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The Daily Grind: Pancakes?
Pancakes, just about everyone loves 'em. They're deliciously light and fluffy and can be sweetened with everything from blueberries to chocolate chips. Just like their flat 'n tasty counterparts, Pancake MMOs are light, fluffy and sweet all over. Hello Kitty Online, Go Pets, Neopets, Free Realms, Club Penguin and the near bouquet-size of franchise-based MMOs coming from Disney seem to be piling up on our proverbial plates. These MMOs can taste great and do tend to venture into fun, experimental game design territory. However, are they also like actual pancakes in that too many will cause everyone to grasp their collective stomachs and painfully moan, "Too many pancakes!" or can we stomach endless amounts of soft, tasty sweetness?
HKO's social features are more than meets the eye
There's a certain temptation to believe that so-called casual games are inherently less complex than their more hardcore cousins. Whether it's born of experience, arrogance, or just plain ignorance, most people probably assume that a game like Hello Kitty Online is going to leave them wanting for features. Having just read an interview with Ali Aslanbaigi, Game Master Manager for HKO, this blogger can say that this certainly doesn't seem like the case.Aslanbaigi explains how they plan to integrate email, blogging, and user video from the Sanriotown portal into the game experience itself, making Hello Kitty Online a social media hub as much as it is casual MMO. Say what you will about the relative complexity of an Age of Conan -- Hello Kitty Online isn't just trying to compete with the big MMOs on the block, it's looking to take its place alongside Facebook, MySpace, and other social media giants. It's ambitious, to say the least.
MMO Mash-up: Age of Hello Kitty
Welcome to a new column here at Massively, where I'll take two massively multiplayer online games and chop them up into little pieces, so I can put them back together with electrical tape and staples. This is the MMO Mashup, where you can expect to see everything from the startlingly strange to the ubiquitously unusual.Lets get straight into it then, with the pink-yet-dark world of Age of Hello Kitty.In the dangerous and dark Kingdom of Floweria, your wits are your best weapon. Though pastel-colored blade and lovely embroidered shield may help fend off the slavering demon-kittens, they are only as powerful as the warrior wielding them.
Hello Kitty Online enters closed beta on the 23rd of April
Thy doom draws nearer, O Learned Readers, for with each passing day, Hello Kitty Online becomes more and more a reality! The latest information is that those of you fortunate enough to have gotten access to the closed beta will finally find out what it will be like to inhabit the world of Sanrio. The test runs from the 23rd of April to the 7th of May, and interestingly enough, testers will have a DVD of content sent to them, which will include at least a folder of video tutorials, though nothing else has been confirmed at this time.This MMO has excited a ton of interest in age ranges well beyond the pre-pubescent that one might expect -- expect a First Impressions before too long!
Finding out your HKO Marriage Index
Hello Kitty Online features great opportunities to learn more about yourself and explore your personality through exciting online quizzes. You make a lot of choices as you go about your daily life, but did you know that your decisions can reflect your attitude and perspective towards love? Take some time to think about your favorite kind of shoes. Your choices are high-heeled/leather shoes, cloth shoes, track shoes, or slippers. Then answer the quiz question, it'll reveal a lot about your future! Find out what your choice in shoes means about when you're going to get married after the break. I always want to know more about myself, so I just had to take the quiz. %Poll-12028%
Forum post of the day: Rude emails
Alyse posted on the Hello Kitty Online official Staff Lounge forum that she's having a bad time with another player who's sending mean, nasty emails. Alyse had posted a video application for the Beta Test that other player left a rude comment about. They started exchanging emails and the other player has gotten totally out of line. She's completely missing the super-positive spirit of the game. Alyse doesn't know what to do. She said "Then in the last e-mail she sent me she used full-fledged profanity at me. I refuse to curse when I'm upset and I find it very trashy to do so. I was completely offended by her e-mail so I chose to completely stop trying to reason with her and I deleted it." Tohomiko_K said that she sent an email to Alyse. I sure hope it's a nice one. All I have to say to Alyse is, "you go girl!" She's really smart for deleting the last email and I'm really proud of her for not sinking to the cursing level. How would you respond to someone sending you rude messages in Hello Kitty Online?
