4. Hobbo Hotel Chat
Habbo stemmed from a 1999 hobby project by creative designer Sampo Karjalainen and technologist Aapo Kyrölä entitled Mobiles Disco, for a Finnish band. It was a virtual chat room running on Aapo's Fuse technology. After having been contracted to design a virtual game and chat called Lumisota (Snow Wars) for a Finnish internet service provider, they were contracted for another project. They developed Hotelli Kultakala (eng. Hotel Goldfish) with a small team of developers. It launched in August 2000 on the ISP's web portal. Aapo, Sampo and Dee Edwards, an entrepreneur from the UK, wanted to create an international business based on the virtual hotel concept, drafting a plan in Autumn 2000 and raised finance. By the end of January 2001, Habbo Hotel had been launched in beta mode. The new hotel exited beta a few weeks afterwards, aimed at the teenage market, with marketing and payment partners in place, run from a HQ in London. It featured a new credits system with community and safety features.The next hotel was launched in Switzerland a few months later, in four languages. It has since been expanded to over 31 countries in five continents, including Hotelli Kultakala in Finland which was made into a Habbo Hotel and has been invested in by venture capitalists. In May 2006, the service, along with its domain names, were changed from www.habbohotel.com (.co.uk, .com.au, etc.) to www.habbo.com (.co.uk, .com.au, etc.). In August 2007, Habbo's Chinese community closed down temporarily, the first time a Habbo website has closed. The challenging Chinese market and high operational costs led to the decision of closing the service. Customers in China were redirected to other Habbo communities. In December 2008, Habbo's Russian community announced it was closing in February 2009 as a result of low numbers. Those on the site with "furni" (virtual furniture that can be used to furnish rooms in the hotel that are bought with the use of Habbo Credits or Coins, that can be purchased with actual money) have been told they will receive credit codes for use on the USA Habbo community.
Developer/Creator and Date
Habbo (previously known as Habbo Hotel) is a social networking site aimed at teenagers. The website is owned and operated by Sulake Corporation. The service began in 2000 and has expanded to include 11 online communities (or "hotels"), with users in over 150 countries. As of August 2011, over 230 million avatars have been registered. There are an average 10 million unique visitors monthly.
Platform
Chatting platforms have come a long way since their first introduction. They have turned into massive multiplayer games like World of Warcraft and 3D virtual worlds like Second Life. Many chat games are geared specifically to adults; however there are virtual chat games designed specifically for teenagers that provide safe, fun atmosphere for them to meet new friends and play games.
Habbo's main feature is the "Hotel", and consists of a client made using Adobe Flash technologies. The Hotel can be accessed by logged-in users via the Habbo Homepage. When a user accesses the Hotel they are brought to a screen colloquially known as Hotel View. From this screen, members can contact one another via the Habbo Chat, which acts as the main form of communication throughout all areas of the Hotel, and use the Navigator to navigate their way to a chat room. Originally, communication was conducted through the Habbo Console, which was recently replaced byHabbo Chat and by Habbo Mail, which is accessible via the Habbo Homepage.[citation needed] Official rooms.
5. Cybertown
History
CyberTown (CT) (formerly ColonyCity) was a free (changed to pay per year in 2002), family friendly, online community that declined to a virtual ghost town over the last few years. There were places (chat rooms) available either through a 2D or 3D chat environment. Users were able to have jobs within the community, earning virtual money called CC's (CityCash) that could be used to buy 3D homes and items. Each user was allowed a free 2D home and could locate it within any of a number of colonies subdivided into neighborhoods and blocks. The cost was $5.00 per month or $49.99 a year. While still cheaper than the popular Second Life it could not compare nor compete with it or any subscription based virtual experience. Colony City was started in 1997 as a showcase project of Blaxxun interactive of Munich, Germany. Colony City made use of the VRML (Virtual Reality Modeling Language), a standard for displaying 3D content, including virtual worlds and avatars, on the Web. These VRML files became shared virtual worlds using Blaxxun's award-winning multi-user server technology, enabling people from all over the world to meet and interact in rich-media environments in real-time on the Web.Colony City Society Elements:
- Jobs
- Currency
- Home Ownership
- Purchasable Items
- Security
- Rank Hierarchy
Before the merge of ColonyCity and CyberTown, ColonyCity had a massive unemployment problem which neared 90% of users unemployed, making the main purpose people came to ColonyCity was to interact with the other users. Those that were employed were most likely part of the development team or were the first people to arrive. Midway through 1999, ColonyCity merged with CyberTown which dramatically increased the users to a few thousand. At the time CyberTown was mainly a portal site with categories of links, however ColonyCity was able to use the ideas from the categories to make 3D worlds and expand CyberTown. To allow this influx of citizens to have homes in CyberTown, new "colonies" (places to live) had to be created. This created a huge demand for jobs which in turn created a more dynamic economy and gave new objectives for people. After the merge CyberTown expanded at a fast rate in terms of new worlds being opened and new users joining on. At this point CyberTown had a little for everyone. There were those who were just passing by, those than didn't want to do anything else but chat, and those who wanted the responsibility of volunteering and holding a job positions with numerous places for advancement. The expansion has since died down and no new 3D worlds have been created. It had expanded so far that promises made were never followed up on. Eventually the society broke down to the point where many public arguments and finger pointing was placed on city-wide message boards. Most of the arguments were based on agism, both real age and time since joining. Also the City Council, the highest authority of CyberTown, was accused of improper management and censoring of the citizens, leading into a civil war of sorts.
Developer/Creator and Date
In 2002 Blaxxun interactive sold CyberTown to Integrated Virtual Networks who charge users a fee for membership. IVN has not done anything to improve Cybertown since the purchase (despite promising a quick Silhouette implementation when they took the reins). As of 2010, due in part to the membership fee, CyberTown just could not keep the membership it once had before its sale in 2002, the average number of users online hovers around 5 when numbers over 500 online at any given time were not uncommon. As of February 2012, the CyberTown website, as well as the website for the parent company, IVN, have been taken down.
Platform
Blaxxun
Feature
UNIQUE FEATURES
- role-playing games
- 3D chat
- customizable bodies
- dance at 3D clubs
- explore shopping malls and Flea Markets to buy and sell 3D objects
- get a virtual job and earn virtual money
- go to movie theaters and rock counters
- join clubs with 3D clubhouses
- live events and celebrity chats
- own virtual homes and pets
