Habbo

Habbo Hotel
Type of site	Social network service
Available in	Multilingual
Owner	Sulake Corporation OY
Created by	Sampo Karjalainen; Aapo Kyrölä
URL	See Current services below
Commercial	Yes
Registration	Yes

Habbo (also known as Habbo Hotel) is a social networking website aimed at teenagers. The website is owned and operated by Sulake Corporation The service began in 2000 and has expanded to include 32 online communities (or "hotels").^[1] As of June 2008 over 118 million avatars have been registered. There are an average 8 million unique visitors monthly,^[1] and 75,000 avatars are being created every day.^[2] The 100 millionth avatar was created on Habbo UK in June 2008.^[3]

Habbo's origins are said to be from Mobiles Disco, a 1999 hobby project by creative designer Sampo Karjalainen and technologist Aapo Kyrölä for a Finnish band, a virtual chat room running on Aapo's Fuse technology. After having been contracted to design a virtual game and chat called Lumisota (Snow Wars) for a Finnish ISP, Elisa, they were contracted for another project. They developed Hotelli Kultakala (eng. Hotel Goldfish) with a small team of developers and it was launched in August 2000 on the ISP's web portal.

Aapo and Sampo and Dee Edwards, an entrepreneur from the UK, wanted to create an international business based on the virtual hotel concept and worked on a plan in autumn 2000 and raised finance. By the end January 2001, Habbo Hotel had been launched in beta mode. The new hotel launched officially a few weeks afterwards, aimed at the teenage market, , with marketing and payment partners in place, run from a HQ in London. It had a new credits system and community and safety features. ^[4] The next hotel was launched in Switzerland a few months later, in four languages. It has since been expanded to over 31 countries in five continents, including Hotelli Kultakala in Finland which was made into a Habbo Hotel and has been invested in by venture capitalists.^[5]

During the years, Habbo has changed its web design and appearance, the latest change occurred in January 2009.^[6]

In May 2006, the service, along with its domain names, were changed from www.habbohotel.com (.co.uk, .com.au, etc) to www.habbo.com (.co.uk, .com.au, etc). In August 2007, Habbo's Chinese community closed down temporarily, the first time a Habbo website has closed. The challenging Chinese market and high operational costs led to the decision of closing the service. Customers in China were redirected to other Habbo communities.^[7] In December 2008, Habbo's Russian community announced it was closing in February 2009 as a result of low numbers. Those on the site with furni (virtual furniture that can be used to furnish rooms in the hotel that are bought with the use of Habbo Credits or Coins, that can be exchanged for real money given to Sulake) have been told they will receive credit codes for use on the USA Habbo community.

In late May 2009, Habbo opened a new beta version of Habbo for some Habbos to test out before using it officially. In the new version of Habbo, the client uses Flash instead of Shockwave, and the inference of the Hotel is changed.

The website

Many activities and features are available on Habbo's website, that do not appear on the Hotel itself. The community section of the website features regularly updated news and events regarding the service. Recommended chat rooms, popular group pages and user pages and user interest tags are also accessible from the website. The website has seen over five different versions. Over the past three years, the website has become more involved with the hotel. Before 2006 users logged in on the hotel, now they log in via the website, which links them to the hotel. The website provides information on users' credit balance, groups, rooms and even friends. However, the website's main focus is the following two features:

User pages

This is a feature allowing users to customise their own web page displayed on the website, colloquially named Habbo Home. The web page can be accessed from inside the hotel,^[8] and allow for user interaction with the home page of the user, as well as interaction within the Hotel. The web pages are displayed with the user's character appearance and motto. Users can customise their web page with a selection of widgets, stickers and backgrounds. Various widgets, stickers and backgrounds can be purchased with credits to add to the small default range of features.^[9] There are also opportunities to win more free features and often branded stickers/backgrounds are offered as part of a marketing campaign.

Groups

Groups are special "clubs" that users can join. They have a very similar format to user pages. While users can join groups for free, a 10 credit fee is reguired if a user would like to purchase and run their own groups. Depending on the hotel, there are over 500 groups in a Habbo community. In groups, owners can change the badge (a small image to symbolise the group), customize the page, give/take away admin rights (the ability to change the badge, change the page, kick members out, give/take away other members rights) to members, kick members out of the group, delete/change discission forum threads, or change the group's settings, such as the URL, the group name, group description, and even the ability to make the group exclusive or available to everybody. Admins can do everything above except change the group's settings. Users can join up to 50 groups. Many of the hotel's competitions (such as the monthly Newsie) are featured on groups.

