were really high on something when they were desperate to fool the community lol anyways, good riddance.
LOLLOL! Oh God, well said 😂
Wow I remember being so hyped about this lol. I was just recently wondering what happened to Riding High, but google found nothing valuable. Thank you for your research!🤗
NP! Glad you enjoyed the video! I'm kinda sad the project wasn't real, would have been awesome 😄
"Players need to be patient" Funny how it remembers me what we hear each time SSO promise quests or new content. I remember that I was very impatient the first year for Riding High then just went on GW2 and forget it as it never gave real news but damn it looks so good !
The difference is that SSO is consistently providing new in-game content every week. It's true that players need to be patient as game development does take time, some people just use that to work scams.
I remember that Riding High livestream, the bunny mask thing is true, was honestly one of the most bizarre livestreams I have watched even to this day. I heard about Riding High via the Howrse community, a lot of us where really excited, so when we heard about the livestream we went to watch it, and after watching it I remember thinking it all seemed so unprofessional and the wearing of the masks by those on the stream, did make it seem like something was up, like they didn't want their identity known, which considering how everything ended, not a surprise at all. I knew some Howrse players back then had bought foals and donated etc to it, so they managed to hook into that community too, thankfully I never did. When the studio page came up, and things progressed it became clearer and clearer it was a scam and those who invested from the Howrse community where not getting their money back, they would post promising to reveal new things soon every time people clapped back at them, then the post would come and it would be another concept art or render from the tutorial you mentioned. I continued to follow it, checking in every few months to see what new "promise/excuses" they had on the page, they kept it going for a very long time. I can say it was the game that made me skeptical of every game (horse games especially) promising the world there after, and for that reason even though we have all these new awesome projects showing up, I keep that skepticism very close. Years later anytime I saw a new horse project I actually use to check to see if any of the same people from Riding High were involved, encase it was another scam, so yeah your 100% correct, if it its too good to be true, then it very likely isn't genuine. I will always remember Riding High, and for all the wrong reasons....
i was 13 years old at the time and they really REALLY played with my feelings. my first big disappointment, i’ll never forget them
I watched a GDC video from a guy who's job was to listen to game pitches, and then decide if the company he worked for should fund them or not. He said before any other consideration, he asked himself two questions; "can this game be made," and "can this team make it."
Damn, an mmorpg about riding horses under the influence?
I remember this fake game well very early on the most noticeable thing was they promised everything that pepole commented they wanted no matter how big or small. Yet for a very long time all we had was pretty pictures and nothing that looked like a 3d horse game in the works. It was all very suspicious and I was sceptical early on. In a way it was a good lesson for the horse gaming community.
This! They seemed to try and please everyone, they never said 'no' and kept on adding promises after promises, I didn't even cover everything they wanted to add. It was downright insane at one point.
Ah yeah, I remember this so called 'game', it was exactly like you said, I and a couple of my friends were devastated that Alicia was closing down, and at least I was soooo hyped when I saw Riding High and I just couldn't wait, I counted how many likes there were until they will finally launch the game, as they promised
One of my friends actually said it's probably a scam, cuz it sounded too good to be true, but I didn't want to believe, I just wanted some other game to fill the void after losing Alicia, I remember how happy I was when I finally could play Alicia, after 3 days of installing, making account and preparing everything, it wasn't easy these days, I genuinely cried when I had my first race and I know some ppl also have these feelings for Alicia, even if they stopped playing now
After waiting and waiting for any info about launching Riding High, I gradually stopped visiting their site, I understood they really are a scammers, and I felt more and more sad, without Alicia, without Riding High to play, I remember trying various horse games, like secret of the magic crystals, SSO which kept me for a while, but it wasn't the same feeling, etc. I just had a blank space in myself which I tried to fill in, but couldn't until Alicia returned in December 2014
I stopped playing long time ago, but Alicia still will be my favorite game, and Riding High be one of my bigger memories connected with it
Thanks for this video, it's important to spread awareness about thinking who you should support in making games, and who isn't worth trusting
Oh I remember this. There was a huge hype and some of my SSO aquaintances donated money even though me and a bunch of other people
were calling out the scam and telling them not to do it 😬 and we were even called haters for acting suspicious, like come on. It was way too good to be true. Thanks for
the video, loved it
i find the type of graphics they promised, quite frankly, hilarious. no person within their audience would've had a machine that would be able to run such graphics, and i doubt that there even really was a machine at all in existence back then, that could render such graphics in real time, in an acceptable FPS. or if there was, such hardware sure as heck wasn't available to consumers.
