Attached
24-11-2014, 11:04 PM
Attached to Habbo
Introduction
I’d like to start off by making two points; Firstly, unless you know/ knew me, or know/ knew of me, or are interested in ye olde days of Habbo of yesteryear, your response to this will be “tl;dr”. If you aren’t interested, don’t waste your time reading on as this will be very, very boring. Secondly, many of the Habbos I am going to mention and namedrop were not merged and no longer exist, or the accounts that do exist aren’t actually them, but I’m still going to mention them for the purposes of the story, and you never know, you might have known some of them as well.
I would never actually “quit” Habbo as such, because from my experience people who “quit” always come back. When it comes to Habbo, you either log in or you don’t log in, simple. However, I do feel like my time on Habbo is now slowly coming to an end. I find myself in a position where I am alone in the Habbo world, in the minority. The helper community I was a big part of is all but gone. Aside from using Habbox forum occasionally or checking up on new furniture on puhekupla, I am completely uninvolved in fansites. I don’t hang out in 18+ rooms because I find the people detestable and the conversation equally detestable. I don’t roleplay. I don’t play games. I don’t moan much either. All I seem to do on Habbo is update my museum with the latest furniture and try and track down some of the few rares I am still missing. I don’t have too many friends on Habbo anymore as most of the era have moved on. I don’t even talk to too many people nowadays.
I suppose this is my “love letter” to Habbo in a way. Whether I like to admit it or not, Habbo has been a huge part of my life. I will be 24 tomorrow, and I’ve been using Habbo on and off for over half of my life (cringe, I know!). As of writing, I have been a Habbo for 4421 days, just over 12 years. Habbo has given me many good years and for a few years I have intended to write about my time on Habbo, and the changes that have occurred. I’d like to leave something that the next generation can look at and, just maybe, an oldie might stumble onto this as well. I have no website or blog, but Habbox has been around nearly as long as I have, so I figure this a pretty reliable place to leave my story…
The Early Days
I was 11 years old and I had just finished year 6. This is a pretty big deal in the UK as it is the last year of primary school, before we move up to secondary school. I was going to a different secondary school to everyone else at my primary school. I wasn’t going to know anyone and I do not mind telling you all that I was absolutely terrified. It was the cause of a few sleepless nights. The year 6 to year 7 summer holidays I played out with my primary school friends every single day. We played football, tag, bulldog, hide and see and made bases and dens outdoors, we had sleepovers, played playstation and ate fish & chips indoors, we went swimming, went to the cinema, etc, every single day. It was a fantastic time and kept my mind off the horrors of secondary school.
Summer ended and I went to secondary school and, to be fair, it wasn’t as terrifying as I imagined. I am one of the few who can genuinely look back on childhood and safely say at no point was I bullied. I fitted in and I made friends quickly. Crucially though, I remained friends with my primary school friends as we still lived close to each other. I even made friends with some of their friends from secondary school and introduced them to my new friends from secondary school, creating quite a gang. Every single day after school we would go out to a local football pitch and play for hours.
I was lucky as a child, as I had internet access during a time when having the internet wasn’t all that common. 17th October 2002, a boy called Ben, known to you Habbos as 182Dammit, Manoverboard or PrittStick, my best friend since I was two years old, was at my house on a Thursday evening and we were bored. He didn’t have internet access at home, but I did. He turned to me and said “why don’t we go on Habbo?” I probably looked at him like he had two heads and said “Habbo?” I will never forget his reply. He said “you create a character and go stay at a hotel and talk to people”. I thought it sounded like the biggest load of old bollocks ever, but I decided to give it a try as I was bored and I loved going on the internet. Ben had been introduced to Habbo by another primary school friend, also named Matt, known on Habbo as 3D!, Commiserating or SafeConduct, who in turn had been introduced to Habbo by his cousins Colin, known as Tupacalypse, and Grant, known as Dr.Pill!. I created my first Habbo account.
I created my first account, MattSadler (because I was all about internet safety back then!). The first place I went to, as was the case with Habbo in those days, was the Main Lobby. I got speaking to a few Habbos in there and I immediately fell in love. I was hooked and I went on every night. The five of us would Habbo together regularly. On Saturdays we would meet up and go round to one of our house and all sit huddled around the computer screen together, having half an hour each on our respective Habbos. We all knew each other’s passwords, but we trusted each other not to do anything untoward. Mostly we would scour the Public Rooms, swimming and diving in the Habbo Lido, playing games in the Cunning Fox Gamehall, pretending to get drunk in the Dirty Duck Pub, eating our “hangover food” in Habburgers, dressing up in costumes in the Habbo Cinema and trapping Piers in the Hotel Kitchen, but before long we found our way into private rooms, which is inevitable.
Almost a rite of passage in the early days of Habbo, we all did our stints in mafias. If I remember correctly, the main one we worked for was owned by.:paparoach:., a guy who would pay you generously in furni. Back in those days, you’d get two or three free credits when you create your first private room. This gave me the taste for furniture. So much so, in fact, I ordered my own Splash Plastic card and put my £10 pocket money on it at the local shop and went and bought 150 Habbo credits (100 credits plus 50 free credits as part of a Splash Plastic promotion). Ben and I drew scale models of the three rooms we wanted to make on pen and paper so we could plan how best to spend the credits. We create a living room/ kitchen, a bathroom/ bedroom and an office.
Habbo FBI Department and The World of Habbo Helping
Whilst I thoroughly enjoyed Habbo, I didn’t really remain committed to anything I did on there. I drifted from Public Rooms to private rooms, from mafia to army, but never found anything worth sticking to. The only thing I can remember doing with passion was search for “TheWhiteWitch”. We were told by somebody in one of the lobbies that there was a Habbo called “TheWhiteWitch” who had a gun and would shoot your Habbo, and if your Habbo got shot it would be gone forever. We searched for “TheWhiteWitch” to try and bring her down, until we found out she didn’t exist!
Sometime in late 2002, whilst it was one of the other lads turn playing as their Habbo, he went into a busy room called Habbo FBI Department, a help centre owned by JJ_2001, a Hobba. It was so busy and there was so much going on in there, I loved it. As soon as it was my turn, I went straight back in and asked for a job. I was hired by Daedalous and I fully caught the helping bug.
JJ_2001 was the boss and room owner, but he was often off busy with his Hobba duties, so he left control of the help centre to his two chiefs, atomic2411 and boink, the original good cop-bad cop duo. boink was my idol. He was 20, he was married (his wife also used Habbo and worked for Habbo FBI Department), he had a baby on the way, he was a policeman and he was our fearless leader and he ruled with an iron fist. This was a time when Habbo was less advanced. There was no :chooser and a Habbo’s name didn’t appear when you hover your mouse over where they were stood, so it was quite easy to be undetected in rooms. I hid in a tele whilst boink and his “wife” had a private discussion in a room, where boink revealed he wanted to stop lying to everyone. He then admitted to the whole help centre that he was 18, not 20, and that he wasn’t a police officer or married. His Habbo wife completely disappeared. Shortly after this, it came out that boink wasn’t even 18, he was actually 13, just a year older than me, and he looked like the kid from Stuart Little. I kept in touch with boink for many years after he stopped coming on Habbo, via MSN, myspace and Facebook and, in an unbelievably crazy example of how small a world we live in, earlier this year boink walked into my local pub, completely out of the blue, with some of his friends. We recognised each other from Facebook and had a pint and a chat, which was nice. boink taught me an important Habbo lesson early on though, something that would come up time and time again, that people aren’t always who they say they are.
Speaking of people who aren’t always who they say they are, another fairly notable character from the early days on Habbo was a certain Mariah_C, who I imagine many of you will know of very well. Mariah_C was a help centre worker who was very full of herself and claimed to be an aspiring pop star and a millionaire in real life. She had an entourage of Habbos that followed her around, though it was rumoured that most of them were actually her on clone accounts. In one particularly poignant incident, her “agent” in real life, Monsignor (again, rumoured to be her on another account), was reported to have died in a car crash. If I remember correctly, many of us even attended his Habbo funeral. Many years later, the very same Monsignor appeared in a Habbo room, surprisingly alive and well for a dead man. A quick search on this forum shows that Mariah_C wasn’t averse to faking her death, amongst other things!
I’d like to think I was one of the best helpers Habbo has ever had because I was committed, I cared about people, I never sought any kind of reward or “e-fame” and I outstayed most other helpers, though I imagine most Habbo helpers think that! I was an immensely proud 12 year old when siji, owner of Habbo Crime Police Department, came in and personally tracked me down to work at his place, impressed by my work. Through helping I met a lot of great people, many of whom I am still friends with and in regular contact with to this very day. Habbo FBI Department actually had three sets of twins who I befriended working in it, Toby/ toby300 and Barry/barry156, littlemissmollie and miss_sweet87/ Cadbury, and lollyHd and catHd, what are the odds of that? I also got the chance to work under a number of Hobbas, people I idolised as a child. I will now list just a few of the main help centres/ help desks I worked in from 2002 until the present day, and who owned them, though obviously I can’t actually remember all of them:
· Habbo FBI Department – JJ_2001 (Hobba).
· Habbo Crime Police Department – siji.
· Habbo Safety Department – AaronAS.
· Habbo Safety Service – Stephen/ Wylde (Hobba).
· Habbo.Help – Mystique!
· World Police Department – Quincy (Hobba).
