Jnike
04-03-2007, 08:37 PM
Habbo Hotel
Habbo Hotel is a virtual community (http://www.answers.com/topic/virtual-community), owned and operated by Sulake Corporation (http://www.answers.com/topic/sulake), that combines the two concepts of a chat room (http://www.answers.com/topic/chat-room) and an online game (http://www.answers.com/topic/online-game). The original conception of Habbo Hotel, Mobiles Disco, was created as a small project by two Finnish men: Sampo Karjalainen (http://www.answers.com/topic/sampo-karjalainen) and Aapo Kyrölä (http://www.answers.com/topic/sulake). It was intended to promote a rock band (http://www.answers.com/topic/rock-band-1) called Mobiles. The pair later sold their project to the Finnish telecoms giant Elisa Oyj (http://www.answers.com/topic/elisa-oyj).
The game is centered around Habbos, virtual representations of its members. Habbos can be dressed by each user individually using pre-supplied virtual clothing (http://www.answers.com/topic/clothing). Each character has a different name, and is identified solely by this name. The service's other focus point is virtual furni (http://www.answers.com/topic/furniture), which can be bought by Habbos using credits bought via a variety of methods, including SMS (http://www.answers.com/topic/short-message-service), home phone (http://www.answers.com/topic/phone), and money order (http://www.answers.com/topic/money-order). This furniture can also be traded between users.
The game also is centered around "The Habbo Way", which are the standards and rules which all Habbo users are expected to follow. Users are urged to report any breach of it.
The service began in 2000 and has expanded to 29 countries, the latest community opening in Russia. As of December 2006, over 60 million Habbos have been created worldwide.
http://content.answers.com/main/content/wp/en/d/d6/HabboAUGuestRoom.png (http://www.answers.com/topic/habboauguestroom-png)
IN THE HOTEL
http://content.answers.com/main/content/wp/en/thumb/d/d0/350px-Habbo.png (http://www.answers.com/topic/habbo-png)
To play Habbo Hotel, one must first create an avatar (http://www.answers.com/topic/avatar). The sign up process includes the selection of a desired Habbo Name and Mission (A brief description of the user, displayed underneath the Habbo's avatar). The newly registered Habbo now has the option to choose from a variety of clothing, shoes, hair and skin colour. Once the person is finished registering, he/she is transported to a screen known as hotel view. These options, and the mission option can all be modified at any time.
The chatrooms that make up each Hotel are large, computer-generated graphics that use isometric projection (http://www.answers.com/topic/isometric-view). There are two main types of rooms: Public Rooms and Guest Rooms. Public Rooms are rooms common to a normal hotel (http://www.answers.com/topic/hotel), including lobbies, a kitchen, pools, lounges and a theatre. The selection of public rooms differs from hotel to hotel. Guest Rooms are fully customisable rooms made by Habbos. The variety of customizations are endless; many examples include nightclubs, gaming rooms, trading rooms and even whole houses. There are templates for the size and shape of the rooms, which can be painted and filled with virtual furniture.
Habbos can send messages with each other via use of the Console. The console also allows them to keep track of who is and who isn't online. A Navigator allows Habbos to choose between a public or guest room. The navigator holds lists for a Habbo's own rooms and his/her list of favourite rooms, as well as a search feature enabling searches by room or the room owner's name.
Furniture for guest rooms can be purchased from the Catalogue. Catalogue items can either be purchased with credits or traded between Habbos. Credits must be purchased with real currency. Habbo Hotel offers various payment methods that differ between countries. The Catalogue contains a wide selection of items. Every so often, expensive, rare items are offered for sale in the catalogue for a short period of time. There are also seasonal items available at respective times throughout the year; for example, on Valentine's Day (http://www.answers.com/topic/st-valentine-s-day), Easter (http://www.answers.com/topic/easter), Halloween (http://www.answers.com/topic/halloween), Olympics (http://www.answers.com/topic/olympic-games) and Christmas (http://www.answers.com/topic/christmas).
Some Habbo Hotels remove certain part of the catalogue completely. The Canadian and American hotels have removed the bathroom section from the catalogue. Doing this has raised the value of these kinds of items.