I remember thinking that Alixia Online was going down and crying about my horses. My God, I was dumb
I think I remember seeing this back then, and thinking it was definitely shady. The inconsistent art style and different types of graphics just screams "SCAM" in bright red text to me.
Some of the shown foal artwork look quite similar to designs from Howrse as well as some of the promised features like the possibility of managing your own stable, breeding different horse breeds and get pets (okay in Howrse they are companions for your horses), etc.
Gosh, I remember this.. I was there around the time Riding High appeared, although I wasn't from the Alicia Online community. I never got involved much and I was a kid so I couldn't donate money, but I remember really wanting the game to be real. I also remember reading the skeptical comments and how they would constantly postpone the promises of animation videos etc. Being a naive teenager I didn't know what to believe 😅 Until I remembered this game a few years later and looked it up, only to realize pretty much nothing had happened and I could confirm it was always a scam. So crazy to look back on. Great video - you made me subscribe! 💙✨
Tbf I don't know if it was their intention to scam, or if they truly just didn't know how hard it is to create games.
I am SO HAPPY you addressed Riding High! I remember the HUGE frenzy when this game made it's debut and pictures of the gameplay were releasted!
Not sure if this was called out, but their company logo with the deer head? That’s stolen too. They traced a frame of Bambi 2 or maybe just Bambi but it’s adult Bambi or his dad. I wanna say Bambi 2 but the frame is a very common one and I knew I recognized the traces shape for their company/studio logo.
oh my, I remember this "game" I was like 12 / 13yo back then, I was so excited and happy :insert cry meme:
Oh man, same! I only came in at the tail end, but damn they made it look believable 👀
"We're sorry that YOU can't wait" is such a red flag non-apology
I remember the ‘developers’ saying it’s going to have triple A graphics but it’ll be able to be played on lower end computers.
That’s not how it works.
A game like they were promising would need a high end gaming PC to run.
And no small Indie studio can make a Triple A MMORPG as their first game. They just can’t.
MMORPGS are the most difficult and expensive games to create, we’re taking millions not children’s pocket money you stole off them.
This ‘game’ had so many red flags.
Their excuse for being an indie is not very believable. Indies may actually have much more time than bigger companies to be with their community and showcase what they got thus far. MMORPGs are indeed very time consuming and costly projects, however there is still plenty of time to show what you got. If you assure your audience that there is work by using legitimate images and videos, they will care to wait patiently. It isn't a surprise they get called out for being fake when they make a lot of excuses and no proof of their work
Good video💗I remember this game circulating after Alicia Online shut down when I was in middle school. I only kept an eye on it cause even now I know I can’t really help in terms of money for crowdfunding and also just in general I rather see the product first but when I saw the videos of their “animation video” I thought it was a model showcase cause I only been checking on it every now and then until I saw the comment section of people roasting and exposing it. Sadly it would’ve been a brilliant game if it was in the right hands with a company that would actually do it but even then it was a scam and thankfully Alicia Online was revived like a phoenix by another group instead of falling money wise for riding high but yeah. Hopefully one day there’s a game like that in the future but not in the form of a scam
I am slowly building plans for my own game, An Unknown Fate: Online. However as I have no expierience, all I can do is get the expierience in a team, get my name out there and slowly build my game plans and have them ready for when I can finally publicly show the game. What I learned from all these scams is to never ask for funding on a game that doesn't exist yet, have something to show first, let people play it and then gain funds.
as soon as you started listing off all the features i was immediately tipped off. i was also asking myself "okay... but who's working on it?". ppl call themselves a small indie team and it turns out to be only 2 ppl. this stuff dont happen out of hopes and dreams
I was thinking about this game the other day! I couldn't remember what it was called but it's absolutely the reason I'm so scared to put money into new games in development these days because I had been SO excited for Riding High
I've become a little paranoid of late 😅 It's so easy to get scammed these days!
@@YTRattle right! There's an up and coming game that I'm super excited for but extremely wary about right now BECAUSE of Riding High. I won't be supporting games unless there is concrete proof of the game actually existing, even that that's entirely possible to fake
Thank you so much for this!I am avoiding,Equestrian and any other fake games.A lot of games only want the money and nothing else.I’m so glad you made this video and your channel.I wish you the best on your journey.
I remember this scam, I can't 100% remember the name of the site but it was proven they were buying their horse models off a 3D model site. Stick them in a render program and taadaa thats all the pics they gave us.
