Hello Kitty Online, beyond the pink hearts and stars motif
Jan 18, 2010 Articles Recommend|385views
One of the things that’s different about Hello Kitty Online, beyond the pink hearts and stars motif, is that the game ties in with some great charitable causes. Now Sanrio Digital has announced the “Food for Friends 2″ guild competition, an event that lets guilds compete for Loyalty Point prizes for use in the Hello Kitty Online item mall while helping people in the real world. Players from select regions (North America, Europe, Singapore, Malaysia) who participate in Food for Friends 2 will generate real money donations (from event sponsors) through their gameplay that will help disaster relief efforts in Haiti.
Food for Friends 2 runs from January 21-30 and getting involved is very simple. Players can log in and head on over to Hello Kitty Online’s version of London to speak with an NPC named Cinnamaroll. He’s collecting crafted consumable items for the needy. The more people from your guild who donate these items, the higher your guild’s point standings increase.
Sanrio Digital states: “The total donation points accumulated by players in HKO North America, Europe, Singapore, and Malaysia will be used to calculate a real-world donation to Doctors Without Borders (Medecins Sans Frontieres) for aid efforts to the Haiti earthquake victims. This donation is sponsored by Sanrio Digital (the developer and owner of HKO), Aeria Games (publisher of HKO North America), Burda:ic GmbH (publisher of HKO Europe), and Oriented Games (publisher of HKO Malaysia and Singapore).”
The event is still open to Hello Kitty Online players in other regions, but real world charitable donations will only be made in the regions mentioned above. If you’ve been curious about checking out Hello Kitty Online, either for yourself or for your kids, this would be an ideal time to jump in and help people in need through your gameplay. You can read more about Food for Friends 2 in the game’s official announcement.
Tags: Hello Kitty Online
Hello Kitty Online: Checking in with HKO
Sep 21, 2009 Articles Recommend|483views
It has been over a year since I previewed Hello Kitty Online and I wondered why it was still in beta. I soon discovered the reason when I spoke with Executive Producer Grant Wei of Aeria Games who is bringing the Hello Kitty Online world to the North American market. I had participated in the Founder’s Beta - the very first beta run that although was in English, was not the North American Beta. I was playing a version created for the Asian market. Little wonder than, that the GMs I spoke to in-game were based anywhere from Malaysia to the Philippines. This is Hello Kitty for the North American market. Localized, to American spelling, pop-culture references and, I am told, it’s much less of a grind.
Targeted at the 13+ Hello Kitty fan, Hello Kitty Online may not be COPA complaint, but Grant stresses strict chat filtering, strong GM presence in game, moderated forums and a zero-tolerance policy for cheating and exploiting.
Hello Kitty Online is a social world with an overarching quest story line. The Denizens of the world, Hello Kitty and her friends, are falling asleep and you have to find out why. Traveling through wilderness areas to larger cities such as Paris, London, Tokyo, Beijing and New York, you will undertake quests from various NPCs you encounter, learn to harvest, craft items and bake, farm, build a house and breed pets. There are cities and wilderness areas attached to them and travel is via portal. Players have to build enough faction and complete enough quests before you can advance from one city to the next and progression is fairly linear.
Hello Kitty Online is a surprisingly busy world. The landscape is filled with waving trees and flowers and cute little critters that aggro. It’s also very, very pink. So cute, it may make your eyes hurt. Hello Kitty is not a leveling game but a skills and exploration game. Players do not have levels but skills. You acquire skills and better them through practice. You travel and find a fairy in the corner of a wilderness that gives you a task. It is actually a crafter’s dream as the best items and coolest outfits in game are player made. Virtual farming? Check. You plant, water, fertilize and harvest. Put in scarecrows and sprinkler systems, and turn your produce into food and drink through the baking system. Farming can be charmingly compelling. Your crops grow and turn into plump, beautiful fruit and other produce. Lovers of Harvest Moon will especially enjoy this feature. A new day and night cycle feature will send players with planted farms a message when a new day cycles to remind them to tend their farms as fruits left on the vine will wither.
You also get to build a house - which is a social affair, a virtual barn raising. Depending on the plans you buy, you can build the cutest pink, candy-cane (or chocolate donut for the so inclined) house you ever did see and you furnish it with more player crafted items. Other than crafting and growing produce, you collect pets and level them by caring for them. By that, I mean petting them, feeding them and cleaning up after them. Yes, your pets do poop virtually. You can also go to an NPC pet breeder and cross-breed your pets. Merchants in different cities will breed different pets.
“Features have been localized for North American consumers,” said Grant. For instance, North American gamers are more concerned with customization of the avatar than Asian, and different character expressions are available to players, who have to earn them in game. “The mini-games are much easier as well,” said Grant. “Some features are repetitious and that’s not something you can get away from, but it’s not a grind.” Building a house, for example, will still require a large number of different resources, but not quite the number that will seem overwhelming to the gamer here.
What about combat? Yes, there is combat of a sort. There’s no PvP in Hello Kitty Online, nor do you kill critters. Instead, you will whack cutesy little starfish, scorpions with googly eyes and cubical crabs with a magic wand and make them fall asleep. Of course if they don’t fall asleep the first time, you whack them again, and perhaps, again and again. When they are finally asleep, complete with little Z’s floating up from them, they may yield the item you need from them, or drop a pet card. If not, you whack a few more.
