Habbo is arguably one of the most successful online chat games, with hundreds of millions registered users, and has been for nearly 20 years. However, no game is perfect!

In this article, we look into Habbo’s moderation and the uprising of the bots…

Moderating a game like Habbo is an immense task.

There are thousands of players across multiple hotels, and unfortunately, as moderation became more automated, some players were able to use the chat system for bad purposes.

Habbo was put on the spotlight by allegations from UK news program Channel 4 in June 2012.

As a result, The Great Mute was implemented.

For almost a month, everyone in the hotel was completely muted, and when chat came back, only pre-approved words allowed and anything else censored. This created a rift in the community where Habbos were divided on whether the punishment was justified.

Sulake had made the message clear: Habbo was not a hub for players who engage in explicit and inappropriate behaviour.

Thankfully, there hasn’t been anything like that ever since. However, moderation still relies heavily on an automated system and bots. Socializing is integral for a game like Habbo, and bots taking over and replacing moderators makes it difficult to have a conversation sometimes. Many Habbos are banned every day for saying a word or number in a completely innocent context, which moderators cold have seen and allowed.

With the anticipated arrival of Habbo 2020, is this an opportunity for change?  Do you think automated moderation is the right decision or nuisance? Let me know your throughts in the comments below.

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