Habbo
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Wandering the quiet digital halls of Habbo Hotel
"I'm Unicorn_farts and welcome to your official Habbo Intelligence Agency Training Session!" I was in a strange room filled with black couches, ebony walls and various elevators trapped behind glass gates. It would have felt like a bank or government building were it not for the ice-cream stand and Easter memorabilia, which included a giant rabbit plush and some egg-shaped statues with human-sized chicks inside. Many spaces in Habbo, a virtual world created by Finnish developer Sulake, feel like this one. The platform is loosely modeled after a hotel, but its user-designed chat rooms span a broad set of themes. Jungles, high schools and coffee shops -- they're all in here.
MMO Family: Are kid-friendly MMOs doomed to extinction?
Recently, the family-friendly segment of the MMO industry suffered a bit of a blow with the news of Disney's decision to shut down Pirates of the Caribbean Online and Toontown. These were both titles that had been around for years, and both had loyal fanbases. Toontown in particular has been around for about a decade and won several awards through the years. So when the sunsettings were announced, it raised questions about whether kid-friendly games are as successful as publishers might have hoped. In fact, these aren't the only relatively well-known kids' titles to be shut down over the past year. And while it might be premature to signal the death knell for kid MMOs, it's a good time to do an assessment on what's working and what might be hampering success. In this week's MMO Family, it's time to do a little state of the (kid-friendly) industry.
Rise and Shiny: Habbo Hotel
This week I had the pleasure of testing out Habbo Hotel, a social MMO that takes its art design cues from the world of 8bit and tries to attract a younger audience with bright, accessible gameplay. Really the only thing separating Habbo Hotel from a serious "adult" MMO is how it looks. The systems in-game are no different than those in other social MMOs I have found, and in fact, much of the no-frills gameplay reminds me just how bloated many standard MMOs are. You might have heard of Habbo Hotel because of a recent controversy that resulted in major backers pulling out of the game and forced the developers to literally shut down public chat, but it seems that the worst of the controversy is behind us. I found a few examples of players trying to navigate around chat filters or rules, but that's standard behavior for younger players. Just ask Wizard101's KingsIsle about the difficulty of maintaining clean chat in a "kid's" MMO.
Rise and Shiny: Star Stable
Star Stable is what many would refer to as a "kid's game." More accurately, it could be described as a game for tween girls who love horses, but during my time with the game, I found that most of the players I met and talked to and most of those I saw on the official Facebook page seemed to be between the ages of 17 and 40. The players I chatted with in game and during my livestream of the game were over 19 (some well over), so it would be most accurate to describe the game as a linear world of adventure for horse-lovers to explore. While on horseback. With other players on horseback. There, perfect. There is the slightly glaring issue of every character's being gender-locked as a female rider, but I have no issue with it. The MMO stems from single-player games about a young girl and her horse, as I understand it, so playing as a girl fits perfectly. No "sexism" banners need be waved; for every one example of a game like Star Stable I can show you 100 examples of games that force women to play as men or represent them as scantily clad weaklings. So how much fun is it to ride around on virtual horses all day? Pretty darn fun.
Free for All: Why I prefer primitive graphics over realistic imagery
There are a few divisive topics that I can bring up in my columns that will be guaranteed to not only bring in the comments but light a fire to the comments section. I've learned that browser choice is a hot topic. PvP versus PvE will always cause players to erupt. Mac or PC? That topic will not end in civil discussion. If I really want to hurt a reader's feelings, cause insults to be hurled at me, and provoke readers to accuse me of attempting to bring game development -- real game development -- to its knees, I can bring up graphics and gaming power. As in gaming rig. But I'll be brave this week and explain just why I prefer more primitive graphics over high-end visuals.
Habbo owners bringing chat back, making big changes
Following a special report by UK's Channel 4 News on child predation and the lack of proper security in Habbo, all chat functionality in the game was taken down. Today, Habbo owner Sulake put out a statement that chat will be reintroduced, accompanied by better protection and moderation. Community members were given an opportunity to voice their concerns, reactions, and thoughts about Habbo in an event called the Great Unmute. CEO Paul LaFontaine said that feedback from the Great Unmute will "inform and direct" his long-term plan for Habbo, and that when chat functionality comes back online, it will be a "Protected Democracy," where the speech, safety, and interest of legitimate users comes first and foremost. Protected Democracy is a new concept that we are pioneering in a poorly regulated social gaming industry. It can only be realised through a mix of technology, moderation, education and engagement. This is a complex combination that cannot be achieved in a single step. That is why I will turn the Habbo site back on in phases, focusing on specific markets to test the new technology. Before then I will be carrying out live tests (beginning in Finland today), to ensure our new systems are delivering the improved safety levels we anticipate.