Discussion forums

Within groups, there is a discussion forum, where users can post various threads and topics. To be able to post in these forums, users will need to verify their e-mail address first. Users can post virtually anything they wish. Since many people enjoy spamming the forums, Habbo has included a "security code" system, where users must enter a randomly generated string of characters (eg. jsiqnsp) before their message can be saved, to prevent spam.

The Hotel

The virtual Hotel is the chat room of Habbo, and consists of a client made using Adobe Shockwave technologies. The Hotel can be accessed by logged-in users via a popup window on the website. When a user accesses the Hotel they are brought to a screen colloquially known as Hotel View. From this screen, members can contact one another via the Habbo Chat, which acts as the main form of communication throughout all areas of the Hotel, and use the Navigator to navigate their way to a chat room. Originally, communication was conducted through the Habbo Console, which was recently replaced by Habbo Chat and by Habbo Mail, which is accessible via the Habbo Homepage.

Role play

Habbo has long been an online community for roleplayers to act out certain actions and scenarios. Habbo clients around the world have play host to a very large number of organizations that are devoted to roleplaying. There are many based on military forces around the world, such as the US Army. Others are based on gangs and crime organizations(e.g. the Italian Mafia), fantasy and science fiction. Many Habbo clients around the world have a floor specifically made to cater for organizations devoted to roleplaying. Prior to these roleplay floors, rooms that were specified for role playing were usually placed in one certain floor intended for other types of rooms(games, parties...).

Community

Habbo is home to a wide community of people all around the world. By purchasing virtual furniture with SMS, credit cards, or other means, users can design their own Hotel rooms and create a social space for themselves and their friends.

The centre for all navigation within the Hotel is the "Navigator." The Navigator allows users to travel among chat room around the virtual Hotel. As well as being a means of transportation, the Navigator also shows basic information about chat rooms, such as descriptions, current online users, and privacy settings.

Games

Habbos can play a variety of games in the hotel. Some are run by Habbo and are fully integrated into the game, while others are created by users and are usually simpler.

BattleBall, SnowStorm, Wobble Squabble, and Diving are all games that are run by Habbo. In BattleBall, players must capture the most amount of squares as possible and colour them their team colour. SnowStorm is similar to a skirmish or third-person shooting game; players throw snowballs at each other and gain points each time a snowball hits another player or knocks them down.

Wobble Squabble and Diving can be played in the various pool rooms in Habbo and are unlike BattleBall and SnowStorm in that they are not "team" games. In Wobble Squabble, two players face each other and try to knock each other off "floaties" in a pool by pressing various button combinations to unbalance their opponent. Diving is a single-player game where users can dive while performing tricks in-air; afterwards other users rate their dive.

Chat rooms

There are two types of chat rooms within the virtual hotel. The interface of both chat rooms remains the same, however, the designs portrayed as rooms themselves differ.

Public Rooms are rooms which are available to all members. They often depict scenes such as restaurants, cinemas, and dance clubs. Most Public Rooms contain automated robots which shout pre-recorded messages and can give members drinks and food items. Public rooms are designed by Sulake and are not customisable by users. There are two types of public rooms: widescreen and regular size. Users with a higher screen resolution will see the widescreen rooms, while users with a smaller screen resolution will see smaller size rooms.

Guest Rooms are rooms which users can customise to endless lengths with virtual furniture, wallpaper and floor patterns, and which can be purchased with credits. Users can also choose from a range of room templates that determine what shape the room is. Guest rooms can be created by any member and can be locked to allow access only to specific users or password holder.

Currency

There are 41 types of currency

Exchange

Exchange is Habbo Currency which can be transferd from real money to habbo money. The user must first pay Habbo to receive the exchange (coins). Exchange are mainly used to buy HC (Habbo Club) which gives the user extra features such as New Colours, New Clothes, New Looks etc.