Activities
http://content.answers.com/main/content/wp/en/thumb/d/db/220px-HabboHotelTradingBox.png (http://www.answers.com/topic/habbohoteltradingbox-png) http://content.answers.com/main/content/wp/style/images/magnify-clip.png (http://www.answers.com/topic/habbohoteltradingbox-png)
The safe trading dialog (http://www.answers.com/topic/dialogue)
Many Habbos engage in the collection of rare furniture. This furniture is originally sold in the Catalogue for a limited time (usually 1 week). However, this furniture can also be obtained by winning competitions, both official and those run by fansites (http://www.answers.com/topic/habbo-hotel#wp-Fansites). Habbos also attempt to collect as much furniture as they can, by way of trading with others. As demand increases or decreases, certain pieces of furniture increase or decrease in value, and this enables Habbos to profit from the sale of particular furniture at particular times.
Habbos also build virtual casinos (http://www.answers.com/topic/casinos) and bet their furniture there in efforts to win more furniture. Although these casinos are discouraged by hotel staff (http://www.answers.com/topic/habbo-hotel#wp-Office_staff)[1] (http://www.answers.com/topic/habbo-hotel#wp-_note-casinoUK) due to the potential for Habbos to be scammed, most hotels have not explicitly banned them and hence many Habbos engage in the practice anyway. Methods that a casino can scam a customer include providing vague rules and instructions (for instance, in Blackjack (http://www.answers.com/topic/blackjack), not specifying whether the house wins ties, or if there is a limit to how many "cards" one can draw), or by kicking customers out after they pay furniture to the house (but before they receive payout). The casinos operate by way of virtual dice (http://www.answers.com/topic/dice) furniture, with a modified version of blackjack (http://www.answers.com/topic/blackjack) being the most common type of game played. The names of the games done by the virtual dice in the hotel are called "13", "21" and "BTW" (Beat the Dealer).
Some Habbo fansites also produce lists of rares known as rare values, which are used by some Habbos to gauge the supply and demand (http://www.answers.com/topic/supply-and-demand) and hence value (http://www.answers.com/topic/value-theory) of each individual rare.
Games in Habbo Hotel are typically games of skill and chance. Since most games in the hotel offer prizes such as virtual furniture, they tend to attract many people who unwilling, or are unable to pay for furniture in real currency. Most of these games are legitimate and fairly operated, while others are run by scammers with ulterior motives. Unoffical games, also inculde roleplaying with Star Wars Roleplaying (http://www.answers.com/topic/swrp) being the most thriving roleplay on most Hotels.
Habbo Hotel's moderation is covered by paid moderator staff. Moderators are police vetted Sulake employees who work from home. Office staff (http://www.answers.com/topic/habbo-hotel#wp-Office_staff) moderate the hotel during local office hours, and are relieved by moderator staff outside these times. Moderators will always have the prefix "MOD-" in their account name and have a Habbo Staff badge.
Moderators utilise in-game commands as well as a separate web based tool known as Housekeeping. These tools allow moderator staff to send messages to Habbos in the hotel, which appear as in-game popups. These prove to be effective in preventing minor infringments of the Habbo Way, the guidelines that govern the community. As well as this ability, moderator staff can also kick Habbos from any room, mute them (prevent them from talking), and ban them from the hotel entirely. Bans are placed on individual Habbo accounts, however, many more serious offences are punished by a Macromedia Shockwave (http://www.answers.com/topic/adobe-shockwave) ID or IP address (http://www.answers.com/topic/ip-address) ban.
The only exception to the above was for Hobbas on the US Habbo Hotel (www.habbo.com). Hobbas on the US hotel were primarily hotel guides (not apart of the moderation team in any way) with limited commands: alert, mute, unmute and startlog with no access to Housekeeping. Hobbas on this hotel had to be 13 years of age or older; 13 being the minimum age for anyone to join Habbo.com, and the system was set up for Habbos of all ages to get a chance at being a Hobba. After a period of time, Hobba tools were removed. Shortly afterwards, the entire Hobba system was removed from Habbo Hotel USA. Hobbas from the US hotel did not receive a Hobba Memorial badge.