Habbo chat disabled as another investor pulls out
Habbo has lost another investment partner as an investigation into alleged user misconduct continues. Earlier this week, UK broadcaster Channel 4 went public with reports of "sexual, perverse, violent, and pornographic" chat in the children's virtual world formerly known as Habbo Hotel. Today, Gamasutra reports that 3i, a private equity group that owns 16 percent of Habbo parent firm Sulake, is pulling out. Previously, Sulake shareholder Balderton Capital returned its stake, while retailers Tesco and WH Smith removed Habbo gift cards from their websites. Sulake CEO Paul LaFontaine subsequently announced that all chat functionality on the Habbo website has been disabled pending the results of a potentially lengthy internal investigation.
Habbo accused of harboring predators, CEO fights back
Habbo, a popular children's virtual world, is under fire today by UK's Channel 4 News. The station aired a special report suggesting that the social network as a haven for pedophiles and child predators and promising to expose "the extent of sexually explicit material on the social network." Habbo (formerly Habbo Hotel) is shedding investors with the news; Habbo's parent company Sulake lost its second largest shareholder, Balderton Capital. The former shareholder released a statement saying, "We were given some information a week ago that profoundly shocked us. We had to ask ourselves whether we were comfortable being investors in a business where children were not being adequately protected." Habbo CEO Paul LaFontaine fought back against the accusations by saying that Habbo is "one of the safest online communities" and has a large team of moderators that tracks the millions of messages sent between the network's users "To keep users safe, we filter content and block inappropriate users," LaFontaine said. "We work with child safety organisations and local police forces to address inappropriate behaviour. Habbo's leading safety systems were recognised as making the service one of the safest social networks in a 2011 European Commission report."
Habbo Hotel touts 200 million registrations
If you haven't heard of Habbo Hotel, you might just be in the minority. Sulake, the Finnish maker of the teen-focused virtual community and social game, has just announced that the title has surpassed 200 million registrations as of January 2011. If you're curious, one registration equals one character in the long-running virtual world, but the total number of unique registered users is unclear. Habbo Hotel celebrated its 10th anniversary last year, and since its founding in 2000, it has expanded to more than 150 countries across the globe. The year 2010 represented the virtual world's most successful to date, with 42 million new registrations and over 400 million play hours logged. "The fast, continuous development of Habbo Hotel has enabled us to make quick changes and create new features according to our users' needs," said Sulake CEO Timo Soininen via press release.
15 Minutes of Fame: Habbo's Sulka Haro
15 Minutes of Fame is WoW.com's look at World of Warcraft players of all shapes and sizes -- from the renowned to the relatively anonymous, the remarkable to the player next door. Tip us off to players you'd like to hear more about.Good things seem to come in threes -- at least, they do in the case of interviews with the intriguing folks from <unassigned variable> in the UK. Recent 15 Minutes of Fame subject Alice Taylor not only provided a rousing good interview herself, but she did exactly what we ask our readers to do at the top of every column: she tipped us off to players we want to hear more about. First, she passed us along to her GM, games designer James Wallis; next, she introduced us to this week's gaming insider. If you've had the chance to read Alice's and James' profiles, you're sure to be grinning and settling into your chair right about now, in anticipation of yet another witty, savvy peek into WoW culture, gaming and geekery. You'd be right on target. Here he is, direct from Finland: Sulka Haro, the lead designer of Habbo, a popular virtual world for teens that attracts some 11 million monthly uniques.
