Habbo Hotel

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
This article or section needs to be revised: streamline, remove unimportant, update
Please help to improve it and then remove this flag.

Habbo
Habbo.gif
Studio FinlandFinland Sulake
Publisher FinlandFinland Sulake
Erstveröffent-
lichung		 FinlandFinlandAugust 2000 January 2001 October 2001 March 2004
United KingdomUnited Kingdom
SwitzerlandSwitzerland
GermanyGermany
platform On-line
genre Massive multiplayer online game
Game mode Multiplayer
control Mouse , keyboard
information Habbo Germany
Habbo International
Sulake

Habbo (also abbreviated to Habbo Hotel or HH ) is an online community for young people between the ages of 12 and 18, who make up around 90% of users. The page was viewed with Adobe Shockwave Player until June 2009 . Since then, the Adobe Flash Player has been used. It combines chat and online play . Each user can create his own virtual character , called Habbo , in order to enter different rooms of a virtual hotel. The users can set up their own rooms with furniture. Most of these items can also be exchanged among users.

There are now only nine Habbo Hotels for 28 countries around the world, including the Habbo Hotel in China (August 25, 2007) , Russia (February 10, 2009), Japan (April 16, 2009), and Sweden (April 29, 2015) , in Denmark (April 29, 2015) and the Habbo Hotel in Norway (April 29, 2015) were closed. The Canadian, Singaporean, Australian, US and British hotels merged into one hotel called Habbo.com in 2010. A total of 185 million Habbos and 120 million rooms have already been created and over 16.5 million users visit the Habbo Hotel worldwide every month. At the end of September 2010, the Swiss, Austrian and German hotels were combined into one hotel called Habbo.de.

history

The Finns Sampo Karjalainen and Aapo Kyrölä designed a virtual disco for the band Mobiles in 1999 . Fans could chat with each other there and occasionally meet band members. Due to the lively participation, the developers decided to develop an online hotel from this, which was opened in August 2000 under the name Hotelli Kultakala (Hotel Goldfish). In 2002 the company Sulake , which had meanwhile been founded by the two Finns, commissioned an advertising company to find a new name. An employee of the advertising company bought a lemonade called "Happo" in Finnish. He wrote the word bb instead of pp and the term was born. The Habbo Hotel has had this name since October 3, 2002.

On January 24, 2001, the first official Habbo Hotel in Great Britain was completed. The second Habbo Hotel then opened in Switzerland on October 15, 2001 and had 1.6 million registered users in the first year. In the years that followed, 15 more hotels were opened around the world. On February 16, 2012 it was announced that some local offices, including the German branch in Munich, will be closed due to restructuring. This also applies to the respective staff. The management of the Danish, Norwegian and Swedish hotels should continue from Helsinki. The German-speaking and Brazilian Habbo are now managed from the Netherlands. On June 3, 2012, the then CEO of Sulake, Paul LaFontaine, announced that a Turkish Habbo Hotel would soon open.

On June 12, 2012, the British TV station Channel 4 published a report on the conditions in the Habbo Hotel. The reporter pretended to be a young girl and chatted at the Habbo Hotel. She reports that she was sexually molested after just a few minutes. The day after the report was announced, the second largest investor, Balderton Capital, gave up its stake in Sulake. According to the report, the chat in all hotels around the world was “muted” and all communication options were turned off, messages can no longer be sent and the Habbo Homes can no longer be reached. This state of affairs lasted until June 29, 2012.

In August 2012, Sulake announced the opening of a new hotel, the Turkish Hotel. The first 10,000 users who registered in advance received gifts (50 thalers) and a one-month HC membership. Shortly after the Turkish hotel opened, most of it was visited by English-speaking and foreign-speaking countries. As a result, the registration was blocked for a long time for everyone who is not in Turkey or Germany. This was to prevent the new Turkish visitors who speak a different language from being bothered.

In May 2014, Habbo released an app that was initially only available for the iPad. After a beta, the app was released for all iOS devices in December 2014. On April 1, 2015, the app was finally released for Android.

