From Noob, to Hobba, to Bored & Nostalgic - My Habbo Story
Once in a while I get hit by a wave of nostalgia and I don't have many people to share it with because most of the ''old habbo'' people have left years ago.
This is going to be a long read so if you're not interested in old school memories, don't bother commenting ''TDLR''. If you do want to share your own story, or you've met me on habbo or remember me from somewhere, then feel free to comment.
The Noob / Beauty contest era
I still remember that night, during the holidays right at the end of 2001. I was going to turn 10, and I had a childhood friend at home. We were bored and just browsing the internet (there wasn't much of it back then), when she said she knew a nice game and wanted to show me. It's important to note that back then, I didn't speak english. I would say I was on my second or third year of english classes - some might argue that it's plenty of time to master a new language, but when you're 10 years old and have one hour of english a week, it takes a while and you pretty much learn the days of the week and such. My childhood friend, let's call her Sam, didn't speak english either - but that's something I was going to learn later on. So she made me create an account, that I obviously named ''coolboy777''. The first room we went into was a beauty contest, where I remember getting kicked because I was blocking. I still remember it like it was last night - My friend yelling at me to move or else I would get kicked (I didn't even know what getting kicked meant). I probably wouldn't have made it very far in the competition anyway, with my green spiked hair and lego shoes - I mean come on, everyone knows that lego shoes are strictly forbidden in beauty contests, right?
After the beauty contest fiasco, Sam took me to Habbo Lido and started speaking to the fine bot who was handing refreshments. We were trying to find me a job and that's when another french person approached me, telling me in french that my friend wasn't speaking english, it was basically gibberish. I trusted my friend, so how excited was I when she told me that she had landed me a job at Habbo Lido. That's right, I was starting at 2 AM and Sam told me that if I missed it I would be fired. Needless to say I didn't show up, because 10yo me sleeps at 2 AM and my parents didn't give a rat's ass that I was working at a pixel pool in a world where no one even understood a word of what I was saying - and I didn't understand them either. My first year on Habbo pretty much consisted of trying to find other french people to hang out with. I slowly started to learn to speak english better - At this point I can say that the reason why I even speak english that well is because of Habbo - and I decided to create a new account, named R.Rick. I know, the name is lame. I still remember the thought process... I was sitting in my room, trying to come up with something original and for some reason all I could think about was R Kelly... And that's what happened. I realize now I had the occasion to have a rare name... Oh well. With my new account and my bad english, I decided to give beauty contests a second go. I kept my spike hair but ditched my lego shoes and I ended up getting a job at W&S Modelz (Yep, with a Z).
The blue shirt and blond spike hair is me, and as you can see I'm HC, thanks to my then Habbo Girlfriend luccie12
http://habboages.habborator.org/Habb...s/wsmodelz.gif
That's where I met Emma, aka luccie12. She was my first Habbo Girlfriend, and I'm gay. She was the first habbo that I added on MSN. She was such a lovely person, I wish I was still in touch with her but it's been years. Back then, the Canadian hotel wasn't open and if I remember correctly, the only way that I could buy credits was with the home phone line and my parents had strictly forbidden me, so one day Emma bought me 30 credits. That was a huge deal for the noob that I was. I instantly bought HC, and sold my HC Sofa in exchange of more coins (I gave my hc sofa to a guy who then used his cellphone to buy me coins, pre Habbo Exchange). Emma was, or so she claimed, in love with me. She was from the UK and I'm in Canada, but I remember that around Valentine's Day, she sent me a bunch of cute little teddy bears and heart shaped things by post. I was in my first year of Secondary school, so I was 12. I remember giving all these lovely things to my then real-life girlfriend (really nice, wasn't I). To be fair, Emma wasn't the most loyal habbo girlfriend either. She had sent me a cute poem that she had written for me but had forgotten to change the name of her ex on it. That was the end of our marriage. It was also around the time that ..::Wayne::.., the owner of W&S Modelz, got banned. I don't know what actually happened, so if someone does know, which I doubt, please fill me in. All I remember was that one day, I was told that he was closing his beauty contest room because people had found out he was 36 years old and they were gonna ban him from habbo, which doesn't make any sense. You usually don't get a heads up before getting banned, although I know that back then he was a pretty well known habbo, and if I'm not mistaken he was the first Habbo to receive the Gold HC Badge.