· Got Help? – beetlejooce (Hobba).
· Habbo Help Centre – KITTEN.007
· Significant Help – Shoed/ Shoed2.
· Golden Guest Services – GoldenGunner/ SilverSurfer/ Grayham (Hobba).
· Habbo Way Help Desk – q99/ .:q99:.
· Come Here for Help and Advice – Toby.
· Habbo Advice Team – Killian.
It wasn’t all smooth sailing though. I enjoyed having credits, buying furniture and diving in the Lido, but I didn’t enjoy paying for them. I found a website which promised to add credits to my account if I gave them my name and password and my greed overcame me. Unfortunately this meant I lost my first account and all my furniture. I was never able to log into my first account again and it was deleted during the merge. You live and learn though…
After losing my account, I needed a new name. On the 21st July 2003, myself and Ben, who was using 182Dammit at this point, decided it was about time we had some “rare” names. We went to the shops together to start brainstorming ideas for names. He saw some stationary items for sale and saw “PrittStick”, which he decided to choose as his new Habbo name. Unfortunately, nothing in the shops inspired me and I came home empty handed. However, whilst sending an email I picked up on the word “attachments”, so I decided to create that as my new account. I discovered that “Attached” was free and figured that would be a better name, so I decided to create that as my name instead (I’d later go on to make Attachments as well). Ben created PrittStick as his new Habbo.
At some point in 2003/ 04, JJ_2001closed Habbo FBI Department, meaning we had a large group of helpers without a help centre. boink decided to take control and reopen Habbo FBI Department in his image. Unfortunately for boink, due to his track record of lying about who he really was, he struggled to command the same respect he once had, and we didn’t stand for any of his aggressive messing around, which lead to Habbo FBI Mk. II closing down before it really got started. The Habbo FBI team split up and all went our separate ways, though most of us ended up at AaronAS’s Habbo Safety Department, and later Stephen/ Wylde’s Habbo Safety Service.
Habbo Hotel – Where Else?
As I continued getting stuck into Habbo and making friends, I introduced Habbo to my secondary school friends and a large number of them got quite into it. Two most notable examples would be ..AmY…, who owned a really popular modelling room, and cam.03, who was a Habbo helper and quite big in the world of casinos. After school a large group of us would regularly all meet up in one of our rooms and hang out. I’ll let you decide if this story is funny or cruel, I can’t quite decide. One guy called Lawrence, whose Habbo name escapes me now, was pretty well off and he bought a lot of credits and furniture. Another guy. Jak, whose Habbo was Kozar/ epsion, warned him that if he left his furniture in rooms unattended somebody could come in and steal it all, and told him to give him all of his furniture for safekeeping. He never got the furni back.
My enjoyment of Habbo saw me going off and seeking other Habbo-ish websites. The two I remember best are Coke Music and Faketown. Coke Music was fantastic. I loved the graphics. Despite not actually being a regular Coca-Cola drinker (I don’t drink fizzy drinks), I was a very big fan of the brand itself, so I really liked being able to buy Coca-Cola furniture. I enjoyed making my own music. The only downside to Coke Music was the fact it open and closed hours, though you could still play fun games while it was offline. I was sad Coke Music went. On the other hand, Faketown was absolutely rubbish, it was slow and lacked features. That also closed down. There appears to be a new Faketown website, though I am not sure if it is in any way associated with the original one.
During spells when Habbo was on maintenance, experiencing some downtime or was just at capacity, we would often see ourselves Habbo-less, so we would take ourselves to foreign hotels, where we could act very childishly. For example, I would go around the German Habbo saying the only German phrase I knew; “Ich bin hund”, which translated means “I am dog”.
Scripting was always something that interested me in theory, though not in practise. I used to love seeing different coloured stickies, Habbos with otherwise unobtainable hair/ clothes/ skin colours, furniture being place outside of rooms and furniture that were not available through normal means, like Army Plasto and Small Plants (that would later be released as Aloe Vera). My only dalliance with scripting came when I downloaded Artmoney and used it so that every time I purchased a Cactus I would actually get a Pop-up Chicken. That was as far as I got with scripting, and I used to have a lot of Pop-up Chickens.
November 2002saw me purchase my first rare, a Hologirl, a furniture I still have to this day. December 2002 saw the introduction of Habbo Club and it was quite controversial, with many being opposed to it. My view has always been that Habbo is perfectly playable without “HC” so it isn’t a necessity, but it is nice if you have it.
Unfortunately, my newly found Habbo wealth attracted some negative attention and, to be perfectly honest, jealousy. Whilst I was playing Habbo at Matt’s house (3D!/ Commiserating/ SafeConduct), he watched me type in my password when I logged on. While I was walking home that night, he went onto my Habbo account, stole everything and dressed my Habbo like a Reindeer Drag Queen. I immediately knew it was him and, still knowing his password, I went onto his account and took it all back. It took a long time for him to earn our trust again.
Back then, I used to view Habbo Staff and Hobbas as gods. When I first joined, the age to become a Hobba was 16 and I fully intended to become one. Not wishing to wait, I decided to lie about my age to become a Hobba. I got past the first page of the application when I saw a message saying something like “lying about your age is a criminal offence”. I bricked it and quickly stopped applying. I still planned on applying when I was old enough. Sometime after this, they changed the age from 16 to 18, and before I was even 16 they stopped the Hobba program.
At some point in late 2002/ early 2003, I got to meet ione at a Q&A session in her “ask aunty ione” room. At the time I thought this was a pretty big deal. I fought my way into a room filled with staff suck us crowding her and eventually managed to get a seat right next to her and ask my important question; “do you like blink-182?” She said yes. Good job I arrived when I did to ask the tough questions eh? I spent a lot of good times hanging out in newsbox, owned by wenders, and later Becs’s Snewsbox, rooms regularly occupied by some of the best people on Habbo.
The early 00s saw the emergence of fansites, with Habbox being one such example. I thought Habbo fansites were a lot better then. Nowadays they’re all very much the same in terms of content, back then they were a lot more original. One good fansite was “Habbo Paper”, or “Habbo Newspaper”, sometime like that, a fansite which produced many great news articles and interviews based on Habbo from their own point of view. Exavior.com was a fantastic fansite as well, featuring many brilliant alterations, which were a huge part of why fansites were popular pre-radio. Some of the best alterations that spring to mind are Exavior’s police car, bortwein’s go cat and catid’s “Timemaster” clock and really good beach alteration (which I believe was used by a fansite, possibly ClubHabbo.net).
In late 2004/ early 2005, PrittStick, who had since got his own internet computer at home, and I, would go round each other’s houses and perform “joint” radio shows on Habbohut, my only experiences as a DJ.
Sometime in 2004 I suffered my first major Habbo ban. Whilst on my account Attached, I went into Landa’s Gay Girl Bar, the most popular gay room on Habbo at the time, and accused its occupants of actually being guys, pretending to be girls so they could get pictures of actual girls. Not my finest moment, I admit, but the content of the conversation was picked up upon by some moderators and Attached was permanently banned, and remained so until the first “mass unban”, which I believe came sometime in late 2007.
ione left and Jibbi took over. From a personal point of view, I think the most notably impact Jibbi had on me was a room she created, which would go on to influence me in my later Habbo life. She owned a room called “Jibbi’s Furni Shopping Centre”, which was basically a corridor filled with Imperial Teleports, which linked to a room for each of the catalogue ranges, Area, Iced, Lodge, Mode, etc, like a kind of furniture museum. I loved this idea.
Detached to Habbo – On and Off
As I stated at the start, I’d never “officially” quit Habbo, it just doesn’t work like that, but as we moved into the mid-to-late 00s, I was moving into my mid-to-late teens. My interests mainly consisted of playing football, going to the gym, underage drinking, trying to get into nightclubs and trying to get a jump, not so much working in help centres and listening to Habbo radio. My main use of Habbo would be as something to keep me occupied when I was hungover, when I was putting off doing homework or when I was stuck in due to the rain. I continued to drift on and off.
Sometime around 2005 or 2006, TheHolyFish, one of my best friends from the old Habbo FBI Department days, told me on MSN that he was going to be quitting Habbo once and for good. I was sad to hear this, but I was very grateful when he donated all of his furniture to me and he was RICH! The bounty included a large number of Club Sofas, at a time when they actually held some value, and Throne Sofas. Unfortunately his Habbo account was merge deleted and I haven’t seen him on his MSN for many years.
At some point in 2007 I drifted back onto Habbo and was surprised to find very few help centres knocking around. Instead there were various Fansite Drop-In rooms. I spent a fair bit of time hanging around in them, but I eventually began hanging out in Public Rooms again, as I had originally. Unfortunately I found that the Public Rooms were mostly occupied by “zedders” and “e-daters”, people I had no interest in at all. Unfortunately, a choice conversation with Plum-Badman, a user I had recently befriended, was taken out of context and Attached was permanently banned again. Believing that Habbo staff would just view this as an unfortunately mistake, I thought I’d be unbanned quickly, so I created a new account, “DatBoiMatt”, as a mickey take of all the zedders and e-daters. Unfortunately, this proved not to be the case, and Attached was not unbanned until early 2011.