Due to staff concerns, the Hobba system was removed permanently, worldwide on December 31 (http://www.answers.com/topic/december-31-1), 2005 (http://www.answers.com/topic/2005). All Hobbas and ex-Hobbas were given a special Hobba Memorial badge in memory of their services to the hotel. The Hobba Memorial badge provides basic Habbo Club (just Habbo Club clothes - no rares, dances or other HC features) and immunity of being kicked from rooms.
Habbo eXperts
Habbo X's (short for eXperts) make friends with new players, chat with them, and show them the ropes. X's will mainly hang about in the Welcome Lounge, but occasionally you will see them in other Public Rooms. Habbo X's will introduce the Habbo Way and help make a new Habbos first visit to the Hotel safe and fun.
Habbo X's are completely different from Hobbas and Moderators. Habbo X's meet and greet new users and introduce them to the Hotel, answer questions, show them how things work, etc... They don’t have tools, (other than the badge) and they don’t moderate the Hotel. Think of Habbo X's as a gracious host and a good-will ambassador - Habbos who are there to take care of the newest Habbo visitors.
The Info Bus
http://content.answers.com/main/content/wp/en/thumb/2/21/300px-Info_bus.jpg http://content.answers.com/main/content/wp/style/images/magnify-clip.png
The Info Bus.
As a website filled with teenagers it is important to teach internet safety, they do so by using the Info Bus. The info bus is a virtual bus parked in one of the Public Rooms in the hotel. Through a schedule the bus doors open and the Habbos that are in the room at the times are allowed in. Inside the bus a representative from an organization will teach the Habbos about online safety and other topics depending on where the representative is from. Some organizations that run the Info Bus are Unicef (http://www.answers.com/topic/unicef), Red Cross (http://www.answers.com/topic/red-cross), Ontario Provincial Police (http://www.answers.com/topic/ontario-provincial-police) and the FRANK anti-drug group
I Hope This Suits Your Needs And Explains All
Habbo Hotel is a virtual community (http://www.answers.com/topic/virtual-community), owned and operated by Sulake Corporation (http://www.answers.com/topic/sulake), that combines the two concepts of a chat room (http://www.answers.com/topic/chat-room) and an online game (http://www.answers.com/topic/online-game). The original conception of Habbo Hotel, Mobiles Disco, was created as a small project by two Finnish men: Sampo Karjalainen (http://www.answers.com/topic/sampo-karjalainen) and Aapo Kyrölä (http://www.answers.com/topic/sulake). It was intended to promote a rock band (http://www.answers.com/topic/rock-band-1) called Mobiles. The pair later sold their project to the Finnish telecoms giant Elisa Oyj (http://www.answers.com/topic/elisa-oyj).
The game is centered around Habbos, virtual representations of its members. Habbos can be dressed by each user individually using pre-supplied virtual clothing (http://www.answers.com/topic/clothing). Each character has a different name, and is identified solely by this name. The service's other focus point is virtual furni (http://www.answers.com/topic/furniture), which can be bought by Habbos using credits bought via a variety of methods, including SMS (http://www.answers.com/topic/short-message-service), home phone (http://www.answers.com/topic/phone), and money order (http://www.answers.com/topic/money-order). This furniture can also be traded between users.
The game also is centered around "The Habbo Way", which are the standards and rules which all Habbo users are expected to follow. Users are urged to report any breach of it.
The service began in 2000 and has expanded to 29 countries, the latest community opening in Russia. As of December 2006, over 60 million Habbos have been created worldwide.
http://content.answers.com/main/content/wp/en/d/d6/HabboAUGuestRoom.png (http://www.answers.com/topic/habboauguestroom-png)
IN THE HOTEL
http://content.answers.com/main/content/wp/en/thumb/d/d0/350px-Habbo.png (http://www.answers.com/topic/habbo-png)
To play Habbo Hotel, one must first create an avatar (http://www.answers.com/topic/avatar). The sign up process includes the selection of a desired Habbo Name and Mission (A brief description of the user, displayed underneath the Habbo's avatar). The newly registered Habbo now has the option to choose from a variety of clothing, shoes, hair and skin colour. Once the person is finished registering, he/she is transported to a screen known as hotel view. These options, and the mission option can all be modified at any time.
