GameSetMotion: Designing Habbo On $10 Per Card?
So, it turns out that online worlds may be pretty important to the future of the video game industry - we've been asking about just that on Gamasutra recently, with our 'Question Of The Week' on Habbo Hotel and World Of Warcraft, and of course, we have the entire Worlds In Motion weblog on this subject.
But browsing round major U.S. retailer Target a couple of weeks back, we spotted prepaid cards for Habbo Hotel, and thought - what would it be like if we had to spend $10 on setting ourselves up in Sulake Labs' (largely kids/teen-centric) Web browser-based online world? What do you get for your money? This, GSW friends, is what happened:
Some conclusions, then: Leigh Alexander's profile of Habbo on WorldsInMotion.biz covers all the basics and more, to be honest. Now, the age of users in Habbo is skewed very young indeed compared to GSW readers (Sulka Haro's Austin GDC keynote has lots more great info on demographics.)
But from my experience, even as a 30-something male gamer in Habbo, doing interior decoration for one's own virtual chat room is extremely good fun, even when all the objects cost real money. (You don't have to decorate your own room, incidentally - you can just hang out in the public spaces or in other people's rooms.)
So sure, this part of Habbo's online environment is similar to The Sims and/or Animal Crossing room decoration with microtransactions, and as a business model for online games, it works. Looking forward to seeing more games using it - and we'll be trying Nexon's $10 virtual item card next, on games like MapleStory and Kart Rider.
Comments
It's good to see how kids are spending their lunch money these days, haha.
Posted by: Bryson Whiteman | October 8, 2007 9:47 AM
Interesting as this article is, I'm much more intrigued by the arcade cabinet. Is that a 1993 Astrocity?
Tell us more please.
Posted by: Jim Miles | October 8, 2007 11:18 AM
Haw! Actually it's an Aero City, I think, not an Astro City. It's just wired to play normal JAMMA games, though I also have a Neo Geo MVS hooked up to it (minus the extra kick buttons), and I also have a Sega ST-V I switch in sometimes.
Mainly it just sits there and looks pretty!
Posted by: simonc | October 8, 2007 11:49 AM
Wow, pixels are so expensive these days.
Posted by: John H. | October 8, 2007 6:18 PM
Are the items you buy permanent or do they expire after a certain date?
Posted by: Velops | October 8, 2007 7:03 PM
They're permanent, as far as I know.
Posted by: simonc | October 8, 2007 7:43 PM
That's a pretty kickin' pad, as long as you don't need to go to the bathroom or eat or anything.
Posted by: JL | October 8, 2007 8:14 PM
Gaia Online has also started offering Gaia Cash Cards -- through the same company doing the Habbo cards, I think, based on the logo -- which give you 1000 units of Gaia Cash for $10. (You can also get the same deal by buying on the site itself.)
A curious difference, however, is that anything purchasable with Gaia Cash is also purchasable with Gaia Gold, which is an in-game currency earned by playing games, posting to forums, voting in polls and taking part in contests.
One unit of Gaia Cash is equivalent to 60 Gaia Gold. So if you want to buy an item which costs 600 Gold/10 Cash, you can either play games, post in forums, etc., for an hour or two to earn the Gold... or you can shell out 10 cents' worth of Gaia Cash and buy it immediately. You can either work to earn items or just buy them outright in a microtransaction.
The only thing preventing rich players from having everything nice is that Gaia Cash can only be used in the official site-run shops, not in the player-run marketplace. Thus, special items not available in the site-run shops (like special event items) can't directly be bought with real-world cash.
Posted by: Quin | October 9, 2007 12:13 AM
THATS PRETTY COOL THERE!!!!
HOW ABOUT CVS THEY HAVE THEM?
Posted by: Kayla | March 16, 2008 3:05 AM
Hey everyone. Yes, the furniture (called furni), is permanent but you can trade it or give it to other habbos for other things. As far as I'm concerned, Habbo is very addicting for me because so far I've spent $55 on Habbo Pre-Paid Cards. You can also buy days of Habbo Club Mambership for exclusive things. The best way to spend coins is to buy things from other Habbos (coin shops). Cya ya round! A Habbo, -Chives-
Posted by: -Chives- (Habbo User) | June 25, 2008 9:42 AM
Hi, I am not that sure about this. When you go to buy it do you have to fill out forms and give credit card numbers or can i just buy it and go home? When I got it do I go on habbo, open my purse and and press on the voucher code. And then will there be a code on the back to put in the voucher page? Please answer these questions, and if theres anything more to know please write that down with my answers to the questions i asked.
Thanks. :)
Posted by: Brianna | July 26, 2008 9:15 PM
Hi, I am not that sure about this. When you go to buy it do you have to fill out forms and give credit card numbers or can i just buy it and go home? When I got it do I go on habbo, open my purse and and press on the voucher code. And then will there be a code on the back to put in the voucher page? Please answer these questions, and if theres anything more to know please write that down with my answers to the questions i asked.
Thanks. :)
Posted by: Brianna | July 26, 2008 9:15 PM
i nedd habbo coins
Posted by: briana398 | August 5, 2008 5:26 PM
i need coins badly plz donate at my room tank you!
Posted by: habbo name : soldiergirl524 | August 11, 2008 7:02 PM
am on habbo uk i need credits i have non for ever am called aaran977
Posted by: aaransutton | September 2, 2008 12:53 PM
um. cool im on habbo.com.au can you give me credits? i need exactly 100. thanks
Posted by: Leanne | November 7, 2008 9:55 PM