My Analysis of the Economy in Habbo

[Celacia]

To preface this post, I'm active in many MMOs and online games and I've taken college level economics courses. I'll keep this short and sweet.

Habbo is a 'game' in which there are few game elements. At its core it's a chat service for young children and younger teens. Because of this, there are two sides to Habbo. There are the people who play to chat and the people who play the economy.

Sulake stays afloat because of the kids who play to chat.

The market is heavily inflated and it was made worse by the merge.

Some people don't know the value of rare items. And that value, frankly, is insane.

A gold bar is roughly $10, 1 GB=50c.

Think about that. I know people who have THOUSANDS of gold bars.

3000 GBs * $10 a pop = $30,000...and OBVIOUSLY this value doesn't maintain itself. It's 10 years of VIP.

The people who have these large sums of money either played since the beginning, scammed, or phished accounts.

And, to further substantiate the downfall of this 'game', GAMBLING is a main element of Habbo.

A game that is marketed to children is threaded in GAMBLING. This teaches bad life skills. Kids can end up spending a lot of money and lose it all. They wonder why they're not as rich as the casino owners who have thousands of gbs and lose REAL money.

In closing, the value of items, when tied to the REAL currency factor simply doesn't add up. There's a heavy imbalance and sooner or later this game will either see a major shift (through the release of all super rares) or I strongly believe Sulake will go under...

[JerseySafety]

I like this - it's all true, fabulous post! :)

[Zeptis]

i agree with all but one part. sulake is milkin' habbo they are rich because of those people with 3000 GBS since the mpney to get those GBS has to come from somewhere, They are rich!!!

[Inseriousity.]

"A game that is threaded to children is threaded in GAMBLING" is wrong in my opinion. It's called capitalism. There are some poor people, some rich people and the poor people want to be the top, they want to be rich. It's a business so it needs those poor people to want to do better and hopefully get rich by spending their rl money on their product. :)

[AgnesIO]

To be fair, the fact you did economics at college doesn't really show in this thread.

There has been many crashes in the value of rares, yet Habbo is still going. It is all one economy. The only way a hotel could really go under is if you could do cross hotel trading with other countries - as you then have different economies. However, as you can only trade between your one economy the chance of it all screwing up is lowered.

Also, yet again I shall point out, last year was the best financial year Habbo has ever had. Now if you are seriously telling me that is the sign that it could go down under...

Sulake do not encourage the gambling, but if you couldn't gamble TEN the economy would be ridiculous. Everyone would eventually be worth similar amounts, meaning there would be no rich and poor, and as we can see in real life this simply does not work. Apart from trading and playing games, there are no real opportunities to win virtual items, so the chance of someone being relatively rich compared to others is reduced. Then you need to think, if no one is particularly rich, the prizes in games are likely to fall - meaning even less people will have the chance of becoming rich.

But then look at trading. Sure you can argue that trading would enable people to make profits etc, but now there is the 'marketplace' how many good rare shops do you see? I used to be able to walk in to a rare shop, save a few c on bulk petals, go in to the next shop and sell them. Now, this isn't possible. There is one place to trade, making it sort of unfair. Imagine if there was only Sainsbury's and no competitors. The price of food would surely go up. But with Marketplace there are thousands of people all fighting to get their furniture noticed, so have to lower the price of their rare - just to sell it. This means they inevitably often have to sell at a loss, being the ONLY realistic way of making anything is by gambling.

Or buying of the black market, scamming or hacking. However, Habbo does not encourage gambling, and believe me if it didn't send out the wrong message, Habbo would have an 'official casino' where you would probably be charged tax just to gamble - but would have no risk of being scammed.

[Mathew]

Interesting post, as is Inseriousity.'s.