Massively speaks with Sparkplay Media's CEO on Earth Eternal pt. 2
How have the launches of FusionFall and Free Realms affected Earth Eternal? Have you changed your development or goals in any way because of the success of those two games, or have you stayed the course and continued to build things your way, disregarding those two games?Not really, no. Games like Runescape and Habbo have had more influence on our plans than either of those two games, simply because they're so much bigger. FusionFall and Free Realms have gotten a lot of press in the last year, but neither of them have achieved the level of success that games like Runescape and Habbo have. Actually, nobody really knows how Free Realms is doing outside of SOE. Three million registrations doesn't tell you much about how many active players they have as you don't know how quickly players are churning out of the experience. With the massive dollars they spent on marketing too, it'd be surprising if they couldn't get a few million registrations. The challenge for them (and everyone else in this space, including us) is to convert that fleeting attention into long-term, loyal players. "We're more in the vein of a classic fantasy MMO than a collection of minigames." How will Earth Eternal separate itself from the growing free-to-play genre in America? What will make this game stand out?We're a different kind of experience from FusionFall or Free Realms. We're more in the vein of a classic fantasy MMO than a collection of minigames. I think where we stand out is by offering the best browser-based fantasy MMO out there. We've made the decision to have no humans, elves, or dwarves (or gnomes, hobbits, or anything else too close to human), preferring instead to offer everything from humanoid lizards and falcons to the Clockwork and Yeti. We're definitely fantasy but we want to stay away from the pack, almost all of whom have the humans/elves/dwarves thing going on. We've also got an enormous number of races for players (unlike the two games you mentioned) – 22 at launch.Considering all of Earth Eternal's development, what part of the game are you the most proud of? What is that one feature you can't wait to show off?The number one thing I'm proud of is how much our team has managed to do on relatively little funding for an open world 3D MMO (about five million dollars.) As far as game features go the biggest feature I'm looking forward to showing off is our Groves system, which will be introduced at final launch, a few months after we go into open beta. Thanks so much for your time, Matt!
Where is Second Life going?
Where is it all going? With an MMOG you already know: Content updates, free and paid expansions, and so forth. A broadening and sometimes also a deepening of the game experience. Virtual environments tend to be a bit hazier, largely supported by microtransactions they may include game-elements (like Entropia Universe), sci-fantasy settings (like the upcoming Blue Mars), specific celebrity events (Habbo) or merchandise and marketing-focused experiences (Virtual MTV, Barbie Girls Online and more). In a very real sense the virtual environments industry is largely about focus. Targeting a market, wooing a demographic, and showing them where you are going to take them in the coming days. Interesting, then, that the world's best-known virtual environment, Linden Lab's Second Life lacks the answers to fundamental questions, the answers to which directly impact every user and organization who participates (or who might participate in future). In fact, hardly anyone is asking those questions. Now isn't that peculiar? Are you a part of the most widely-known collaborative virtual environment or keeping a close eye on it? Massively's Second Life coverage keeps you in the loop.
Habbo aims to erase hate in online communities
Let's face it, being a teen is not easy. With the ever-growing mountain of potential pitfalls teens may face, the last thing they want to deal with is the hatred, discrimination and bigotry that seems to be plaguing our online environments. To help combat this problem, Habbo has joined forces with the Matthew Shepard Foundation in a project they call "Erase Hate".Beginning July 7th, the Matthew Shepard Foundation staff will make appearances twice a week in Habbo's InfoBus to discuss those issues concerning young people in a safe environment. Main topics will include bullying, discrimination and any other forms of hate experienced on and offline. Not only will these teens be taught how to deal with these concerns, but they will learn how to encourage respect among peers. "It is a mission of the Foundation to support young people and provide them with the resources to lead healthy, productive, hate free lives," said Judy Shepard, executive director of the Matthew Shepard Foundation. "Our partnership with Habbo will allow us to have ongoing conversations with young people about what they can do in the fight to replace hate with understanding, compassion, and acceptance."
Habbo crests 100 million avatar milestone
One hundred million. 100 million. 100,000,000. No matter how you look at it, it's an extraordinarily large number. It's the number of colors most women are capable of seeing. It's the number of websites that existed in 2006. It's a song by the rapper Birdman. It's also, rather incidentally, the number of avatars created to date in the simple and spectacularly successful Habbo Hotel.Naturally, that doesn't correlate to 100 million users (Habbo usually clocks in at about 8 million a month), but it's still a testament to the power of a simple virtual world aimed at an extremely active demographic. The lucky sap who created the actual 100 millionth avatar was awarded one of those fancy new Macbook Airs, as well as a slew of in-game goodies like a specially designed room, in-game currency, and rare items. Here's hoping they see 100 million more!
Virtual Greats to sell celebrity likenesses
And not just likenesses. Metaverse developer Millions of Us intends to market likenesses, hair-styles, catchphrases, dance moves, signature moves, clothing lines, furniture collections -- you name it -- based on well-known celebs all under the banner business name of Virtual Greats. These appearances and digital accessories would be sold in dozens of virtual worlds, though you'll probably see them in Gaia Online, Habbo and Second Life first. Deals have already been done with Justin Timberlake, Elvis Presley Enterprises, Snoop Dogg, Paris Hilton, Raven Symone, Marvel (for The Incredible Hulk), and Tila Tequila, and more are in the works.
