Originally Posted by
doughnutty
I personally thought the merge was a great idea. Yeah it had downsides, crashing RV and things, but the population and variety of people is massive now. If they hadn't merged it, we'd have the same amount of staff spread between the hotels - they simply can't (well don't want to) afford it, with a profit margin anyway. I knew the Hotel Managers last year, as they used to 'sign' the bottom of every news article. However, I left for a while when 2 of them quit (I think) and News articles were removed. The moderators are much less well known now - I think this is a good thing though. They're not bombarded with friend requests and people stalking them to bum lick for 5 seconds of fame. They actually have a job to do, you know?
The homepage shows you a massive ENTER HOTEL button, screenshots of the latest additions (currently Fast food, Niko and a few other things)... what else do you need? It's not a history site. It's much more based in the client now, yes, but it's so much easier to access as you don't have to click off the page.
Firstly, like I've said before, staff actually have a job to do and do tend to be more secluded from the community. A few staff members do go around the Hotel and still chat, just less officially. The removal of weekly newsletters still exist don't they? With a summary of what's going on. I'm pretty sure I got one a few weeks back? Hobbas and eXperts did pose a security risk to the Hotel - the Guardian system, although very similar, seems to be learning from the past mistakes.
So many people complained about pixel and/or room designing competitions as they were favoured by staff. Even the current room building comps have come under massive public scrutiny, so I can see why they don't use them. Habbo's now become much more about actually playing, rather than competing. I did love the competitions and stuff, but they were just so difficult to win - badges give everyone a chance.
The Public rooms were removed with the update to BETA (new Habbo). As far as I'm aware, the games were removed as they clashed with the new Flash client (which is 100x better). With the addition of so many lines of furni and new players joining, there just wasn't the demand for big rooms. There are still a few public rooms, but you won't find that many people in there (well atm there are due to the whole mute protest, but in a few months it'll all go down again). They are reintroducing new games, and did replace BattleBall with Battle Banzai, a user-created game which isn't tooooo different.
They're just trying to update the graphical style. The old pixel-y graphics were so outdated, and they've been slowly removing it. Like everyone else, I ranted and raved when Volter was removed but I think it looks so much sleeker and more modern now. For the older players, they'll be annoyed a vital piece of nostalgia was removed, but the old designs simply won't attract new players.
Cameras were a massive security threat. They actually allowed scripting (somehow) and could be used to capture material that could harm others, a massive part of the Habbo Way. They have been looking into returning them though, and there have been screenshots found of an alternative. How official or close this is to being introduced is anyone's guess!
I think that Habbo has changed drastically from what it used to be, but it's nowhere NEAR not fun any more. I think that many original players have a) grown up and b) lost their known features, which means they're not as interested any more. We can't live in a world of nostalgia though, or we'd all be strutting around in our floor-length dinner dresses and breeches asking "Would you care for a cup of tea, Mr Darcy?", instead of sitting on our computers. I do think the removal of some features is a shame, especially some of the Public rooms and BattleBall, but it's all to promote a new and exciting updated game at the end of the day.