Bronze Coin = 1 Habbo Coin
Silver Coin = 5 Habbo Coins
Gold Coin = 10 Habbo Coins
Sack = 20 Habbo Coins
Gold Bar = 50 Habbo Coins

Coins

Coins, (prieviously called Credits) can be purchased using a variety of different services, such as credit card, a telephone service and via SMS. The credits are stored in the user's purse, accessible in any public or private room as well as on the Hotel view and while logged in on the website. They can also be redeemed into Exchange, which displays the Coins as an item of virtual furniture; the furniture can then be traded among users, and redeemed back into Coins.

Pixels

Pixels were introduced in November 2008. Unlike credits, they are not purchased with real money, and cannot be traded in any form. They are given out when users satisfy certain conditions (such as logging in, being friendly, etc.). They can be used to purchase effects for their avatars, rent virtual furniture and buy it at a discounted price. (discount furniture was deleted after habbo's crazy days) Now habbos can purchase Car furniture

Habbo released Hello Furni. Hello Furni consists of the various starter pack furni which can be bought with pixels. There are also Special Pixle collectibles like The Planet of Love and Saturn (Which costs 2000 pixles and 1 credit so start saving)

File:New Bitmap Image (3)Bitmap Image

Saturn

Scamming or "Hacking"

Scams are known to occur within the website. One such example is the password scam. This occurs by asking a potential victim if they want free furniture. If the victim accepts the offer, the scammer will fool the user into typing their password into the chatbox but not to submit it. The scammer then instructs the victim to press the Control Key while typing a word containing the letter 'm'. The combination of the Control Key and the letter "m" acts as an Enter key on Habbo, causing the victim's password to be communicated.

A more effective scam is phishing. The scammer creates a website that tricks the victim into thinking it is the actual Habbo website. Scammers advertise their websites as a way to get free coins, be a moderator, script furniture, etc. When the victim logs in, their username and password is sent to the owner of the site.

Scripting

File:ScriptingPro.JPG

An early scripting application, many scripting applications had a similar style.

Scripting was a term used to describe a method of "hacking" in Habbo, since the methods used cannot be properly described as hacking, many users referred to it as scripting instead. Scripting was most popular before methods such as Hex editing and Packet editing were patched and rendered useless due to updated security methods within the Habbo server.

Trends suggest that scripting was at its most popular in 2005^[10], when community-made "scripting applications" became more easily available and had more advanced features that allowed users to perform a variety of tricks such as recolouring items and clothes to colours other than the preset colour pallete^[11], placing furniture outside the usual floor or wall space, unlock HC functions (such as chooser, and furni tools) and teleporting across a room.

Earlier scripting methods involved "injecting" data packets into user-definable text fields such as stickie notes or photo descriptions. This was done by putting a data packet closing symbol, followed by a user made custom data packet. The idea was that the server would process the text field, see the data packet closing symbol and assume the item description field had ended and interpret the rest of the text as a different data packet, therefore allowing users to send manipulated data to the server without having to break the encryption. This was soon patched by blocking use of the data end packet in all user-definable text fields.

The end of the scripting era was caused mainly by the large overhaul of the Habbo homepage and client, at which time a new encryption was introduced and most scripting methods had become obsolete due to more thorough checks within the server to stop illegitimate data packets from being processed. The discontinuation of many popular downloadable scripting programs such as Scriptox, XkriminalX Scripter and Habbo Whack, and the increasing popularity^[12] of illegally hosted "Retro Hotels" diverted the attention of many to a new opportunity.

Today, scripting is pretty much dead on Habbo, except for the few which work on some Habbo retros. These scripts are hard to come by, as most are fake or contain viruses.

Effects

Special effects were introduced in December 2008 along with Pixels. "Effects" can be purchased through the catalogue in the "Pixel Shop" section of the Habbo Catalogue. These Pixels can be received by gaining new or higher levelled badges, receiving respect or are freely given every fifteen minutes in a set of 10. Pixels are used to buy effects, such as partial invisibility (ghost, HC Black Clothing is more effective), UFOs, flies, hover boards, a spotlight, twinkle, torch, butterflies, fireflies, and becoming frozen. After an update, several more additions were added, such as a Microphone (making your speech look rigid and spiky), a Jet Pack, and coloured UFOs and Hover boards. However these effects have a time limit of one hour for each effect. Habbos also have the option to rent certain special effects for an hour at a time refunded) like an explosion, bubbles, or flare.