In August 2007, Shoed2, an old Habbo friend, opened a Help Desk, Significant Help, and contacted myself and a few other oldies about working there. This proved to be the catalyst for another spell of serious Habboing, with myself and my “irl” friends PrittStick and cam.03 all returning to Habbo to work at the help desk. At a time when help centres, or help desks as they soon became known as, were on the slide, we managed to maintain a very popular and busy room. Unfortunately, Shoed2 was in the habit of giving room rights to all of his friends, bless him, and the room often ended up trashed. This caused many of us to lose interest and go drifting off again.
No matter how many times I would drift away from Habbo, something would always remind me of it. In my local Yates’s one night, a guy approached me and said “aren’t you Matt from Habbo?” Fortunately none of my mates were around to hear! I would keep bumping into this guy often, up town, in clubs, all over the place, including one time when I was playing a Sunday league football match and he was playing for the opposition team.
During late 2008/ early 2009, I bumped into q99 on Habbo, now under the name “.:Q99:.”. q99 had been a friend since I first started Habbo and another fellow Habbo FBI Department employee, who was often cruelly victimised and bullied by boink. He was back on Habbo and wished to open his own help desk, Habbo Way Help Desk. Through commitment and hard work we were able to transform this place into another popular help desk at the time.
May 2009 saw Habbo taking invitations for Beta testers. I applied and was delighted to be selected as a Beta Tester, though I wasn’t in the first 50, I was in the first batch of 500 that came next. Someway into the Beta testing process, we were given a number of invitations to give out to our friends and invite them to Beta test. I actually had people chasing me down and bidding for my Beta invitations, but I wasn’t about that life. I gave my invitations to barry156 and toby300, two of my oldest Habbo friends, and to PrittStick, my oldest “irl” friend. This upset a few people, Hornchurchlad in particular, who went absolutely mental at me, believing he was owed one for some reason. It got so bad, in fact, that .:Q99:. had to step in and fire him from HWHD. I’d known Hornchurchlad for years and never realised he was so mentally unstable.
As “reward” for all of my “hard work” (yeah right!) in sixth form, passing my exams and finishing school, my friends and I booked our first lads holiday to Ibiza for June 2009. We stayed at the Hotel Bahia, which a few years later would be taken over by Wayne Lineker and become the famous Ocean Beach Hotel. Upon arriving on the first day, we decided to go out and find our best source of cheap vodka. Whilst walking towards the most local shop, I saw a huge billboard with a giant Habbo/ Capri-Sun advertisement on it, which I found hilarious. July 2009 I made another return to Habbo, where I teamed with barry156, toby300 and another of our old friends, Liver-oil, to take part in the Sci-fi campaign. Our ship, the Starship Lollypop, did well and we were all able to claim badges for taking part.
The Merge and my return
I drifted into another spell of not really using Habbo until I received an email from Habbo in 2010, asking me to come back in preparation for the upcoming English-speaking Habbo merge. I returned to find the marketplace had been introduced to Habbo. The marketplace, in my opinion, is one of the greatest things Habbo have added in recent years and made furniture, in particular rare furniture, much more accessible. I stuck around for a while as a whole host of other oldies had returned for the merge.
I found myself getting a job at Golden Guest Services, owned by GoldenGunner/ SilverSurfer/ Grayham. GGS was the longest wrong help desk on Habbo and had been around years, but it had never been one I’d had any interest of working in. Upon getting a job at GGS I reacquainted myself with :Jaz, an old FBI friend of mine since 2002. I discovered that :Jaz was in her late 30s at this point. This meant that, when I had known her when I was 11/ 12, had her on MSN and regular spoken to her, she had been in her late 20s. This made me feel very uneasy.
I didn’t stick around with GGS and Habbo long because I was just starting my first year at university, as well as starting my first job. Around Christmas 2010, in my opinion the greatest Christmas campaign Habbo have ever done, due to it being the holidays, there was a big lull in work and at uni, but the weather was pretty rubbish, so I found myself returning to Habbo. By a great coincidence, I found that many oldies also returned at the same time. This return also coincided with the return of “Quarterback”, the owner of Habbo Police Department, the single greatest help centre in Habbo history. “Quarterback” reopened HPD and got many of us hooked onto Habbo again. However, he turned out to be a liar of boink/ Mariah_C-ish proportions. First he revealed he wasn’t the real Quarterback, he was his cousin. It later transpired that he wasn’t even his cousin, he was just some guy who made Quarterback on another English-speaking hotel before they all got merged into one. Despite this, I’m happy to credit him as the guy who got a lot of us back into Habbo. GoldenGunner/ SilverSurfer/ Grayham took over as our leader.
I know it isn’t a particularly popular opinion, but I had no problem with the merge, personally. I’m not a racist or a xenophobe, so I didn’t mind the influx of Americans, Canadians, Australians, etc. I was actually looking forward to meeting interesting people. They didn’t always make it easy though. One of my first interactions with a “foreign” help desk was Habbo Gurus, owned by Invoiced. To this day I still don’t know anything about Invoiced or what her problem was, but everyone who worked for her help desk seemed brainwashed. They’d kick us as soon as we entered her room and they’d come in to our room and abuse us, all without any provocation. My only explanation is that Invoiced was completely nut, but she disappeared pretty quickly so who knows? We received slightly similar, though a lot less psychotic and aggressive treatment from the Habbo Advice Team, though I’ve since got to know them and their staff and I don’t have a bad word to say about any of them.
The Great Mute and beyond
We dominated the world of Habbo helping in 2010 and 2011, and I was able to get Attached unpermed after appealing. With Attached back, I decided to take advantage of the marketplace and start working on my long term Habbo goal, the museum. My intention was to gather and organise all of the furniture on Habbo, both the normal, the rare and the untradeable, and laying them out in a series of rooms for all to see. Toby, Barry and Liver-oil continued our successful team by joining up with me. I was also approached by HOSKO02 and DJ_Shadow, a passionate pair of Habbo historians, who joined the Museum team. My main motivation behind the Museum was so I could leave something on Habbo to say thanks to them for all of the good years they had given me, not recognition, though we received great recognition on 21st March 2012 when the room was liked by staff. We have reached the point where the Museum has pretty much every non-rare furniture showcased in it, as well as most rare furniture. Currently, I try to gather all the new furniture that is released as soon as possible, whilst slowly working towards getting the few rares we lack.
A fallout with Grayham saw a coup take place, where he was overthrown and we all moved to our final help desk, Come Here for Help and Advice, owned by Toby. We were comfortably the best help desk around in 2011 and 2012, though before long it became apparent that the golden age of Habbo helping was grinding to a halt. Helpers we always be helpers though, whether we have a help desk or not, it is just in our nature. Even today I helped a new user by telling him where to get pets and how to get credits.
June 2012 saw Habbo hit with possibly the biggest blow in its entire history. Undercover Channel 4 reporters exposed the fact that paedophilia and inappropriate discussion was rife. I was eating my dinner whilst the Channel 4 report was on the TV. My mother turned to me and said “Habbo… you used to use that didn’t you?”, yeah, used too… I wasn’t too surprised personally. I’d known that moderation on Habbo had been slack for years and years and it was only a matter of time someone pulled them up on it. In fact, my only real surprise was it took so long for Habbo to get exposed. As a precaution, Habbo was muted for just under a month whilst they figured out the best strategy.
After Habbo was unmuted I was able to crack on with the Helper Talent Track. I’d like to think I was amongst the first to reach the “TBD” level, as I did so in August 2012, pretty soon after its inception. I’ve been very unimpressed with the lack of any progress since this though.
Habbo Today – my view
I know it isn’t a particularly popular view nowadays, but I think current Habbo as a “product” is better now than it was when I first joined. Seriously! I look at things like Wired (possibly the greatest innovation in Habbo history), rideable Horses, breedable Monster Plants and breedable Pets, Holes which allow for room customisation and Bots you can put in your own private rooms and just imagine how good they would have been in “old Habbo”.
Although Habbo went through a spell when the UI was very crowded and messy, I think at the moment it is very nice, simple and clear. I miss the “big hand”, it reminds me of happier times, but it was a pain in the bum! “My stuff” is so much easier to use and is much more universal.
The range of clothing and accessories, plus the amount of colours available, is so much greater. Compare the original catalogue ranges, like Area, Iced, Lodge, Mode, Plasto and Pura, to their more modern equivalents, like Anna, Coco, Cubie, Executive, USVA and Waasa and just look at the improvement in detail. I find it amazing. I think the furniture that they are producing nowadays is really good.
Maybe I am easily impressed though. I came from a time where Habbo had a maximum user limit and you couldn’t log on if there were too many people on. It used to lag a lot as well.
Habbo lacks one major thing though. It desperately needs one thing back, but unfortunately I don’t think it’ll ever get it back. Habbo needs its soul. It needs its community back. Habbo used to be highly populated with a thriving, busy community full of committed and innovative users who made things happen. Now it has a load of self-entitled moaners. It had its helpers, it had its casino people, its fansite/ radio people, its roleplayers, its traders, its room builders, its games players, its chatters etc. I can’t pinpoint an exact moment. Some people say it was the move from Shockwave to Flash, some say it was the merge, some it was the Channel 4 incident. Maybe it was a combination of many things? Either way, Habbo lost its soul and it lost its community and, despite its best efforts, it hasn’t been able to recapture it. Habbo in the early 00s was very sweet and it had a lot of charm. It doesn’t anymore. It tries to but it just feels so false. Maybe this is because I’m older and more cynical, and I’ve seen it all before. Who knows?
