Sometimes the line between virtual world and real world is blurry. It's been known that Chinese gold farmers make a real living out of the WoW gold. On Friday, Sanrio Digital, maker of the Hello Kitty Online game, for the first time turned the in-game food to real money for a good cause.
(Credit:
Sanrio Digital)
The company announced the conclusion of the first Hello Kitty Online charity event called "Food for Friends." The event was held in the final week of the Hello Kitty Online closed beta.
Players created and submitted 344,965 in-game food items. Based on the number and value of items submitted, Hello Kitty Online will donate $12,000 to Unicef and the Asian Youth Orchestra.
The Hello Kitty character turned 34 years old on November 1, and the "Food for Friends" event kicked off immediately following the in-game birthday party.
The present version of the game will shut down at midnight EST on Saturday to allow the development team to continue work on the game and prepare for open beta.
Current players will retain their characters and certain benefits in future versions of the game. It's unclear when the open beta will be announced.
(Credit:
Sanrio Digital)
Believe it or not, Kitty White (aka Hello Kitty), has been aging along with the rest of us, and Saturday marks her 34th birthday. Judging from her look, however, it seems the alternately much-loved and much-reviled feline icon hasn't really grown up much and is still an appropriate representation of childlike cuteness.
To help celebrate this occasion, Sanrio Digital has organized a week-long in-game celebration in the Hello Kitty Online massively multiplayer role-playing game. The event includes a series of quests and events, including an in-game guild contest that lets players convert online efforts into real cash donations for charity.
Based on the popular Sanrio characters, Hello Kitty Online transports players into the cute and cuddly world of Sanrio Land and is fully integrated with official Sanrio social Web site SanrioTown.com, which utilizes blogs, e-mail, video sharing, games, and more to create a digital and social experience accessible at any time, even in-game.
The game is currently in a closed beta phase and will shut down on November 8 to allow the development team to continue work on the game and prepare for the open beta version. Current players, however, will retain their characters and certain benefits in future versions of the game.
Earlier this month, Sanrio organized a massive in-game event where gamers could participate in the building of virtual New York city.
(Credit:
Akihabara News)
The newly appointed Japanese tourism mascot has yet another new product under her belt. This time, it's a white/pink or black/red 19-inch TV from Uniden garnished with its now signature silhouette. Putting aside its "cute" factor, this LCD has a unique native resolution of 1,440 x 810 pixels plus all the usual goodies.
We know it's pretty irrelevant to touch on the technicalities here when it's all about the Hello Kitty adoration. But just for the record, this display has a humble 1,000:1 contrast, 300cd/m2 brightness and 5ms response time. It will retail for about $650 according to Akihabara News, and is most probably another exclusive for the Japanese market.
(Source: Crave Asia)
(Credit:
Boing Boing)
To have a psychedelic experience involving Hello Kitty, fans of the mouthless cat can partake in an illicit substance and stare intently at their collection of toys. Or if you don't want to risk prosecution, you can buy U-Mate's Hello Kitty Mangekyo Projector.
This spherical contraption has a kaleidoscope disc that's used to project repeated Hello Kitty lights onto the ceiling. It also has blank kaleidoscope discs that can be laid with beads so you can create normal, less freaky patterns. It isn't cheap at $215 from the Japan Trend Shop, as Boing Boing notes, but it's a must-have for all those who dedicate their bedrooms as Hello Kitty shrines.
(Source: Crave Asia)
(Credit:
DreamKitty)
The Sanrio Empire may have seemed unusually subdued of late, but its campaign for world domination is still very much in high gear. In fact, the threat is more sever than ever, as it continues to target our natural resources.
Hello Kitty has already made her mark, so to speak, on the planet's heat sources and water supply. And now, acknowledging the green trend's growing momentum, the diabolical feline is now trying to seize control of solar energy as well.
The "Hello Kitty Solar-Power Charger" can juice up pretty much any handheld device, according to Chip Chick, whether it be a phone, media player, or camera. And if ominously dark clouds accompany the invasion, the charger can still be plugged into a DC outlet for up to six hours of power on the go. You've been warned.
(Credit:
Hello Kitty Hell)
We didn't this was possible--nor did we ever think we'd be writing about it--but the quality of Hello Kitty laptops seems to be in serious decline. In previous forays into portable computing, the Sanrio emissary at least tried to look different in retaining its "unique" image, even when its mood turned black. But lately it's been reduced to cheesy skins that look like cheap stick-on decals.
The latest example is a second round from Epson that features some new designs (not that we can ever tell them apart). There have been some changes under the hood of these lighter-weight models, which have an 1.86GHz Intel Celeron processor, an 80GB hard drive, and 1GB of memory.
But Kitty, of course, has nothing to do with any of that, content simply to impose its mouthless mug on the cover and continue brainwashing the world with its pop-culture ubiquity. Besides, it has far more important things on its mind.
(Credit:
RifleGear.com)
This was sent to us by a tipster. I don't normally spend my time reading RifleGear.com, but from the likes of this item, maybe I should.
Awhile back we were treated to a hilarious Photoshop job called the HK-47--an assault rifle decorated with images of everybody's favorite nonpornographic, nontentacled Japanese import, Hello Kitty. We were sad to learn that it was, well, Photoshopped.
But now, out of nowhere, here's a real one. As a protest against assault weapons bans, one rifle enthusiast in California decided to create a weapon that would "alleviate the fears of (his) fellow citizens and gun-banning legislators when (he) put together a new AR-15 for (his) wife." So he modded the AR-15 to make it baby-pink with an image of Hello Kitty holding a weapon, as well as some extra-cute cartoon flowers! Brilliant!
Unfortunately, according to certain other people who write for this blog, Hello Kitty won't make an assault rifle any less terrifying. Apparently, that cat is trying to take over the world.
(Credit:
Sanrio)
The latest creation of the Sanrio empire offers further proof that it has progressed beyond brute force and guerrilla tactics, expanding its quest for world domination to the economic realm.
The evil Hello Kitty's mouthless mug can now be found on its own paper shredder, that icon of white-collar crime, as seen on Hello Kitty Hell. If you start seeing it dressed in pinstripes, you'll know that Gordon Gekko has completed a feline reincarnation.
(Credit:
Sanrio)
Acting in typical expansionist fashion, the Sanrio empire began targeting our finances through a branded credit card a few months back. But apparently its insatiable needs are even more urgent than originally thought, for now it's going directly after our cash.
That's right: There's now a Hello Kitty ATM bank. The miniature teller machine even comes with its own "cash card," as Hello Kitty Hell explains. But don't be fooled: We suspect that it will provide only deposits and no withdrawals.
(Credit:
Hello Kitty Hell)
We've known for awhile that NEC's co-branded LaVie G laptops have been cursed, ever since they did a deal with the Sanrio devil. So there wasn't much new to report when the Japanese company came out with yet another Hello Kitty model, though we do think that its black color is a more accurate reflection of evil feline's soul.
But that, as it turns out, was only the beginning of this latest assault. Hello Kitty Hell reports that the black laptop is only one component of a new hardware set that also includes a Swarovski-studded mouse and USB drive. The mouse, by the way, is distinguishable for both its shape and color--a black heart. Need we say more?
