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Sunday Comics: Dead Island Cops are searching real homes for clues in the theft of virtual items from Habbo Hotel, the teen-oriented social game that’s been on the vanguard of virtual crime before. This time Finnish authorities are tracking some 400 cases of theft.
User generated content is something of a hot issue, with even universities like Stanford getting in on the game of how to make it easier and more intuitive for people to make their own stuff for games. At the recent Social Gaming Summit, a couple of industry types got together to talk about user generated content in virtual worlds, and why the model works for their games (such as Habbo Hotel or Puzzle Pirates):
Once upon a time, Disney had this virtual world called (creatively enough) Virtual Magic Kingdom: As with Habbo Hotel, Virtual Magic Kingdom was developed by Finnish studio Sulake and shared many similarities with the social networking site. Players with registered accounts are able to decorate their personal rooms, earn and spend in-game credits, and participate in a variety of online events and activities with their customised avatars, all in a “safe, non-threatening environment.”
A short and sweet and mildly thought provoking piece over at Terra Nova asks the question: “Why not qualify the taking away of virtual objects as theft?” The author speaks in reference to Dutch law specifically, but a few cases have cropped up in recent months (Shanda getting sued after forgetting to return some virtual items; the case that this post was based on, where virtual theft in Habbo Hotel led to a real life arrest) that raise the question of what do you do with virtual items when they’re stolen? Slap a pair of real life cuffs on the thief’s wrists? Ignore it, since the items never left the virtual space they inhabited?
Normally, sentences that start with “Dutch teen” are cause for excitement—or at the very least, a Fleshbot post—but this one is nothing short of depressing. According the BBC, six teenagers are suspected of stealing some 4,000 euros (about $US 5800 US) worth of virtual furniture in a phishing scam directed at Habbo Hotel users. One has been arrested, a 17-year old, after police contacted the service’s owners.
For those unaware of the Habbo Hotel phenomenon, the virtual online community features a strong “teen” contingent with some 80-million avatars created over the course of its seven year lifespan. Users can deck out rooms with “furni” bought with real-life money, chat with others and play simple games.
I may not take part in hanging out with teens online in Habbo Hotel, but I’ll be damned if I you won’t find me defending by virtual space in Home with a virtual shotgun. Anyone who even looks at my virtual Herman Miller Aeron knock-off is gonna get a belly full of shot.
Confession: I have never frequented Habbo Hotel. Should I feel ashamed? (Note: Given an over-inflated sense of esteem, anything that I or any other members of the Kotaku staff have failed to experienced is immediately considered worthless and below us when encountered, so the question is rhetorical…if you could even give it that much credit). But a lot of people have tried it out, teens and “teens,” producing a total 80 million avatars since the site launched in 2000. Quick division tells us that roughly 10 million avatars have been created per year, or just shy of a million per month. We’d keep spouting off numbers, but you’ve already stopped reading, continuing your search of import DS titles featuring pantsu and jubblies. “Hobby project” not originally targeted to teens [gameindustry]
There’s a number of wildly popular ‘games’ (online worlds?) that fly under the radar in terms of press (unless, like Club Penguin, they get purchased for a lot of money), and Habbo Hotel is one of those – some of this is a demographic issue, and some of it is that games like this don’t fit into our idea of what a ‘game’ is or should be.