Virtual furniture

Virtual furniture (known as "furni") can be purchased inside the Hotel from the Catalog using Coins. Users then can use the furniture to decorate and furnish their Guest Room. The furniture can be traded among users using a trading dialogue. Many users strive to collect more rare and exclusive furniture. Rare furniture is often sold in the Catalog, but for a limited amount of time, and thus increasing its value after it leaves the Catalogue. Sulake has now scrapped the Rares for a new furniture system called Collectibles. Collectibles are sold for only one month and then never sold on the website again. Users can also now purchase Windows which make their room seem more realistic, as well as purchase different landscapes. Furniture can also be won by competitions held on the website.

Habbo Club

Habbo Club (HC) is a premium subscription which can be purchased using Coins. Subscribers are denoted by a badge, displayed next to their avatar. Every month you subscribe for Habbo Club (HC) a new item of virtual furniture is delivered to subscribers.

Accessories

User and group page accessories can be purchased on the website using the user page interface with Coins. Although there are free accessories available, additional accessories such as stickers, notes, widgets and backgrounds can be dropped from the Inventory onto a drag and drop interface in which users can design and save their page. Accessories cannot be traded among users.

Pets

Virtual pets can be bought and kept in Guest rooms (max 3 per room) Users can interact with the pets (cats, dogs and crocodiles available) which will obey certain commands as long as they are kept happy and fed. Habbo pets never die but do get grumpy if left unattended or hungry.

Managers and moderation

There are 18 office branches globally operated by Sulake employees; these office branches are the workplace of the respective Habbo's senior operators, habbo guides (who replaced the habbo eXperts after closing)- These staff generally include a "Hotel Manager", or Content Manager, who oversees the community as a whole by communicating with users through newsletters, creating competitions, and managing the content of the website; a Community Manager, who is responsible for moderation and guidance throughout the virtual community by managing in-game Moderators, habbo guides; and a Country Manager, who manages the business side of the community such as sales, finance and administration.

Office staff may also consist of customer support staff, who respond to queries sent via contact forms by users; and graphic designers who create the vast amounts of pixel imagery used both in-game and on the community's website.

Automatic moderation exists in Habbo's language filter, the "Bobba Filter", which replaces offensive text with the simple word "bobba". Replacement applies to anything from mild to highly offensive words, phrases, and even websites. In this way, the filter assists in the moderation of Habbo. A feature added on February 27, 2008, enables users to turn the Bobba Filter on and off. With this feature enabled, however, users cannot report to moderators any other users who may be using offensive language. ^{[citation needed]}

Habbo's moderation is covered by paid moderator staff who are police vetted Sulake employees.^[13] Tools utilised by moderator staff allow them to send messages to individual Habbos in the hotel, which appear as in-game popups. As well as this ability, moderator staff can also kick Habbos from any room, mute them (prevent them from speaking) and ban them from the hotel entirely.^[13]

Moderators & History

From August 2000, up until 31 December 2005, there existed a program for experienced members of each Habbo community to become a 'Hobba'. Hobbas were non-paid, volunteer moderators with limited powers that acted as Hotel Guides. On December 31, 2005, Sulake suspended the Hobba program due to major security issues and the rapidly growing Habbo community. It was decided that Habbo needed a stronger, more professional moderation team, that would be employees of Sulake.^[14]

Sponsorship

As a website geared towards teenagers, Habbo often attracts sponsorship from outside entities. This sponsorship includes visits by musicians^[15] (such as The Veronicas, Gorillaz,^[16] Skye Sweetnam,^[17] Little Birdy, Stephanie McIntosh, Operator Please, Chingy, Evermore, Avril Lavigne, Ashlee Simpson, Cole and Dylan Sprouse, and more recently David Archuleta, The Ting Tings, DJ Ironik, Alesha Dixon, The Take, Same Difference and Eoghan Quigg as well as various corporate giants. Sulake has also recently teamed up with Fremantle Media, the company that produces American Idol. Contestants that are voted out of the final 12 (final 13 this current season) were invited to the hotel for an interview following their departure from the show. American Idol furniture was also added to the hotel. Also, recently habbo has introduced Night at the Museum 2 on Habbo UK releasing the rare "Golden Tablet" exclusively.

