Saturday, July 19, 2008

Anonymous and Habbo Hotel

About four years ago, I saw a commercial on the Canadian TV channel, Much Music. It was for this neat looking website, called Habbo Hotel, an online, virtual hang-out for teens. After seeing the commercial I decided to try it out, so I typed in http://www.habbohotel.com/. This was actually a mistake, since the website the advertisement was for was the Canadian hotel, http://www.habbohotel.ca/. At the time, the American hotel wasn't open, so I was redirected to the UK hotel, which still remains one of the largest, and most up to date hotels. A few months later, I discovered my mistake, and became a member of the Canadian hotel... along with all of the other hotels at the time, including those that weren't English. But by then, the "damage" had been done. I met my best friend on the UK hotel, and although we don't talk every single day anymore, the fact remains, this friend has changed my life. Habbo is pretty much the only place I've met people online, which sets me apart from my real-life friends, because none of them have gone on Habbo, nor do they really meet, or make friends with people online.
Anyway, it seems that I've gotten a bit carried away. Mainly, I wanted to make the point that I still go on Habbo, even though most people who go on are 14, and I kind of have a soft spot for it. About a week ago though, there was a supposed "take-over" of the Canadian hotel. It involved people who make their Habbo's be black males, with large afros, wearing suits. They can often be found in the pool rooms of the hotel, blocking pool entrances, "flooding" the rooms with song lyrics (particularly The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air), or comments on how stupid Habbo and the people who use it are. I don't mind this too much, as these "blockers" have been on Habbo for as long as I can remember (though less frequently), usually leave one pool entrance open, and there's a handy dandy "ignore" button. However, when they did the "takeover" these people took things a little too far. I don't think many people minded as much as I did, either because they didn't really get it, or they could care less, but the "blockers" were being rather racist and prejudiced. They called themselves "nigras", saying things like "we are nigra, we are proud". And of course, the most ironic thing, and the thing that got to me the most, they'd get together, and make a "swastigat". And some normal habbo's would join in, and help make a big swastika in the middle of a room, mainly made of black habbos. The irony killed me, but the ease with which the other habbo's viewed them making this sign of hate was making me furious! The habbo's were more upset when they blocked pool entrances! I don't think that I saw one habbo protest to the swastikas. The mods would eventually step in, and just clear out the room, but the "nigras" just went into other rooms and did it again.
Out of curiosity, I checked out Habbo Hotel's Wiki page, which linked to the Wiki page about the internet group, Anonymous, who seem to be the main culprit's behind the "takeover". During it, a few did shout out comments about "Anonymous". I read a bit about the group, and it sounded rather interesting, and like something that, if used in the right way could bring about a positive change in the internet, and those who use it. But the same aspect that makes the group appealing is also it's downfall. No one leads it, and it's every man for himself. It seems like any one can join. You make your own battles, and chose your own wars. Two different groups of people that claim to be a part of Anonymous, could be fighting the same war, with conflicting interests really. Anyone that acts anonymously on the internet could be a part of Anonymous. It probably gets blamed for more bad things than it's actually done, but some of the things it is accused of are pretty horrible.
Anyway, it's getting so late, I'm barely making sense to myself. I just wanted to get Anonymous out there.

No comments: