Furcadia

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Furcadia

Furcadia, also known as Furc, is a furry graphical multiplayer online community (MMOSG) developed by Felorin (Dr. Cat) and Talzhemir ("'Manda"), with contributions from many others.[1] Furcadia has been running since 1996[2] and is possibly the largest online furry community, with over 70,000 registered players[3] and 2,000 - 4,500 online users active at any given time.

Contents

[edit] Overview

Furcadia is free to all users. To join Furcadia, the Windows client can be downloaded and installed. This client connects to the Furcadia server, allows for character creation, and provides a graphical environment where a furre (Furcadia character) can explore dreams (player-made areas) and interact with others.

Joining Furcadia involves creating a character by selecting a name, entering a contact e-mail address to activate an account, selecting a species, choosing colors, and writing a personal description that is visible to other furres.

The following species can be selected during the character creation process: Rodent, Equine, Feline, Canine, Musteline, Lapine, Squirrel, Bovine (also known as Minotaurs), and Ursine. It is also common to use one of these base species to create another; for example, choosing the coloring on a squirrel to make it look like a skunk.

In addition to the basic species, furres can purchase various add-ons for their character using real-world money. These add-ons are known as "Digos". These include Portrait spaces (for one port each), pixel roses, four types of wings (Classic Wings, Tricolor Wings, Butterfly Wings, Bat Wings, and Prime Wings), various alternate species (Dragon, Phoenix, Gryphon, Kitterwing, Unicorn, and "ferian" ("unevolved", non-biped) species of Wolven, Tygard, Leonen, and Foxen), and flight and fire-breathing effects. In their latest update, Furcadia also offers Furling (child furres), Chinchilla,and Flox (a foxen with a flower on its back). All purchases help support the operation and improvements of Furcadia.

You can also have your real-world money translated in to game currency, known as "DragonScales".[4] DragonScales are only usable for spending at the DigoMarket and are often used for game-related trades. They come in three types:

  • Golden Dragonscale (GD) - Costs one American dollar.
  • Silver Dragonscale (SD) - Costs ten American cents.
  • Copper Dragonscale (CD) - Costs one American cent.

[edit] The Furcadia Client

Main article: Furcadia (software)


[edit] History

  • 1994: DragonSpires, a predecessor of Furcadia, is created by Felorin and Talzhemir.
  • 1996: 12/16 - First release of Furcadia
  • 1998: The Circle Help Guild is chartered
  • 2000: 08/28 - Dragon update (V. 13)
  • 2001: 04/15 - Phoenix update (V. 16)
  • 2001: 11/04 - Lapine update (V. 18)
  • 2002: 03/15 - Butterflywing update (V. 19)
  • 2002: Furcadia is a finalist at the Fifth Annual Independent Games Festival
  • 2003: 01/09 - Gryffe update (V. 20)
  • 2004: 10/29 - Squirrel and Batwing update (V. 22)
  • 2006: 12/16 - Furcadia is the very first MMO to reach ten years running
  • 2007: 04/06 - Kitterwing and Bovine update (V. 23)
  • 2007: 10/28 - Lions & Tigers & Bears, OMG! Update (V. 24)
  • 2008: 01/31 - Fox Update (V. 25)
  • 2008: 12/19 - Christmas Catten Update (V.26)

[edit] Community

A statue of Beekin in Naia Green
A statue of Beekin in Naia Green

There are twelve official maps within Furcadia:

  • All ages
    • Naia Green is the central community map, where furres can get assistance, take classes and meet other furres.
    • Vinca is the nexus of Furcadia, allowing access to almost all of the other main dreams. it also is where festival dreams are uploaded during the assorted yearly festivals.
  • Age 13+
  • Age 16+
    • Hawthorn (Previously Haven and New Haven) is a map for teens and adults ages 16 and up.
    • Club Dusk 2 Dawn An area built for gothic horror roleplaying.
  • Adults Only
    • Furrabian Nights (aka "FurN") is a "Mysterious Arabia" themed map for adult roleplay and dream uploads.

[edit] Role-playing

Many different role-playing communities exist within Furcadia. As furres can create their own dreams, continuities range from Pirates on the High Seas, to Furres in Spaceships, to Elizabethan Gardens, to Medieval to Fantasy. One famous outside the Furcadia community is Lost Lake, featured in the popular webcomic Dan and Mab's Furry Adventures

The official continuity of Furcadia is known as Furre! and was created by Talzhemir and set in the world of Kasuria. It has a rich history and mythology.