It sucks how many cool games on Kickstarter end up being scams
I remember seeing a lot of people bashing the game back in the day saying it was a scam and little ol' me (a horseloving male teen at the time), who desperately looked everywhere for a fun horse game sent an email to the "developers" to show my support. I even got a response! I don't know if I still have these emails around somewhere. Of course as I got older I realized that it was a pure scam.
An awesome horse game to try out is Springdale. It can't be bought anymore, and you need a PS2 emulator, I can send you the game files on discord!
Oooo! If you can send it along, I'd be so grateful! Thanks! :D
i'd bet that a lot of that promo art is AI generated. It has such an uncanny feel to the head shapes and such, reaaaally creepy lol
edit:: nevermind, got to the point where this was happening 2014, AI art didn't exist yet.. guess they just hired some really inconsistant artists lol if it isn't just ripped straight off deviantart or something. that deer logo looks extremely similar to disney's bambi, i wonder if its traced from a frame of animation
in the conclusion, what's that horse running through a cliff region from? that looked really cool
Oh man I remember this - I just forgot the name! I've been searching for this scam for years, happy you covered it!
Would you be so kind to do such a video about the Riding Out scam? It's just another horse game scam. It's available on steam to buy, but it's the beta version and they haven't worked on it for years. Obviously a huge scam.
Oh, I do remember this project! At first, I felt in love with all these screenshots as expected; but later I've started to realize it's too good to be true. MMORP is a really big and complex thing to do plus realistic graphics on screenshots are hard for any regular player's computer to run. So now it's not a big surprise for me this all was a scam!
Thank you for your video
just a rattle talking about scams and warning us
thank you so much I love you and your voice is so calm
I remember this project , back then I was wondering what was taking soooooo long to release the game ( i never donated). And then suddenly, i discovered that the Facebook page no longer existed haha I didnt know it was a scam omg
Good thing! I can just imagine how many people lost money on this game!
Bruh when you started listing what they promised i was like "nah bro that is never coming out!"
I remember seeing this game when I was 13 and was so excited that I kept checking in on it for months until I got tired of waiting for any proper news that I forgot about it till I saw this video
Before finding this Channel, I never would have thought the horse game community would be so full of controversy
I actually followed the page and it was interesting what everyone was saying. I was just there to see if it was a game or not.
honestly, the biggest giveaway of this being fake is how little they know about game development. the fuck are you making characters and horse models for when you don't even have so much as a test map with some basic functionality??
Hey guys it’s SSO’s extra evil twin (jk) but seriously I remember this game. I was a lot younger and kept asking my parents to help donate so I could have an amazing game to play. Thankfully they never gave in and after everything hit the fan I was glad that I had actually found and loved Sso a lot more.
DreamBringer...a studio with a stolen disney asset in it's logo.
I think we should have seen that giant redflag plastered onto a metal baseball bat, huh? ovO;
This all reminds me of the drama behind Day of Dragons...
"We're sorry that some of you don't seem to be able to wait. We promise to work as fast as we're able to. Have a lovely day!"
Yeah, that kind of passive aggressiveness is a major red flag.
I remember this and I was SO disappointed. It would've been a great game.
tails of rein ravine is doing its rn. the developer has been dead silent for months.
I haven’t been able to play that because I have a Mac but the demo right now seems pretty detailed for what it is. Also Maia has been actively posting developments on Instagram for all of May..however I do get this vibe right now from Astride unfortunately
I highly recommend using way back machines to see if anyone has saved any information about the game!
I used wayback machine for the whole video! But their FB pages are still broken, and their website isn't working XD Not even wayback machine wanted to save this scam XD
@@YTRattle lmaooooooo at least they are gone now, such a shame they had to do that.
Sounds like SSO + Alicia + slightly Horse reality style art if im being honest
I'm sorry but the "animated video" has me in tears 😭😭💀💀
I know! That thing was so sad XD
6:35 why must one of my favorite dog breeds/ the breed of dog that I own that doesn't show up anywhere have to be part of a scam 😢
That's just... unfair. Sending sympathy your way ♥ XD
ehe, I'm listening to this (apparently YT reads my mind) exactly as I painstakingly model a 3d horse. I have an idea and a dream... but I'm being a responsible big girl and banking the cost until I have something viable, eh.
The sad thing is, those promises could very well be made -- BUT what's not realistic is promising those features outright and straight after release, at that.