Security in the Habbo

Habbo is looked after by moderators during opening hours who protect the hotel from “rule breakers” by excluding them from the Habbo Hotel for a limited time if necessary (also known as “banishing”). In contrast to the moderators (identifying mark: a “MOD-” in front of the Habbo name), who are mostly employed part-time, there is also the full-time hotel management, which is referred to as “staff” within the Habbo Hotel. In general, the staffs are more responsible for the Habbo website and events, while the moderators actively answer questions and problems from Habbo users in the chat. There are also the guards. Habbos can report so-called bullies. The guards then get an anonymous chat history and vote on whether the accused gets a penalty or is innocent. An ambassador program was launched on November 27, 2014. Ambassadors are experienced users who have an advisory role for new users and help to protect the community from inappropriate behavior in public spaces (or at official events and activities).

However, this system does not offer any real protection, since the Habbo Hotel is completely anonymous. Thus, there is a high risk that z. B. Move sex offenders to the hotel under a meaningless alias.

Habbo Home

Every user could create their own Habbo Home. On this he could place various notes and stickers in order to reveal more about his personal interests to other Habbos. Various functions were also available there, such as activating a guest book, displaying collected game points or the friends list. Thanks to a new version, there were also so-called " tags " later . For this tag system there was a search in which you could enter certain search terms and then all habbos and groups with these tags were displayed.

Group side

A Habbo can create a group for himself and his friends or other Habbos with the same interests. This group can create its own badge with which one can see the membership in the group. Like the Habbohome, the group page can be designed with notes and stickers. A discussion forum is available for each group and has almost all the functions of a normal forum. With the introduction of the new groups, the group page was abolished, since then each new group has only one forum that you have to buy.

Gameplay

At the Habbo Hotel, you can do many other activities with other people while you are writing. On the hotel view there are weekly events and news about Habbo Hotel. You can also get badges if you take part in special games and win them.

navigator

At the beginning the hotel view appears . There is the navigator, in which all rooms and more detailed information such as their owners and the number of Habbos that are in them are displayed. There are two different types of rooms:

Official rooms

These rooms were created by the hotel and are often referred to as "hotel rooms". There were several corridors, a coffee house, a club, a welcome lounge and a theater. There are computer-controlled Habbos, called bots, in the hotel rooms . These offer users drinks and snacks. The official hotel rooms were abolished with a "room of the week" event. In February 2015, renewed hotel rooms were published.

Guest rooms

These rooms were created by Habbos. They are divided into different categories and can have different floor plans and sizes. Any user can create a room at any time and assign it to any category. The rooms can be equipped with virtual furnishings.

Games created by the community

Habbo Hotel users can build and manage their own games. Most of the game elements can be bought in the catalog - from soccer balls to puzzle boxes. You can build battle banzai arenas, freeze arenas or labyrinths that run automatically. You can also play games like Catch the Chair, Hitman, Guess the Word, Dress Up and many more. create, but must be managed. Games of chance are prohibited and are punished with a ban.

Roleplay elements

The users in the Habbo Hotel very often create rooms that merge with real life. Be it a police force that takes care of the good in the hotel, a mafia, fantasy worlds and many other facilities. In most of the facilities, users have to move up and expand their roleplay. Most of these rooms or groups give talers to people who are committed.

Chat in Habbo

As soon as you are in a room, you can get in touch with other Habbos. The user selects whether the entire room sees the conversation, only Habbos in the immediate vicinity or only a Habbo in the room selected by a click. He can also use Messenger to write messages to other Habbos marked as friends from anywhere. There was also the so-called friend stream, where you could follow your friends' activities , similar to networks like Facebook . The Friend Stream was deactivated again due to the limited use and does not currently work.

Alt codes

Special characters of the font Volter (Goldfish)

Since Habbo uses the bitmap font Volter (Goldfish) , which contains graphic pictograms instead of various normally standardized characters , you can also use so-called " Alt codes" in the chat.

