Players who have been desperately trying to login to Hello Kitty Online over the course of the past few months only to be frustrated by the Founder's Club only access restrictions will get some relief this weekend, as Sanrio throws open the servers for a four-day Valentine's Day celebration and stress test, starting on February 14th. Players will be able to participate in special Valentine's Day quests while testing out the revamped user interface and new (and sorely needed) chat filter, which keeps Hello Kitty and her friends from being solicited by Hello Sexual Predators.

To sign up for the test, head over to Sanrio Town and snag a free account.

The celebration continues into the week, with a contest to see which guild can build New York City landmarks the fastest and a charity event called "Food for Friends", in which guilds will produce food items in-game, with the total amount created translated into cash donations made by Sanrio Digital to UNICEF and the Asian Youth Orchestra.

Man, I didn't realize she was 34. I feel much better about sleeping with my Hello Kitty pillow now that I know she's completely legal.

Hello Kitty’s birthday to be held in MMORPG Celebrations, events, charity in Hello Kitty Online begin November 1st, 2008

Hong Kong – October 31, 2008: Hello Kitty turns 34 on November 1, 2008. To celebrate the occasion, Sanrio Digital (www.sanriodigital.com) today announced a birthday party for Hello Kitty that will be held inside Hello Kitty Online (www.hellokittyonline.com), the eagerly anticipated MMORPG. The celebration begins on Saturday November 1st, and will include a birthday party lasting through the week-end, a week-long series of in-game quests and events, and a charity event that lets players convert effort they spend inside the game into real cash donations to charity.

Hello Kitty Online is a MMORPG (Massively Multiplayer Role-Playing Game) based on the popular Sanrio characters. The game transports players into the cute and cuddly world of Sanrio Land and is fully integrated with official Sanrio portal SanrioTown.com, which utilizes blogs, email, video sharing, games and more to create a digital and social experience accessible at any time, even in-game. The game is currently in Founders’ Beta phase. The present version of Hello Kitty Online will shut down on November 8, 2008, to allow the development team to continue work on the game and prepare for Open Beta. Current players, however, will retain their characters and certain benefits in future versions of the game.

There are a range of exciting events and activities planned for Hello Kitty’s birthday and the final week of the Founders’ Beta.

1) Hello Kitty’s Birthday Party - November 1-2 Hello Kitty, real name Kitty White, was introduced to the world on November 1, 1974, and was the creation of a young artist named Yuko Shimizu. Today Hello Kitty is one of the most-loved and recognized images in the world, and was awarded the exclusive title of Special Friend of Children by UNICEF. To celebrate her birthday, Hello Kitty will make special appearances in Hello Kitty Online on November 1st and 2nd. In addition, players can expect special mini-events and even gifts to celebrate this special day.

2) Guild Competition: Build New York - November 1-6 It's time to build New York! The guilds of Hello Kitty Online will be competing in a race to build two of New York City's most famous landmarks: The Statue of Liberty and The Empire State Building. Representatives of the participating guilds will be called to trade in their Empire Keys and Liberty Keys for special Empire State and Liberty land certificates. The first guilds to complete building these landmarks will receive formal recognition in the new zone and will be awarded special items in the next version of the game.

3) “Food for Friends” Charity Event – November 1-6 Remembering children who are less fortunate, Hello Kitty Online will host an in-game guild contest called “Food for Friends”, in which the efforts of guilds will be translated into donations to charity. Guilds interested in participating will produce raw materials on their farms and craft them into specific food items. Guilds will submit prepared food items to a Game Master. The guilds with the highest contributions will be declared winners. The winning guilds will receive a permanent page on www.hellokittyonline.com, special guild privileges for open beta, and a small feature on their guild including an interview with the guild representative(s) to be posted on official blog and press releases. Based on the total prepared food donated by all guilds, Sanrio Digital will then make cash donations to UNICEF (www.unicef.org) and the Asian Youth Orchestra (www.asianyouthorchestra.com).

Please refer to http://www.hellokittyonline.com/us/index.php?c=misc&s=foodForFriends for information on the “Food For Friends” event.

Sanrio, who sit atop the throne of the mystic Hello Kitty cuteness empire, reached a content sharing agreement yesterday with Sega Sammy which will allow for the two companies to share characters. The news article states the agreement would be "paving the way for the mouthless feline to make her video game debut," though I doubt a character with almost 40 games listed at GameFaqs needs all that much paving. In fact Sega has already produced several HK games in Japan for the Dreamcast, including my favorite, Hello Kitty Lovely Fruit Park - the best damn fruit park game anywhere.

The two companies are also looking to strengthen their capital arrangement in the future, with Sega Sammy already owning a 13.98% stake in Sanrio.

While I can't see myself preordering a new Hello Kitty game despite owning a toaster that burns her sacred image into a variety of bread products, I wouldn't mind seeing her pop up in a Sonic game. Our spiky blue friend needs a new love interest, seeing as Cream the Rabbit is too young and Amy is a shameless pink hussy. Michael Fahey

Hello Kitty goes gaming [Gulf Daily News via Evil Avatar]