Hello Kitty MMORPG storms through blogosphere

Within hours of the announcement the blogosphere was abuzz with the news that Hello Kitty will have her own MMORPG (massively multiplayer online role-playing game). So why are we talking about Hello Kitty here at Outblaze? For one, Outblaze is the provider of all services on SanrioTown, which as any kawaii connoisseur knows is the official home of Hello Kitty and friends. Outblaze also handles the backend for the game Hello Kitty Online – something we also did for adidas in The Impossible Team Online Game, a free title adidas offered during the 2006 FIFA World Cup (the game was taken down after the end of the tournament).

But back to Hello Kitty Online. We were pleasantly surprised by the remarkable display of Kitty Power: within a few hours of the announcement the game site received 30,000 requests for beta accounts and the news was plastered on countless blogs. And we were delighted by the flood of humorous reactions. Here is a small selection.

Kotaku

Kotaku (one of the first to report this news) informs readers that “Only one MMO could possibly release World of Warcraft’s death-grip on the massively multiplayer gaming market – Hello Kitty Online.” They also posted a selection of game screenshots under the heading “Too cute to live”.

Kotaku readers were not to be outdone and produced some lively banter:

User JAML said, in reference to the bright and cheerful palette, “To all Developers out there: More colors that are not some sort of brown please.” I know Yahtzee Croshaw agrees.

TECHKNOW commented, “With all the Player Killing in the Open Beta, lord knows what this will be like when it gets released on the market. I just hope I get to carry over my +9 Lollipop of Destruction”

Probably referring to the super cute screenshots, ICEPICK314 commented, “didn’t know you can code diabetes…”

MELODYKITN said, “Is it bad that this MMO sounds a whole lot like there’s more to do than other free MMOs?”

InventorSpot

The InventorSpot boldly states, “Today Hello Kitty Online, tomorrow the World (of Warcraft)”.

ValleyWag

Like Polonius, this Silicon Valley gossip rag knows that brevity is the soul of wit; in a post titled Why Second Life will fail, they provide an irrefutable argument in just four words: “Hello Kitty Virtual World”.

Plime

Plime.com calls Hello Kitty Online “THE deprogramming tool for WOW addicts” [that’s World of Warcraft, for those unfamiliar with the abbreviation].

Japanator

Recovering from the attack of extreme excitement caused by the announcement, Japanator decreed Hello Kitty Online “the most mind blowing MMO ever conceived”. Japanator readers are encouraged to sign up for beta, although they are warned to prepare themselves for “a face-melting cute explosion. The music actually left sugar crust in my ears”.

little. yellow. different.

This blog stated, in a manner incomprehensible to non-gamers, that “today, a new MMORPG has entered a private invitation-only phase that could possibly bring Blizzard to it’s murloc-killing, PVP-flagged, epic-wearing knees” [Blizzard is, of course, the maker of World of Warcraft].

Rock, Paper, Shotgun

The site that’s been covering PC gaming since 1873 did not manage to retain its cool in the face of the Hello Kitty Online announcement, and began dribbling about “The End Of Cute, where Cute will reach critical mass and implode to create some kind of super-dense Hello Kitty merchandising, sucking us all into the candy-coloured abyss”.

New York – Tokyo

Nothing ambiguous in a post titled Hello Kitty takes on World of Warcraft: “World of Warcraft’s days as king of the MMORPG hill are numbered…. it’s only a matter of time until the battlefields of Azeroth are barren and lifeless” [Azeroth, for the uninitiated, is the fantasy world setting of WoW].

Zergwatch

In Zergwatch’s entry titled MMORPG Showdown: Hello Kitty vs Toontown Online we witness how the little kitty soothed the beast’s savage heart: “I quickly realized that this is going to be the cutest goddamn MMORPG we have ever seen. I suddenly lost my angry gaming edge and wanted to cuddle with fluffy pillows and ride unicorns around rainbow filled sky.”

Hello Kitty Hell

We made it a special point to send this fellow a copy of the press release, but we needn’t have bothered – apparently he received over 40 emails about Hello Kitty Online from excited readers. Hello Kitty Hell thoroughly blasts the game, but we can’t help feel that these are just the desperate words of one who has almost succumbed to Kitty Power: “Hello Kitty sticks with her true colors by making money (‘The Item Mall allows players to use real money to purchase special items and upgrades for characters’) and creating violence (‘Hello Kitty Online has an extensive crafting system with output such as tools & weapons…it has a sophisticated combat system’)”.

He concludes: “Sanrio Digital … where all people working deserve to lose their jobs for thinking for one second that 1. creating this game was a good idea and 2. sending me a press release about it so my wife could know about it was in any way, shape or form a smart thing to do”. OK, Hello Kitty Hell!, we’ll keep you posted on our progress.

I hope you enjoyed this selection. There were many more amusing write-ups and feedback but I can’t possibly capture them all, so if you have any please post them as comments here (please note: comments are moderated and there may be a delay in publishing).

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