{"id":6914,"date":"2020-05-07T16:30:06","date_gmt":"2020-05-07T13:30:06","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/playlab.uta.fi\/?p=6914"},"modified":"2020-05-07T16:30:06","modified_gmt":"2020-05-07T13:30:06","slug":"coping-with-social-distancing-is-hosting-a-party-in-habbo-the-answer","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.tuni.fi\/playlab\/coping-with-social-distancing-is-hosting-a-party-in-habbo-the-answer\/","title":{"rendered":"Coping with social distancing: is hosting a party in Habbo the\u00a0answer?\u00a0"},"content":{"rendered":"

This spring the world has faced a threat that seems like a final boss in a videogame: the coronavirus.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span>One of the less serious effects of the pandemic has been the\u00a0<\/span>prohibition<\/span> of all gatherings of over 10 people, in Finland that is. Consequently, all <\/span>student parties and events have\u00a0<\/span>been canceled, which poses obvious problems for the party-hungry university students.<\/span>\u00a0Attempting to\u00a0<\/span>solve these\u00a0<\/span>problems,<\/span>\u00a0we\u00a0<\/span>held a<\/span>n exploration, in which we dove\u00a0<\/span>deep into<\/span>\u00a0the ruins of<\/span>\u00a0ancient internet culture: the infamous Habbo Hotel.\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

First a bit of background. Habbo is<\/span>\u00a0an originally Finnish\u00a0<\/span>online community that was immensely popular in the early 2000s.\u00a0<\/span>It\u2019s well recognized for its signature pixel aesthetic.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span>Players can\u00a0<\/span>visit\u00a0<\/span>the\u00a0<\/span>different official and unofficial rooms, decorate their own<\/span>,<\/span>\u00a0and customize their avatar with different hairstyles and clothing.\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

In 2012<\/span>, a crisis halted\u00a0<\/span>Habbo’s<\/span>\u00a0already dwindling growth, as a\u00a0<\/span>British<\/span>\u00a0news channel reported that the site was habited by pedophiles, who\u00a0<\/span>were sending sexual and vulgar messages to underage players.\u00a0<\/span>The\u00a0<\/span>number<\/span>\u00a0of players reclined rapidly as the\u00a0<\/span>hotel’s<\/span>\u00a0communication channels were muted for a week. The rise of social media, such as Faceboo<\/span>k, struck the final blow, and in 2017 it was reported that the number of players globally was barely over a million.\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

The party was advertised as any other party would\u2019ve been<\/span>.\u00a0<\/span>An event was posted on our student associations Facebook-page a week prior. The plan was to hang out at<\/span>\u00a0the event organizer’s room<\/span>\u00a0and reminisce about the good old days whilst drinking a few alcoholic beverages.\u00a0<\/span>As I\u2019m barely a few months older than Habbo itself, I never really u<\/span>sed it, but was excited to experience it for the first time.\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

And what a letdown it was. I didn\u2019t really have high expectations but organizing a party in Habbo is just a hopeless idea.\u00a0<\/span>The main problem was, of course, communication. Players who are in the same room can chat\u00a0<\/span>with<\/span>\u00a0each other, but I found it\u00a0<\/span>difficult that the messages\u00a0<\/span>disappeared<\/span>\u00a0after a few seconds.\u00a0<\/span>Most of the talking was done in Discord.\u00a0<\/span>Also, as the Hotel is quite empty these days, our group o<\/span>f<\/span>\u00a0about 20 players\u00a0<\/span>attracted quite many curious\u00a0<\/span>regular users, some of whom seemed to be underage.\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

It might be a bit nitpicky to comment about this, but the filter on swearwords and vulgarities was also quite annoying.\u00a0<\/span>Swearing is a bad habit but the filter would sometimes block out even seemingly regular conversation. Also creating your own character isn’t nearly as fun when all the cool clothing is bought using a specific in-game currency, which of course it purchased with real currency. It doesn’t really give occasional users a reason to stay.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

So<\/span>\u00a0is Habbo the answer to our prayers for social interaction? I\u2019ll have to say no. We had way more fun after the party\u00a0<\/span>playing Skribbl.io<\/span>, an online game where one player draws something, and the rest try to guess<\/span>.\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span>But hey,\u00a0<\/span>at least<\/span>\u00a0<\/span>we made the news<\/span><\/a>.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