And the difference between RH and Astride is that RH wasn't showing progress, made too many empty promises, and the "devs" seemed to not communicate well. Astride actually has grounds to back-up their claims, they don't outright promise seemingly impossible things, but they listen and add suggestions to the list WITHOUT promising it. Sure, they don't give an ETA, but WolfQuest: AE and Palia don't give ETAs either and they're legit, despite being small teams. They're all also very transparent with the behind-the-scenes work and post updates regularly!
Just a comparison for those who may be skeptical of Astride after RH's fiasco
Riding High and Blackblood Alliance were my introductions to Fake Crowdfunding. Mount&Blade was my introduction to what real teams of Qualified people can do. So was Ark Survival Evolved. Horse Isle was designed by what? 20 people? 30? There's no excuse.
So in an era where 2 people can make, at the very least, a rigged model to walk around a pre-generated forest in less than 4 months if a Crowdfunded/Kickstarter game can't show so much as a Video in 3 I'll call Bull**** as loud as anyone will hear it. I told the backers of CoE their "Game" was a crock of **** repeatedly.
They're still pissed I was right.
Just a note: the screenshot at 3:13 has absolutely nothing to do with Alicia Online’s original shutdown in Korea. That was simply a fan wanting to support the people who run the current servers.
Hey! Thank you! I should have been a bit more clear, but I do state in the video "The petitions for Alicia Online were still in full swing and hoped to bring the game back through crowd funding." Anyway, thanks for checking out the video! ♥
@@YTRattle Thank you for replying, I was confused because the events you were referring to in the video happened in 2013 and the screenshot you used was a fundraising project from 2020.
Hey! You're 100% right! I should have read the comment a bit more carefully XD Don't reply to comments before you've had coffee. lol! Looking at it again, I absolutely used the wrong screenshot. I'll try and be a bit more careful next time. Thank you for pointing it out! ^^
You put so much effort in your videos, doing all the research and such, hope u keep on posting things like that, it's really interesting! Your voice is really soothing too btw :)
Thank you so much! 😃
I am thinking of doing more of these deep dives, but only if I find an interesting topic that hasn't been ridden into the ground XD Thanks again, oof! ♥♥
This is why I just play sims3 with horse mods, I have a huuuuuge Google doc with nothing but sims3 horse mods
Ah this brings back memories I remember when they first came out I even followed their Facebook page! It took the developer of Alicia to call them out that made me stop following them
omg does anyone remember isles of eventide? similar thing to RH. they also had such pretty concepts art but thr game slowly, quietly stopped existing
Great Video.
Their was also a good game which never came back called ,,cavalcando‘‘ not a scam but maybe interesting. :)
And Riding out is a game available on steam which was very promising for many people but they stopped updating the game. And for some people at this point the game don‘t work for them. Maybe you could research on that game and warn people about it? Greetings from Austria :)
I laughed aloud at that spinning horse video. Such animation skill.
I know literally nothing about equestrian things but TH-cam blessed me with this video in my recs so thank you
i remember checking their fb every day when i was 11,, soo hoping for updates aah i even watched those fanmade powerpoint trailers lol
To big for founding... my mind: "days of dragon"
I've heard a lot about this game! But some people say it's actually not terrible?
@@YTRattle apparently the models are bought, too many promises and the owner is a doosh that bans ppl however they want(?). that's what I heard. there are a lot of videos about it!
Are there any current horse game projects that are giving of scam vibes? There's been quite a few popping up lately and i'd like to know which seem worth backing.
Not that I've personally seen. That Horse Game has a demo and they keep working on it. Rein Ravine has a demo and keeps working on it, and Astride is also pretty solid, although no demo so far. Horse games are pretty niche, so scammers haven't been jumping on horse projects just yet.
Although Equestrian the Game annoys me, I can't exactly call it a scam XD
@@YTRattle why does etg annoy you? because i wont lie sometimes they annoy me too and i cant explain why LMAO
It's a chore, the gameplay is boring, repetitive and overall the only thing it has going for it are the pretty horses.
Apart from that, what exactly are you doing? upgrading buildings to get better horses. And once you've done that? Rank on a leader board.
It's just too boring XD
@@YTRattle i highly agree with that, i get that its in the early stages, but if people didnt pressure them to release it so early on i feel like it wouldnt be this boring!
Wait, but what about Cavalcando? Do you know why they stopped development. I am still very sad about it...
for a while i was convinced i dreamed this whole thing until i looked up their dead facebook lmfaooo
LOL! I felt the same, actually XD I do feel kinda sad that it didn't realise though, would have been so damned good.
