Habbo is slowly beginning to die out ~ Discuss

[Hecktix]

I think it's pretty safe to say that Habbo's peak was a good few years ago when Habbo UK and USA were both thriving and extremely busy - you could see this in the way they went about their business, competition prizes were better, there were double credits offers nearly every other weekend and they could employ user friendly staff who would liaise well with Habbos.

Now, you've got credit prices going up (yes I know they lowered them for the homephone but most users will buy via text, which is 25 for £3), the exchange rate for the Habbo Exchange is pretty ridiculous although in my opinion the Habbo Exchange was very bad for their business and they should have predicted it in the first place. You've got prices of things slowly increasing in the catalogue, competition prizes often decreasing to be just a mere badge and generally a lack of competitions. What's more the prices on the market place are quite unnecessary too.

The merge was obviously also a sign of financial weakness, merging five hotels together, very drastic in my opinion and it's caused an awful lot of trouble.

What do you think? Is Habbo slowly dying out?

[Mathew]

Nice to see a non-political debate! I'm still quite sure -:undertaker:- will be along shortly :P

I do agree that Habbo is beginning to die out. The merge was the biggest sign of that - it meant they could simply lay off loads of staff members and get the job done just as effectively. They tried to cover it up by saying we can "meet lots of new people", but I daresay the majority of people understood the real reason why. Habbo have simply given people false hopes lately and the standard they once had simply isn't there anymore.

Many of the older players from 2005 onwards when Habbo was arguably the busiest have now moved on and a new generation of people is slowly moving in - sadly, with a different set of opinions on things.

I wonder where Habbo will be in a couple of years time. Looking forward to their end-of-year profit report.

[Tintinnabulate]

They were idiotic to change Habbo's design. It was nice and simple and they went OTT and make it complicated. It was a nice and simple layout before hand. Secondly, they are complete morons for creating battleball and snowstorm which was extremely popular and meant those who didn't play habbo (as in left) came on to play bb and ss, however they failed to bring it back after BETA. Very stupid decision.

[Mycelium]

Although, Habbo.es seems like it is thriving. There is often 25k people online. Lowest i i have seen for that hotel is probably 9000. They also have a lot more advert furni such as the cheetos machine.

[Special]

i'd say it is

1) they arn't considering other peoples views, they just go along with it anyway - updates etc
2) they arn't loyal to their older member (2001-2004)
3) the security is shocking making people leave when they get hacked etc (i know half of the time it isn't habbo - phishers etc - but sometimes it is; for example getting a reset password via the help tool - like my case - where users can give infomation on the user - sometimes fake info - & get their password that way

aswell as this, credits seem to be costing more & more which will have an impact - people buy less credits which in turn makes them poorer/bored which eventually leads to their departure of the game

[Mathew]

They were idiotic to change Habbo's design. It was nice and simple and they went OTT and make it complicated. It was a nice and simple layout before hand. Secondly, they are complete morons for creating battleball and snowstorm which was extremely popular and meant those who didn't play habbo (as in left) came on to play bb and ss, however they failed to bring it back after BETA. Very stupid decision.
You think Habbo started failing when the "BETA" came around then? I probably somewhat agree with you. Habbo was so much nicer back in the old days (before the times of the IM system, events, etc). Now they are simply trying to accomodate too many people and some features end up being forgotten about :rolleyes:

I do think if Battleball came back, it would attract some people - I know I'd spend more time playing that game and I'm pretty sure many people here would too.


3) the security is shocking making people leave when they get hacked etc (i know half of the time it isn't habbo - phishers etc - but sometimes it is; for example getting a reset password via the help tool - like my case - where users can give infomation on the user - sometimes fake info - & get their password that way
Would be interesting to know how quick the help tool is these days. I felt back when Ludus was on the help tool, a lot of the responses were very personal, quick and got the job done (sometimes!). Now, I think it's going back to the dead end tool.

While Ludus made loads of mistakes, he was actually a very good hotel manager in my eyes. He did lots of competitions and released lots of furniture, all of which people like. Yeah, he was pretty unprofessional about it (those pathetic hotel alerts) but his job was to get people to spend credits - and that's exactly what people did. I think Ludus is going to be another Callie. Everyone hated her when she was HM, but 5 years on, everyone seems to love her.. :rolleyes:

[Inseriousity.]

