The Hello Kitty Online game client is now up for download on the official HKO Download Center! Just follow the instructions there, and you will be one step closer to joining the fun in the HKO Founders’ Beta! The doors of Sanrio Land will open on October 8, 2008 at exactly 22:00 US Eastern Standard Time (Oct 9 - 10:00 in Hong Kong Time), so start downloading now!

For those who should have any trouble downloading through torrent, don’t fret. There will be a comprehensive HKO client installer up for direct download on October 8!

As the countdown continues, we are lining up more treats for all of you! First, there will be an exciting interactive tutorial up on that page very soon, so check back so you don’t miss out — you won’t regret it! See you in Founders’ Beta!

Reposted from the original blog post.

After months of going over player comments and suggestions, and working hard to deliver an even better game to all our supporters, it’s time for the big news. The wait has been long, but we’ve toiled to make sure it’s all worth it! So without further ado, we are pleased to announce the next phase — The Hello Kitty Online Founders’ Beta!

October 8, 2008 is the big day, and the this next stage will allow a limited number of users to play Hello Kitty Online MMORPG ahead as Founders ahead of launch, while earning benefits and participating in special in-game events.

And now, here’s how you can be one of the Founders of the official Hello Kitty Online launch!

1. Sign up for an account at SanrioTown.com,
2. Using the SanrioTown account, send a BLANK email tohkofounder@hellokitty.com.

Remember, you need a SanrioTown account in order to qualify to be a Founder, and the email account you use will be the one we grant access to for the Founders’ Beta. Also, questions, comments and suggestions should be sent to onlinegame@hellokitty.com.

What’s to look forward to? The new version of HKO will feature animproved interface, new monsters, new maps, new items, and the opening of London and Paris. The Founders’ Beta will also introduce gameplay changes such as an improved skill system, pet systems and team-play oriented enhancements.

So what are you waiting for? Don’t miss out, because we’ll only be allowing a limited number into this stage! More details to come in the following days, so stay tuned!

I for one will be applying right away!

Apparently this is a recent occurrence.

Anyone who subscribed to the closed beta announcement via GMAIL, better check out their Spam folder so they can get in on time.

The announcement went into some people’s spam folder in GMAIL instead! The announcement on this is below…

Hello Kitty Online (www.hellokittyonline.com) is a free-to-play Massively Multiplayer Online Role-Playing Game (MMORPG) based on Sanrio’s famous characters. The game transports players into the cute and cuddly world of Sanrio Land, where players will meet and interact with over a hundred Sanrio characters, including Hello Kitty, Badtz-Maru, Keroppi, Dear Daniel, My Melody, Pochacco, Cinnamoroll, and many others.
Hello Kitty Online boasts several new additions and improvements since the Closed Beta version, and the Founder’s Beta will feature a new game client with an improved interface, improved graphics and special effects, new monsters, new maps, new items, and the opening of London and Paris. The Founders’ Beta will also introduce gameplay changes such as new skills, new pet systems and team-play oriented enhancements.

So most of us know what HelloKitty is - the backpacks, shoes, funny little kitty images etc. But the makers of Hello Kitty Online, a.k.a. SanrioTown, have taken these things one step further. They have created a virtual world where players, young and old, can interact with their favorite characters from this franchise in a whole new way. And to some, this is a refreshing take on an old genre. A far cry from the standard hack and slash MMOs, with their world of raiding, loot and punishment of the "enemy", HKO focuses more on friendship, doing things for the greater good and simply having non violent fun in a virtual game world.

I had to see for myself what all the fuss was about so I checked out the beta for this. The first thing I noticed was the color scheme. It’s very open and approachable, with lots of bright pink, yellow and white, colors that look like they are designed to appeal to a younger crowd. When I first logged in, the character creation screen was pretty generic as well, no "overly defined" male or female types, so I think they did a great job of keeping the game as non defining in terms of sexuality as possible. The last thing kids or younger people really need exposure to in a game like this, is a predefined self image.

I created a male character and started off exploring this game. The first thing I noticed was the completely different approach to a city and its inhabitants. There were no "guards" checking to make sure I belonged there, no random "wts xxxx" yells, no fighting in the city, no "so and so lfg". In fact, what I DID find was a variety of HelloKitty characters genuinely happy to see me and help me with quests to gain friendship points, a unique approach, to my way of thinking. So the first series of quests I did led me around the starting city to meet the other "vendors" and quest givers. They were all extremely helpful and willing to tell me the exact same thing if I forgot something. After I spent a few minutes acquainting myself with the town and various quest NPCs, I got my first quests outside. "Oooh, now the fun stuff I am used to starts," I think to myself as visions of EQ, DAoC and WoW dance in my head. So I checked my quest and…I had to collect some items from the starfish wandering around just outside the city along a seashore.

