Habbo & SOE Promotions

Just a few quick virtual world deals I've noticed lately...

If you grab a Habbo Hotel card at GameStop by December 13th @ 11:59pm PT, you'll get a free rare Arcade Cabinet furni. I bought my $10 card (worth 50 coins) last weekend and have already received my reward. As long as I'm talking about Habbo, make sure to log-in and check out the awesome improvements made to pets! Your pet can now earn experience and badges.

Sony Online Entertainment is also holding a 25% more station cash promotion for station cash cards sold at participating retailers. Free Realms, EverQuest and EverQuest II cards must be redeemed this week by November 29th to receive the bonus Station Cash reward. I picked up my Free Realms card at Walmart today.

Twilight Kicks Off in Habbo

Habbo Hotel has officially started their Twilight promotion. I stopped in and bought the first of their themed goods... just a flower vase, nothing impressive. Oh well. There's supposed to be more on the way tomorrow, November 9th.

Full details here: http://www.virtualworldsnews.com/2009/11/habbo-takes-twilight-launch-live.html

And of course, if you want to check out Habbo, here's the link: http://www.habbo.com/.

Adam West in Habbo?

Adam West is paying a visit to Habbo Hotel later today. Seems like a strange visit, but hey, I'm gonna try and stop in! Batman rocks. Here are the details:

Details:

Friday October 16th between 2-3pm PT / 5-6pm ET (exact time TBD)

That's right everyone! THE Adam West will be chatting live in the Hotel on
Friday October 16th from about 2 to 3pm PT / 5 to 6pm ET.

If you do not know who Adam West is... Seriously? You don't know who
ADAM WEST is??? Adam West is only the original Batman on the old Batman tv
series back from the 60's! He is also the inspiration and voice of Mayor Adam
West in Family Guy.

So on Friday be sure to join us in the Theaterdome to be a part of this
once in a life time Habbo chat with Adam West!

Update: I made it in to see Adam. Must admit, it was disappointingly short... especially considering the wait. There he is above!

Sulake lays off 40

Ouch.

http://www.gamasutra.com/php-bin/news_index.php?story=25553

Habbo Slurpee

If you purchase a Habbo Prepaid Card from 7-Eleven between September 18 and October 18th, you'll receive a free Habbo Hotel Slurpee Machine furni for your room.

The furni will be added to your inventory the business day after you have redeem the Prepaid Card. Seven random players will get a rare Aqua Slurpee Machine. Everyone else will receive either an Orange or Pink machine.

Unfortunately, we don't have 7-11 stores around here. Is it sad that I called my mom back in Michigan and had her buy me a card? Yes, I know it is... but at least I got my slurpee machine.

Read the full story and details about how you can get one at http://www.habbo.com/.

Habbo Cards at Wal-mart

Starting today, Wal-Mart stores are now carrying pre-paid Habbo Hotel cards. This should make the cards even more easily accessible to players.

The real news here, though, is if you buy a $10 card at Wal-Mart, you will get 20% more coins and will have a chance at winning the rare Sky Dragon Lamp. This is a limited time offer and ends August 30th.

I have to admit, I hate shopping at Wal-Mart. Always so slow and crowded. I usually pick up my Habbo cards at Target instead. However, for 20% more coins and a chance at a freebie, I'll make sure to stop in Wal-Mart this weekend.

Virtual Worlds Deals

So I stopped in Toys R’ Us today and noticed that they’ve got FREE Free Realms Starter Cards. These cards give new players a 1-month membership, some station cash to spend in game, and other freebies. These are the same kind of cards I made reference to back here on sale for 99 cents at Target. I knew they had previously been available for free, but wasn't aware that it was still going on. So, if you’re interested in expanding your Free Realms experience, head to Toys R’ Us and get a trial membership at no cost. Or you could just ask me for a code because I’ve got a small stack of these things sitting around. Remember, though, these are only good for new members. If you’ve got an existing Free Realms account, then the Starter Card isn’t for you.

In further Free Realms news, I stopped by a local comic book store yesterday and bought the first issue of the new Free Realms comic. I haven’t bothered reading it yet, but I got my Spider Bite sword from the code inside the comic. W00t! I’m a loser. Of course, I’m not a level 20 Ninja yet, so the sword is basically worthless right now. I admit, I was a bit distraught over the fact that the code was in no way protected (no scratch off silver stuff, no seal, etc), so anyone in the store could easily write the code down and use it without actually buying the comic. Then of course, when you get home and your code doesn't work? Epic Fail. Beware.