I genuinely feel for Habbo to be honest. October 2002 when I first logged into Habbo, the internet was very new and Habbo was comfortably one of the most impressive things on it. There was no myspace, no Facebook, no Twitter. You couldn’t go online on your PlayStation or your X-Box yet. There were no smartphones or tablets. How times have changed. I think Habbo looks a bit dated.
I’m not going to pretend Habbo was completely free of bullies and k**** in my day, because it wasn’t, but the internet wasn’t the troll heaven it is since become. Habbos these days can find themselves on the end of some pretty hurtful abuse. Habbos are not particularly welcoming to new users. I really feel so Sulake and their staff. I wish them all the best and I genuinely want Habbo to get back on track and get back to how it was in the early 00s.
From MattSadler to Attached Concluded
Whether I like to admit it or not, I owe Habbo a hell of a lot. I was terrified about starting secondary school and I was worried about not being able to make friends. Habbo provided me with an escape where I could relax and forget about what was on my mind. Over the years it provided me with many escapes. Habbo also helped me with making friends, as I introduced Habbo to the kids in my year and many of them joined up. It provided us with another platform to expand our new friendships.
PrittStick has been one of my best friends since I was two years old, and I can see his house if I looked out of my bedroom window, but we are not particularly similar. I was much more active and wanted to go out and play football, while he wanted to stay home and play guitar, but I believe Habbo played a big part in the fact we’re still friends to this day. If I look out of my attic window, I can see cam.03’s house. We only met in secondary school, but again I believe Habbo played a big part in firming our friendship, and we’re still friends to this day.
I can name a large number of Habbos I have been friends with since 2002 and am still in contact with today, friends for life. Habbos like Barry, Toby, Liver-oil, HackAlert, 123David456, Jessica., .Rachael., rachumz, IOU and Lorna immediately spring to mind. I’d also like to point out that IOU and Lorna originally met on Habbo, but began a relationship and still live together to this day.
We’re often polled on Habbo, “would you recommend Habbo to a friend?” Our possible answers are either a scale of 1-10 or “Definitely”, “Maybe”, “Don’t know”, “Probably not”, “Definitely not”. Put it this way, would you recommend over 12 years of enjoyment and friendships? I sure would.
I will probably add more to this as time goes on, but thank you for reading so far. Look me and my Museum up on Habbo, I’m still using Attached.
The people I’d like to thanks
This is a list of people who have influenced my time on Habbo, either as friends, enemies, acquaintances or just people who have had an impact. As stated at the very beginning, many of these accounts no longer exist, or have been deleted and re-made by somebody else. If you know/ knew me and feel your name should be included, please get in touch and let me know.
!x!LaUrEn!x!, ..AmY…, .:leigh:., .:.:V.i.r.u.s:.:., .::twerd::., .:paparoach:., .Chillz., .Rachael., .RACHEY!xo, ,Good, ,Jodie, ,PlasticCups, :Became, :Jaz, :s:i:m:o:n:e:, :SteveH, :Technical, ---Sophiee. , -FlavaXS-, -Massey, -Sunflower-, -TechniqL, -UGLY-, -undefined-, =:Elliot:=, =GIEVANS08=, 0rca, 123David456, 2Crime, 3D!/ Commiserating/ SafeConduct, 99p, 9T, AaronAS, ace_kid, admiralpicard, Aisling, Akela!/ Lincognito, Alexay, alexb12kt2, Amanda, ambitia, AMELIIA-XO, americansheriff/ Axiv, Amiea, Amusing, Asher, Atlanthics, atomic2411, Auctora, AztecBeauty, Bacon, BaconPasty, BadgeWay, Badimpact, barry156/ Barry, batley-boy, Battering, Bauen, Baxa, Becs, beetlejooce, Beqzo, Berrence/ Berrence2k3/ Berrene2k4, Bexter…., bhcop, bill, BizarreLove, blackmaggot, BLIPRULES, Bmxs, bob, boink, Bono15, Boosh94, bored_1, bortwein, Braggles, Brawl, bunc.man, burntmill, buster, Callie, cam.03, CaptainAJ!, catHd, Carehome, Carl, Carlsta, Caster, catid, Catwick, Cheezy2, Chewy, Chipman, CindyLuWho, Coaxiom, ColourVision, Crimple, cringe, CPJC, crazy-frog9, CW94, DaCoolster, Daedalous, dahelper, dancintrackstar, DarkPurple., Dave..ThatsMe, Day., Daycares, Dearest, Deckeh, deegers, deejayFalcon!., Defio, DemetriusL, dibblez, Diff, dj.theman., DJ-3000, DJ_Shadow, DJMO, Don_Beech, Document, Dotstar/ liamtomo, Dr.Evans, Dr.Pill!, dr_mahboub, Dyslexic,, E.G.Bizzle, e5, EatBeans?, ecra, ediootti, Elux, emeraldpanther, EmoFromSouth, enex, Ensoul, evansy1, Evil-Carrot, EvilSpaceCat, Expexious, Exclusions, F5, Fallingpetal,/ Stripeycow-x, Fallinq., FamilyTree, FamousLie., fefifoefum, Fett, FetusKing, Flava, Floyd, flozzyFun, Fluze, Franting, FrapasceIT, frenchkiss16!, FRISC0, Froggydoo, Fuff!, Gahey, Gegin, Generix, GH0STBUSTERS, Givenchy, Glammers, GlitterKat, Glittz, GoldenGunner/ SilverSurfer/ Grayham, GoldenMerc, Gondeh, gooner2407, Grime-Kid.X, gringle, gta3chatterbox, Habmania, Habtaz, HackAlert, HackBuster, Hannahh-x3, Happiness!, Hariseo, Harrison, Haxable, Hel_182, Hexta, Hoober, HOOPYBEAR, Hornchurchlad, HOSKO02, HotelUser, Huge, I_C_E_Dragon, iAuto, icebox12, Im-Cool81, Imp!, Ink-Cartridge, ione, iOracle, J-Raviv, j0zh, J4M1E., jacko880, Jamesy2008, Jarkie, Jedi-Watcher, Jessica./ gothical.witch, Jibbi, JJ_2001, Jaxd, Joe_Computer, Jon, Jorc, jqlogan, jrh2002, Karn, KCMac, Kegx, Kevoe, kid.merker, KingMT, Kild, kilo2003, KITTEN.007, KnickIt, knitty, Kozar/ epsion, ione, irishchild, L0-VE, L4DY.K4YOSS, Lacey,., laganer, Lamp, lBeth,xO, Leerm, Lesbianism, Lexxxxi, Leviaton2, leya, Liizziiee, LilSammie.x, Limecitrus, Liver-oil, Loofie, lHabble, liamtomo, littlemissmollie, lmw-, lollyHd, lora, lorna/ j00, Louise..x, lukeisok, imjustalex, M-atty, mad::matt, MalignantSoul, Mariah_C, mark9087, MARUHA, mat3031, matt2205, Mechanic., meggles, Meisha, miss_sweet87/ Cadbury, Mizki, Moffins, Monsignor, Monsiour_Moo, moosemaster, MrTransformer, muffti/ Iodoism, Mykol, Mystique!, N.A.S.A., Needsy, Newsletter, Nhix, niketotal, nimidoji, Nivie, Notes, Novae, nufcfan121, o.x, O-T-L, obae, OddSoup, Okeanos, on4, ooek, Orthix, Osculation, Oui, P1ckle, PantherX, perpl, Perpic., phil.curtis, PixelSean, PixelWarning, pl0x, Plum...../ Plum-Badman, policedude, PoliteFairy, Postit, prekko, PrittStick/ 182Dammit/ Manoverboard, Program, PsychoLlama, q99/ .:Q99:., QT, Quarterback, Queezners, Quincy, Quro-, R4iiN-BUBBL3, RachGasm, rachumz, Ramsley, rareboy, RareShade, rcrd, rebeccaraaaawr., ReHabb, Rimes, RIO2000, Rob, s.v.c, Sabra, Saol, Sarver, Saturate, scatterbox, Scramble, Sectional, Send, Septicky, Shane, ShaunRobinson, sheep-boy, Shoed/ Shoed2, sianne, Sianness, sierk, siji, Slogo, Skaner, SkaterChu, Snatter, Snim, Soccerboy02, Song, Soot/ Lame, Sophie, sophiethenerd, SoraSafe, Sotar, Spectroscopy, Staunched/ Lillia0708, Stephen/ Wylde, Storking, Styven, summer, Supernath, Surfin-Pete, Syphen, Tech-Guro, TechGuide, tegs/ tegz, The-Habster, TheDreamstone, TheHolyFish, thetyler, Thewelshboy, thjda2, Tidings, TinkBabess, Tiny-Cypriot, TinyTinks, tm, toby300/ Toby, Tommy-Hatkins, Tracey, Transcripts, Transmitting, Trashy, Travis, trunks.15, Tupacalypse, Twix, Tyke, Uniforms., UPLINK, USB, Usul, V3LOC1TY, valrulz, VelvetClover, vForssell, Vitalite, x.sugababes.x, xPENFOLDx, Xenogenetic, XeroCool, XxVampgirlxX, Wackykat_01, wahh7, wenders, WetPatch/ MotelRocks/ Ebbw, why, willmeg, Wise, WiseAd, Y0rkie, Yabbas, Yorkie, Yurre, Zipedtight-xo, Zusak.
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Sorry, I had it all formatted to be a lot clearer, but the formatting didn't transfer over from Word, grrr!