The chatrooms that make up each Hotel are large, computer-generated graphics that use isometric projection (http://www.answers.com/topic/isometric-view). There are two main types of rooms: Public Rooms and Guest Rooms. Public Rooms are rooms common to a normal hotel (http://www.answers.com/topic/hotel), including lobbies, a kitchen, pools, lounges and a theatre. The selection of public rooms differs from hotel to hotel. Guest Rooms are fully customisable rooms made by Habbos. The variety of customizations are endless; many examples include nightclubs, gaming rooms, trading rooms and even whole houses. There are templates for the size and shape of the rooms, which can be painted and filled with virtual furniture.
Habbos can send messages with each other via use of the Console. The console also allows them to keep track of who is and who isn't online. A Navigator allows Habbos to choose between a public or guest room. The navigator holds lists for a Habbo's own rooms and his/her list of favourite rooms, as well as a search feature enabling searches by room or the room owner's name.
Furniture for guest rooms can be purchased from the Catalogue. Catalogue items can either be purchased with credits or traded between Habbos. Credits must be purchased with real currency. Habbo Hotel offers various payment methods that differ between countries. The Catalogue contains a wide selection of items. Every so often, expensive, rare items are offered for sale in the catalogue for a short period of time. There are also seasonal items available at respective times throughout the year; for example, on Valentine's Day (http://www.answers.com/topic/st-valentine-s-day), Easter (http://www.answers.com/topic/easter), Halloween (http://www.answers.com/topic/halloween), Olympics (http://www.answers.com/topic/olympic-games) and Christmas (http://www.answers.com/topic/christmas).
Some Habbo Hotels remove certain part of the catalogue completely. The Canadian and American hotels have removed the bathroom section from the catalogue. Doing this has raised the value of these kinds of items.
Activities
http://content.answers.com/main/content/wp/en/thumb/d/db/220px-HabboHotelTradingBox.png (http://www.answers.com/topic/habbohoteltradingbox-png) http://content.answers.com/main/content/wp/style/images/magnify-clip.png (http://www.answers.com/topic/habbohoteltradingbox-png)
The safe trading dialog (http://www.answers.com/topic/dialogue)
Many Habbos engage in the collection of rare furniture. This furniture is originally sold in the Catalogue for a limited time (usually 1 week). However, this furniture can also be obtained by winning competitions, both official and those run by fansites (http://www.answers.com/topic/habbo-hotel#wp-Fansites). Habbos also attempt to collect as much furniture as they can, by way of trading with others. As demand increases or decreases, certain pieces of furniture increase or decrease in value, and this enables Habbos to profit from the sale of particular furniture at particular times.
Habbos also build virtual casinos (http://www.answers.com/topic/casinos) and bet their furniture there in efforts to win more furniture. Although these casinos are discouraged by hotel staff (http://www.answers.com/topic/habbo-hotel#wp-Office_staff)[1] (http://www.answers.com/topic/habbo-hotel#wp-_note-casinoUK) due to the potential for Habbos to be scammed, most hotels have not explicitly banned them and hence many Habbos engage in the practice anyway. Methods that a casino can scam a customer include providing vague rules and instructions (for instance, in Blackjack (http://www.answers.com/topic/blackjack), not specifying whether the house wins ties, or if there is a limit to how many "cards" one can draw), or by kicking customers out after they pay furniture to the house (but before they receive payout). The casinos operate by way of virtual dice (http://www.answers.com/topic/dice) furniture, with a modified version of blackjack (http://www.answers.com/topic/blackjack) being the most common type of game played. The names of the games done by the virtual dice in the hotel are called "13", "21" and "BTW" (Beat the Dealer).
Some Habbo fansites also produce lists of rares known as rare values, which are used by some Habbos to gauge the supply and demand (http://www.answers.com/topic/supply-and-demand) and hence value (http://www.answers.com/topic/value-theory) of each individual rare.