Well, to do this, I didn’t have to kill anything, blow anything up or otherwise permanently injure myself or anyone else. I "bonked" them on the head (with a broom, no less!) until they were "stunned" and collected the item, then moved on. They didn’t have an "aggro" radius, they didn’t gang up on you and they didn’t "kill" your character if the attempt at braining them went badly. In fact, I had to really work at getting my "health" low to begin with. And, even after smacking them on the "head", they just wandered off afterwards. No worry about 5 or 6 of them coming after me and chasing me halfway across a zone. This was extremely refreshing, and actually elicited a chuckle or two from me.

There is happy music, bright colors, smiling faces, and a generally upbeat feel to the whole title, and SanrioTown did a wonderful job in keeping with the Hello Kitty story and theme. With a lack of hardcore violence, players will still find ways to challenge themselves to achieve goals that are more fulfilling in the typical child’s eye: from building a house to successfully taming the wild creatures surrounding the villages.

While I didn’t delve too deeply into the title, I will say this based on my initial experience - Parents looking to share their love of MMOs with their children or players simply looking for a change in the standard MMO formula may enjoy this. It’s quirky, fun and non-threatening with a decent learning curve sure to appeal to players young and old alike. It focuses more on building relationships with others and social interaction and less on "phat lewts" and "raiding". It was a sheer pleasure to test this game out and see what all the fuss was about.

Originally reposted from here.

http://www.mmorpg.com/gamelist.cfm/game/334/feature/1992

MMORPG.com previewed Hello Kitty Online with a generally good review, check it out some interesting comments:

Hello Kitty Online attempts to “Bring Happiness to the World” in the entire experience. The game arrives in a pretty gift box tied up with a pink ribbon. The manual is in full color and video tutorials with voice-overs accessible on the game site eases the entry into the game.

Do I like it? Well, I had my little pink house, my melon patch, my upgraded farm, my red jacket, my brown loafers, my sheep pet, my scorpion pet, my boar pet… Closed Beta is over when Open Beta rolls around, little Sylvene will be wielding her super microphone-of-doom magic wand again.

See you at the Open Beta too Sylvene!

Reposted from an article at Massively the graphics of combining Optimus Prime and Kitty does ring ominous.

There’s a certain temptation to believe that so-called casual games are inherently less complex than their more hardcore cousins. Whether it’s born of experience, arrogance, or just plain ignorance, most people probably assume that a game like Hello Kitty Online is going to leave them wanting for features. Having just read an interview with Ali Aslanbaigi, Game Master Manager for HKO, this blogger can say that this certainly doesn’t seem like the case.

Aslanbaigi explains how they plan to integrate email, blogging, and user video from the Sanriotown portal into the game experience itself, making Hello Kitty Online a social media hub as much as it is casual MMO. Say what you will about the relative complexity of an Age of Conan — Hello Kitty Online isn’t just trying to compete with the big MMOs on the block, it’s looking to take its place alongside Facebook, MySpace, and other social media giants. It’s ambitious, to say the least.

The one article that spawned the Title of this article  is here.

Filefront has a good article on Hello Kitty Online entitled: Tired of WoW? Try Hello Kitty Online.

I am amazed at how there are so often comparisons made between these two games who could not be at more polar opposite spectrums.

But if you read some of the commentary, it would really seem that the two have a lot of comments, as one of the comments puts its:

Obviously WoW and Hello Kitty Online have very different target markets. This is why i’m saying that what WoW did for (or to) boys, Hello Kitty Online will do for (again, or to) girls.

So this is something new, fans and applicants of the Online game are being treated to a free boxed package set that looks very much produced and full featured. Is this a new trend in closed beta testing or something unique to Hello Kitty Online MMORPG? I am quite impressed to see this sort of effort being made to their beta testers from the usual download location stuff.

A really interesting post on the Hello Kitty Online Video Contest entitled:

Hello Kitty Online users must sing for their beta

I have no idea if this type of beta contest has been done before, but I think we’ll see a lot more of it in the future. Already the vids are coming in, with over 8000 uploaded at this date.

They are packed with Hello Kitty cuteness, but one in particular from tehguy caught my eye.

The educator in me is also intrigued by this competition. Assuming that Hello Kitty in a brand that attracts a younger audience, I’m fascinated at the variety of literacies at play in this digital mashup of Hello Kitty images. It takes many skills and much knowledge to create one of these videos. I think it’s a great example of a company that acknowledges the remix culture of their audience, much like the kind mentioned in Lawrence Lessig’s TED Talk.

Is this a bit like public Karaoke?

Inventorspot says "Move over World of Warcraft, Hello Kitty Online is Here!"

MTV’s G4TV says "Watch out World of Warcraft. Hello Kitty is going MMO"

Today Hello Kitty Online, tomorrow the World (of Warcraft)… Sweetness superpower Sanrio of Japan, creators of the omnipresent Hello Kitty character, will be taking the cute cat online in what may be the biggest challenge yet to massively multiplayer online role-playing game (MMORPG) dominated by World Of Warcraft.

You have to wonder, how much of this is for real, or just plain funny, I for one find it very funny!!

Well done Hello Kitty Online!