Introduction
I’d like to start off by making two points; Firstly, unless you know/ knew me, or know/ knew of me, or are interested in ye olde days of Habbo of yesteryear, your response to this will be “tl;dr”. If you aren’t interested, don’t waste your time reading on as this will be very, very boring. Secondly, many of the Habbos I am going to mention and namedrop were not merged and no longer exist, or the accounts that do exist aren’t actually them, but I’m still going to mention them for the purposes of the story, and you never know, you might have known some of them as well.
I would never actually “quit” Habbo as such, because from my experience people who “quit” always come back. When it comes to Habbo, you either log in or you don’t log in, simple. However, I do feel like my time on Habbo is now slowly coming to an end. I find myself in a position where I am alone in the Habbo world, in the minority. The helper community I was a big part of is all but gone. Aside from using Habbox forum occasionally or checking up on new furniture on puhekupla, I am completely uninvolved in fansites. I don’t hang out in 18+ rooms because I find the people detestable and the conversation equally detestable. I don’t roleplay. I don’t play games. I don’t moan much either. All I seem to do on Habbo is update my museum with the latest furniture and try and track down some of the few rares I am still missing. I don’t have too many friends on Habbo anymore as most of the era have moved on. I don’t even talk to too many people nowadays.
I suppose this is my “love letter” to Habbo in a way. Whether I like to admit it or not, Habbo has been a huge part of my life. I will be 24 tomorrow, and I’ve been using Habbo on and off for over half of my life (cringe, I know!). As of writing, I have been a Habbo for 4421 days, just over 12 years. Habbo has given me many good years and for a few years I have intended to write about my time on Habbo, and the changes that have occurred. I’d like to leave something that the next generation can look at and, just maybe, an oldie might stumble onto this as well. I have no website or blog, but Habbox has been around nearly as long as I have, so I figure this a pretty reliable place to leave my story…
The Early Days
I was 11 years old and I had just finished year 6. This is a pretty big deal in the UK as it is the last year of primary school, before we move up to secondary school. I was going to a different secondary school to everyone else at my primary school. I wasn’t going to know anyone and I do not mind telling you all that I was absolutely terrified. It was the cause of a few sleepless nights. The year 6 to year 7 summer holidays I played out with my primary school friends every single day. We played football, tag, bulldog, hide and see and made bases and dens outdoors, we had sleepovers, played playstation and ate fish & chips indoors, we went swimming, went to the cinema, etc, every single day. It was a fantastic time and kept my mind off the horrors of secondary school.
Summer ended and I went to secondary school and, to be fair, it wasn’t as terrifying as I imagined. I am one of the few who can genuinely look back on childhood and safely say at no point was I bullied. I fitted in and I made friends quickly. Crucially though, I remained friends with my primary school friends as we still lived close to each other. I even made friends with some of their friends from secondary school and introduced them to my new friends from secondary school, creating quite a gang. Every single day after school we would go out to a local football pitch and play for hours.
I was lucky as a child, as I had internet access during a time when having the internet wasn’t all that common. 17th October 2002, a boy called Ben, known to you Habbos as 182Dammit, Manoverboard or PrittStick, my best friend since I was two years old, was at my house on a Thursday evening and we were bored. He didn’t have internet access at home, but I did. He turned to me and said “why don’t we go on Habbo?” I probably looked at him like he had two heads and said “Habbo?” I will never forget his reply. He said “you create a character and go stay at a hotel and talk to people”. I thought it sounded like the biggest load of old bollocks ever, but I decided to give it a try as I was bored and I loved going on the internet. Ben had been introduced to Habbo by another primary school friend, also named Matt, known on Habbo as 3D!, Commiserating or SafeConduct, who in turn had been introduced to Habbo by his cousins Colin, known as Tupacalypse, and Grant, known as Dr.Pill!. I created my first Habbo account.
I created my first account, MattSadler (because I was all about internet safety back then!). The first place I went to, as was the case with Habbo in those days, was the Main Lobby. I got speaking to a few Habbos in there and I immediately fell in love. I was hooked and I went on every night. The five of us would Habbo together regularly. On Saturdays we would meet up and go round to one of our house and all sit huddled around the computer screen together, having half an hour each on our respective Habbos. We all knew each other’s passwords, but we trusted each other not to do anything untoward. Mostly we would scour the Public Rooms, swimming and diving in the Habbo Lido, playing games in the Cunning Fox Gamehall, pretending to get drunk in the Dirty Duck Pub, eating our “hangover food” in Habburgers, dressing up in costumes in the Habbo Cinema and trapping Piers in the Hotel Kitchen, but before long we found our way into private rooms, which is inevitable.
Almost a rite of passage in the early days of Habbo, we all did our stints in mafias. If I remember correctly, the main one we worked for was owned by.:paparoach:., a guy who would pay you generously in furni. Back in those days, you’d get two or three free credits when you create your first private room. This gave me the taste for furniture. So much so, in fact, I ordered my own Splash Plastic card and put my £10 pocket money on it at the local shop and went and bought 150 Habbo credits (100 credits plus 50 free credits as part of a Splash Plastic promotion). Ben and I drew scale models of the three rooms we wanted to make on pen and paper so we could plan how best to spend the credits. We create a living room/ kitchen, a bathroom/ bedroom and an office.
Habbo FBI Department and The World of Habbo Helping
Whilst I thoroughly enjoyed Habbo, I didn’t really remain committed to anything I did on there. I drifted from Public Rooms to private rooms, from mafia to army, but never found anything worth sticking to. The only thing I can remember doing with passion was search for “TheWhiteWitch”. We were told by somebody in one of the lobbies that there was a Habbo called “TheWhiteWitch” who had a gun and would shoot your Habbo, and if your Habbo got shot it would be gone forever. We searched for “TheWhiteWitch” to try and bring her down, until we found out she didn’t exist!
Sometime in late 2002, whilst it was one of the other lads turn playing as their Habbo, he went into a busy room called Habbo FBI Department, a help centre owned by JJ_2001, a Hobba. It was so busy and there was so much going on in there, I loved it. As soon as it was my turn, I went straight back in and asked for a job. I was hired by Daedalous and I fully caught the helping bug.
JJ_2001 was the boss and room owner, but he was often off busy with his Hobba duties, so he left control of the help centre to his two chiefs, atomic2411 and boink, the original good cop-bad cop duo. boink was my idol. He was 20, he was married (his wife also used Habbo and worked for Habbo FBI Department), he had a baby on the way, he was a policeman and he was our fearless leader and he ruled with an iron fist. This was a time when Habbo was less advanced. There was no :chooser and a Habbo’s name didn’t appear when you hover your mouse over where they were stood, so it was quite easy to be undetected in rooms. I hid in a tele whilst boink and his “wife” had a private discussion in a room, where boink revealed he wanted to stop lying to everyone. He then admitted to the whole help centre that he was 18, not 20, and that he wasn’t a police officer or married. His Habbo wife completely disappeared. Shortly after this, it came out that boink wasn’t even 18, he was actually 13, just a year older than me, and he looked like the kid from Stuart Little. I kept in touch with boink for many years after he stopped coming on Habbo, via MSN, myspace and Facebook and, in an unbelievably crazy example of how small a world we live in, earlier this year boink walked into my local pub, completely out of the blue, with some of his friends. We recognised each other from Facebook and had a pint and a chat, which was nice. boink taught me an important Habbo lesson early on though, something that would come up time and time again, that people aren’t always who they say they are.
Speaking of people who aren’t always who they say they are, another fairly notable character from the early days on Habbo was a certain Mariah_C, who I imagine many of you will know of very well. Mariah_C was a help centre worker who was very full of herself and claimed to be an aspiring pop star and a millionaire in real life. She had an entourage of Habbos that followed her around, though it was rumoured that most of them were actually her on clone accounts. In one particularly poignant incident, her “agent” in real life, Monsignor (again, rumoured to be her on another account), was reported to have died in a car crash. If I remember correctly, many of us even attended his Habbo funeral. Many years later, the very same Monsignor appeared in a Habbo room, surprisingly alive and well for a dead man. A quick search on this forum shows that Mariah_C wasn’t averse to faking her death, amongst other things!
I’d like to think I was one of the best helpers Habbo has ever had because I was committed, I cared about people, I never sought any kind of reward or “e-fame” and I outstayed most other helpers, though I imagine most Habbo helpers think that! I was an immensely proud 12 year old when siji, owner of Habbo Crime Police Department, came in and personally tracked me down to work at his place, impressed by my work. Through helping I met a lot of great people, many of whom I am still friends with and in regular contact with to this very day. Habbo FBI Department actually had three sets of twins who I befriended working in it, Toby/ toby300 and Barry/barry156, littlemissmollie and miss_sweet87/ Cadbury, and lollyHd and catHd, what are the odds of that? I also got the chance to work under a number of Hobbas, people I idolised as a child. I will now list just a few of the main help centres/ help desks I worked in from 2002 until the present day, and who owned them, though obviously I can’t actually remember all of them:
· Habbo FBI Department – JJ_2001 (Hobba).
· Habbo Crime Police Department – siji.
· Habbo Safety Department – AaronAS.
· Habbo Safety Service – Stephen/ Wylde (Hobba).
· Habbo.Help – Mystique!
· World Police Department – Quincy (Hobba).
· Got Help? – beetlejooce (Hobba).
