The End of an Era and Virtual World Updates

Happy April! Smeet and Habbo Hotel are gearing up for spring weather with new updates! But first, it’s time to check in with your operating system.

Window XP Says Goodbye

If your computer is currently operating with Windows XP, it’s time to talk to the adult in charge about upgrading (or do it yourself if you’re of age). This operating system, released 12 years ago, truly transformed PC gaming, including online virtual worlds. The system dramatically improved performance, and the constant updates from Microsoft made Windows XP arguably the best operating system for PC gaming for several years.

However, as of April 8^th Microsoft is no longer offering support for XP. What does this mean? No more security updates or patches, which makes it incredibly easy for hackers to find holes in the operating system and use them to damage your hardware or personal information.

Upgrade as soon as possible!

Habbo Hotel Updates

Per usual, the developers over at Habbo Hotel have been super busy lately. On April 4^th, they announced a tablet edition of your favorite virtual world, working beautifully on iPad 2 and newer versions. They redesigned the entire system to run seamlessly on your favorite tablet, including making it touch-screen friendly and installing a new navigator. In addition to this, the catalogue is infinitely more interactive, and they’ve upgraded the manner in which you can deal with all of your furniture. You can also chat and build things with your friends, purchase credits through the Tablet, and all of your rooms and items that you have stored to your account will be available as well.

Of course, things never work exactly the same across devices, and some features aren’t included in the initial release of Habbo Hotel Tablet. There’s no IM feature at the moment, and the company has yet to find a way to allow you to manage your groups. At this time, you also can’t play Habbo stories. However, developers are still working on these issues, and you can expect to see them eventually with updated releases.

But yes, you can build in the tablet version!

With all of that said, the Habbo Hotel tablet version is currently only available in Canada. They’re using this area as a closed beta to work out any kinks before rolling it out to everyone. However, it should be available for everyone within the next few weeks, according to the company.

Smeet Updates

Looks like Smeet is seeking volunteers! We recently reported that they were looking for Guides, but it seems as if they need even more people, and this time they are looking to fill a bunch of roles, including journalists, officiates, gossip queens, astrologers, and entertainers. So are you eligible? In order to apply for any of these roles, you need to:

• Have zero kicks over the last 6 months;
• Be a level 50 or above;
• Have experience in Smeet (duh!);
• Understand and follow the Smeet Code of Contact.

Each role has its own set of requirements as well, and you can read all about them here.

But in short:

Journalists need to have the ability to write, have a Read All About It article in the collection or have recently thrown an event. Officiates, i.e. wedding event planner-extraordinaire, must submit images for a wedding, either one they’ve thrown or one they wish they could, as well as images of three wedding rooms in their home.

Want to fill the role of gossip queen? You need to love writing and prove it with a sample. Astrologers also must be able to write, and you’ll have to submit your own self-created image and a sampling of horoscopes for September. Last but certainly not least, if you want to be an Entertainer, and throw weekly events for Smeeters, you need to submit samples of the videos, music mixes, and images of successful events from your collection, as well as any ideas for events that you’d like to plan.

Of course, even if you don’t want to take on the responsibilities of a badge-holding Smeeter, there are other things happening in this fun virtual world. They’ve recently added a new room for the Hotels: a reception area. You’ll have to handle everything from check-ins to marketing, all while taking care of your hotel’s current guests.

But that’s not all! Smeet is also celebrating Easter with an Easter Smeekiez Collection. There’s a free new room (free until Easter, that is), and the chance to win in their latest challenge by teaching Smeekiez how to be professional Easter Bunnies. A new Smeekiez will be released from now until Easter. Read more about the event, and learn how you can collect white Easter eggs and earn fame points, here!