INTERVIEW WITH REDVELVET/FORMER HOBBA
I got together with RedVelvet, a former UK Super Hobba and gave her a little interview, quite an interesting read. Note that the Super Hobba at the time was Cindy, not Becs or Mandy.
Asher: Hey Didi! When did you first start Habbo Hotel?
RedVelvet: I started about 3 months into the beta, when a peak useage was 30 players. I think it was March 2001? I found it through a friend who played Kultakala (Now habbo.fi) and the old snowball fighting game Sulake made as well.
Asher: What was it about Habbo that made it stand out from the rest of the 3D virtual chats out there at the time?
RedVelvet: I didn't really check out any other chats like Habbo at the time, I came from IRC, and it was a massive change for me. Before and since, I haven't found anything like Habbo.
Asher: Early on in your Habbo life, you also joined the Hobba team and later became a SH. What made you want to become a Hobba?
RedVelvet: Habbo changed dramatically when it went "official" and they began to advertise. When I started, you never saw a Hobba, you would occasionally see a staff member or a Sulake programmer with green or blue skin! There were never any problems that required a moderator and things were always fun and calm. When the game was out of beta, scams started and chaos began. The first team of Hobbas was all people who had been playing since the beginning, mostly Swedish, Finnish, and British folks. I was in the second wave of Hobbas, and I joined with the hopes that we could make the hotel peaceful once again. My only goal was to keep having fun and make sure everyone else could as well.
Asher: Were there any Hobbas that inspired you in anyway or that you looked upto?
RedVelvet: Palesky was my biggest inspiration. He's an amazing person, he reccommended me for Hobba, SuperHobba, and I still keep in touch with him to this day. We worked together closely on many projects.
Asher: Why did you give up your badge? Do you think you were maybe too outspoken to keep your badge in the end? :P
RedVelvet: It's a long and ugly story as to why I (and half of the other SuperHobbas) gave up the badge. To sum it up, the Head Hobba at the time was morally bankrupt, inattentive, and cared more about money than people. We couldn't take it anymore and 19 of us quit in the same day, crippling the team, but making the higher staff members see there was a problem and doing something about it. Because of what we did, the Head Hobba resigned and a new team with a lot more structure was put into place.
Asher: Have any favourite memories whilst moderating?
RedVelvet: The whole SonicMouse saga was a lot of fun. I was the first one to see his token white stickies and 15 clones and I was the first one to ban him. When I was made SH, I was put in charge of the team that investigated these issues as they came up. Because of all of that, I made friends with some interesting characters, like the infamous 13.
Asher: How about the funniest call for help you received?
RedVelvet: I used to screenshot good ones, some of the ones I can remember were "HELP I can't see my pants anymore and someone said they're gonna bobba me!!!" and the always classic "What does this do?"
Asher: Did you learn anything from being a Hobba?
RedVelvet: I learned a lot about moderation, keeping my cool in crazy situations, and I got a lot of experience that I use today. I am currently a moderator and creator of an online game and I don't think I'd be where I am now if not for my time at Habbo.
Asher: During your time as a Hobba, were any taboos seen, such as padeophilia/crime/corruption, within the Hobba team and outside of it?
RedVelvet: Ah, you hit dead on the snowball that made us quit. I was assigned to go undercover and investigate a man who was giving out thousands of credits worth of furniture every day in exchange for cyber *** with young girls. Once I got to know him I found out he was an employee of Vodaphone and was sending fake SMSes through their system to get free credits all day long. When I gave the Head Hobba the logs of this investigation, she told me to keep it quiet and let him do what he wanted, since Vodaphone was sending them the money that he was using and "nobody was getting hurt." That broke my heart, my spirit, and my faith in the Habbo staff. I was bound by the Habbo contract not to speak of this for 6 months beyond the date I quit. Once that time limit was up, I was interviewed by Watchdog, which I'm told is a tv show in the UK, and told them everything. I have no idea if that ever made it on the air, as I live in the US. Other than chasing money over people, I saw no problems with the staff.
Asher: You also ran a Habbo fansite, were you amazed with how successful it became?
RedVelvet: I was amazed at how often it was imitated. I knew since it was the first fansite that I'd get a ton of traffic, but I didn't expect everyone to start doing the things I did, such as Real Life vs. Habbo where you could post your real photo beside your Habbo character, and the Ask a Bobba section. The success of the site made me very proud, but the constant clones and people stealing my content eventually brought it down. A skeleton version still stands at www.didicam.com/habbo with some old screenshots. I still have the rest of the site backed up on another hard drive as well, maybe I will bring it back up someday.
Asher: And what about Ask a Hobba/Bobba, can you explain how that all started?
RedVelvet: I think it started on NINE's forums. People would email me, PM me, and ask me the same questions over and over in game, and I'd start to post them for others to read. I intended it to be a FAQ but it came out more like a blog. It was a lot of fun.
Asher: Many Habbos at the time wanted to know what went on behind the scenes of Spanker's HobbaForum.com. Was it endorced by Habbo at all?
RedVelvet: Hobbaforum was endorced by Habbo when it was created, it was before there were official secure forums and we had a desperate need for communication. It lasted a few months before an official forum came out, and Spanker decided to keep it up as Bobbaforum for those of us who wanted to keep in touch after we quit. It still stands today and I still visit it every few days, as do Garfield, Spanker, Madcowuk, and many others from way back in the day.
Asher: Former Hobba, KoRnKat is now the head Hobba 'GlitterKat', have you two ever spoken? Many Habbos see her as corrupt, do you agree?
RedVelvet: I knew her before she was a hobba, we were never really friends but we did work together on occasion. I can't say as to whether she is corrupt, I don't know her.
Asher: What was your relationship like with former Hotel Manager, ione?
RedVelvet: I only spoke to ione a few times, and when I did she was very polite. I had to email her when I quit, and I think I really angered her, because I was less than nice with my exit letter. I wish I still had a copy of it, it was pretty brutal. I have no issues with her, I just had issues with the way things were run in general.
Asher: Alot of older Hobbas left, why do you think this was?
RedVelvet: See above. Most of us left together because the original Head Hobba was terrible to us and treated us like dogs.
Asher: When the beta for Habbo Club was introduced, Habbo took a huge turn. Alot of Habbos complained that they could no longer use the infamous crossdressing or hair cheat. Do you miss the good old days of Habbo?
RedVelvet: Definately. It was little things like this that ruined a lot of the fun and the staff sought to capitalize on.
Asher: If given the chance, would you ever moderate for the UK Habbo again?
RedVelvet: I don't know anyone there anymore, I might moderate for Habbo Canada over UK though, most of my friends work for them now. PrncssDncr is the Head Hobba for them now and I trained her as a hobba on UK years ago! Canadian Habbo seems to have a lot less scammers and idiots as well.
Asher: Thanks for the interview Didi! I think we've covered everything. Anything else you wish to add?
RedVelvet: As much that happened in the year I was a moderator and the 5 years I've been visiting the hotel, I can't come to hate the place. Habbo has a certain charm that even the worst scams and the greediest people can't take away. Thanks for the interview, and if there's anything else you want to know, feel free to contact me.