After W&S Modelz shut down, I ended up making my own beauty contest room, they were a big thing back then.
I could go on and on about all the things that I did during that period but I'll just share a list of a few memories and people from that period, and again, if it rings any bells, please share with me.
Memories
-.:red-rose:.'s wedding chapel
-Amnesty International help desk by ::Denzel:: (hobba)
-Naked/mutant habbos
-Furnis in wall
-The infamous Habbo Lotto. The big prize was 40 thrones, and they were kept in a Hobba's room (Quincy if I remember correctly). You had to buy your ticket for 5 hc sofas (that was pretty damn expensive back then). It was a one time thing and basically you had to choose 6 numbers and they would draw from holo dices. Someone actually did win the 40 thrones. However, the owners of the Lotto were scammers and Habbo even made an article about it. They ended up getting banned and the winner got the 40 thrones - I wonder if that person is still around. Does anyone remember that?
-Wobble Squabble
-Being able to dive at Habbo Lido, and people giving you marks on your jumps.
-Buying non-linking teles that led you to random rooms, so frustrating.
-Quarterback and his help desk
-Callie being Impetuous
-Having rights in someone's room and being able to kick them from their own room.
-The empty purse with the flies (at least mine was mostly always empty)
I could go on and on and on but I'm trying to keep this post short, and it's already too long for my liking...
The Hobba
It's 2004, I'm 12 years old and by now my english has majorly improved. As I said earlier, thanks to Habbo for that. The Canadian Hotel is now open, but I find it utterly boring. Probably because all my friends are on the UK one and since the Canadian one just opened, there isn't much people on it. I remember it's the weekend before Spring Break, and I have plans to see friends and to go snowboarding almost every day. I'm bored and I'm on the Sulake website, to see if there are moderator positions open (one can dream, right) and I come across the list of all the hotels and I notice that there is now a french one. It opened about a month ago. I decide to give it a go and create an account. R.Rick, of course. I see that they are looking for Hobbas, and since the hotel just opened, their criteria are not clear, except that of course you have to be 18+. I decided I would still give it a try and pretend that I was 18. After all, what's the worst that could happen The hotel is brand new, there's barely a few hundred people on it and there are about 6 hobbas for the whole place, so they are easily approachable. I approach one of them, his name was Antoine, and I tell him that I have been using habbo for a few years and I would like to become a hobba. Next thing I know, I'm in a private room with the hobba in question, the head hobba and Sato (the community manager). They are asking me a bunch of questions to test my knowledge and the community manager adds me to his console to later tell me that he's giving me a hobba position but that first I need to send him my ID. I'm freaking out. I'm gonna be a hobba... Well... if I can manage to prove that Im 18. I remember furiously going through my mother's computer to find someone's ID. Back then, my mom owned a daycare and she kept and ID copy of all of the customers that she had. I chose one that was a shitty quality so that it wouldn't look too fake when I edited it in Paint. To this day I still can't believe I falsified an ID in Paint and it worked. I still remember that feeling when the community manager told me to reload the hotel, and then coming back and having the badge. Needless to say I spent the Spring Break in front of my computer. A few weeks later, we received an e-mail from Becs saying that Sato (the community manager), was no longer working for Sulake and she would assume the interim until they found someone new. Rumor has it that he had made some racist comments towards a user. That's when the trouble began... It seems that Becs was unimpressed with my ID. She sent me an e-mail and told me that she had IDs for all the Hobbas but mine was just unclear and I needed to provide a new one. She ultimately ''temporarily'' removed my ''powers'' (although I got to keep the HC) until I could provide her with another clearer ID, which I wasn't able to, so that's how it ended. It's honestly one of my favourite time from Habbo.
Bored & Nostalgic
I guess there isn't much to say about now... I haven't ever been able to completely quit Habbo, although I have managed to not log on for years but I always end up coming back. In most recent years, I've been involved with fansites - Not anymore. I guess Habbo kind of lost its magic for me, but for some reason I keep coming back. There are still some decent people on here, but it's definitely not how it used to be. I mostly log on out of boredom. If you've read all of this and have not fallen asleep, thank you. I just wanted to share a bit of my habbo history and I hope that it made you remember a little bit about yours - if so, please share it.
Once again, if you have ever met me (R.Rick) on Habbo or have any memory at all with me or if my name rings you any bell, I'd be delighted if you share.
Happy Habboing, as Callie said.
