To Habbo, Sulake, Azerion, and other interested parties:

In July of 2017, Adobe announced that on December 31 of 2020 Flash player would be discontinued and no longer supported by all major internet browsers. Since then, you’ve been aware that the current Habbo client will no longer be functional by the end of 2020. We are now less than three months away from that deadline and we have received very little information on the state of development of the new client. The few updates we have received from Habbo have only included screenshots of the user interface, with little information regarding what features will be included, removed, or changed with the new client.

On Monday, October 19th, the fansite Puhekupla leaked that the upcoming Habbo 2020 client would be removing trading as it has existed in the Flash client for the past decade. You addressed this leak by stating “due to time constraints, private, one-to-one trading on the Marketplace will not be available, but this functionality will be added as soon as possible.” Within minutes of this announcement, hundreds of loyal Habbo players took to Twitter to decry these changes and ask that you reconsider. We are writing this petition to formally urge you to reconsider your decision to launch the Habbo 2020 client without private trading. We strongly believe that your current decision will have disastrous consequences for the launch of the new client, outlined below:

Nearly all Habbo activities rely on player-to-player trading.

The current player base and range of activities on Habbo are extremely dependent on the ability to freely trade with other users. This includes agencies, fansite events, games, coin shops, and giveaways, all of which constitute the most popular rooms on Habbo at any given time. Removing private trading means agencies can no longer compensate their members for their time, fansites can no longer reward members for their loyalty, and event hosts can no longer offer prizes to their competitors.
Removing private trading would severely hinder these popular activities and alienate a major portion of the active Habbo user base, which has already shrunk significantly in the past decade due to lack of innovation and overall poor decisions by Habbo staff.

Private trading is an inherently social activity that creates connections between Habbos.

Private trading is a game mechanic which has existed since the very early days of Habbo, and it is a major reason why Habbo has seen such wide popularity and success throughout its life. The ability to freely exchange items with other users without limitation creates connections between Habbos all throughout the game, and keeps users engaged in the virtual economy. Removing the ability to freely trade face-to-face with other players eliminates a crucial social aspect of Habbo, and is contrary to what Habbo hopes to achieve with the upcoming client.

Maintaining private trading in Habbo 2020 would be a major first step in Habbo showing greater transparency and communication with their loyal player base.

Habbo has always struggled to maintain transparency with its player base regarding major decisions that impact the nature of the game. Communication from staff is largely restricted to Twitter posts with little information or follow-up from players. As we enter a new era of Habbo with the release of the Unity client, and as Sulake attempts to “ensure Habbo’s long-term success”, it is imperative that Habbo begin to make a serious effort to listen to their players and their requests. Failure to do so risks alienating the most loyal players who have supported Habbo financially for years, and will likely continue to do so if their concerns are acknowledged and addressed by Habbo staff.

We understand that developing a new client from the ground up is a daunting task, and that problems are guaranteed to come up throughout development. However, we believe private trading is a feature so integral to Habbo that launching a new client without this feature, even just for a few days, would have immediate, negative consequences on the player base, and we urge you to reconsider.

Signed,
Graspingg & Rebloggers of ‘The Coin Club’ - Habbo.com,
on behalf of the Habbo community.

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