OHMYGOSH YOU GUYS. I am sooooo sorry that I did not post this three days ago.  I totally meant to.  My work hours for the holidays are insane and I literally did not have the time to get these screenshots uploaded and together in one place until now (it is half an hour past midnight as I type this).

So without further ado - Hello Kitty’s 35th Birthday Extravaganza!!  (Important note: Click on any of these to view the full resolution)

This is how the map of London looked about 15 minutes before the party began.

So many people milling about!  And the festivities haven’t even begun!  (Pay attention to the system clock throughout all of these.)

My muffled words, barely heard over the crowd…  Reminds me of her birthday last year.  Holy cow, has it really been a year?

Following GM Pirate around and trying to find the event trigger spots… 

…Okay, maybe it’s here…

Mimmy… Mimi… same person!!

London Bridge is… doing a pretty good job holding everyone up.

BunnyWinx is stealing Pirate’s sparkling powers.

That’s a lot of people crowded around one spot. 

At this point, I thought to view GM Pirate’s status… what I saw there scarred me to my very soul… 

It’s like playing Follow the Leader … in a group of hundreds of people.

After following all of the scavenger hunt prompts, the world went white… this conversation  is what resulted in the Shoutbox in the Aeria forums. XD

THIS… IS… CAKE TOWN.

So many people all attacking this poor defenseless cake!!  …And such little damage output.  This part especially, pay attention to the system clock in these screenshots…

Wanted a pic showing the top of the cake.

Almost… there…  Oh look, everyone’s position in the mini-map looks like a big smilie face. C:

The pinata EXPLODED!!  Candy for everyone!!  Happy birthday, Hello Kitty and Mimmy!!

Everyone admired their prizes.  I got a boring Red Boston Bag.

Everyone… EVERYONE… wishes they could have been one of the lucky few to obtain the Hello Kitty Plush.

Even after the party, London remained to be a hopping joint.  With everyone spaced out like this, I think you get a better idea of the scale of how many people were present for this.

Thanks for reading, everyone!  Let’s keep having fun and exciting HKO adventures!! 

Is everyone ready for Hello Kitty’s birthday celebration in HKO?  It’s only an hour away!  I spent all weekend dedicated to hoarding Birthday Tokens so I could get all that special edition gear!  I met my goals and even got a few extra things to boot! n.n

I plan to be there the moment the event starts!  THE MASTER PINATA SHALL BE MINE!!

Speaking of pinatas, a lot of folks are going to miss seeing them around.  They were a great way to chat with other players and encouraged teamwork.  Let’s hope they show up again in the future - perhaps not as a permanent feature, but for special events like this one!

I will have screenshots of the event!  Keep in touch, lovelies~

Hi guys!  Is everyone enjoying HKO??

I am, now that I have my character back!

Not too long ago, I attempted to link my SanrioTown account to my AeriaGames account (as prompted when I tried logging in one day), only to find that doing so reset my character!  Aaah!  I was really worried for a moment, mostly for the Birthday Tokens I’d acquired thus far.

Now, let me share with you how awesome AeriaGames’ customer support is.  Here is the correspondence between myself and the support staff over the last couple of days.

> BunnyWinx  sent a message using the contact form at
> http://www.aeriagames.com/contact.
>
> I posted this in the forums, and someone suggested I send the whole thing
> along to you guys. I can’t word it any better than what I posted in the
> thread, so I’m just going to copy it here. If any help can be offered, I
> would greatly appreciate it. I am very eager to participate in the
> Birthday event going on and the idea that I might miss it is tearful. ;~;
> The original thread is here:
> http://hko.forums.aeriagames.com/viewtopic.php?t=1247
> My message was as follows:
>
> ~~~~~
>
> So up until now, I’ve been logging into HKO with my SanrioTown e-mail and
> password. I always thought that was a little curious, because HKO is an
> AeriaGames title, which I have prior experience with through Domo and
> Megaten.
>
> So just now - literally seconds ago - I tried signing in with me
> AeriaGames info. A message came up saying that I could link my AeriaGames
> account with my SanrioTown account, which sounded pretty cool. I linked the
> two as directed (making sure to link my AeriaGames account with an existing
> SanrioTown account), got a message of confirmation, and then was prompted
> to close that little pop-up box and log in again for real.
>
> I did so.
>
> Upon logging in, I was prompted to create a new character. My existing
> character has been reset.
>
> I even tried going back and logging in with my SanrioTown information, as
> I have been for the past two days since Open Beta has been open (as well as
> all through CB), to find that that, too, led me to the character creation
> screen.
>
> Is this something that can be fixed, with a little tweaking in my account
> info? I have put a number of hours into my character in the past two days,
> especially into acquiring Birthday Tokens. Furthermore, checking for my
> character’s name’s availability (”BunnyWinx”) at the character creation
> screen tells me that that name is already in use. This actually gives me
> some hope, because I know that the data for my existing character is still
> out there somewhere.
>
> … So … um … help? :D;
>
>
> Edit: I realize that there is an option out there for unlinking one’s
> AeriaGames and SanrioTown account. Will doing that give me access to my
> character again? Of further note, I did not actually go through with the
> second character creation screen, so as of right now my accounts are
> attributed to no existing character (in my assumption). If such is the
> case, then I apologize for making this thread when this issue has already
> been addressed in other threads… but I hadn’t seen my specific situation
> mentioned in any of the other threads (maybe an error on my part - I admit
> I have not read every thread in full), so at this point I’m just unsure if,
> when my two accounts are unlinked, it will give me access to my existing
> character once again.