I have nothing more to add. I used to be quite a big trader but I really haven't done it at all since the merge and the introduction of the Marketplace. The Marketplace just spoilt the whole fun of trading for me. I wish they'd just release all the Super Rares, mess up the so-called "economy" so Habbo is back to it's primary function, and that is to speak to other people from around the room on a chat room. Oh, and it would be hilarious to see all the egotistical morons in casinos crying over their pixels. :P

[Moh]

Can get gold bars "illegally" for about £1.50

[AgnesIO]

Interesting post, as is Inseriousity.'s.

I have nothing more to add. I used to be quite a big trader but I really haven't done it at all since the merge and the introduction of the Marketplace. The Marketplace just spoilt the whole fun of trading for me. I wish they'd just release all the Super Rares, mess up the so-called "economy" so Habbo is back to it's primary function, and that is to speak to other people from around the room on a chat room. Oh, and it would be hilarious to see all the egotistical morons in casinos crying over their pixels. :P

To be honest, I couldn't see the harm in it anyway - lets be honest, almost all the casino owners don't get their furniture legitimately - so they couldn't really moan, and they certainly wouldn't be a loss to Sulake, if they left.

I genuinely don't think the merge has anything to do with people not trading as much. The sole problem that ruined Habbo's trading market was the Marketplace. This has stopped people being able to make a profit, and also to be honest doesn't make trading as fun. I remember some of the enjoyment in room designing has been trying to actually find the items. The marketplace has taken this away, and does take away the extra touch of room designing. Also, as stated above, you cannot make a profit of of Habbo's new marketplace - obviously it is possible, but it is harder, less enjoyable and the profits made are more about luck that the value has gone down, than finding the right buyer/seller.

---------- Post added 21-05-2011 at 11:26 AM ----------


Can get gold bars "illegally" for about £1.50

£1.50? Y'all being mugged :L

£1.20/£1.10 is the going price I believe (from the right black market people). Thrones tend to go for £8.50-£12

P.S. Apologies if talking about this is against the rules, I am not posting any links, not sure if you can discuss the prices?

[Zak]

Can get gold bars "illegally" for about £1.50

Yep

So 3000 x 1.5 = 4500. Which is feasible, still a huge amount though.

Plus you missed out, hacking and scamming as one of the main ones. I know a guy who scammed 80t odd. At the end of his reign, he sold up. Had over 700t. Search: Hachette to read his story, to find out how some people get rich. Others are much clever and get rich by other means.

I remember one member who's actually a member on here, keylogging either Vodor or Nisus back in 05/06 I can't remember. Or that's what I remember hearing in the room 'we got him'. etc. They deserved it anyway - using accelerators to rig.

[Eoin247]

As i said multiple times all the problems with the market currently is due to the large influx of new furniture. Sulake are doing this on purpose i believe.

They don't like people "recycling their furni" by selling and trading in others as this stops people from buying it more expensively from the catalogue and therefore buying more credits (also the reason they put commision on the exchange). By putting so much furni into habbo, it makes it near extremely hard to find the particular furni you want in furni shops. Therefore people are far more likely to buy it in the catalogue. Notice also that the catalogue is at least twice as big as it was not very long ago.

Don't be fooled guys, everything sulake does is done to gain more money. They are a for profit company, so you can't expect anything else really.

[jakey,,]

all common sense.

More players, more money more people buy, introduction of grand exchange has caused inflation as you can trade gold bars and coins whereas you had to buy and trade through items in catalogue, habbo is loving it, anyone can get rich easy. Habbo will not close for ages for starters just because there is a bit of capitalism in the habbo society, casinos rely on habbo's money tactics like myself, when there's no new furni or events or comps i get alot more bets and win peoples coins/furniture, which habbo relys on us to do as the betters then go buy more and it's just a cycle... people like myself and habbo get rich constantly in a cycle. :P

[-Danube-]

In the present, anyone who is rich is either a scammer or a casino owner (or both in most cases...). In the past most people who were rich were also traders, before the marketplace it was very easy to get rich from trading. Now it's not really possible as the marketplace continues to drive down prices.