Teen survey suggests preference for PS3
A survey of teens from youth-oriented social networking site Habbo shows that PS3 is the most desirable console of the three current-gen systems. Nearly 60,000 teens, between the ages of 11 and 18, took part of a site-wide survey. Of the three systems, PS3 topped out with 69% of voters describing the system as "great" or "good." In comparison, the Wii earned a 64% vote of confidence, and the Xbox 360 earned 58%.It's good to hear that today's youth finds the PlayStation brand just as attractive as ever. According to the survey, 20% of responders say that they plan on getting a new console in the next 12 months. Hopefully, its desirability will help outweigh the PS3's slightly higher cost of entry -- but from what we hear, kids are pretty rich these days.[Thanks, Andy!]
Habbo census reveals PS3 to be 'Console of Choice' for teens
Those enlightened individuals who have experienced the rapidly metastasizing MMO hotel sim/social networking site known as Habbo (formerly Habbo Hotel) are already aware that the community for this "hangout for teens" is sizable, to say the least. Thus, when the Pixelated Nation of Habbonia endorses one of the current-gen consoles as being the "Console of Choice" for the teenaged, it resounds like the voice of a small nation -- albeit a nation of furniture-hording hotel dwellers.Nearly 57,000 Habbonians took part in the survey late last year, where 69 percent of the pixelated participants gave the PlayStation 3 "great or good" rankings, followed by 64 percent for the Wii, and 58 percent for the Xbox 360. The Global Habbo Youth Survey went on to show that females preferred the Wii and Habbonians located in the Americas were more favorable to the Xbox 360 than their Eastern Hemisphere suitemates. Not exactly new information, but it is an excellent excuse for us to repeatedly type the word Habbonian.
ION 08: A five year forecast for MMOs
There's always a lot of discussion about what's going to be the next big thing in the MMOs industry. We all love to talk about the future and that's largely because it's a very interesting topic. So we just had to attend the "Online Games in 2013" panel at ION 08. This panel was actually introduced by Peter Freese, the ION Conference Director. It was easily one of the most packed panels I've been to thus far which is saying a lot since all the panels have been pretty well populated already.The panel consisted of Erik Bethke (GoPets Ltd), Scott Jennings (NCsoft), Bridiget Agabra (Metaverse Roadmap) and Damion Schubert (BioWare). With a group of people like this I was expecting some varied and compelling conversation on the topic of MMOs in 2013. In the end we got just that and a quite a bit more.%Gallery-22888%
Webkinz, Habbo, Linden Lab make list of top 25 most valuable startups
The Silicon Alley Insider has the latest iteration of its "World's Most Valuable Digital Startups", a list of 25 privately-held companies with products or services on the Web. They say 'iterative', because they plan to continually update the list as market values change.Companies of note on this list are Webkinz, the purveyors of virtual pets, valued at an estimated $2 billion dollars; Habbo, makers of Habbo Hotel, valued at $1.25 billion; and Linden Lab, the hosts of Second Life, valued at $1.1 billion dollars. If you're wondering about how they've come up with these valuation numbers, they explain their methodology, which essentially consists of four main components: implied valuations in recent financing, financial performance, market share and market size, and growth rate.The Webkinz model is well-supported by now; it's essentially Beanie Babies in digital. Habbo Hotel is doing well enough to almost become a household name. Second Life gets the lion's share of public eyes on it by being the target of everyone's assumptions. Honestly, we're surprised that all three of these companies are still privately owned. Any bets on how much longer that will last?
GDC08: Thinking outside the virtual world
Tuesday afternoon, Michael Acton Smith, CEO of Mind Candy, presented attendees at the GDC's Worlds in Motion summit with an interesting look at the confluence between real goods and virtual worlds. For some background on where Smith is coming from, Mind Candy "creates games and puzzles that span multiple media.... [they] use all forms of technology to tell stories and interact with... [their] audiences." They run Perplex City, an alternate reality game that uses clues puzzles in the real world combined with web-based resources to create a unique type of gameplay. Their upcoming game Moshi Monsters is an adoptable pet game geared towards kids. Smith says it's a "new type of virtual pet experience." The pets will be very alive with their own emotions (driven by a behavior engine which will cause your pet to act different ways depending on how you treat it) that will be reflected in the pet's animations. The game will also incorporate a number of social tools, so both you and your pet monster can hang out with friends. And, of course, there will be toys, oh glorious toys. (Some already available, though the game itself is still in beta and closed to the public.)%Gallery-16441%