Dear BunnyWinx,

We are sorry for your account issue. We will look into the options for
correcting this. In the meantime, when you log in using your SanrioTown
account, which character appears, your old or new one?

We will get back to you with an update soon.

Kind Regards,

Team Aeria

Dear AeriaGames,

Thanks so much for replying!  I am deeply grateful that the issue is being looked into.  I just checked my thread in the forum again and it looks like I am not the only person to experience this.  Basically, it sounds like the root of the problem is that we logged into the game using our SanrioTown accounts instead of AeriaGames accounts.  There was nothing stating that we should do otherwise - players such as myself who participated in previous closed beta periods just signed in with our SanrioTown info out of habit, I guess.

By the way, I also noticed that I do not have the “Beta Founder” title with my username in the Aeria forums.  I think that this is because I played through the entire closed beta period with my SanrioTown account - there is no info in my Aeria profile that I ever played HKO!  Ack!  What makes this all the more frustrating is that all of this is completely my fault.  If I’d just played HKO with my Aeria account from the beginning than none of this would be happening, and I am very sorry for putting you through the trouble of fixing it now.

Perhaps I am overstepping my boundaries in asking this, but - is it still possible for my Aeria profile to be considered a Beta Founder?  The title itself is unimportant to me, but I’m afraid of missing out on the rewards granted in-game.

Oh, and I almost forgot - in answer to your question about what character appears when I log in: both logins take me to the character creation screen.  I didn’t go through with creating a new character because I was afraid that doing so would make my original character unobtainable.  Checking for username availability for “BunnyWinx” says that the name is already in use, so I cling to the small hope that the data for my original character still exists.

Thanks SO MUCH for your time,
Bridget

Dear BunnyWinx,

We are continuing to troubleshoot the issue. As part of this process we have
unlinked your accounts. Please attempt to login with your sanriotown account
and let us know if your character is still there.

We have also added the beta founder icon to your profile. :)

Please let us know the result,

Team Aeria

Dear AeriaGames,

Ohmygosh!!  It worked!  Yaaaay!  I’m so happy to have my original character back, with all of the levels and skills and items and Birthday Tokens and Loyalty Points I had with her.  And wow!  Such speedy service on your part.  I was really worried that I’d be unable to participate in Hello Kitty’s birthday events.  It’s so awesome to know that Aeria truly does care for its playerbase.  Hurray for you guys!

So basically, for now I just need to keep signing in with my SanrioTown account and not link my Aeria account to it, it seems.  I’m unsure how that will affect future events - it depends on if rewards are granted to the Aeria account and brought into the game through that username, or if rewards are deposited directly on the character in-game.  I’m not even sure if I’m describing that right, and I certainly can’t claim to know how all the technical aspects of these sorts of things are handled.  Regardless, it shouldn’t be too much of an issue, because the odds of me actually winning any events are fairly slim!  And if an issue of the sort does come up in the future, I suppose it’s just a matter of me contacting you guys to get it straightened out.  Now that I know how effectively (and swiftly!) these requests go through, I will certainly not hesitate to do so in the future.

Thanks again for helping me out, and for being all awesome and stuff, and for the forum title!
Bridget

Dear BunnyWinx,,

We are glad it worked! However, in order to receive your bunny slippers from
closed beta your account will need to be linked to an Aeria account. If you
want to try again it is up to you. If you run into the error again you can
always write us back and we will unlink your accounts, and figure out another
way to send you your closed beta rewards.

We’re glad everything worked out, and your character is still there!