Addon Spotlight: Making the leap to HKO
As you are all aware, we are changing direction around here, so it has come time for Addon Spotlight to sail into uncharted waters. Unfortunately, I have been unable to find much of an addon community for Hello Kitty Online, so things may be a bit rough in the coming months, as developers start filling those little User Interface needs. I wanted to point out that this can be seen as an opportunity for new and exciting things. We've got a fresh start, folks, with all the world of Sanrio in front of us. Many of you addon users may be wondering what mods we can expect in Hello Kitty Online. I am thinking we will see some savvy WoW addon developers releasing HKO-compatible versions of their addons in the future. I can't imagine any MMORPG without an Auctioneer-like addon. You can expect to see things like Outfitter, FuBar & Titan Panel, an Ace-like system and an entire library of compilations. Once beta-testing ends, and we see a release of Hello Kitty Online, sites similar to Curse Gaming, WoWInterface and WoWUI are bound to show up. With all these exciting weeks ahead of us, you can count on us at HKO Insider to provide all the latest HKO news, and yours truly will bring you all the best addons and mods.As with addons, macros are still somewhat mysterious, but I promise you'll know more as I learn more about scripting in our new world. Come back after the catnap and I'll give you something to get you by until the full release of HKO.
HKO Moviewatch: You can with Hello Kitty Online
When I was told about the new change to the site, I wasn't sure what to think. However, after some research, I discovered that HKO machinimators are so much more talented than their WoW counterparts, save for Shepiwot, of course.In the video that Sanrio Digital made to show off their upcoming MMO, it's obvious that you can literally do almost anything. I can't say enough about this machinima. From the cinematic quality to the music, it's perfect in every way. I can hardly wait to try my hand at some in-world footage!(WoW Moviewatch fans, if you're out there, send machinima to machinima AT wowinsider DOT com and help me convince them that they've made the wrong choice. Oh no! They're coming for me!)Previously on the feature previously known as WoW Moviewatch ...
HKO Rookie: Posting on the forums
It can be really hard to be new to any game or community. Sometimes you just don't know what to do or if a question has been asked before. Have no fear! It's not scary at all to join the community on Hello Kitty Online. There are lots of nice, helpful, fun people who can't wait to be your friend. Hello Kitty Online's forum moderators have instituted a positive posting policy. The guidelines are written to make sure that everyone is nice to each other and new members feel safe and secure posting to the website. If you're interested in posting on the Hello Kitty Online forums, make sure you follow these guidelines that were posted by Ishida:
Breakfast Topic: What's your favorite part of HKO?
There's just so much to love about Hello Kitty Online, the new game that we're now covering (thanks to a decision by the higher ups at AOL) 24/7. Maybe you love the character customization -- you can change your hair (why wait until some frozen expansion to do that, right?), clothes, accessories, shoes, or even your facial features. Or maybe it's farming, mining, cooking, tailoring, or one of the many other professions in the game (no Inscription but that sucked anyway, if you ask us). Or maybe it's just doing a little interior decorating -- unlike another game that we used to cover, HKO is going to have player housing from the start.Yep, there are many, many things to love about Sanrio's upcoming game (not least of them the cutest characters ever made -- say what you will about Ragnaros, but nobody ever wanted to hug him). On this, our first HKO Insider Breakfast Topic ever, we're asking: what's your favorite part of Hello Kitty Online?
Hello Kitty Online to feature character creation and ... farms
I have to apologize in advance to any stalwart fans of the Hello Kitty franchise who are anxiously anticipating Hello Kitty Online with baited breath. Perhaps it is a sad commentary on the inherent cynicism and snarkiness of your modern blogger, but I have serious doubts about whether or not you will ever see a post about HKO here on Massively without some at least a touch of sarcasm or irony. Fault us for our taste if you will, but never doubt or honesty!Having said that, this official trailer for Hello Kitty Online demonstrates such innovative new features as character creation, personalized avatars (which is different than character creation, in some way that eludes me), virtual community, farms, in-game items, houses, and mini-games including fan favorites like Rock-Paper-Scissor! In this respect, the game appears less interested in re-inventing the wheel, than in ensuring it is super cute and perhaps slightly creepy. As the game moves into beta in the near future, look for more impressions and news to surface.[Via ZergWatch]
Hello Kitty Online: I have no mouth, and I must scream [Updated]
Some of you have anticipated it. Some of you have dreaded it. Some of us have been threatened with it, when we've been naughty bloggers ('Follow the style guidelines or we'll make you play it!'). Whatever your reaction to the news, it's finally happening: Hello Kitty Online is currently in closed beta, and will launch sometime in the latter half of 2008.So, what can we expect from HKO? Appearances from other Sanrio characters: check. Cute explorable zones like the Flower Kingdom: check. Combat system: che -- wait, what? Combat system, guilds, extensive crafting system ... this is an actual MMORPG, not just another cutesy virtual world like Club Penguin or Webkinz!Color me curious; I've already signed up for the beta. More news as it comes. Keep an eye on Massively for all your superdeformed, facial orifice-less, kawaii character needs.[Updated: Closed beta actually begins on April 23rd.]