· Habbo Help Centre – KITTEN.007
· Significant Help – Shoed/ Shoed2.
· Golden Guest Services – GoldenGunner/ SilverSurfer/ Grayham (Hobba).
· Habbo Way Help Desk – q99/ .:q99:.
· Come Here for Help and Advice – Toby.
· Habbo Advice Team – Killian.
It wasn’t all smooth sailing though. I enjoyed having credits, buying furniture and diving in the Lido, but I didn’t enjoy paying for them. I found a website which promised to add credits to my account if I gave them my name and password and my greed overcame me. Unfortunately this meant I lost my first account and all my furniture. I was never able to log into my first account again and it was deleted during the merge. You live and learn though…
After losing my account, I needed a new name. On the 21st July 2003, myself and Ben, who was using 182Dammit at this point, decided it was about time we had some “rare” names. We went to the shops together to start brainstorming ideas for names. He saw some stationary items for sale and saw “PrittStick”, which he decided to choose as his new Habbo name. Unfortunately, nothing in the shops inspired me and I came home empty handed. However, whilst sending an email I picked up on the word “attachments”, so I decided to create that as my new account. I discovered that “Attached” was free and figured that would be a better name, so I decided to create that as my name instead (I’d later go on to make Attachments as well). Ben created PrittStick as his new Habbo.
At some point in 2003/ 04, JJ_2001closed Habbo FBI Department, meaning we had a large group of helpers without a help centre. boink decided to take control and reopen Habbo FBI Department in his image. Unfortunately for boink, due to his track record of lying about who he really was, he struggled to command the same respect he once had, and we didn’t stand for any of his aggressive messing around, which lead to Habbo FBI Mk. II closing down before it really got started. The Habbo FBI team split up and all went our separate ways, though most of us ended up at AaronAS’s Habbo Safety Department, and later Stephen/ Wylde’s Habbo Safety Service.
Habbo Hotel – Where Else?
As I continued getting stuck into Habbo and making friends, I introduced Habbo to my secondary school friends and a large number of them got quite into it. Two most notable examples would be ..AmY…, who owned a really popular modelling room, and cam.03, who was a Habbo helper and quite big in the world of casinos. After school a large group of us would regularly all meet up in one of our rooms and hang out. I’ll let you decide if this story is funny or cruel, I can’t quite decide. One guy called Lawrence, whose Habbo name escapes me now, was pretty well off and he bought a lot of credits and furniture. Another guy. Jak, whose Habbo was Kozar/ epsion, warned him that if he left his furniture in rooms unattended somebody could come in and steal it all, and told him to give him all of his furniture for safekeeping. He never got the furni back.
My enjoyment of Habbo saw me going off and seeking other Habbo-ish websites. The two I remember best are Coke Music and Faketown. Coke Music was fantastic. I loved the graphics. Despite not actually being a regular Coca-Cola drinker (I don’t drink fizzy drinks), I was a very big fan of the brand itself, so I really liked being able to buy Coca-Cola furniture. I enjoyed making my own music. The only downside to Coke Music was the fact it open and closed hours, though you could still play fun games while it was offline. I was sad Coke Music went. On the other hand, Faketown was absolutely rubbish, it was slow and lacked features. That also closed down. There appears to be a new Faketown website, though I am not sure if it is in any way associated with the original one.
During spells when Habbo was on maintenance, experiencing some downtime or was just at capacity, we would often see ourselves Habbo-less, so we would take ourselves to foreign hotels, where we could act very childishly. For example, I would go around the German Habbo saying the only German phrase I knew; “Ich bin hund”, which translated means “I am dog”.
Scripting was always something that interested me in theory, though not in practise. I used to love seeing different coloured stickies, Habbos with otherwise unobtainable hair/ clothes/ skin colours, furniture being place outside of rooms and furniture that were not available through normal means, like Army Plasto and Small Plants (that would later be released as Aloe Vera). My only dalliance with scripting came when I downloaded Artmoney and used it so that every time I purchased a Cactus I would actually get a Pop-up Chicken. That was as far as I got with scripting, and I used to have a lot of Pop-up Chickens.
November 2002saw me purchase my first rare, a Hologirl, a furniture I still have to this day. December 2002 saw the introduction of Habbo Club and it was quite controversial, with many being opposed to it. My view has always been that Habbo is perfectly playable without “HC” so it isn’t a necessity, but it is nice if you have it.
Unfortunately, my newly found Habbo wealth attracted some negative attention and, to be perfectly honest, jealousy. Whilst I was playing Habbo at Matt’s house (3D!/ Commiserating/ SafeConduct), he watched me type in my password when I logged on. While I was walking home that night, he went onto my Habbo account, stole everything and dressed my Habbo like a Reindeer Drag Queen. I immediately knew it was him and, still knowing his password, I went onto his account and took it all back. It took a long time for him to earn our trust again.
Back then, I used to view Habbo Staff and Hobbas as gods. When I first joined, the age to become a Hobba was 16 and I fully intended to become one. Not wishing to wait, I decided to lie about my age to become a Hobba. I got past the first page of the application when I saw a message saying something like “lying about your age is a criminal offence”. I bricked it and quickly stopped applying. I still planned on applying when I was old enough. Sometime after this, they changed the age from 16 to 18, and before I was even 16 they stopped the Hobba program.
At some point in late 2002/ early 2003, I got to meet ione at a Q&A session in her “ask aunty ione” room. At the time I thought this was a pretty big deal. I fought my way into a room filled with staff suck us crowding her and eventually managed to get a seat right next to her and ask my important question; “do you like blink-182?” She said yes. Good job I arrived when I did to ask the tough questions eh? I spent a lot of good times hanging out in newsbox, owned by wenders, and later Becs’s Snewsbox, rooms regularly occupied by some of the best people on Habbo.
The early 00s saw the emergence of fansites, with Habbox being one such example. I thought Habbo fansites were a lot better then. Nowadays they’re all very much the same in terms of content, back then they were a lot more original. One good fansite was “Habbo Paper”, or “Habbo Newspaper”, sometime like that, a fansite which produced many great news articles and interviews based on Habbo from their own point of view. Exavior.com was a fantastic fansite as well, featuring many brilliant alterations, which were a huge part of why fansites were popular pre-radio. Some of the best alterations that spring to mind are Exavior’s police car, bortwein’s go cat and catid’s “Timemaster” clock and really good beach alteration (which I believe was used by a fansite, possibly ClubHabbo.net).
In late 2004/ early 2005, PrittStick, who had since got his own internet computer at home, and I, would go round each other’s houses and perform “joint” radio shows on Habbohut, my only experiences as a DJ.
Sometime in 2004 I suffered my first major Habbo ban. Whilst on my account Attached, I went into Landa’s Gay Girl Bar, the most popular gay room on Habbo at the time, and accused its occupants of actually being guys, pretending to be girls so they could get pictures of actual girls. Not my finest moment, I admit, but the content of the conversation was picked up upon by some moderators and Attached was permanently banned, and remained so until the first “mass unban”, which I believe came sometime in late 2007.
ione left and Jibbi took over. From a personal point of view, I think the most notably impact Jibbi had on me was a room she created, which would go on to influence me in my later Habbo life. She owned a room called “Jibbi’s Furni Shopping Centre”, which was basically a corridor filled with Imperial Teleports, which linked to a room for each of the catalogue ranges, Area, Iced, Lodge, Mode, etc, like a kind of furniture museum. I loved this idea.
Detached to Habbo – On and Off
As I stated at the start, I’d never “officially” quit Habbo, it just doesn’t work like that, but as we moved into the mid-to-late 00s, I was moving into my mid-to-late teens. My interests mainly consisted of playing football, going to the gym, underage drinking, trying to get into nightclubs and trying to get a jump, not so much working in help centres and listening to Habbo radio. My main use of Habbo would be as something to keep me occupied when I was hungover, when I was putting off doing homework or when I was stuck in due to the rain. I continued to drift on and off.
Sometime around 2005 or 2006, TheHolyFish, one of my best friends from the old Habbo FBI Department days, told me on MSN that he was going to be quitting Habbo once and for good. I was sad to hear this, but I was very grateful when he donated all of his furniture to me and he was RICH! The bounty included a large number of Club Sofas, at a time when they actually held some value, and Throne Sofas. Unfortunately his Habbo account was merge deleted and I haven’t seen him on his MSN for many years.
At some point in 2007 I drifted back onto Habbo and was surprised to find very few help centres knocking around. Instead there were various Fansite Drop-In rooms. I spent a fair bit of time hanging around in them, but I eventually began hanging out in Public Rooms again, as I had originally. Unfortunately I found that the Public Rooms were mostly occupied by “zedders” and “e-daters”, people I had no interest in at all. Unfortunately, a choice conversation with Plum-Badman, a user I had recently befriended, was taken out of context and Attached was permanently banned again. Believing that Habbo staff would just view this as an unfortunately mistake, I thought I’d be unbanned quickly, so I created a new account, “DatBoiMatt”, as a mickey take of all the zedders and e-daters. Unfortunately, this proved not to be the case, and Attached was not unbanned until early 2011.
In August 2007, Shoed2, an old Habbo friend, opened a Help Desk, Significant Help, and contacted myself and a few other oldies about working there. This proved to be the catalyst for another spell of serious Habboing, with myself and my “irl” friends PrittStick and cam.03 all returning to Habbo to work at the help desk. At a time when help centres, or help desks as they soon became known as, were on the slide, we managed to maintain a very popular and busy room. Unfortunately, Shoed2 was in the habit of giving room rights to all of his friends, bless him, and the room often ended up trashed. This caused many of us to lose interest and go drifting off again.