Kind Regards,

Team Aeria

Dear Aeria Games,

Thanks again for the reply!
I realize that my rewards will not be granted to my character unless the accounts are linked.  However, for the time being I would like to continue accumulating Birthday Tokens with my character and participate in Hello Kitty’s birthday event on November 1st.  I worry that attempting to link accounts again (and missing a few more days of play time) would result in me missing out on trading those Tokens for rewards, or (gasp) missing Hello Kitty’s birthday party!

But in one week’s time, I will try linking accounts again, and I will let you know of the result.

Have a nice Halloween! c:
Bridget

Seriously, how cool are these guys?  I got my character back in only four days!  That’s great service!  Not all MMO publishers are nice like that, so it’s good to know that they’re out there.

Not much else to say besides all that, so I’m about to start playing HKO again and rack up some more Birthday Tokens!

I finally got my chance to play HKO when I got home from work yesterday!  Ah, it was nice to create my character and know for sure that there will not be a server wipe later, and that this BunnyWinx will be the BunnyWinx from here on out.  If that makes any sense.

I was so excited to be playing, I forgot to take screenshots!  But I’ve already made a handful of new friends.  DawnLaRee was the first SanrioTown name that I recognized.  There was also SarahJane, who recognized me right away from my post about kitty hats!!  Omg and there were soooo many others. @_@  I wish I could recall everyone else’s names.

The items available in the Party Master’s shop look so incredible!  How will we ever obtain enough Birthday Tokens in time to purchase what we want?? D8  I’m absolutely in love with the fan weapon, and I’d also like to have the pink bow hair ribbon (it had “Candy” in its name but I don’t remember what it was called exactly), and the cute white-and-pink top (which had “Angel” in its name but again, I forget its full name XD).  Some of the furniture is also quite awesome, especially the pink television.  I didn’t get far enough in the previous beta to experience Housing, so furniture and stuff would be a totally new experience for me. c:

So all of that added together comes to over 100 Birthday Tokens.  Aah!!  I only have 13!

Sounds like I need to get some people together and play that Emote minigame!

Omg how exciting!!

When this post came about, everyone was a little bit worried that Hello Kitty’s birthday events would only be available in those few countries who already have their Open Beta phase going on… but this morning, Aeria announced that the North American HKO is open!!  Yippeeeeeee!!

GO PLAY

I personally cannot wait to see what changes and improvements have been made.  Did Aeria answer the call when thousands of users asked for the economy to be rebalanced??

…I won’t be able to check until I get home from work. D8

I hear this Facebook place is pretty popular nowadays.

So I was using the Pieces of Flair app and searched for Hello Kitty Online and there were NO RESULTS.    So I used the “Create” feature and put a few different ones together. 

Add this Flair to your collection: ~Click~

~Click~

~Click~

…And after that I just… kept making Flair.   All of these images are from SanrioTown’s monthly Downloadables.  I kind of… collect them. 

~Click~

~Click~

~Click~

~Click~

~Click~

~Click~

~Click~

~Click~

Free for everyone to use and enjoy!  Send ‘em to your Facebook buddies or keep them all for yourself.

Hi again!  Wow, BunnyWinx posting two days in a row??  Perhaps she is returning with restored vigor!

So yeah, been playing HKO for a little whiles now.  There are lots of changes, but I’m thinking they’re all good.  The dialogue is better and the addition of sound effects for clicking on NPCs, fighting, and gathering are a plus.

And I love-love-love the new Farming system!  It’s soooo much easier and more streamlined now.  I can’t wait to to redecorate my farm in one of the awesome new styles.  There’s one in particular that I like, but I can’t recall its name off the top of my head.  It’s only level 8 but it’s sooo pretty and has a pleasant stream on either side with bright happy flowers all around, and a sweet picket fence if I am remembering correctly.  Yeah, that’s what I want my farm to look like. 

So besides playing HKO, today I cleaned up a bit of my blog appearance.  I’m using the Little Twin Stars theme for now because it has sweet colors and things.  Pretty much, I just wanted to use a new layout so that people checking up on me would be like “omg lykwhoa bunnywinx is back”

I need to check up on all the folks in my blogroll to see if they’re still around~

Did you miss me?  I missed you guys!  I didn’t actually go anywhere.  I kind of just ran out of stuff to write.  But I have been checking up on other folks’ blogs, and faithfully logging into SanrioTown every month in order to download new wallpapers, calendars, and supercute icons.

So you guys probably all know this already but

Hello Kitty Online is in its next Beta phase!!