No it's not dying out, you're just getting older and looking back on the "good ol' days". Discuss. (33 marks).

[Moh]

It's all these CRAP prizes they keep giving out.

It was much better when they used to give decent rares and supers out as prizes (Funky Friday ftw!).

Now you just get crappy norms - not even worth creating a room.

[Nixt]

To be fair I think from a financial perspective Habbo (Sulake) are performing very well. I remember reading a recent article that suggested Habbo had gained Sulake massive profits as a whole in the first quarter of this year and the merge was a move to increase profit and financial gain. Don't get me wrong the older generation think Habbo has lowered it's quality but,
a) We still use it!
b) We've grown up and are "stuck in our ways" so we disapprove of these changes.

Whereas the newer generation love Habbo in the same way we did when we were all noobs.

I don't think the merge marks the beginning of the end in the slightest, rather it is the beginning of a new era for Habbo and Sulake that will see them progress financially even more than they have already.

[Alex3213]

I agree with Garion a lot. Just because we're getting older we don't applaud the changes which happen to Habbo, because it's target audience is at the young teens rather than the older ones. Just like Garion said, we still use it and so do many other people who have used it for years and people leave and come all the time, it's natural, if everyone stayed then that would just be pretty darn amazing. OK, so there are less people online than there used to be but tbh it doesn't matter as there is still a lot of people on, Just like Runescape lost a lot of members online at once in a year. The merge is a time for Habbo to change and for different things to happen, but I think the competitions aren't exactly 'exceptional'.

[-Danube-]

I think it's because we are getting older, Habbo is getting younger. Not much interest in it anymore.

Habbo have taken their customers away from Habbo, charging too much and not taking into account customer input very much, they try to make it look like they do, but the don't/ They don't care when you report some one, they either ban them regardless or just don't care.

Although i think it's getting better with the merge, loads more competitions, but kinda crap prizes. In years gone by i'd get excited when they would do competitions that would giveaway furni no one else would ever have. They nearly did it this time, with the world cup trophies. But then they released them for 6C :S

It seems more about the money now.

[befas]

Yeah, i think its because we're getting older and when we were younger it was better. I also think its because alot of things on habbo have changed ... eg) the habbo games have gone :( and you can't drop-trade any more. So i think there has been to much change :/

[-complex-]

They also need to quit leaving furni in the catalogue, let them become seasonals/rares like the old days. That way they're in more demand however I don't think they care about what the players want now. Prizes used to be unique supers now it's more like here is a rubber duck and an awful badge don't have too much fun with this fantastic gift... The incentives are starting to fade away.
It's like they just did with the big wave furni i bought quite a bit of it thinking it would go out of the catalogue then increase in price.

'We're kick starting our summer-inspired festivities with something hot, hot, hot! Get sunstroke over the brand new Big Wave Furni now available from the Catalog! There are Inflatable items for your pool, Lifeguard Towers, Beach Balls, Changing Rooms and Water Patches that you can swim in (I know, right!)
Don't tread water on this one Habbos - these items are only available until Monday July 26th.'

And then the staff decide oh wait we can still make loads on this and they keep it in the catalogue...

I'm still sure that one day they'll send a new batch of thrones out in the catalogue as a rare and release the army green plasto chair...
Just because it would be 'good business' May increase profits but loses respect from the user =/

[dbgtz]

I think it's how they cheat everyone out of everything pretty much, so the credit prices for example but that's not exactly what I mean.

Tickets - became pretty much useless and I can't remember if we got compensation? If we did I got very little for my 900 tickets :l
Camera - The disuse of this pissed me off, little compensation for film and the cameras.
Photos - the loss of freaking photos, who actually cares about scripted photos? And besides they could have easily copied some images over. I must have spent alot on those aswell with no compensation.
The merge - supers went down completely, my x gift was worthless both sentimentally (as it is now blue sleeping bag) and just in value with again, crappy compensation. I don't even mean in the way to other supers but like all the UK ones have is the trophy and badge.
Keeping things in the catalogue - some things i bought to like sell on in future but now its there constantly its not gonna get me anything.
Groups/homes - ok they technically havnt done this yet but we have the inability to use them atm. Well we can use homes but half of our stickers are missing.

