Hello Kitty gamers take on New York

(Credit: Sanrio Digital)

If your kids start to show serious signs of loving New York and you don't know why, this might be the reason.

Sanrio Digital, maker of the Hello Kitty Online 3D virtual world that's currently in beta, announced Friday the game's largest in-game event: the building of New York City. Players of the Hello Kitty Online Founders' Beta can take part in a series of quests to collect and organize materials for the building of a new New York area that will appear in the next phase of the game--and will undoubtedly be far more pink than the real Big Apple.

Players who successfully complete all the required quests will have the names of their character permanently recorded on virtual commemorative plaques located throughout the virtual New York (the plaques will appear in future versions of the game's North American edition).

These permanent rewards and status, as well as the character's progress, will be carried into the final version of Hello Kitty Online. The game is free to play and can be downloaded here. Currently it's unclear when the game will be finalized.

For those who are no longer kids and already heart New York (like my college Joseph Kaminski and his co-hosts of the Digital City podcast), this is also very exciting news.