Room Builders Inc
Room Builders Inc, also known as, 'Room Builders' or 'RBI' was a long-term community involvement campaign that ran from December 2012 until 31st May 2013. The event involved the recruitment of successful Habbos into a Room Builders Group, after they went through an application process. The group was then tasked with creating themed rooms for various competitions over the first half of 2013, either as games, races, mazes, prize areas or aesthetics. This was an ongoing group that expanded over time, culminating in around 90 members and resulting in the creation of more than two-hundred rooms, which shaped the look and feel of seasonal events or campaigns for many months.
Beginning
In late December 2012, toward the end of the Christmas campaign, Habbo.com announced a poll in the Welcome Lounge - in which Habbos could apply to be an Official Room Builder for Habbo in the New Year; by submitting examples of their current room creations and a short explanation of their reasons and eligibility for application.
First Room Builders
The Room Builders Inc Official Group was created by Powertoo on 18th January, 2013 - with the successful applicants notified by Minimail the following Monday, and allowed to join the group. (Thought the group room was leaked onto Habbox Forum the same-day by an RBI member, who also posted images of the badge). This first wave of members amounted to 78, a list of all the successful applicants at this time is below. They were awarded this temporary badge:
Under Construction - Original Room Builders Badge
The first group room served as both a communication method and a weekly meeting room. Via stickies on the school board furni, messages were passed between Room Builders (RBs) and staff. The room hosted introductions that changed weekly, with updates via Wired relevant to each event task. Through the door tele was the garden, which was designed to appear as the outside of the group meeting room. On the wall here was the first group points board, where individual and group points were tallied and announced.
- Initial Staff:
- Powertoo · .Beeches.
- Initial Members:
- AndyATW! · VooDoo · Daltron · Bongo · Shayla · Botah..B · .:fred. · Boys · Pivot · choi · Amii · Okeanos · Mr-Romantic · sunny55 · !!BeWise!! · greenminty · Cally592 · Milkyman · Shementwell · Kerasu · MONEYMAGIC · :ashez: · Nooses · Stupid · supdude472 · BLIPRULES · Molf · missynice · Ms.Oneal · Dragon-nccb · Jher · Gnerk · Vodafone · Chicharu · Jarkie · 650c · iShauny · way-2-innocent · mathslover · Dollar · HOSKO02 · Jendro · Aloe.Vera · .:Hot.Guy101:. · dingofreako · Angel-Charlene · mlp16 · Pigeon · Jekope · Puma · Usul · Shayla. · bored_1 · animefan19 · Volunteer · Azasol · tgone · peterwill · ThcIsBack · dexxa1994 · Pleg · froz · Cot · Twix · =-, · Afflictions · Royal · s.v.c · .:TinyDancer:. · babymyc1 · Financier · 41 · FLightMedic · ZacharyBoy. · Jeff · Wom · LittleRock. · Shudder
Renewed Room Builders
Given the popularity of the Room Builders group in the wider community, and given the large requirement of rooms needed for campaigns, Habbo announced a second-wave of recruitment for Room Builders on 26th February, 2013.
Habbos could re-apply (as before) or apply for the first time in the Theatredrome via poll, in much the same way as the first wave of applicants had been selected, by asking them to submit and explain URLs of their best room creations. The second wave added only a handful of new Room Builders, these were to be the final additions to the group.
- Additional Members:
- Astronomist · Hawky · Kovsky. · Kromium · Proms · Shaleeka · Alejandro-
- Removed Members:
- Afflictions · Twix · Cot · Pleg · animefan19 · 650c · Vodafone · Gnerk · Molf · Nooses · MilkyMan · sunny55
· Angel-Charlene · Aloe.Vera
In early March 2013, RBs were tasked with designing a new HQ for the newly reformed group. A handful of submissions were considered, in the end Kromium's entry was chosen - this became the final HQ room for the final two months of the campaign. Meetings and the group/individual points notice boards were moved here accordingly. Around this time, RBs had recently passed the 1000 point mark to achieve a Bronze Habbo Trophy each, the badge was changed to the Bronze version also.
(This room later linked to the Official Help Desk, a Dusty Lounge-inspired room by Hawky - which was done after the initial RBI desk area password was leaked.)
Tasks
The main job of the RBs was to build rooms for competitions, as time went on, more campaigns and events rolled by, with each Room Builder submitting their own or collaborative group rooms for usage in the events. This could be any type of room, decorative or with heavy use of Wired, as long as it worked to deliver the game or theme it was built to portray. These rooms would later be selected, linked via teleport and copied into official competition rooms by powertoo and .beeches. Most events had multiple successful applicants, one or two required and utilised only one winning room, these are named below.
Campaign events that served as tasks for room builders included the following:
- CNY - Chinese New Year (the first room building task)
- LoveDoctor - Valentines
- New Official HQ (Chosen: Kromium)
- Official Helpdesk Room (Chosen: Hawky)
- Official Battleball Room (Chosen: Discontinued)
- St Patricks Day
- Easter Release/Bunny Campaign
- Ongoing gaming or mini-games events
- Eurovision (the final building task)
Points
Room Builders all the while earned points during their activity, the more active and co-operative a member was, the more points they earned for themselves and their fellow builders, the system is detailed below. There were two sets of points, individual: points earned per Habbo alone, and group: points earned for the group as a whole. Individual points earned badges, group points earned Habbo Trophies:
Individual Points
- Room submitted: 10 points
- Room submitted AND selected for event: 20 points
- Helping others with their rooms: 5 points
Group Points
- Each member of group room: 15 points
- Room used on other Habbo sites: 150 points
Minimails Gallery
As Minimail from staff is deleted after a planned period of time (as is the case with any competition Minimail) - many messages are missing. Thanks too to previous photo hosting website failures, much of the correspondence for the RBI campaign is lost, what remains is below:
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First welcome message
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Points details & tasks - I
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Points details & tasks - II
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Final message & prizes
RBI Room Gallery
Below are some of the Official rooms and submitted competition rooms that came out of the campaign, all either designed by Room Builders, or with some input from non-members and staff. Most of the furniture belongs to the teams, with the exception in later submissions for the furniture dropped by Powertoo's especially made clone: Room Builders Inc.