I also think how noobs win pretty much everything. I mean look at that wtfriday thing, why are crappy questions like "whats your favourite colour" being answered, I want answers to groups. In terms of competitions, they take things to extremes. When we said "have a variety of winners" that didn't mean let crap people win, it meant let people who done better then the norm win, it meant actually judge competitions.

Also alot of competitions are boring and the same as any other competition, like quest "find the answer - win a badge" woopdedoo.

Oh and oversaturation is another thing, too many badges and stuff.

[-complex-]

I think it's how they cheat everyone out of everything pretty much, so the credit prices for example but that's not exactly what I mean.

Tickets - became pretty much useless and I can't remember if we got compensation? If we did I got very little for my 900 tickets :l
Camera - The disuse of this pissed me off, little compensation for film and the cameras.
Photos - the loss of freaking photos, who actually cares about scripted photos? And besides they could have easily copied some images over. I must have spent alot on those aswell with no compensation.
The merge - supers went down completely, my x gift was worthless both sentimentally (as it is now blue sleeping bag) and just in value with again, crappy compensation. I don't even mean in the way to other supers but like all the UK ones have is the trophy and badge.
Keeping things in the catalogue - some things i bought to like sell on in future but now its there constantly its not gonna get me anything.
Groups/homes - ok they technically havnt done this yet but we have the inability to use them atm. Well we can use homes but half of our stickers are missing.

I also think how noobs win pretty much everything. I mean look at that wtfriday thing, why are crappy questions like "whats your favourite colour" being answered, I want answers to groups. In terms of competitions, they take things to extremes. When we said "have a variety of winners" that didn't mean let crap people win, it meant let people who done better then the norm win, it meant actually judge competitions.

Also alot of competitions are boring and the same as any other competition, like quest "find the answer - win a badge" woopdedoo.

Oh and oversaturation is another thing, too many badges and stuff.

Completely agree with everything above. Although I wasn't a Habbo X :)

[Kyle]

Tbh they're doing really well aside from the fact there are god knows how many site producers and only a certain amount of articles per week. There's also the fact that they are keeping .com USA based around the site with the forums being in US time, etc.

[Catzsy]

They seem to be doing pretty well on the furni side etc but they are not interested in getting rid of scammers or take the report abuse tool seriously anymore.

[tm]

To look just at the number of people online, the merge has been pretty unsuccessful. There's far fewer people online at any one time than just the old UK or US hotels now. But Sulake have saved a lot of money by condensing it down to one client though and it has improved their financial situation.

Just from my personal viewpoint, there seems to be less interaction in rooms these days. I don't know if it's because people are confused about Habbo not being a game and just being a chatroom and don't quite understand what there is to do. There's also a huge amount of 'dating' rooms (a term I dislike greatly) that would have been shut down on previous hotels for encouraging cyber. The majority of normal Habbos don't like this and are put off by them.

People don't know what to do on Habbo any more. Previously people would have had an objective on Habbo.

Examples:
- become rich. 'rich' Habbos now are far richer and common than ever and people starting out can not even dream of matching their wealth.
- become famous. with 5 separate groups of Habbo users all using the hotel at different times, it's pretty impossible to become properly well known any more.
- attain a help rank. habbo experts, high-ranked guides etc. were something many users aspired to be and worked towards becoming. in addition, many of them created help center rooms etc in order to try to attain these ranks, rooms which were hubs of discussion and activity. without x's/guides nobody is doing this any more.
- fansite stuff. with the ban on advertising non-official fansites in-game, new ones are struggling to take a market share and the existing fansites seem too large for people to aspire to work for.
- be trolls and hassle popular/rich/helpers/fansitestaff. with the lack of popular habbos, so many rich habbos that it's not a novelty any more, no 'helpers' and all-powerful but relatively few and generally publicly unknown fansite staff; even the trolls are struggling for things to do!

[Frisky]

Basically....

Bring back old features & remove Habbo ID.

