Austin GDC:

In his keynote at the Austin Game Developers Conference, Sulka Haro urged developers to âgive the users tools and the space, and something will happen.â

Haro, the lead designer for Sulake Corporation, spoke about his experience developing Habbo Hotel, an online community which attracts roughly 7.5 million unique worldwide users each month. With 80 million player accounts having been established, Habbo Hotel is based upon a âfree to play, pay for stuffâ business model.

Haro jokingly referred to Habbo Hotel as a "gameless game."

âHabbo is about open play. It is the users who are coming up with the cool stuff they are doing,â he said.

Haro listed five prerequisites for creating a virtual playground: create something to play with, ensure that the interaction is intuitive, set up a âmoodâ to play, support user created goals, and protect the shared social setting.

When it comes to microtransactions, Haro found that âPeople hate when you can actually buy stuff so that you can do better in the gameâ because not everyone can afford to buy the same items, creating an unequal playing field.

Haro also noted that when developers look at their product and consider how users are going to play it, even the most obscure thing may be important. If just 1 in 1,000,000 users figure it out, that still could be significant given the total worldwide user base.

âAlways expect that the users will figure out everything. They are smarter than you.â

Habbo Hotel has moved away from traditional advertising as advertisers realize that they can market their products âwithâ the teens instead of at the âteensâ that make up the communityâs user base. He noted that company-branded furniture has become more popular than non-branded furniture, for example.

But why would players do things if there is no reward?

Some people want the fame of collecting items and creating interesting rooms, but some people just love to play.

Haro believes that teenagers have become interested in online communities such as Habbo Hotel because they are at a stage in their lives when they are becoming more interested in the social aspects of life.

âIf you look at really small kids, they just go and play with no purpose for hours and hours. We are providing a way for teenagers to come back and enjoy the same kind of play they canât do any longer in the real world,â Haro said.

Above all, Haro stressed trusting the users. He referred to cultural phenomena such as âSpider-pigâ which went up in Habbo immediately. âPlayers usually know whatâs hot before you do,â Haro admitted.

âAs a designer, I keep on falling into the trap that I know better than the users what they should be getting,â Haro said.

Even so, that doesnât mean developers can take a hands-off approach to their online communities.

âIf you are thinking that community management is not necessary, or that you donât have to put a lot of energy into it, youâre wrong.â