overall experiance

My total experiance in Habbo was cool because I got to spend some time in a world that I would otherwise have avoided. I think there is some merit to the notion that spending time in a situation that makes you uncomfortable will be rewarding in the long run. Thats definately what I felt at first was uncomfortable beacause I felt to old to be doing spending time in a virtual world but after some time I started to engage people in conversation and learned they were uncomfortable too and some just wanted to talk to someone about whats going on in their life. I met one girl who said that she was so lonely because her parents kicked her out and called the cops on her. She then told me it was because she stole her mom's credit card and went shopping with her friend to the tune of $13,000.Usually there are just under 9,000 people online each with thier own story to tell and you can find out there story by just asking and without having to leave your living room. I found that there was a community atmoshphere to Habbo and alot of people knew each other by thier real names just by spending so much time online with each other they would meet at specific times and one would be from Brazil and the other from L.A. It reminds me alot of online video gameplay such as xbox live which brings people all over the world together. The four main categories we examined in this experaince were sexuality, race, identity. and gender. I found that this particular world was very sexual with its members creating a rooms with anykind of fetish you can think of. As it relates to race I found that the majority of avatars I saw in Habbo were white and all of the staff for Habbo were white as well. Maybe this is because this paricular world appeals to caucasions or maybe the people just ahd white avatars and that would address identity. Like I said before you can be anyone in a virtual world, create someone you want to be and see things from a new perspective. I ffeel when it came to gender more women took advantage and really got into thier clothes and the many intricate aspects of Habbo. I do value this experiance in a virtual world and learned some lessons along the way.

Habbo and Gender

I found that the majority of people on Habbo are female in my opinion. Alot of them are looking for a boyfriend because they always ask some random guy if they want to go out. It also is designed with the female consumer in mind because of the the shopping options it offers and alot of women take full advantage of it because they have the coolest gear and extensive accesories to choose from. From my experiance it seems that girls ran in packs most of the time going from room to room with each other checking out the guys and dancing around the room. This is where I waited in the corner to make my move with my sweet ski mask on. It was only 100 pixels.JK! Seriously I ran into people of the same gender with ages that range from 13 to 45 so I couldn't come to a conclusion about which type of person whether it be male or female really got into the habbo way. This goes back to my thoughts on identity where i said that alot of different people come to Habbo to be someone who they're not. I did notice that most women i saw were hanging out in bikini tops or something skimpy. Maybe that's because of hung out in the cool rooms because I know the spots. I know this that my children teenager will have access to this place because there are alot of suggestive material that I don't want my kids exposed to in that manner. Maybe Im old fashioned but I don't want my 15 year old daughter going aroung typing if you want to cyber and have a cam add me as a friend. Call me crazy! Guys are just as bad because they're running around doing the same thing except they might "stab" you if they dont like what they hear. They also bully others and are quick to find the person they can do it to. This site reminds me of something you find someone doing in their spare time that would be in a movie about the habits of a serial killer. Maybe i'm jaded but for the audience it is designed to capture the material can be too racy and graphic. If it social networking they want then there is always facebook.

Habbo and Identity

When I first started this project i really didnt see the point and and kinda questioned its academic merit. However, the more time I spent in this virtual world pondering the issues asked of us I realized there are all sorts of things you can take away from this experiance. One topic that stands above any other is identity. In these virtual worlds anyone can be something that there not or in some cases something they are. There are hundreds of different categories of rooms to enter and I tried to enter as many as i could and listen to what people were saying. For instance, i spent sometime hanging with people who wanted to be or thought they were vampires and slept all day and played all night. There were punk rock rooms with people who listened to only a certain type of music and dont forget the hot horny single women who wanted to play out their fanasties via cam. I also found there was a big homosexual population that gathered which made me think that this might be the only place they could be themselves and it habbo serves as a channel through which they can meet other people who wont judge them. As lame as it is I was on Habbo on a Saturday night and found that these type of distinct rooms were full and thought that it was might be because they dont have any other friends to hang out with on the weekend or that the people they feel most comfortable with are all members of Habbo and thier online facing the same issues. But it reminded me of the movie , "Boiling Point", about phone sales and one guy says to another it doesnt matter who you are in reality because when you're on the phone you can be anybody. I can see where people would want to spend time in a virtual world because their indentities are for the most part confidential. Also if you arent happy with the way you look then you have the opportnity to be change your looks and create any image you want to. You just have to be able to seperate fanasty and reality. My question is do you think it is healthy that people can act how they want,be someone else and treat people how they want or do you think it can make people forget who they really are?

habbo and race

While trolling around Habbo hotel and trying to find if you could find anything that realtes raceand the site, I stumbled on to an repeating trend. Once you log into the lobby of the site there is all sorts of advertisements and options to custumize your avatar. If you look closely at all there ads such as hot and cool trophies that are to be given to females you consider hot or men you think are cool, you will notice that the avatars they show in all of these ads are white people. Also all but one have blond hair. There is a token brunette but the ad looks like a advertisement depicting Hitler's 3rd reich. Ther are also ads for soccerwith all white players and the special vip club that show only white avatar's which tells me that there saying you need to be white to be part of the vip. A s I walked around the Habbo mall that had 46 people in the room there was only one person with dark skin which I take as there is only one black person in the room or that they dont give you enogh options and diiferent races created a caucasion looking avatar. Also if you click on the habbo staff page you can look at there profiles and bios and of course everyone of them is white. In fact there is a picture of avatars walking aroound coporate Habbo and all the employees are white except for one token black men with his body cut off at the bottom of the page. You wouldn't even be able to see him unless you scroll all the way down.
The picture also has a white women on a chair looking down at the black man and she holding a stick like keeping him in line. Also when I went into a user night club that had about 45 members in it there again was only one dark skin male. The best partabout it was he was dressed like a pimp with big shades, pink fur cat and a hat with a feather in it. Now I don't know if that's what the guy really intended to where or that he didnt have many options beyond that. Point is, I though I would see more people of different races. Maybe it's because I didn't ask people what race there are and they could have just had a caucasion looking avatar or that this site isnt ethnic friendly and inviting to people of different color. Habbo's advertisements definatly are not going to be mistaken for P&G ads which are very multi racial and gendered.