another blog about Hello Kitty and the power of pink, cute and being nice
I've been out of action for a little while but now I am back again! Yay (cheers and celebration abound), summer is here and I have more time to play again! Anyway for my post today I found something interesting, what happens when you merge Starwars with Hello Kitty?
Why of course, Hello Wars! (or in the below case, Hello Fett or Boba Kitty)
That would be a cool avatar costume now....along side the historical darth vader outfit below.
This is great news that was announced just now as it also means open beta is coming very soon!
My favorite posting on this was on Joystiq. I wonder if the same GM's in the closed beta will be there or if that means it's a different crew alltogether?
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Do you like MMOs, but hate all the wizardy fantasy half-orc junk? Do you wish for something a bit more ... astoundingly, face-meltingly cute in which to meet virtual friends? Sanrio Digital and Aeria Games have just announced that they're launching Hello Kitty Online in North America. Aeria will operate the game, and Sanrio will run the SanrioTown online portal.
The game, which was so great it caused WoW Insider to temporarily change its focus, is a free-to-play MMO that emphasizes crafting and resource gathering over combat -- but does include combat! Players don't directly control Sanrio characters, but rather make human avatars that can interact with Hello Kitty, Badtz-Maru, Keroppi and other Sanrio favorites.
well..at least according too mmosite.com what's interesting is that mmosite as a community ranked HKO higher than Star Trek, Stargate or Dragonica which is in contrast to mmorpg.com I guess the communities are quite different?
Separately, the Valentine Beta just closed, I'll be missing it but we had fun. We crafted shirts and bags for an orphanage in RL!
So for all you gamers who have forgotten about your precious other half, Valentine's Day is just around the corner! Remember to be nice and appreciate your loved ones, real or virtual.
and separately, if you didn't already know as is appropriate for the little kitten of live, it will open up again for Valentine! I'll be there, look us up guild: sailoria
I hope you all had a festive happy new years celebration, I hope 2009 will bring everyone happiness, joy and lots of mmo playing, wherever you are, and whatever you are playing! (you know what I'll be waiting for!) It looks to be an exciting 2009!
and for those of you who really want a dose of it, a Happy New Year Video!
An early Christmas greeting to you all, only a bit more than a week away from the festive season, I hope all of you have a very merry christmas!
So it's been announced that HKO will return for a Christmas Re-union! Details to follow...
The Map that everyone was building for is going to be launched on the 17th December being New York what looks to be a little party spirit going on there just like during the last beta. I wonder if this has any particular tie-in with the launch of the recent new Sanrio shop smack in New York's Times Square?
Below a little image from a previous Party Mayhem!
Today is the last day of HKO, and the finale of it all was topped off by 3 days of players farming away to generate over 340,000 farm items, which were not all easy to make! To quote from the blog below.
In a wonderful statement to the entire gaming world, the players of Hello Kitty Online show what they’re made of, by pulling together their time and resources for a good cause. Through the in-game charity event “Food for Friends” held from November 3-6, 2008, our players contributed a total of 344,965 different food items from registered guilds, and an additional 894 items from some who just wanted to help! As promised, Sanrio Digital will be donating over 12,000 USD to UNICEF and the Asian Youth Orchestra.
This is very fitting for HKO but in general is something I haven't really seen in any other MMO yet and should be done much more often in general.
I'll have more to report once the beta is done! Below, a shot on the construction and farming elements of HKO!
Hello Kitty Online is now running several events, including Hello Kitty's Birthday (Nov. 1st) and the finalization of building New York, but the one event that I thought was particularly interesting was the Food for Friends event.
The concept of trading in virtual effort and cash for real money for a good cause is something really worthwhile and very fitting for Hello Kitty Online, given that Hello Kitty has been the Unicef Goodwill Ambassador before (for real!). I would love to see more of that in other games! See the subtext clipped out below...and yes, Happy Birthday Hello Kitty!
Remembering children who are less fortunate, Hello Kitty Online will host an in-game guild contest called “Food for Friends”, in which the efforts of guilds will be translated into donations to charity. Guilds interested in participating will produce raw materials on their farms and craft them into specific food items. Guilds will submit prepared food items to a Game Master. The guilds with the highest contributions will be declared winners. The winning guilds will receive a permanent page on www.hellokittyonline.com, special guild privileges for open beta, and a small feature on their guild including an interview with the guild representative(s) to be posted on official blog and press releases. Based on the total prepared food donated by all guilds, Sanrio Digital will then make cash donations to UNICEF (www.unicef.org ) and the Asian Youth Orchestra (www.asianyouthorchestra.com ).