The image is a screenshot from Habbo.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Should we all be flocking back to Habbo as social distancing\u00a0requires us to stay home?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":90,"featured_media":6916,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ocean_post_layout":"","ocean_both_sidebars_style":"","ocean_both_sidebars_content_width":0,"ocean_both_sidebars_sidebars_width":0,"ocean_sidebar":"","ocean_second_sidebar":"","ocean_disable_margins":"enable","ocean_add_body_class":"","ocean_shortcode_before_top_bar":"","ocean_shortcode_after_top_bar":"","ocean_shortcode_before_header":"","ocean_shortcode_after_header":"","ocean_has_shortcode":"","ocean_shortcode_after_title":"","ocean_shortcode_before_footer_widgets":"","ocean_shortcode_after_footer_widgets":"","ocean_shortcode_before_footer_bottom":"","ocean_shortcode_after_footer_bottom":"","ocean_display_top_bar":"default","ocean_display_header":"default","ocean_header_style":"","ocean_center_header_left_menu":"","ocean_custom_header_template":"","ocean_custom_logo":0,"ocean_custom_retina_logo":0,"ocean_custom_logo_max_width":0,"ocean_custom_logo_tablet_max_width":0,"ocean_custom_logo_mobile_max_width":0,"ocean_custom_logo_max_height":0,"ocean_custom_logo_tablet_max_height":0,"ocean_custom_logo_mobile_max_height":0,"ocean_header_custom_menu":"","ocean_menu_typo_font_family":"","ocean_menu_typo_font_subset":"","ocean_menu_typo_font_size":0,"ocean_menu_typo_font_size_tablet":0,"ocean_menu_typo_font_size_mobile":0,"ocean_menu_typo_font_size_unit":"px","ocean_menu_typo_font_weight":"","ocean_menu_typo_font_weight_tablet":"","ocean_menu_typo_font_weight_mobile":"","ocean_menu_typo_transform":"","ocean_menu_typo_transform_tablet":"","ocean_menu_typo_transform_mobile":"","ocean_menu_typo_line_height":0,"ocean_menu_typo_line_height_tablet":0,"ocean_menu_typo_line_height_mobile":0,"ocean_menu_typo_line_height_unit":"","ocean_menu_typo_spacing":0,"ocean_menu_typo_spacing_tablet":0,"ocean_menu_typo_spacing_mobile":0,"ocean_menu_typo_spacing_unit":"","ocean_menu_link_color":"","ocean_menu_link_color_hover":"","ocean_menu_link_color_active":"","ocean_menu_link_background":"","ocean_menu_link_hover_background":"","ocean_menu_link_active_background":"","ocean_menu_social_links_bg":"","ocean_menu_social_hover_links_bg":"","ocean_menu_social_links_color":"","ocean_menu_social_hover_links_color":"","ocean_disable_title":"default","ocean_disable_heading":"default","ocean_post_title":"","ocean_post_subheading":"","ocean_post_title_style":"","ocean_post_title_background_color":"","ocean_post_title_background":0,"ocean_post_title_bg_image_position":"","ocean_post_title_bg_image_attachment":"","ocean_post_title_bg_image_repeat":"","ocean_post_title_bg_image_size":"","ocean_post_title_height":0,"ocean_post_title_bg_overlay":0.5,"ocean_post_title_bg_overlay_color":"","ocean_disable_breadcrumbs":"default","ocean_breadcrumbs_color":"","ocean_breadcrumbs_separator_color":"","ocean_breadcrumbs_links_color":"","ocean_breadcrumbs_links_hover_color":"","ocean_display_footer_widgets":"default","ocean_display_footer_bottom":"default","ocean_custom_footer_template":"","ocean_post_oembed":"","ocean_post_self_hosted_media":"","ocean_post_video_embed":"","ocean_link_format":"","ocean_link_format_target":"self","ocean_quote_format":"","ocean_quote_format_link":"post","ocean_gallery_link_images":"on","ocean_gallery_id":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[172],"tags":[459,1035,272],"class_list":["post-6914","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-features","tag-casual","tag-freeform","tag-multiplayer","entry","has-media"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tuni.fi\/playlab\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6914","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tuni.fi\/playlab\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tuni.fi\/playlab\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tuni.fi\/playlab\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/90"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tuni.fi\/playlab\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6914"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.tuni.fi\/playlab\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6914\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tuni.fi\/playlab\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/6916"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tuni.fi\/playlab\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6914"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tuni.fi\/playlab\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6914"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tuni.fi\/playlab\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6914"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}