Habbo is moving away from trading and more towards chat, room building (wired etc) and games. With casinos still in there, but again this comes under games.

Habbo has like no economy in my eyes anymore, it's just being driven down and down my the marketplace and the merge. Habbo is a different game than it was 4 years ago, and tbh i do not like it.

[Eoin247]

In the present, anyone who is rich is either a scammer or a casino owner (or both in most cases...). In the past most people who were rich were also traders, before the marketplace it was very easy to get rich from trading. Now it's not really possible as the marketplace continues to drive down prices.

Habbo is moving away from trading and more towards chat, room building (wired etc) and games. With casinos still in there, but again this comes under games.

Habbo has like no economy in my eyes anymore, it's just being driven down and down my the marketplace and the merge. Habbo is a different game than it was 4 years ago, and tbh i do not like it.

I agree with you Dan. In a way the MP actualy encourages scamming by making it near impossible to get rich the only real legit way which is trading (buying low, selling high)

[Mathew]

In the present, anyone who is rich is either a scammer or a casino owner (or both in most cases...).
Bit of a hasty generalisation when it's obviously not true. Such a shame how a few individuals disrupt the image of a whole group of people.


Habbo is moving away from trading and more towards chat, room building (wired etc) and games. With casinos still in there, but again this comes under games. Habbo is a different game than it was 4 years ago, and tbh i do not like it.
Thank goodness! Habbo was way too centred on casinos and gambling and people simply went on the game to "get rich". That was never the intended purpose of Habbo because they have told their players many times that it is a chatroom for teenagers. Perhaps it's just me, but I feel the steps Habbo have taken to encourage room building and games is a significant leap and it is exactly what Habbo intended to be. People are playing a game, talking to each other and being creative, instead of being caught up in a false economy and worrying about what furni they do(n't) own.

[--ss--]

Without any sort of monetary wealth associated with the game there is no motivation to play as no one is going to be getting any sort of achievement out of it and so you're better off going on Facebook and playing Farmville. Habbo lost its charm years back.

[JerseySafety]

I agree with Dan here, habbo is moving although at the same time they are trying to rack in more cash/credits which is fair enough considering they are a business.

[orientalframe?]

Without any sort of monetary wealth associated with the game there is no motivation to play as no one is going to be getting any sort of achievement out of it and so you're better off going on Facebook and playing Farmville. Habbo lost its charm years back.

Definitely this. There is nothing really you can achieve for without any monetary values.

[Celacia]

Hey everyone.

I appreciate all the feedback.

Someone brought up capitalism, and while I agree the marketplace shreds a fiber of capitalism, the extent to which it can be taken is small. You can draw a direct parallel between the world's markets and habbo's in one aspect.

Super corporations (and the individuals with the top 2% of wealth), the companies that control the largest supply of goods, hold the most influence on the market. As a newcomer or small stock holder, your ability to capitalize is low.

Not only do they (top 2%) hold the product, they also hold the currency. That's the problem.

[Akanji]

Yep

So 3000 x 1.5 = 4500. Which is feasible, still a huge amount though.

Plus you missed out, hacking and scamming as one of the main ones. I know a guy who scammed 80t odd. At the end of his reign, he sold up. Had over 700t. Search: Hachette to read his story, to find out how some people get rich. Others are much clever and get rich by other means.

I remember one member who's actually a member on here, keylogging either Vodor or Nisus back in 05/06 I can't remember. Or that's what I remember hearing in the room 'we got him'. etc. They deserved it anyway - using accelerators to rig.

I used the search function to find this story but I couldn't find anything.

Could you link please?

[Rigr]

I used the search function to find this story but I couldn't find anything.

Could you link please?

Search his name (Hachette) in the habbo navigator, he used to have a room with it written on stickies

[Zak]

Search his name (Hachette) in the habbo navigator, he used to have a room with it written on stickies

Hole in one.

I would uncover the person who hacked about 1000T (to my knowledge) but he has an account on here. Naming him would be against forum rules :)