First off, I’d like to apologize for the long sabbatical but I’m back and better than ever just as the new year kicks in! Hmm… I bet you’d love to know what’s happening with HKO just about now, right? Well, I’m sorry, kiddos! No previews for you! Mwahhahaha!

Ehermm, yeah.

How was 2008 for you guys? As for myself, I just came from a friend’s wedding and I haven’t been home in 3 days! Who’s the party animal?

I AM!

Christmas has been sort of a slow holiday gift-wise (I am a greedy grinch! Hahaha!) but I was able to get in touch with really old friends which was pretty awesome considering I MISSED THESE GUYS SO MUCH! I guess that could be counted as a gift.

*Neverender needs moar eye-opening moments*

2009 was ushered in under the cover of heavy clouds and rainfall which was pretty depressing but it was a nice change of pace from all those booms, kapows and fizzes not to mention the number of fingers saved by the rain.

This year, I’m going to take things slow and maybe get in touch with the rockstar in me once again. I used to rock out so heavily. Oy. I’m getting old.

Happy New Year, guys!

There IS still good in this world! If you’re one of the people who returned the tainted money, comment here and write your in-game name. I will make it my personal mission to commemorate you people

Hmmm, looks like a lot of people will be doing a LOOOOOOT cooking and harvesting and….. uprooting?

Uprooting? For what? Gasp.

Here’s a little itty-bitty guide for farming:

1. Get your London (or Londan/Landon for all you sparty-pants’ out there) friendship points high enough to be able to buy all the seeds.

2. Once you’re in the farm, IMMEDIATELY pause your farm.3. Toggle your Fertility display on.

4. Unlike CB, don’t plant your seeds in a 3×3 grid because the fertilizers aren’t as effective as before. I suggest planting only 1 or 2 so that you can save up on fertilizers. Apply1 or 2 “dollops” of fertilizer on each seed. Don’t raise it to 100.

5. Now, UNPAUSE your farm.

6. With the Fertility display still up, put your mouse over a fertilized patch and keep a close eye on it.

7. Every seven seconds or so, the fertility will go down by 10.

8. JUST before the fertility goes below 10, PAUSE the farm again apply fertilizer again.

9. If some of your crops are fully matured. PAUSE the farm and harvest your crops.

10. Lastly, I must warn you, this time around, you don’t have a 100% harvest rate. Crops act like regular resources where you either get the crop, or 1 of 2 useless items.

Learn these well because it will help you very, very, very soon

Oh man, I can’t believe Founders’ Beta has been running for only 5 days but a LOT has happened since then.

We’ve had a lot of feedback (both positive and negative, mind you) from players on game improvements. Suggestions were also thrown our way which were both practical and down-right weird. For that, we thank you from the bottom of our liver-sized hearts.

If you’ve noticed, I’ve always said to players “Take care of the players and the players will take care of you” and we, the HKO Team, are sticking to our mantra.

Here’s a rundown of the upcoming changes coming this week (don’t wet yourselves):

Translations: Some of the quests in London are still written in Chinese. They will learn to speak the English language some time this week.

Guild: I know a lot of you are clamoring for the Guild System so you and your friends can band together and kick crab butt but found out that establishing a guild’s requirements are ludicrous so we’re reducing it to level 20 and quite a bit of cash (so you and your friends can pool your funds… hey we didn’t say it was easy, right?)

House and Farm: During the CB, farming was one of the highlights of the game. However, the farming system is nowhere near the system we all enjoyed before. We are currently evaluating this but we have high hopes for it. Expect good news soon.

We would want nothing more than for you to fully enjoy the game and to support it. We did this Founders’ Beta to balance out the kinks of the game and to let you see the changes we’ve made fully.

Thanks guys!

This page will be relevant soon enough Stay tuned.

With Founders’ Beta juuuuusst around-o the corner-o (sorry been watching too much Heroes… blasted Hiro Nakamura!),

HKO is… mahvelous!

Lots and lots of changes compared to the CB client… it’s basically a whole new game. haha.. How much did thee change? Let me count the ways:

1. Hotkeys for the local map, pet page, skills page and… (wait for it) sitting down!

2.  Let’s just say you don’t have to keep looking at your inventory to count how much more of a certain is needed for a quest. *wink wink*

3. HKO pretty much reflects life in the aspect of getting money… it’s hard!

aaaaaand… muc,h, much more so stay tuned.

Abby blazed through the game to get to London earlier while I stayed back and tried to finish all the quests which takes a while. Haha I’m so excited for you guys!

That’s it for now. Enjoy.

Remember Abby’s pink little mailbox? Well, it just exploded

and in critical condition. The cause for this sudden turn of events is the OVERWHEEEEEELMIIINGGG response from eagerly enthusiastic players who have heeded the call for Founders that resulted in the account slots being filled up.

*pat pat*

Here’s little nugget of hope for all of you great fans, a secret that will embolden all of you…. sign up anyway. Get your friends, your family and everyone else who wants in on the Founders’ Beta and encourage them to sign up while I, with my intense GM sway, will use my influence to increase slots.

BE NOT AFRAID!

By the way, you might want to see this: HKO’s trailer. Show this to people who haven’t heard of HKO. They will be ecstatic when they do.

SPREAD THE WORD.

Brush off the dust off your old magic wand. Polish your red shoes, iron your black shirt and blue jeans because you’re off to another adventure in SanrioLand.

Yep, you heard it right, weeeee’reee baaaaahaaaackkkk.

All those months of waiting patiently like a loyal sentry have now paid off. Immerse yourself in the world of Hello Kitty and friends and take a crack at saving SanrioLand from eternal slumber. Are you up to it?

Of course you are.

(I was aiming for a dramatic end with “of course you are” but I need to remind you to head on over to HKO’s official blog for more much needed information.)

DRAMATIC END FAIL.

Hmm smells like butter in my cozy, super secret hideaway.

(THEY CAN’T TAKE ME AWAY!!!! MWAHAHAHAHAHAH!)

Anyway, back to the butter. The reason for the bakery-like ambience is the freshly-baked, newly-stolen screenshots of the pastry capital of the world, Paris!

This area will be available once Open Beta reaches ground zero. Wewt! I can smell it wafting in the air…. not the scent of butter but the excitement

*Kbzzzzt!*

Ouch, the electricity in the air jolted me a bit….

Metaphor fail.

Oooooh man I can feel it! Open Beta is juusssst around the corner!

Now, where’s that Moulin Rouge DVD?