Mini-games

Up until the switch to Flash Player in 2009, the two mini-games SnowStorm and Battleball existed in all hotels, and all Habbos could play these without limits. After the switch, these two games were replaced by new ones. In November 2011 the revised SnowStorm was reintroduced, for normal Habbos it was limited to 3 rounds a day, HCs could play an unlimited number of times. Other games such as Fast Food, Habbo Speedway, Tetrablok or Matchwood were added between 2012 and 2014. With the closure of the Game Center in March 2014, Snowstorm and all games were abolished.

Word filter

The focus of the concept is on communication between users. However, there are certain topics and expressions that the operators believe are inappropriate. These include swear words, racist and sexual expressions. For this reason, the system uses a technical word filter. This replaces certain expressions with the characters ***** (until January 2011 bobba ). After major protests, the Bobba filter was exchanged again in October 2012 and the ***** symbols were removed. This word filter is active in all areas of the hotel, including private rooms. Conversations, names of Habbos including mission, names and descriptions of private rooms, PostIts, gift cards and all console messages are filtered. The filter is constantly updated with new words and terms. The filter could be deactivated for visitors who are 14 years of age or older. But this is no longer possible today.

criticism

Market research

The operator regularly requests the mostly underage users to take part in surveys, sometimes with the pretext of wanting to improve the chat system. In August 2007 this resulted in a commercially marketed study showing the purchasing behavior of 42,000 young people in 22 countries. The young people are encouraged to participate in that the manufacturer offers them vouchers for virtual goods.

Addictive

As with many MMOGs, excessive participation, especially among young users, can lead to chat addiction or an escape from reality .

Cost trap

As described below, the criticism also consists in the clever combination of free and chargeable services on the website, whereby young members in particular can quickly fall into a cost trap. In connection with the risk of addiction described above, the real purchase of unreal, virtual objects and extras can quickly reach larger amounts.

Deletion of the account

Another problem is the difficult deletion of a Habbo account. Sulake only allows deletion requests after lengthy correspondence. As on many social networks, it remains questionable whether the data protection guidelines, in particular the immediate deletion of all personal data , will be taken into account.

currency

There are three main currencies in total at the Habbo Hotel. The main currency is the Habbo Taler (or coins). With these you can buy almost every imaginable piece of furniture from the catalog, flea market or so-called "Talershops". With Duckets you can buy furniture and occasional effects in the catalog for free. You can collect duckets by logging in daily or solving various quests. HC members can collect up to 2600 duckets, not HC members up to 1300. With diamonds one can buy exclusive furniture, HC Club and Builders Club. You can also buy rarities that also cost diamonds. You get diamonds when you buy thalers (1 thaler = 1 diamond). In addition to these three main currencies, there are also currencies for certain campaigns (snowflakes, nuts, etc.) for a limited time at irregular intervals. You can get these by completing certain quests or buying thalers.

Paid part

Users can buy so-called Habbo thalers using various payment methods. In Germany, 1 thaler is roughly equivalent to a real equivalent of EUR 0.20. The thalers are the virtual currency of the game and can no longer be exchanged for real currency.

Virtual furniture

Each player can purchase virtual furniture and set up his guest rooms. In addition to permanently available furniture and seasonal furniture, there are also so-called collector's items (formerly "Rares") and Ultra Rares (particularly rare furniture). These are only available for a short time or are given out as prizes. The furniture can be purchased with thalers, pixels, seasonal quest points or membership in the HC Club.

In so-called trading centers, players can exchange furniture for other furniture or for coins in order to buy other furniture in the catalog. Price lists are primarily used to determine prices, but since the end of January 2010 there has also been a system integrated into the hotel, the “flea market”. Habbos can offer their pieces of furniture on this and buyers can display average exchange prices. Sulake has developed a recycling system called Ecotron . With this old furniture can be transformed into special furniture. The Ecotron was removed after a plasto campaign (everyone could recycle their furniture for the last time) and a short time later replaced by Furni-Matic , which brought the same system with it, but still had new functions. An update in September 2016 removed the Furni-Matic.

