Habbo Hotel?

[m0ds]

Or internet scam? I've just been talking to someone that's had a thousand pounds stolen from them via Habbo Hotel. I haven't used Habbo for years but I hear these days you can "buy" things like sofa's, furniture etc for rooms.

Why? Why would anyone want to pay money for an on-screen cartoony sofa for a chat room?

Sad, in my opinion.

[shbaz]

For the same reason people pay to have a fancier blog with image hosting at places like Xanga. It isn't sad, it's pathetic. They do it for internet notoriety. People should be striving for regular notoriety instead.

[Pau]

Why? Why would anyone want to pay money for an on-screen cartoony sofa for a chat room?

Because their on-screen live becomes their only one. And Chatting on the sofa is more relaxing.

[Fuzzpilz]

They do it for internet notoriety. People should be striving for regular notoriety instead.

Is there really a difference, though? It's people knowing you and looking up to you versus... people knowing you and looking up to you, except they're distributed all over the world.

Not that I don't think paying for Habbo furniture, MMORPG characters, MMORPG items and what have you is ridiculous. I doubt it really is for notoriety, though. It's more of a status symbol thing. People do it for the same reason that they tend to buy the most impressive car they can afford, even if a rather smaller, less expensive one would actually serve their needs just as well or better. They don't expect to become famous for it, but they do want to impress their peers. The only thing new about it, as with many phenomena of our time, is the "...on the INTERNET!" part.

[Evil]

And good luck finding the managers to inform them. That place is huge!