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!

Sanriotown is offering an exclusive discount for its members if they avail of “Hello Kitty: Big City Dreams”, available on Autumn 2008 exclusively on the Nintendo DS. Simply spend 1,000 of your Kitty Points and you get 15% discount when you purchase the game! You’ll even automatically get an open beta account for the much-anticipated MMORPG, Hello Kitty Online!

For more information about this great deal, please click here.

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!

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.

Married To:

Barbara Morse, AKA Mockingbird

Good Qualities:

Hawkeye has the typical cachet of better-than-usual abilities. He’s an expert hand-to-hand fighter, accomplished gymnast, all of which we’re assuming lets him perform admirably in the bedroom. If a cut-rate Captain America without the jingoistic overtones gets your motor running, look no further than Clint Barton.

"The High, Hard Shaft" and Other Titles That Marvel Editorial Overlooked

Warning Signs:

As hard as it is to be married to any superhero, it has to be harder to be married to a gimmicky B-lister. You have to imagine that as Mrs. Hawkeye you’d constantly be trying to boost his spirits with such encouragements as:

"I’m sure next time we fight Doctor Doom you’ll get to do something before Iron Man carpet-bombs the area."

or

"You know, you’ll be technologically relevant if we get sent back to the 16 century! It could happen!"

You wind up living with a man who has a crippling inferiority complex, often making weak attempts at justifying the whole ‘bow and arrow’ thing. For instance:

"Are you sure? ‘Cause we could just untie–"

"NO IT MUST BE WITH ARROWS."

The Clincher:

Pop quiz, fellas: Your wife confesses to you that she was raped, and that she allowed the rapist to die after fighting him. Do you:

A) Wholeheartedly support her actions, only regretting that you weren’t there to kill the man yourself.

B) Tell her that all that matters is that she’s OK now.

C) Freak out, refuse to believe her, and take the side of the rapist.

If you picked an answer other than C, congratulations! You’re not Hawkeye.

Yes, all of that happened to Mockingbird (the rapist was Phantom Cowboy, it’s a long story). Mockingbird eventually tells Hawkeye of the events, and we are treated to this bewildering exchange:

By the way, as you can guess by the villain’s name, he’s a phantom. He doesn’t actually die, he just inhabits another body, so basically his "death" was a mild inconvenience for him. Yet, Hawkeye takes his side. "Psychotic Phantasmal Bros Before Hos, Am I Right, Fellas!"

The story finds our heroine, Kitty White leaving her home in Sanrio Town to try to make her mark in The Big City. Kitty moves into a simple apartment downtown adjacent to The Big City. Although she lives on the bottom floor now, she dreams of the day she can move up to the luxurious penthouse. Help Hello Kitty explore her new home and finds all sorts of people to make friends with! Perhaps by helping others and working hard, Hello Kitty will finally say Hello to her dream suite in the sky!

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!