Premium memberships

The player could choose between membership in the Habbo Club (HC) or VIP Club (VIP) until the VIP Club was canceled . The two clubs had different benefits and prices. Since the cancellation, only membership in the HC Club is possible.

Habbo Club

The Habbo Club (HC for short) was introduced in December 2002 in the Habbo Hotels that existed at the time. The club was part of all the other hotels from the start. Membership in the Habbo Club last cost 15 thalers a month, and there was a small discount when purchasing more than one month. In return, the user received more items of clothing and colors in the wardrobe, where different styles can be saved and easily added later. The user received one piece of furniture per month, with the order clearly defined. With the introduction of the VIP Club in April 2010, the collection of furniture and the appearance of the badge were changed. In addition, members of the club benefited from an expansion of the friends list to 600 Habbos. Furthermore, there was a badge and a privilege in the queue of a room. Another advantage were four different dances, which were only available for club members, and special chat commands with which all furniture (: furni) and users (: chooser) of a room could be displayed. There were also special room layouts for club members and a special shop for club members only. While you could keep the special rooms and the furniture you received after your club membership ended, you lost the other advantages. The club was dissolved on November 25, 2011 in the English-speaking hotel and three days later, on November 28, in the other Habbo Hotels. Habbos with ongoing membership automatically became a member of the VIP Club. On January 18, 2013, Sulake announced that the VIP Club would be replaced by the HC Club, with immediate effect. This did not result in any further advantages, but the monthly gifts were partly exchanged. The HC Club was renewed in March 2016. The price was increased from 25 thalers to 50 thalers and 50 diamonds. In addition, an “HC Payday” was introduced, in which the HC Club owners receive a certain sum of thalers as thanks every 15th of the month. At the beginning there were protests about the price increase.

VIP club

The VIP Club was introduced on April 7, 2010 in English-speaking and on April 13, 2010 in the rest of the Habbo Hotels. One month membership in the VIP Club can be acquired for 25 thalers, or for three months for 60 thalers. In addition to all the Habbo Club benefits, there are two gifts per month for VIP Club members, additional colors and the ability to save ten outfits. In addition, the member can have up to 900 friends. There are also more room layouts for VIPs and, in addition to the Habbo Club badge, there is also a VIP badge. Club membership also entitles a Habbo to play SnowStorm an unlimited number of times. While you could keep the special rooms and the furniture you received after your club membership ended, you lost the other advantages. On January 18, 2013 the club was closed again and replaced by the old HC Club.

Builders Club

Builders Club is a special membership that provides a variety of virtual furniture and a floor plan editor in a warehouse. This was published for the first time in the German hotel on December 18, 2013. The Builders Club costs 105 thalers and 150 diamonds or € 9.99 per month. If you are no longer a BC member, the rooms become invisible if you have built in furniture from the warehouse. You can build as much as you want with a large amount of furniture and you can swap items as often as you want. BC members can enjoy the following exclusive benefits:

Increased furniture limit:

  • Buy first 14 days membership = increase to 500
  • Buy first 1 month membership = increase to 1000
  • Additional increase in furniture limit available for purchase in the BC warehouse.

Additional advantages:

  • Furniture limit increases by 250 pieces of furniture every month with continuous registration
  • Floor plan editor for individual room design 
  • Ability to set rooms open, private and invisible with BC furniture
  • Commands like: pickallbc and: floor 
  • Exclusive BC activity level badge
  • Ad-free experience

groups

The new groups have existed since October 14, 2011. These now cost 10 Taler for its founder and can only be set up if you are a member of the VIP Club. Each group can be divided into three types:

  1. Normal: Any Habbo can join the group
  2. Exclusive: Any Habbo can submit a request for inclusion
  3. Private: No Habbo can join the group

Various rights can be obtained in a group:

  1. Member: These Habbos can put their own furniture in a group room in which the function has been activated and pick it up again. You can reply to forum topics.
  2. Admin: Can move furniture in the group room and put down your own furniture. In addition, an admin can take up furniture (the furniture is then returned to the Habbo who owns the piece of furniture). In addition, an admin has the authorization to create and delete new forum topics.
  3. Owner: All rights listed above, as well as the ability to edit the group badge, the group description and the group name.