Another deal out there right now is that Habbo Hotel coins are 33% off at Toys R’ Us (which is why I was at Toys R’ Us in the first place). That means you can get $10 worth of coins for only $6.70! I don’t have any huge need for Habbo coins right now, but as long as Toys R’ Us has such a spiffy sale going on, I figured this was the time to buy. Promotion ends August 15 and it's exclusively at Toys R’ Us.

Virtual Worlds Registered Accounts

There's a really interesting graph showing information about different virtual worlds posted on Virtual Worlds News. In addition to the number of registered accounts each world has, the graph also shows the target audience, growth since launch, and their launch status (active, closing, open beta, closed beta, etc).

No huge suprise, the worlds with the most registered account include Habbo (by a longshot), Neopets, Stardoll, and Club Penguin. My personal favorite, Free Realms, is on the graph with a strong 3 million users, which I think has recently been increased to 4 million. Some of the big winners in 2009 include Club Penguin, which gained 6 million users and Nicktropolis gaining over 3 million.

http://www.virtualworldtimes.com/.a/6a00d8341cac2153ef0115720a8ff2970b-pi

Sure are a lot of virtual worlds out there. I hadn't even heard of some of those prior to reading this, although I played/have played quite a few of them at some point.

UPDATE: Just found the article about Free Realms passing 4 million. I knew I saw it somewhere a while back, but couldnt find it. Thanks to VWN for posting a link directly to it! LOL
http://www.freerealms.com/article/detail.action?cid=1053341,EM960&articleId=134

Habbo Open Beta

W00t! I've been wondering what Habbo had up their sleeves ever since I saw the Beta announcement... now it's Open Beta so the time to check it out has finally come.

Unfortunately, no time to play right now. Glad it's almost the weekend because I'm eager to see what's going on. If you haven't visited in a while, maybe it's about time that you do. And then let me know if the updates are cool.

Bobba

This virtual world looks interesting... almost enough to make me want a new phone that will actually allow me to play it.

Bobba is from Sulake, the developers of Habbo Hotel (Habbo fans will recognize the word 'Bobba'), which I'm rather fond of. I've been following it for a while now and it seems to have a lot of potential. If you've got a compatible mobile phone, you might want to check it out.

http://www.bobba.com/

I'm not much for mobile gaming, but I did love Pocket Kingdom. Anyone tried Bobba? How is it?

UPDATE: Gamasutra reported a while back that Sulake plans on releasing Bobba onto the PC in the future. Well, screw getting a new phone... I'd rather play on PC anyway so I'll just wait it out.

“Of course I can say that we’re not planning to limit this only to mobile
phones,” he expanded. "In the future it will also be for the PC platform
market.”

http://www.gamasutra.com/php-bin/news_index.php?story=23404

My gaming rant

Recently finished a review of Puzzle Quest: Galactrix. The game is tons of fun to play. Maybe not quite as good as the original, but definitely worth picking up.

The majority of my free time has been split between Free Realms and Habbo Hotel. I have to admit, Free Realms has really surprised me. I'm addicted to exploring the world, going on quests, and working to level up my character. I took part in the Open Beta and really enjoyed my experience with it, but after they deleted all of the Beta accounts, I was a bit irritated and quit. However, I liked the game enough that I knew I wouldn't be able to stay away for long. I still haven't bought a membership, but I've been thinking about it. Had they not cleared my account after Beta, I'd certainly be a member.

In Habbo, I spend most of my time simply earning achievements and decorating my home. I mostly keep to myself since the game is filled with punk kids. But I do have to admit they come up with some REALLY creative rooms in Habbo. I think I like Habbo because I see glimmers of VMK in it from time to time. The communities are totally different... Habbo has an older audience, less strict rules, and no Disney cutsie-ness. But functionality-wise, there are obvious similarities. Habbo is one of the very few virtual worlds I've been willing to dish out some cash to play.

E3 is in just a few days. I have to admit, over the last year or so I've been out of the loop a little bit with the gaming industry. Just been a busy year, I guess. Before my previously mentioned Puzzle Quest review, I don't even remember the last review I did. Hopefully more coming soon. Seeing all the E3 news makes me miss it a lot. I didn't miss it so much last year, since last year's E3 was a joke... but now that it's 'back', I wish I was there. Too busy with real-life, though. Oh well. Hoping to hear some good gaming announcements.

While I do miss reviewing hundreds of games, attending press only gaming events, and getting early access to tons of games, it's also nice to just take my time and play games for the enjoyment of playing a game and not for the purpose of analyzing it later on. Just gotta learn to balance it, I suppose.