No matter how many times I would drift away from Habbo, something would always remind me of it. In my local Yates’s one night, a guy approached me and said “aren’t you Matt from Habbo?” Fortunately none of my mates were around to hear! I would keep bumping into this guy often, up town, in clubs, all over the place, including one time when I was playing a Sunday league football match and he was playing for the opposition team.
During late 2008/ early 2009, I bumped into q99 on Habbo, now under the name “.:Q99:.”. q99 had been a friend since I first started Habbo and another fellow Habbo FBI Department employee, who was often cruelly victimised and bullied by boink. He was back on Habbo and wished to open his own help desk, Habbo Way Help Desk. Through commitment and hard work we were able to transform this place into another popular help desk at the time.
May 2009 saw Habbo taking invitations for Beta testers. I applied and was delighted to be selected as a Beta Tester, though I wasn’t in the first 50, I was in the first batch of 500 that came next. Someway into the Beta testing process, we were given a number of invitations to give out to our friends and invite them to Beta test. I actually had people chasing me down and bidding for my Beta invitations, but I wasn’t about that life. I gave my invitations to barry156 and toby300, two of my oldest Habbo friends, and to PrittStick, my oldest “irl” friend. This upset a few people, Hornchurchlad in particular, who went absolutely mental at me, believing he was owed one for some reason. It got so bad, in fact, that .:Q99:. had to step in and fire him from HWHD. I’d known Hornchurchlad for years and never realised he was so mentally unstable.
As “reward” for all of my “hard work” (yeah right!) in sixth form, passing my exams and finishing school, my friends and I booked our first lads holiday to Ibiza for June 2009. We stayed at the Hotel Bahia, which a few years later would be taken over by Wayne Lineker and become the famous Ocean Beach Hotel. Upon arriving on the first day, we decided to go out and find our best source of cheap vodka. Whilst walking towards the most local shop, I saw a huge billboard with a giant Habbo/ Capri-Sun advertisement on it, which I found hilarious. July 2009 I made another return to Habbo, where I teamed with barry156, toby300 and another of our old friends, Liver-oil, to take part in the Sci-fi campaign. Our ship, the Starship Lollypop, did well and we were all able to claim badges for taking part.
The Merge and my return
I drifted into another spell of not really using Habbo until I received an email from Habbo in 2010, asking me to come back in preparation for the upcoming English-speaking Habbo merge. I returned to find the marketplace had been introduced to Habbo. The marketplace, in my opinion, is one of the greatest things Habbo have added in recent years and made furniture, in particular rare furniture, much more accessible. I stuck around for a while as a whole host of other oldies had returned for the merge.
I found myself getting a job at Golden Guest Services, owned by GoldenGunner/ SilverSurfer/ Grayham. GGS was the longest wrong help desk on Habbo and had been around years, but it had never been one I’d had any interest of working in. Upon getting a job at GGS I reacquainted myself with :Jaz, an old FBI friend of mine since 2002. I discovered that :Jaz was in her late 30s at this point. This meant that, when I had known her when I was 11/ 12, had her on MSN and regular spoken to her, she had been in her late 20s. This made me feel very uneasy.
I didn’t stick around with GGS and Habbo long because I was just starting my first year at university, as well as starting my first job. Around Christmas 2010, in my opinion the greatest Christmas campaign Habbo have ever done, due to it being the holidays, there was a big lull in work and at uni, but the weather was pretty rubbish, so I found myself returning to Habbo. By a great coincidence, I found that many oldies also returned at the same time. This return also coincided with the return of “Quarterback”, the owner of Habbo Police Department, the single greatest help centre in Habbo history. “Quarterback” reopened HPD and got many of us hooked onto Habbo again. However, he turned out to be a liar of boink/ Mariah_C-ish proportions. First he revealed he wasn’t the real Quarterback, he was his cousin. It later transpired that he wasn’t even his cousin, he was just some guy who made Quarterback on another English-speaking hotel before they all got merged into one. Despite this, I’m happy to credit him as the guy who got a lot of us back into Habbo. GoldenGunner/ SilverSurfer/ Grayham took over as our leader.
I know it isn’t a particularly popular opinion, but I had no problem with the merge, personally. I’m not a racist or a xenophobe, so I didn’t mind the influx of Americans, Canadians, Australians, etc. I was actually looking forward to meeting interesting people. They didn’t always make it easy though. One of my first interactions with a “foreign” help desk was Habbo Gurus, owned by Invoiced. To this day I still don’t know anything about Invoiced or what her problem was, but everyone who worked for her help desk seemed brainwashed. They’d kick us as soon as we entered her room and they’d come in to our room and abuse us, all without any provocation. My only explanation is that Invoiced was completely nut, but she disappeared pretty quickly so who knows? We received slightly similar, though a lot less psychotic and aggressive treatment from the Habbo Advice Team, though I’ve since got to know them and their staff and I don’t have a bad word to say about any of them.
The Great Mute and beyond
We dominated the world of Habbo helping in 2010 and 2011, and I was able to get Attached unpermed after appealing. With Attached back, I decided to take advantage of the marketplace and start working on my long term Habbo goal, the museum. My intention was to gather and organise all of the furniture on Habbo, both the normal, the rare and the untradeable, and laying them out in a series of rooms for all to see. Toby, Barry and Liver-oil continued our successful team by joining up with me. I was also approached by HOSKO02 and DJ_Shadow, a passionate pair of Habbo historians, who joined the Museum team. My main motivation behind the Museum was so I could leave something on Habbo to say thanks to them for all of the good years they had given me, not recognition, though we received great recognition on 21st March 2012 when the room was liked by staff. We have reached the point where the Museum has pretty much every non-rare furniture showcased in it, as well as most rare furniture. Currently, I try to gather all the new furniture that is released as soon as possible, whilst slowly working towards getting the few rares we lack.
A fallout with Grayham saw a coup take place, where he was overthrown and we all moved to our final help desk, Come Here for Help and Advice, owned by Toby. We were comfortably the best help desk around in 2011 and 2012, though before long it became apparent that the golden age of Habbo helping was grinding to a halt. Helpers we always be helpers though, whether we have a help desk or not, it is just in our nature. Even today I helped a new user by telling him where to get pets and how to get credits.
June 2012 saw Habbo hit with possibly the biggest blow in its entire history. Undercover Channel 4 reporters exposed the fact that paedophilia and inappropriate discussion was rife. I was eating my dinner whilst the Channel 4 report was on the TV. My mother turned to me and said “Habbo… you used to use that didn’t you?”, yeah, used too… I wasn’t too surprised personally. I’d known that moderation on Habbo had been slack for years and years and it was only a matter of time someone pulled them up on it. In fact, my only real surprise was it took so long for Habbo to get exposed. As a precaution, Habbo was muted for just under a month whilst they figured out the best strategy.
After Habbo was unmuted I was able to crack on with the Helper Talent Track. I’d like to think I was amongst the first to reach the “TBD” level, as I did so in August 2012, pretty soon after its inception. I’ve been very unimpressed with the lack of any progress since this though.
Habbo Today – my view
I know it isn’t a particularly popular view nowadays, but I think current Habbo as a “product” is better now than it was when I first joined. Seriously! I look at things like Wired (possibly the greatest innovation in Habbo history), rideable Horses, breedable Monster Plants and breedable Pets, Holes which allow for room customisation and Bots you can put in your own private rooms and just imagine how good they would have been in “old Habbo”.
Although Habbo went through a spell when the UI was very crowded and messy, I think at the moment it is very nice, simple and clear. I miss the “big hand”, it reminds me of happier times, but it was a pain in the bum! “My stuff” is so much easier to use and is much more universal.
The range of clothing and accessories, plus the amount of colours available, is so much greater. Compare the original catalogue ranges, like Area, Iced, Lodge, Mode, Plasto and Pura, to their more modern equivalents, like Anna, Coco, Cubie, Executive, USVA and Waasa and just look at the improvement in detail. I find it amazing. I think the furniture that they are producing nowadays is really good.
Maybe I am easily impressed though. I came from a time where Habbo had a maximum user limit and you couldn’t log on if there were too many people on. It used to lag a lot as well.
Habbo lacks one major thing though. It desperately needs one thing back, but unfortunately I don’t think it’ll ever get it back. Habbo needs its soul. It needs its community back. Habbo used to be highly populated with a thriving, busy community full of committed and innovative users who made things happen. Now it has a load of self-entitled moaners. It had its helpers, it had its casino people, its fansite/ radio people, its roleplayers, its traders, its room builders, its games players, its chatters etc. I can’t pinpoint an exact moment. Some people say it was the move from Shockwave to Flash, some say it was the merge, some it was the Channel 4 incident. Maybe it was a combination of many things? Either way, Habbo lost its soul and it lost its community and, despite its best efforts, it hasn’t been able to recapture it. Habbo in the early 00s was very sweet and it had a lot of charm. It doesn’t anymore. It tries to but it just feels so false. Maybe this is because I’m older and more cynical, and I’ve seen it all before. Who knows?