As Habbo is targeted at teenagers, and 90% of its users are between the age of 13 and 18,^[1] it receives much attention from youth organisations, who educate users about many topics.

Reception

In November 2001, The Daily Telegraph listed Habbo as a top-10 chat and instant messaging site, describing it as "great-looking" and "proving popular with teenagers."^[18] In 2005 and 2006, Habbo Australia received the NetGuide Online Web Award for "Best kids’/youth website".^[19] In September 2006, Sulake won Deloitte's Fast 50 competition.^[20]^[21]

Controversies

In December 2004, a 36-year-old man was imprisoned after using Habbo to persuade a 13-year-old girl to visit him.^[22] On 14 November 2007, a 17-year-old in Holland was arrested by police for allegedly stealing virtual furniture bought with real money worth up to €4000. Five 15-year-olds were brought in for questioning.^[23].

Habbo has been a target for various Internet troll groups, most prominently by the members by the name of Anonymous and the Patriotic Nigras. Every July 12 since 2006,^[24] users sign in to the Habbo site dressed in avatars of an African American wearing a suit and afro and blocked entry to the pool declaring that it was "closed due to AIDS".^[25] (A fix was put in place in which a habbo can walk "through" someone standing in front of the pool, making it harder to block the pool, unless there are a total of 6 people standing at each entrance.) In another raid by the group, several of these avatars were strategically placed in the public pool area, forming the shape of a swastika.^[26]

Habbo Retros

Habbo Retros are fake Habbo Hotels operated by small organizations. Habbo Retros provide free credits on registration, and most will give more credits if needed. There also is a possibility to create your own furniture and put in in the server. Habbo Retros typically used older versions of Habbo, thus the term 'Retro'. However, now Retros mostly are working with the same release as the pilot hotel (At the moment the UK hotel), or one or two older releases. Due to high maintenance rates and Sulake's stand, few Retros have survived for more than a year.^{[citation needed]}

Current services

There are currently 19 websites in operation, serving 30 local communities.^[1]

Country	URL	Opening date	Closing date	Country	URL	Opening date	Closing date
Australia	habbo.com.au	November 2004	—	Malaysia (links to Habbo Singapore)	habbo.com.my	July 2006	—
Austria (links to Habbo Switzerland)	habbo.at	May 2006	—	Mexico (links to Habbo Spain)	habbo.com.mx	July 2006	—
Belgium (links to Habbo Netherlands)	habbo.be	May 2006	—	Netherlands	habbo.nl	February 2004	—
Brazil	habbo.com.br	February 2006	—	New Zealand (links to Habbo Australia)	habbo.co.nz	August 2006	—
Canada	habbo.ca	June 2004	—	Norway	habbo.no	June 2004	—
Chile (links to Habbo Spain)	habbo.cl	July 2006	—	Philippines (links to Habbo Singapore)	habbo.com.ph	October 2008	—
China (Closed/Bankrupt)^[7])	habbo.cn	July 2006	August 24, 2007	Portugal	habbo.pt	March 2006	—
Colombia (links to Habbo Spain)	habbo.com.co	July 2006	—	Russia (links to Habbo UK)	habbo.ru	September 2007	February 6, 2009
Denmark	habbo.dk	December 2004	—	Singapore	habbo.com.sg	December 2004	—
Finland	habbo.fi	August 2000	—	Spain	habbo.es	September 2003	—
France	habbo.fr	November 2004	—	Sweden	habbo.se	December 2003	—
Germany	habbo.de	March 2004	—	Switzerland	habbo.ch	August 2001	—
Ireland (links to Habbo UK)	habbo.ie	July 2006	—	United Kingdom	habbo.co.uk	January 2001	—
Italy	habbo.it	September 2003	—	United States	habbo.com	September 2004	—
Japan (links to Habbo US)	habbo.jp	February 2003	April 16, 2009	Venezuela (links to Habbo Spain)	habbo.com.ve	July 2006	April 16, 2009
Peru (links to Habbo Spain)	habbo.com.pe	—	—	—	—	—	—
UK Habbo UK	habbo.co.uk	-	-	-	-