I remember following this back in the day as it all went down,im sad I was never able to play Alicia online it looked quite fun though it looks like Wild Shade is following in its foot steps.
I wanted to say also that i have been having loads of fun playing Wild Horse Island on roblox its still early in dev but there making awesome progress I made a account JUST to play it.
I've heard of that game! :D It sounds like fun!
I'm glad Alicia is still online though, it gives the story a happy ending!
Oh my! This was a nother amazing video Rattle. Weldon and around of a applause for you amazing job. Your videos make my week!💖
♥♥ Thank you so, so much Lily! ^^
this entire situation lives in my head rent free
From the gameplay footage, Riding High look like Mario Cart but instead of using carts they use horses🤔🤔🤔
That was not Riding High, it's Alicia Online. Yeah it's similar to Mario Kart but with horses. I played only Wildshade but it's a similar game on mobile
All the stuff they promised didnt dound to too good to be true, but too BIG to be true. Like, thats LOTS of stuff. what high tech computer would have been the minimal requirement to play this in the end? I find the reason why games usually concentrate their efforts to one discipline and maybe offer some more or less related stuff is quite obvious. It takes a lot of time and effort to make this as good ss possible and the more the team has to work on at the same time the slower the overall process will be. And also all that stuff requires in-depht knowledge that most people would even expect. For example id love a game about carriage driving (i only played one ever where that was a plotpoint once) with dressage drving contests and obstacle courses and anything but as soon as i start to think about all the stuff necessary to make it believable and good i go bury my hope bc its so much - not really worth the effort since it seems to be more like a special niche anyway, unlike eventing, horseracing, showjumping, dressage, western riding or trail riding in general.
At this point are there even any *good* horse games? I can't find any outside of roblox
your videos are fascinating to me and i haven’t played a horse game since i was a youngin. that’s some good content 👌🏼
Love this video! There is a horse game named horse isle 3 that also is a nice horse game!
Thank you Marit! I've always wanted to try that game! Maybe I should do it for a squeak-play sometime?
@@YTRattle You really should try it! Its alot of fun when you understand the game!
That game is such a nightmare though, it just throws you in the middle of no where without telling you what to do
@@YTRattle It's a lot to get into at first but the community is very helpful.
If complex horses and open world is what you want you have to try!
My favorite online horse game so far. My gaming computer is having some charging issues lately so I don't know what my recently foals look like :( I remember seeing Riding High lucky I never donated money to Riding High.
thank you for clearing up things :)
Glad you enjoyed the vid! And NP! ^^
Are the clips at 18:24, 18:40 and 19:18 from a real horse game? I love the graphics! Could somebody please tell me the name of the game if it actually exists?!!?!
Only the second one! It's from Shadow of the colossus. The first one is just an animation demo for a horse, and the other is a 'how to' animate a horse. Sorry! I'd actually love the play the third one XD
still looking for a good horse browser game :']
Whats the game's name in minute 18:35 ??
Shadow of the colossus
I swear I have seen the 2D horse art on other games and not on Riding High...never heard of this game before XD Well...scam,not game :)
I remember watching the videos and thinking it would be so cool, I never bought anything fortunately. either way "ahh memories"
What’s the racing game you’re playing?
Alicia Online! Damn fun game! ♥
What are the games named displayed at 18:55 and 19:23 ?
according to a rattle’s reply in someone else’s comment: the first one is from shadow of the colossus and the second one is actually not a game but from a video about how to animate a horse
You should do ashfall next on roblox. That whole thing was a godam scam
Wait, what is this game at the end? Is it even a game? :3
Oh! I wish XD It's a guy who just showed you how to design a horse + character ^^
my alicia online dissapeared from my pc can anyone explain why it wad in 2021 tho
can you still play alicia online? i want to try it
Yes you can! It's 100% free aliciagame.com/
If you struggle to get it working, just go to the Alicia Online facebook page, they should be able to help you :)
It's back since like 2015/2016
Well im glad i didn't hear anything about this horse Game bc i would be so naive..
Just the fact there still doing the Lies after get exposed from Alicia online.. well I'm a Person who install a game that didn't cost bevore playing just bc i want a demo.. so to compare with sso, you can play for free up to lvl 5 to get an idea. But if this information comes like: paid in advance... ehhh no Just one question could you make a video about Fe.ral from Wildworks because they have completely closed the game but start with cinder..and this Cinder sounds really weird to me because you have to create and buy the characters before the release
another great upload, thank you rattle :D
Thank you Xiruvian! ♥
Can I play Alicia online?
Still
how dear you bully on her