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Official: Room Builders Inc. HQ
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Official: RBI Restricted Access Area
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'Battleball' - Games Room (Owner: HOSKO02)
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'Puckball' - Games Room (Owner: HOSKO02 Helpers: Ms.Oneal, mathslover)
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'Dragon' - Chinese New Year (Owner: HOSKO02)
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'Acropolis' - New Helpdesk (Owner: HOSKO02 Helpers: Molf, Ms.Oneal, Usul, Jher, Jendro)
Ending
Official Prizes
The campaign officially ended on 31st May, 2013. Members were sent a final Minimail, thanking them for their taking part and detailing the rewards and prizes to follow. Members could submit feedback in a poll in the 'Sandcastle' room owned by Room Builders Inc.
As the cumulative group points had ended at 3515, all members were awarded a Bronze and Silver Habbo Trophies, whilst those who had earned 300 or more individual points received the Silver RBI Badge, the rest receiving a Bronze RBI Badge:
Room Builders Inc - Habbo's Finest 
Room Builders Inc - Habbo's Finest
Leaderboard
Here are the final points results for the 42 members who gained individual points (there was no prize for highest individual points). It is known that some members who chose not to enter their own rooms, but instead focus on aiding group rooms, are thus not listed here, though they were eligible for 5-10 points each, they still each received the Silver Habbo Trophy:
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(Overall Group Points: 3515)
Community Poll
On this day, Habbo also held a final poll in the Theatredrome, this time asking the wider community to submit feedback for the RBI campaign, their likes and dislikes, and opinions over the rooms that were made for events.
Habbos would win a badge for submitting, similar in appearance to the official RBI badges, with a small number 1 overlaid, in celebration for a successful first year of the campaign. (Repeat Room Builders groups were planned for 2014 and after) Habbos had to answer the question correctly in order to receive the badge:
- Poll Question: How many Room Builders Inc rooms have been used Habbo in this years events?
- Answer: More than 200
RBI End of Season Commemoration - Celebrating Room Builders Inc.'s First Season's Success
Aftermath
Prize Controversy
The members prize for submitting feedback, given a week later, was a Bling Fridge and Popcorn Machine. Many members were disappointed with this final prize, with many expecting a Gold Habbo Trophy - which many felt was due (despite the fact that the points target of 5,000 had not been met). This was because many members had spent significant time and credits in building entry rooms, more so before the arrival of powertoo's Room Builders Inc account to provide furni.
Members pointed out that in normal competitions, super rare prizes that were worth significant market values, either through rarity or exclusivity were the norm - and that RBI members, given that the group was select and a large part of community material for many months, deserved at least a similarly weighted prize. The release of tens more of each trophy into existence also brought down their value steadily, they remain lower on average than pre-RBI campaign levels today. In the end, no further prizes were awarded, meaning that to date, there is no Gold Habbo Trophy awarded for Room Builders Inc contributions. (Thought the possibility exists for such a trophy in future repeats of this event).
Complaints
Before the second wave of recruitment into the scheme, at weekly meetings, the first members began to complain of isolationism. They explained that some group members were operating in close-knit groups, seldom allowing other fellows to contribute furniture or design ideas. The motives for this were unknown. It was likely due to early misunderstandings of the points system, which bred protectionism in friendship groups that had grown from the early meetings and projects, fearing a spread of points meant less individual appraisal. Members also complained at the lack of funds or furniture to complete projects, and the imbalance of those who had good design ideas but no furniture, against those who had much furniture but little inspiration.
Powertoo addressed these issues by first reshaping the team; then by creating Room Builders Inc - a new clone that would own the host room, whilst members were given groups to assimilate into by registering on a stickie. They would then be assigned a room, 1, 2, 3 etc - and furniture would be dropped by this account on request. This began during the St Patrick's day campaign room preparations and continued on, though eventually in a opt-in/opt-out manner, until the programmes end.
Reception
The scheme received mixed reception from the wider Habbo community. On one hand, event rooms were quickly navigated in earnest as a staff room would ordinarily be, with the tricks and answers available on fansite forums the same day. The rooms proved popular and received much praise for their design and variety, especially during the Chinese New Year and Eurovision campaigns. The desire to join the scheme was high throughout, with many Habbos wishing to help create rooms and attempting to contact Habbo direct to join the group.
On the other hand, this naturally led others to call into question the eligibility of the current members, citing their past room designs and hotel experience against them. The usual concerns over favouritism that arises around exclusive group campaigns was a common complaint, given more weight by the internal accusations of elitism described above. Many Habbos felt the goings on of the builders, their duties and tasks, were non-transparent to the wider community, when updates and sneak previews would have been preferred. Recent commentary has put down the likeliness of the programme returning, or suggests room for improvement if it ever did. (The scheme ran on some other international hotels too, some Habbo.com rooms were used worldwide).
In 2014, Builders at Work was launched, a new room-building initiative that built on the feedback generated by the RBI programme.