[Yupt]

I think that they introduced things that just weren't needed, some things worked out and we liked them, others we hate and its too late to remove them now.
Habbo tried to modernise its self too much, and I just don't think it needed it.

Going back to the known arguement; why fix something that isn't broken?

[Superior]

I lost interest because I no longer trusted it, I spent £100 on thrones (£10 each so 10T) and gambled my way up, the odds were against me but I did it. Then when I was around 30T from investing/gambling I made my own casino that had a fantastic life span of about a month, was always at the top of the trading category. I was selling rights for 20hc/30hcs and was taking T bets. By the time my casino started to die out I was already at around 60T, this amount was helped reached by betting 10T to vintus which I won. At 60T I sold everything for T's so I actually had 60 thrones and then started to sell them, mainly to the people that had bought rights in my casino or known I was "safe" after paying them out T bets. After selling it all which took 2 weeks I left Habbo. I came back and bought another 10T for £100 from the same guy, I tried working my way up again but it just didn't work, I was down to just 3T and just went all in with the guy I had originally bought them off, I won and was back to 6t which was to my relief. After that I used my rep to deal in popular casinos and did many 2 ways and took the odd T bet, I was back up to 20T in no time. Logged into Habbo - password is wrong, tried again - password was wrong. Logged in on another account and there someone was logged in on my account, my room was locked and it was pretty obvious what he was doing, transferring my stuff over to his account. But that was it for me, I kept my PC the safest ever and double checked the login window every time, never downloaded anything unofficial or anything it just didn't add up. So yeh that's how I ended up leaving habbo.

[Michael]

Basically theres so much to be done, I dont think they know where to start, but wait... they have to push it ALL to aside and instead, and push money to the front.

See here: Runescape who listens to their members has: 165,573 members online, whereas habbo still is struggling to reach 11,000. I remember in the old days where Habbo UK got to 13,000, it was so cared for then. Now its just about money. But the weird thing is, Habbo.es has 22,000+ people on it so they must be doing something right.

[Hayleigh]

I don't think habbo has become worse due to these large changes . I agree that the credit prices are way to high now. Nut also i miss the small features that made habbo habbo , the hand inventory the annual events the FREE furni and not just badge all these little things add up. Ps i hate the merge

[Gibs960]

I think the whole idea of habbo is old now... there are far more chatroom sites, such as IMVU & a lot more. I just cba with it anymore because every room that I make never gets popular, on the old habbo design (before beta) people used to look on Events, now hardly anyone does, it's all about the popular rooms... I made a room about 8 months ago and it was really popular after about 10 minutes, now my rooms don't ever get visited :( And the credits going up has really pissed me off. I couldn't really afford £3 for 35 credits, now you hardly get any credits, especially after you buy HC or VIP... The merge gets on my nerves too, because most rooms you go in everyone is like "Americans are better than Australians! HAHA!"

I think they should bring back the free 5 credits every holiday or when ever, then people who were new would spend the credits and want more... I just don't see the point of habbo anymore, I might delete my account and give away my furni :D HAHA

[Arron]

the future is all about change.

[OhLiam]

Habbo is dying and they are doing everything to save it. Yet their constant lies and treatment of their users is so wrong, I no longer want to be apart of their community due to the fact of the merge.


If you are a player who has merged in from the sites for Australia, Singapore, Canada or the UK you'll have noticed your Groups and minimails have not followed you. Don't worry, they will be reinstated by the end of JuneJust one of their many lies.

[Floreat]

As mentioned many times, I think the novelty has worn off. When I began (I would say 2007) there was a novelty of owning even small rooms. I enjoyed exploring and having jobs and soforth. Still, it wasn't long before I got bored and started new things. Reality had struck me, and from there, I was no longer the noob I enjoyed to be without knowing. Now we notice everything that goes on, just because we're more experienced. The newer players still love it. We look down on it but our generation of players is beginning to have its time. Eventually, we will stop playing and the new players now will mature. It's a cycle which comes to an end once reality strikes us and we realise how commercial and unfair Habbo is.

[abdellah123]

Simple answer to all of this; We are getting older and going to play OTHER games then Habbo.
To be honest, i used to play habbo from when i was 11 to around 16 then i left for another game..because i have seen all of it on habbo and it was getting very old for me..so i decided to leave it.