Games in Habbo Hotel are typically games of skill and chance. Since most games in the hotel offer prizes such as virtual furniture, they tend to attract many people who unwilling, or are unable to pay for furniture in real currency. Most of these games are legitimate and fairly operated, while others are run by scammers with ulterior motives. Unoffical games, also inculde roleplaying with Star Wars Roleplaying (http://www.answers.com/topic/swrp) being the most thriving roleplay on most Hotels.
Habbo Hotel's moderation is covered by paid moderator staff. Moderators are police vetted Sulake employees who work from home. Office staff (http://www.answers.com/topic/habbo-hotel#wp-Office_staff) moderate the hotel during local office hours, and are relieved by moderator staff outside these times. Moderators will always have the prefix "MOD-" in their account name and have a Habbo Staff badge.
Moderators utilise in-game commands as well as a separate web based tool known as Housekeeping. These tools allow moderator staff to send messages to Habbos in the hotel, which appear as in-game popups. These prove to be effective in preventing minor infringments of the Habbo Way, the guidelines that govern the community. As well as this ability, moderator staff can also kick Habbos from any room, mute them (prevent them from talking), and ban them from the hotel entirely. Bans are placed on individual Habbo accounts, however, many more serious offences are punished by a Macromedia Shockwave (http://www.answers.com/topic/adobe-shockwave) ID or IP address (http://www.answers.com/topic/ip-address) ban.
The only exception to the above was for Hobbas on the US Habbo Hotel (www.habbo.com). Hobbas on the US hotel were primarily hotel guides (not apart of the moderation team in any way) with limited commands: alert, mute, unmute and startlog with no access to Housekeeping. Hobbas on this hotel had to be 13 years of age or older; 13 being the minimum age for anyone to join Habbo.com, and the system was set up for Habbos of all ages to get a chance at being a Hobba. After a period of time, Hobba tools were removed. Shortly afterwards, the entire Hobba system was removed from Habbo Hotel USA. Hobbas from the US hotel did not receive a Hobba Memorial badge.
Due to staff concerns, the Hobba system was removed permanently, worldwide on December 31 (http://www.answers.com/topic/december-31-1), 2005 (http://www.answers.com/topic/2005). All Hobbas and ex-Hobbas were given a special Hobba Memorial badge in memory of their services to the hotel. The Hobba Memorial badge provides basic Habbo Club (just Habbo Club clothes - no rares, dances or other HC features) and immunity of being kicked from rooms.
Habbo eXperts
Habbo X's (short for eXperts) make friends with new players, chat with them, and show them the ropes. X's will mainly hang about in the Welcome Lounge, but occasionally you will see them in other Public Rooms. Habbo X's will introduce the Habbo Way and help make a new Habbos first visit to the Hotel safe and fun.
Habbo X's are completely different from Hobbas and Moderators. Habbo X's meet and greet new users and introduce them to the Hotel, answer questions, show them how things work, etc... They don’t have tools, (other than the badge) and they don’t moderate the Hotel. Think of Habbo X's as a gracious host and a good-will ambassador - Habbos who are there to take care of the newest Habbo visitors.
The Info Bus
http://content.answers.com/main/content/wp/en/thumb/2/21/300px-Info_bus.jpg http://content.answers.com/main/content/wp/style/images/magnify-clip.png
The Info Bus.
As a website filled with teenagers it is important to teach internet safety, they do so by using the Info Bus. The info bus is a virtual bus parked in one of the Public Rooms in the hotel. Through a schedule the bus doors open and the Habbos that are in the room at the times are allowed in. Inside the bus a representative from an organization will teach the Habbos about online safety and other topics depending on where the representative is from. Some organizations that run the Info Bus are Unicef (http://www.answers.com/topic/unicef), Red Cross (http://www.answers.com/topic/red-cross), Ontario Provincial Police (http://www.answers.com/topic/ontario-provincial-police) and the FRANK anti-drug group
I Hope This Suits Your Needs And Explains All