Apparently it isn’t being published directly by SanrioTown any more.  Its new owners are the folks over at Aeria Games, who I have some amount of familiarity with because of Shin Megami Tensei Online: IMAGINE and Dream of Mirror Online.  They’re good folks.

It looks like they’ve replaced the GMs, though.  I hope that our homies Neverender and Abby and all of them still have jobs somewhere.  Their blogs have been inactive for months and that makes me a sad BunnyWinx.  I need to check the forums to see if any news has been posted there.

But I’m playing HKO again!   My in-game name is BunnyWinx, as always, and now I am playing in the Magical server.  This time, I swear, I shall become better at this game, and experience more that it has to offer!

Other note:  If you read the User License Agreement distributed by Aeria Games when you begin playing, it states that you must not share unauthorized screenshots or material from the game while it is in its beta stage.  Doing so can have severe consequences!!  Do not put your account in danger!

Besides that, have fun, and I can’t wait to see you all in-game!

Playing HKO again only served to remind me of how frustrated I was with this game’s difficulty curve.  I didn’t play it nearly as much as many other SanrioTowners did, so I’m severely undereleveled for all these event quests.

I know I have no hope of completing the Saving Christmas quest, but I’m taking hold of this opportunity nonetheless.  At last, I can travel to Paris and pay My Melody a visit!

Other players may laugh at my noobish apparel (still decked out in Florapolis garb, after all - not to mention my embarassing weapon.  Even though I bought the pretty flower wand, I’m 5 levels too low to equip it), but I braved the perils of the monsters between London and Paris in order to build up a collection of frilly pink screenshots!

BunnyWinx woke up as if in a dream… strangely, she was sitting on the beach and wearing only her underwear!  “Whoa… what’d I do last login?”

Not far from the beach was a new sight - not only were there holiday decorations all over, but Cinnamoroll was here!  He’s the initiator of the Christmas Event… looking at the quest requirements, I know there’s no way I’ll be able to come even close to completing this one.

DR. WILY’S MONSTERS ARE AFTER SANTA, WHAT?!  …Oh wait, that’s not what it says.   Still, that’s literally the thought that came to my head when I read this.  (And Wily has robots, not monsters…)

I really like seeing these trees.  The one with the pink bows is my favorite~

I just can’t get enough of seeing Chou-chou’s house!  I think it is my favorite location in the game~  The snowman and sled are a wonderful touch.

On my way to Paris, I came across some cute things.  I think this is the first I have seen of the Little Twin Stars in this game!

Omg, candy flowers!  They look good enough to eat~  Nom nom nom.

At last, I made it to Paris!  My first encounter is… Piano!!  Eee!  I love her, she has always been one of my favorite Sanrio characters.  Soooo pink and fluffy.

Her shop doesn’t exist yet, but it’s nice to know that we’ll be able to buy furniture for our homes~  Piano’s portrait is so adorable. ;~;

Random cute flowers and heart-topped banisters in the Louvre… I say the real Louvre ought to look like this, too.

Paris is so amazingly PINK!!  Pictures of My Melody are all over the place!

 

Bagle and Scone?!  These guys are everywhere!!

Had to screenshot this little area here… I wish I lived in a neighborhood comprised of houses that looked like giftboxes. ;~;

Some very very cute ornaments of only the two greatest characters ever adorning this building…  I wish I could see Melody’s parasol, but my inventory is in the way.

Melodeeeeeeeeee!!!   *worships*

Th-thank you… ;o;

Okay, Melody’s brother is ridiculously adorable.   This spot is very pretty, too…

I love this gazebo.  I want one!

Let’s share some of the last screenshots from the magical adventure that is Hello Kitty Online!

These are from Hello Kitty’s birthday party!  It sure was… crowded!

*suffocates*

Well, that was a week ago… the big news nowadays is that HKO Founder’s Beta… has ended.   I have a lot of goals set for myself once the servers open up again.  Among them:

• /*/ Reach lvl20 so I can equip that Florapolis Wand I spent a lot of money on.
• /*/ Actually travel to Paris, so I can see my favorite Sanrio character, My Melody.  Yup… I didn’t pay her a single visit during FB.
• /*/ Try my hand at farming successfully.

Here’s hoping for Open Beta to start up soon!  Hopefully with a party system integrated, so I can help my friends (not to mention get help from my friends) in completing quests and things!

In the last minutes of FB, tons of people lined the beach at Sanrio Harbor, bidding Hello Kitty farewell… in our underwear!  Thanks for bringing Hello Kitty herself to come and say good-bye to us, Neverender!

The GM’s are telling us to keep the client installed, so I can’t wait to see what surprised they have in store for us before Open Beta rolls around!