Also the fact that the Staff continiously keep on changing layouts and the game it self, which is super annoying :/
Sulake keeps on screwing up more after every change they make

[Lew]

Beta just killed it.. The merge spat on its grave.
Im only 13, yet im already considering leaving habbo, is BORING.
They need to start listening to their members and take drastic action before its too late

[abdellah123]

Well i think it's the opposite...habbo hotel is apparently growing and growing in member count
I doubt it is Unique account per IP

[immense]

no it's not beginning to die

[qaxzsw]

I'm 14, I've played habbo on & off since I was 8, so 6 years, I joined in 2004. Most of the users were newbies (the nice word for them) in 2004, (I was one of them), and there wasn't this, OMG, NORM, GET AWAY FROM ME attitude. Now people who buy VIP think their superior (not all, just zeds and such). This is Habbos fault, since they don't really actively involve 'noobs', and only care if you spend loads of money on Habbo. I agree with alot that has already been said, like that you used to have aims on habbo, (e.g become rich, get famous etc.) Now its so much harder for this to be achieved, thus leading to people leaving, because other than that, what is there to do? Go to dating rooms or play falling furni. There is now no such things as help desks (I havn't seen a decent one for years), which is a horrible shame. I remember when I worked in a hobba helpdesk, thus helping newbies feel part of the community. Now, all there is is a simple guidebot which you need to know habbo terms first (e.g ff) to get help from, and if your new, you're not gonna know!

I don't think habbos gonna die, but I think they're not gonna be getting any more significant numbers. They will probably end up staying on the same sort of level. Older habbos are leaving, with newer habbos coming in, but there are more leaving than new.

[HotelUser]

no it's not beginning to die

In comparison to how popular it was when we would have started you're right, it's still more popular than that. As to whether or not it's slowly dying out I'm not sure if that's true, either. I'm sure the majority of users here suspect it's so because Sulake's plans to expand have minimized along with the merge, and fansites for whatever reason aren't as popular as they once were in general. That could change, though :)

[Santorefish]

I agree ALOT. Also i do think its because we were around when it was so much easier and simpler. Its a tricky thing to discuss really.

I do agree its down to money alot these days, and not the satifaction of the customer. The big wave furni was a great idea until they left it in the catalogue, along with the japanese furni and the neon furni. I also think bringing the football trophy out was a silly mistake.

But I have a cunning plan, everyone do the 'contact us' thing to and go to ideas and suggestions and REDIRECT THEM TO THIS THREAD.

[GommeInc]

It is a random mess, in every aspect.

Community - dead, and chucked in a grave and submerged in only half the dirt they dug out.
Features - Chucked into the game yet using them is quite difficult or they're hidden away in really stupid areas, like the badge settings should really be in the appearance settings.
Furni - A random mix since they've merged everything. Some items have been deleted, some items are nameless and only use their placement names, and some are a bit ugly and pointless.
HC/VIP - God knows why they need two, HC was perfectly fine. If anything they could of done something with Gold HC to allow VIP-like powers. Heck, weren't special guests VIPs? Kinda ruins the point :P

Sooner Habbo dies the better. Might do Habbox some good. If Kazopark goes well, maybe Hx can go with them? :P

EDIT: At the moment there are 10,000 users online... Habbo UK on it's own used to manage that at this time of year, so the merge seems to suggest a drop if anything :/ And seeing as US users are on their holidays too and it would be around noon over there, it's kinda interesting :P

[MaggieHABBO]

i think it's mainly due to the merge and everyone just getting fed up of it tbh.Me, neva prob get fed up of habbo :)

[Josh]

They are distancing themselves further and further away from us, but does that mean they are dying out? The merge was probably just a tactic to increase their profit margin.

However, if they continue with the customer support levels they have at the moment, I am sure they will die out very quickly. Some of the competitions they are doing right now, require you to spend some 500 credits to make the room looking really nice and then you get a special badge (that 29 others get) and a 2hc prize. They need to stop thinking we're youngings who wants recognition on the homepage every single time a competition comes out.

They really need to get their act together or they will start to die out.