While a "normal" Habbo can only join 50 groups at a time, HC members can belong to up to 100 groups. In addition, since the introduction of the new groups there has been so-called group furniture, which can only be bought by members of a group. They take on the color of the respective group. Since March 2015 you can also delete the groups you have created.

swell

  1. ↑ a b http://www.sulake.com/Habbo ( Memento from August 11, 2010 in the web archive archive.today )
  2. ↑ A step into the future. In: Habbo. January 27, 2015, accessed October 17, 2016 .
  3. ↑ Important message ( Memento from August 2, 2012 in the web archive archive.today )
  4. ↑ a b HabboTimes (fansite) ( Memento from August 4, 2012 in the web archive archive.today )
  5. ↑ Another office will be closed - HabboNews. In: habbonews.eu. Retrieved May 12, 2016 .
  6. ↑ HabboTimes (fansite) ( Memento from February 20, 2012 in the web archive archive.today )
  7. ↑ HabboTimes (fansite) ( Memento from December 3, 2012 in the web archive archive.today )
  8. ↑ Should you let your child play in Habbo Hotel?
  9. ↑ Investor quits Sulake after sex claim
  10. ↑ HabboTimes (fansite) ( Memento from February 21, 2013 in the web archive archive.today )
  11. ↑ The Turkish Habbo is open. In: Habbonews. August 9, 2012, accessed October 17, 2016 .
  12. ↑ Habbo for iPhone. In: Habbo. September 3, 2015, accessed October 17, 2016 .
  13. ↑ The Android app has been released. In: Habbonews. April 1, 2015, accessed October 17, 2016 .
  14. ↑ HabboTimes (fansite) ( Memento from December 9, 2011 in the Internet Archive )
  15. ↑ 1 year ambassador. In: Habbonews. November 22, 2015, accessed October 17, 2016 .
  16. ↑ Opening of new hotel rooms. In: Habbo. February 26, 2015, accessed October 17, 2016 .
  17. ↑ Habbo values: Games update. In: Habbo Help Tool. Retrieved October 17, 2016 .
  18. ↑ What is currently not working? In: Habbo Help Tool. Retrieved October 17, 2016 .
  19. ↑ Closure of the Game Center. In: Habbo Help Tool. Retrieved October 17, 2016 .
  20. ↑ Bye Bye, Bobba! In: Habbo. Sulake Corporation Oy, January 4, 2011, accessed June 23, 2011 .
  21. ↑ Bobba is back. In: Habbonews. January 29, 2013, accessed October 17, 2016 .
  22. ^ Reena Jana: Mining Virtual Worlds for Market Research. In: Bloomberg Business. Bloomberg LP, August 13, 2007, accessed January 6, 2016 .
  23. ^ Hermann Gfaller: Market research in social networks via avatar. In: silicon.de. August 14, 2007, accessed January 6, 2016 .
  24. ↑ The ducket limit has just been doubled! In: Habbo. October 17, 2016, accessed October 18, 2016 .
  25. ↑ HabboTimes "Furniture World". ( Memento from October 7, 2008 in the archive.today web archive ).
  26. ↑ What is the Furni-Matic? In: Habbo Help Tool. Retrieved October 17, 2016 .
  27. ↑ The return of the Habbo Club! : Habbo.de Help Tool
  28. ↑ HC update and price change. In: Habbo. March 31, 2016, accessed October 17, 2016 .
  29. ↑ The Builders Club opens! In: Habbo. December 18, 2013, accessed October 17, 2016 .
  30. ↑ Dreams come true - groups can be deleted! In: Habbo. March 18, 2015, accessed October 17, 2016 .

Web links