Identity and Organizational Structure in Habbo

Esteban Mendoza

Practicum 3

Identity and Organizational Structure in Habbo

Habbo is an online social networking website, targeted mainly at teenagers, marketed as “the planet’s most popular virtual world for teens”. One’s avatar, a customizable two-dimensional human sprite, inhabits the Habbo Hotel. The “hotel” is constituted by a seemingly endless supply of “rooms”, most of which are public, where one can chat and interact with other users’ avatars. Although avatars can make some preprogrammed gestures, dancing for example, the primary form of communication in Habbo is through text chat. Finally, it is important to note that Habbo directs users towards no specific end. Instead, players are able, and are in fact encouraged, to explore the hotel and interact with as many other users as possible.

Having done preliminary research into Habbo, mostly through watching “lets plays” on YouTube, I was struck by the variation of the activities and communities one could take part in as a user of Habbo. What interested me most, however, was the fact that many of these users seemed to have some sort of fixed identity associated with their avatar. The question at the forefront of my mind during the research, then, was how identity was created and reproduced inside of Habbo.

After creating my avatar, made to reflect my real-world self, I decided to join the most popular room I could. After being transported to that room, I found myself in a large techno-futuristic looking building filled with banners and signs that said FBI. (Figure 1) In front of the location I was teleported to was a large lobby desk with chairs in front. I moved my avatar to be sitting directly in front of another avatar who seemed to be manning the station. Through talking with him I learned that I was inside of an “agency”, an organizational structure inside of Habbo, usually based off of real-world organizations, where avatars could work and earn in-game currency. Although I tried to ask him what exactly the job entailed, all he said was “doing like this” from which I gathered he meant that my primary job would be talking to potential FBI “recruits”. Accepting the job, my recruiter instructed that I would have to do three things before becoming a member of the FBI. Firstly, I was instructed to change my motto, a publicly visible tagline, to “FBI – Recruit”. My instructor noted that it was incredibly important that I copied my motto exactly as he had written, down to the positioning of the spaces. Secondly, I was instructed to equip the FBI badge, also publically visible if my avatar was clicked on. Finally, I was given a suit (Figure 1) and instructed to put it on. From here, I was led to another room to start my training.

The training consisted of memorizing three rules, the most important of which was “no double jobbing”. “Double jobbing” was the act of working for more than one agency at a time, splitting yourself between two organizations. My instructor told me, “you are wearing the FBI badge making you part of us”. (Figure 3) Double jobbing, thus, was a betrayal of the agency and a challenge to the stability of its members’ identities, the badge being its symbol.

After completing training, I began work as an agent recruiting new members into the community in exactly the same way I was recruited. During this time, I came to recognize the importance of hierarchy and promotion in the organizational structure of the agency. Individuals in the agency are primarily promoted based on time spent working (this is also how pay is determined). Higher rank allows for different job responsibilities, including the training of recruits, and is marked through a change in the avatar’s motto. (Figure 4). During my time playing, I was promoted twice, although my duties did not seem to change.

In my time in Habbo it seemed that primarily, my avatar’s identity, and those of other avatars, were based upon outwardly and publically available information. Only through the outward presentation of data, through badges, outfits, and mottos, was identity able to be maintained. It seems noteworthy that rank, something which only makes sense in the context of a closed organization, also was only recognized as a piece of publically available data. Identity in Habbo, as opposed to being a determinate quality of an individual, can only exist performatively.

Further research is certainly needed to understand the organizational structures of other agencies within Habbo. I am curious as to whether other agencies place such a high level of importance upon motto, outfit, and badge in the creation of identity. Furthermore, I wonder how the concept of double jobbing is received by other agencies and if any agencies actually allow for double jobbing. Finally, agencies are not the only form of community within Habbo. Chatrooms (Figure 5), role-playing rooms, and game rooms all were left unexplored during my time in Habbo and it seems necessary to determine how identity is formed and maintained inside spaces where a hierarchical organization is not present.