[Santorefish]

Just like with Capri sun, they want US to go and spend the money for a badge where people gave the codes out for free anyway

[Ajthedragon]

Yeah, there doesn't seem to be as many young users as when I was started, and older players leave... I guess its down to the terrible reputation it has now for being so un-player friendly. And I always thought when they brought out new, unnecessary features that kind of ruined it a bit.

[Suspective]

Habbo do actually look at fansite forums - well... thats was ludus said!

I don't think Habbo is that exciting after a while, I used to be a user who played 24/7! Now I hardly log in. I haven't logged in for two months or so. When I do log in its either to attend a fansite function or to catch up with friends in a somewhat more exciting online environment.

Habbo has turned into a money-making place. I am fully aware, that Sulake are a business, obviously they want to and need to make money. But it never used to be this tight. They cannot even afford to give out a decent prize. You need to spend some money, to make money. Habbo isn't as good as it was. The community cannot even get that involved, it was more fun where their was Hobbas and eXperts. It gave you something to login for - the 'chance to be an eXpert' and it showed that the community were at the center of the online world. Also slightly OF; (I thought ludus was good for Habbo!)

[Bryan-Tah]

I think it will die when it is filled with people who play club penguin and dragon quest. LMAO.

[N-Dubz]

habbo was ruined as soon as the console was - wasn't this like mid 2008?! idk. i cant even remember, all i know is habbo screwed itself up as soon as they let new designs and updates take over the site.

if it aint broke, don't fix it. sulake shoulda listened to this piece of advice!

[Rigr]

Many people leave because of habbo's stupid mistakes (like pointless updates, wrong bannings etc.) and then sulake wonders why people leave.

I miss the big hand and getting good deals for my HCs :(

[Slowpoke]

I'd kill for a Habbo classic with the original client but I highly doubt it'll ever happen.

[Grimmauld]

id kill for cokemusic too ;p

[Muct]

id kill for cokemusic too ;p

What's cokemusic? :S

[Thomas]

i think its a game like habbo which closed ;)

[AgnesIO]

i'd say it is

1) they arn't considering other peoples views, they just go along with it anyway - updates etc
2) they arn't loyal to their older member (2001-2004)
3) the security is shocking making people leave when they get hacked etc (i know half of the time it isn't habbo - phishers etc - but sometimes it is; for example getting a reset password via the help tool - like my case - where users can give infomation on the user - sometimes fake info - & get their password that way

aswell as this, credits seem to be costing more & more which will have an impact - people buy less credits which in turn makes them poorer/bored which eventually leads to their departure of the game

To be fair it sounds like you gave too much information away - you cannot just go on to the help tool and say 'yeh I am pabble, change my pass'

---

I think BETA was an obvious sign they were struggling, the merge was another sign.

---

I just though; wouldn't it be funny if they removed the exchange and put all the credit's in people's purses. Venial would have thousands which he pretty much couldn't use :D

[Josh]

Why do people say they are struggling?


Helsinki, Finland – May 20, 2010 - Sulake Corporation, the parent company of Habbo Hotel, the world's largest virtual community and hotel for teenagers, today announced its best quarterly financial results in the company’s history. Between January and March 2010, Sulake’s revenue increased more than 25 percent compared with the same period last year, resulting in sales of $20 million (€14.7 million). The strong revenue growth, combined with operating model improvements and cost savings in the final quarter of 2009, has also led to a significant increase in the company’s profits. Sulake’s EBITDA in Q1/10 totaled $3 million (€2.3 million, 15 percent of revenue).

They just wanted more money, so they cut proper moderators and try to "fix" the hotel for more profit.



combined with operating model improvements and cost savings

Lol. Cost savings at the user's expense.

[AgnesIO]

Why do people dislike it when habbo do things to make themselves more money?

Because I tell you now, if I ran Sulake I would aim to get every single penny I could get out of the little kids.

[KebabJuice]

i tried coke music but got bored of it. it was okay but i only remember this game with a gong or whatever lol

[Mathew]

id kill for cokemusic too ;p

Haha, I remember playing Coke Music, I joined it like 3 days after Habbo. It was actually one of the best games for it's time. I enjoyed playing it :P

[KebabJuice]

Im suprised its actually still running! i might start playing again