Sanrio Digital has built a social space around the game at www.sanriotown.com with forums, Dream Studio that is a tool to create your own in-game video, mini-games and personal blogs. “Bringing Happiness to the World” is Hello Kitty’s motto and Sanrio Digital emphasizes that, declaring that it’s a game that one can play free, trying to keep it away from the connotations of the slew of Free-to-play games out in the market place. Players can also use their software tools and get blogspace for free just by registering for an account.
The North American version Hello Kitty is currently in closed beta, although anyone can sign up on the Aeria Games site. When they go into open beta, they plan to roll it into retail launch, and the item mall will be open at that time. Details aren’t available as to what items will be found in this item mall, but their plans for monetization is more through merchandizing outside the game via their Kitty Shop for Hello Kitty merchandise, and plans to allow players to create their own merchandise featuring their in-game avatars are not far behind.
Tags: Hello Kitty Online
Hello Kitty Online to Debut in Malaysia and Singapore
Jun 23, 2009 Articles Recommend|2,078views
Kuala Lumpur, 8 June 2009 – The much anticipated Hello Kitty Online is coming to Malaysia and Singapore! Based on wildly popular Sanrio characters like Hello Kitty, Badtz-Maru, Keroppi and many others, Hello Kitty Online combines the massive popularity of online role-playing games with social networking, all set in Sanrio Land, the virtual world of Hello Kitty and friends. This free to play game will launch in Malaysia and Singapore in July 2009 on game portal gloot.net.
Hello Kitty Online is a unique massively multiplayer online role-playing game (MMORPG) that provides a fun and visually appealing online environment combining social networking and the massive popularity of online role-playing games. Players can interact with other online players in the friendly virtual world of Hello Kitty. Oriented Games, the official exclusive game publisher of Hello Kitty Online for Singapore and Malaysia will offer the game via its gaming portal gloot.net.
Hello Kitty Online lets players put their creativity to good use in the customisation of their chosen characters, which includes many different options for the character’s hair, facial features, clothes, shoes, accessories, and more. This wide range of customisation options allows each character to be different, reflecting the unique identity and personality of each player.
Players of Hello Kitty Online will roam the super cute virtual world of Sanrio Land and experience many adventures in several uniquely designed zones and cities. During their stay in Sanrio Land, players will choose from many different activities: they can adventure through dangerous lands, develop their skills, cultivate their own private farms, learn to craft a huge variety of items, build and decorate a house, play mini-games, earn loyalty points, set up a blog, and much more. In addition, Sanrio characters in the game will require the assistance of players for solving various problems, fighting monsters, and undertaking quests for various rewards. Players get to interact with Hello Kitty and over a hundred other Sanrio characters.
Three in-game currencies support a player economy and allow players to buy furniture for their home, purchase new clothes, supplies and equipment, and increase abilities such as cooking and tailoring through the use of specific items. Money is the in-game currency and is earned by questing, crafting and then selling goods, and other in-game means. Loyalty Points are earned by using Hello Kitty Online’s communication features, such as blogs and email. Cash Points are purchased using real money via online payment gateways or prepaid cards. Loyalty Points and Cash Points may be used in the Item Mall to deliver special items to players in-game. The game has garnered more than 300 reviews on gaming media and popular blogs worldwide during the beta releases by Sanrio Digital. This free-to-play game is a casual, social and networking game for all ages and both sexes. It is predicted to be among the top games in the gaming world. Gloot.net expects the game will result in a brand new gaming and social networking experience for gamers in Singapore and Malaysia.
Hello Kitty Online is one the few MMORPG titles to position itself not only as a online game, but also as a media platform for advertisers and marketers. Hello Kitty Online provides in-game advertising that offers brands constant online presence and reach. Numerous international brand names have already started to plan innovative branding campaigns to leverage the audience of Hello Kitty Online.
As part of the game launch, Oriented Games will be releasing Hello Kitty Online gaming products such as a limited edition Hello Kitty Online game set, Hello Kitty Online starter pack, a series of game time cards for collection, and many other consumer products. Fans of Hello Kitty and online games are invited to visit Gloot.net (www.gloot.net) to sign up for the Closed Beta trial version of the game.
About Hello Kitty Online Hello Kitty Online, developed by Sanrio Digital (www.sanriodigital.com) is the official massively multiplayer online role-playing game (MMORPG) of Hello Kitty and friends, and the first MMORPG to integrate social networking web services into the game experience. In addition to standard features such as customizable avatars, guilds, skill systems, and player economy, Hello Kitty Online offers a social networking platform including blogs, video sharing, email, and other social communication features providing a brand new experience and an engaging social aspect centered on the magical and cute online world of Hello Kitty.
About Gloot.net
Headquartered in Singapore, Gloot.net is a fast growing online games portal that focuses on publishing premium branded PC online games in Southeast Asia, especially the Massive Multiplayer Online Role Playing Games (MMORPG) genre. Gloot.net is the official exclusive publisher of Hello Kitty Online for Singapore and Malaysia. Hello Kitty Online is a much coveted MMORPG title that has received overwhelming response worldwide.
Gloot.net is operated by Oriented Games, a subsidiary of publicly traded Oriented Media Group (MESDAQ: Omedia, 0018). Oriented Media Group is a leading digital entertainment firm in Southeast Asia with extensive resources and operational experience in interactive media, social networking platform and Internet ad-serving technologies. Armed these various value propositions, Oriented Games is poised to become a new force to be reckon in the online PC gaming industry of Asia. For more information, please visit consumer PC online games portal www.gloot.net or corporate website www.omedia.asia
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Tags: Hello Kitty Online