I genuinely feel for Habbo to be honest. October 2002 when I first logged into Habbo, the internet was very new and Habbo was comfortably one of the most impressive things on it. There was no myspace, no Facebook, no Twitter. You couldn’t go online on your PlayStation or your X-Box yet. There were no smartphones or tablets. How times have changed. I think Habbo looks a bit dated.
I’m not going to pretend Habbo was completely free of bullies and k**** in my day, because it wasn’t, but the internet wasn’t the troll heaven it is since become. Habbos these days can find themselves on the end of some pretty hurtful abuse. Habbos are not particularly welcoming to new users. I really feel so Sulake and their staff. I wish them all the best and I genuinely want Habbo to get back on track and get back to how it was in the early 00s.
From MattSadler to Attached Concluded
Whether I like to admit it or not, I owe Habbo a hell of a lot. I was terrified about starting secondary school and I was worried about not being able to make friends. Habbo provided me with an escape where I could relax and forget about what was on my mind. Over the years it provided me with many escapes. Habbo also helped me with making friends, as I introduced Habbo to the kids in my year and many of them joined up. It provided us with another platform to expand our new friendships.
PrittStick has been one of my best friends since I was two years old, and I can see his house if I looked out of my bedroom window, but we are not particularly similar. I was much more active and wanted to go out and play football, while he wanted to stay home and play guitar, but I believe Habbo played a big part in the fact we’re still friends to this day. If I look out of my attic window, I can see cam.03’s house. We only met in secondary school, but again I believe Habbo played a big part in firming our friendship, and we’re still friends to this day.
I can name a large number of Habbos I have been friends with since 2002 and am still in contact with today, friends for life. Habbos like Barry, Toby, Liver-oil, HackAlert, 123David456, Jessica., .Rachael., rachumz, IOU and Lorna immediately spring to mind. I’d also like to point out that IOU and Lorna originally met on Habbo, but began a relationship and still live together to this day.
We’re often polled on Habbo, “would you recommend Habbo to a friend?” Our possible answers are either a scale of 1-10 or “Definitely”, “Maybe”, “Don’t know”, “Probably not”, “Definitely not”. Put it this way, would you recommend over 12 years of enjoyment and friendships? I sure would.
I will probably add more to this as time goes on, but thank you for reading so far. Look me and my Museum up on Habbo, I’m still using Attached.
The people I’d like to thanks
This is a list of people who have influenced my time on Habbo, either as friends, enemies, acquaintances or just people who have had an impact. As stated at the very beginning, many of these accounts no longer exist, or have been deleted and re-made by somebody else. If you know/ knew me and feel your name should be included, please get in touch and let me know.
!x!LaUrEn!x!, ..AmY…, .:leigh:., .:.:V.i.r.u.s:.:., .::twerd::., .:paparoach:., .Chillz., .Rachael., .RACHEY!xo, ,Good, ,Jodie, ,PlasticCups, :Became, :Jaz, :s:i:m:o:n:e:, :SteveH, :Technical, ---Sophiee. , -FlavaXS-, -Massey, -Sunflower-, -TechniqL, -UGLY-, -undefined-, =:Elliot:=, =GIEVANS08=, 0rca, 123David456, 2Crime, 3D!/ Commiserating/ SafeConduct, 99p, 9T, AaronAS, ace_kid, admiralpicard, Aisling, Akela!/ Lincognito, Alexay, alexb12kt2, Amanda, ambitia, AMELIIA-XO, americansheriff/ Axiv, Amiea, Amusing, Asher, Atlanthics, atomic2411, Auctora, AztecBeauty, Bacon, BaconPasty, BadgeWay, Badimpact, barry156/ Barry, batley-boy, Battering, Bauen, Baxa, Becs, beetlejooce, Beqzo, Berrence/ Berrence2k3/ Berrene2k4, Bexter…., bhcop, bill, BizarreLove, blackmaggot, BLIPRULES, Bmxs, bob, boink, Bono15, Boosh94, bored_1, bortwein, Braggles, Brawl, bunc.man, burntmill, buster, Callie, cam.03, CaptainAJ!, catHd, Carehome, Carl, Carlsta, Caster, catid, Catwick, Cheezy2, Chewy, Chipman, CindyLuWho, Coaxiom, ColourVision, Crimple, cringe, CPJC, crazy-frog9, CW94, DaCoolster, Daedalous, dahelper, dancintrackstar, DarkPurple., Dave..ThatsMe, Day., Daycares, Dearest, Deckeh, deegers, deejayFalcon!., Defio, DemetriusL, dibblez, Diff, dj.theman., DJ-3000, DJ_Shadow, DJMO, Don_Beech, Document, Dotstar/ liamtomo, Dr.Evans, Dr.Pill!, dr_mahboub, Dyslexic,, E.G.Bizzle, e5, EatBeans?, ecra, ediootti, Elux, emeraldpanther, EmoFromSouth, enex, Ensoul, evansy1, Evil-Carrot, EvilSpaceCat, Expexious, Exclusions, F5, Fallingpetal,/ Stripeycow-x, Fallinq., FamilyTree, FamousLie., fefifoefum, Fett, FetusKing, Flava, Floyd, flozzyFun, Fluze, Franting, FrapasceIT, frenchkiss16!, FRISC0, Froggydoo, Fuff!, Gahey, Gegin, Generix, GH0STBUSTERS, Givenchy, Glammers, GlitterKat, Glittz, GoldenGunner/ SilverSurfer/ Grayham, GoldenMerc, Gondeh, gooner2407, Grime-Kid.X, gringle, gta3chatterbox, Habmania, Habtaz, HackAlert, HackBuster, Hannahh-x3, Happiness!, Hariseo, Harrison, Haxable, Hel_182, Hexta, Hoober, HOOPYBEAR, Hornchurchlad, HOSKO02, HotelUser, Huge, I_C_E_Dragon, iAuto, icebox12, Im-Cool81, Imp!, Ink-Cartridge, ione, iOracle, J-Raviv, j0zh, J4M1E., jacko880, Jamesy2008, Jarkie, Jedi-Watcher, Jessica./ gothical.witch, Jibbi, JJ_2001, Jaxd, Joe_Computer, Jon, Jorc, jqlogan, jrh2002, Karn, KCMac, Kegx, Kevoe, kid.merker, KingMT, Kild, kilo2003, KITTEN.007, KnickIt, knitty, Kozar/ epsion, ione, irishchild, L0-VE, L4DY.K4YOSS, Lacey,., laganer, Lamp, lBeth,xO, Leerm, Lesbianism, Lexxxxi, Leviaton2, leya, Liizziiee, LilSammie.x, Limecitrus, Liver-oil, Loofie, lHabble, liamtomo, littlemissmollie, lmw-, lollyHd, lora, lorna/ j00, Louise..x, lukeisok, imjustalex, M-atty, mad::matt, MalignantSoul, Mariah_C, mark9087, MARUHA, mat3031, matt2205, Mechanic., meggles, Meisha, miss_sweet87/ Cadbury, Mizki, Moffins, Monsignor, Monsiour_Moo, moosemaster, MrTransformer, muffti/ Iodoism, Mykol, Mystique!, N.A.S.A., Needsy, Newsletter, Nhix, niketotal, nimidoji, Nivie, Notes, Novae, nufcfan121, o.x, O-T-L, obae, OddSoup, Okeanos, on4, ooek, Orthix, Osculation, Oui, P1ckle, PantherX, perpl, Perpic., phil.curtis, PixelSean, PixelWarning, pl0x, Plum...../ Plum-Badman, policedude, PoliteFairy, Postit, prekko, PrittStick/ 182Dammit/ Manoverboard, Program, PsychoLlama, q99/ .:Q99:., QT, Quarterback, Queezners, Quincy, Quro-, R4iiN-BUBBL3, RachGasm, rachumz, Ramsley, rareboy, RareShade, rcrd, rebeccaraaaawr., ReHabb, Rimes, RIO2000, Rob, s.v.c, Sabra, Saol, Sarver, Saturate, scatterbox, Scramble, Sectional, Send, Septicky, Shane, ShaunRobinson, sheep-boy, Shoed/ Shoed2, sianne, Sianness, sierk, siji, Slogo, Skaner, SkaterChu, Snatter, Snim, Soccerboy02, Song, Soot/ Lame, Sophie, sophiethenerd, SoraSafe, Sotar, Spectroscopy, Staunched/ Lillia0708, Stephen/ Wylde, Storking, Styven, summer, Supernath, Surfin-Pete, Syphen, Tech-Guro, TechGuide, tegs/ tegz, The-Habster, TheDreamstone, TheHolyFish, thetyler, Thewelshboy, thjda2, Tidings, TinkBabess, Tiny-Cypriot, TinyTinks, tm, toby300/ Toby, Tommy-Hatkins, Tracey, Transcripts, Transmitting, Trashy, Travis, trunks.15, Tupacalypse, Twix, Tyke, Uniforms., UPLINK, USB, Usul, V3LOC1TY, valrulz, VelvetClover, vForssell, Vitalite, x.sugababes.x, xPENFOLDx, Xenogenetic, XeroCool, XxVampgirlxX, Wackykat_01, wahh7, wenders, WetPatch/ MotelRocks/ Ebbw, why, willmeg, Wise, WiseAd, Y0rkie, Yabbas, Yorkie, Yurre, Zipedtight-xo, Zusak.
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Sorry, I had it all formatted to be a lot clearer, but the formatting didn't transfer over from Word, grrr!