Many non-continuity Role Playing Guilds also exist within Furcadia:

[edit] Dreams

Furcadia comes with tools allowing a furre to create their own worlds ("Dreams".) This includes DreamEd for laying out objects, floors and walls, DSEditor for writing DragonSpeak code to add interactivity, and fsheditor to draw new objects, floors, walls and portraits. There is also skinner which allows you to edit the Furcadia skin files, which define the look and feel of the client user interface, and the Animation Editor, part of the Dream Editor which allows you to edit animations on objects.

[edit] Patches

Patches released for Furcadia are "mods" or "addons" to the base content included with it. This can be new player portraits (either by specific species or entire replacement packs), custom avatar sprites (to enable play as feral wolves for example), new tiles to create original-looking Dreams, snippets of DragonSpeak to aid Furcadia programmers, or even redesigns of the games UI.

[edit] Volunteer community

Furcadia has a large and active volunteer community, known as the Furcadia Beekins. There are many types of Beekins:

  • Bugge Hunters provide technical support and track down bugs
  • Dream Masons provide assistance with creating dreams and writing DragonSpeak
  • Guardians enforce rules within Furcadia. Their roles are similar to that of Wizards in other online MUDs/MUCKs
  • Helpers provide general assistance, in person and via a help channel
  • Pixels provide help with drawing and creating patches
  • Scribes maintain the Furcadia web site and moderate the Furcadia Forums
  • Welcomers welcome new furres, provide orientation tours and answer questions
  • Mentors provide assistance and guidance for furres in the Beekin program
  • Teachers provide classes for furres in the Beekins program

[edit] Criticism

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Some players have criticized Furcadia for not providing an interesting gaming environment.[citation needed] Some players who are used to MMORPG-style games find the online roleplay and chatroom-style interaction to be repetitive and boring after extended play, lacking the elements found in other MMORPGs such as killing, leveling up, and other common game play features of the MMORPG genre. Other players find that the social interactions, role playing and the creative aspects of Furcadia provide an engaging and positive environment when compared to games that focus on war, killing, acquisition of wealth and property and level grinding that typifies many MMORPGs.

[edit] Customer Support

There have been instances where players who purchase items at the Digo Store that include goods that need to be physically shipped who have complained on the Furcadia Forums that their items never arrived.[citation needed] Furcadia encourages those who did not receive their items to contact them, and most instances have been resolved without problems.

[edit] Bans

The Furcadia Guardians enforce community standards for behaviour in the main maps, and depending on the severity by which a given player is violating the rules or disrupting the game, they may be banned temporarily or permanently from the game. Many players who have been banned claim that the bans are a result of them being personally targeted. However, since the Guardians will not discuss the reasons behind a ban for confidentiality reasons, the official cause of many bans can not be determined by the public or by the player who was banned.

Some players have complained about the "Banish" commands which are available to dream owners.[citation needed] They claim that these commands allow the dream owners to deny players access to dreams for arbitrary reasons, and are used to discriminate against certain players. Given that the Furcadia rules state that dreams are solely owned by the dream owner, they are free to use the Banish/eject commands on whomever they choose for whatever reason, if any, they choose.

[edit] Dream Locations

Disputes between players have arisen when one dream owner loads their dream in a location where another, usually more well-known dream, has been loaded in the past. When a dream is for a chartered guild, a spot on a map is reserved for them. In this case, if another dream is loaded in their officially designated spot, the Guardians will remove the other dream to allow the guild to upload their dream.

A common complaint revolves around the Lost Lake dream, a dream in Allegria Island that is always uploaded in the same spot as an official tribute and shrine to the deceased owner Alexsi.[citation needed] People who upload their dreams or sit in Lost Lake's "spot" may receive anything as minimal as being ejected from AI to something as extreme as being temporarily suspended from the game as a whole.[citation needed] This has led protestors to rhetorically question whether or not their dream would get special attention if they were to commit suicide.[citation needed]

In a future update, Dragon's Eye Productions has indicated that they plan to allow players to purchase a "group package". One of the variations of the planned group package will include a dedicated location on the map where the player can upload their dream.[5]

[edit] Suggestions

Dragon's Eye Productions solicits feedback from Furcadia players regarding possible changes, enhancements and additions to the Furcadia client, server and dreams in an official forum.[6] While many suggestions made by the community have been implemented, some players have complained that their suggestions have been ignored.[citation needed]

One area of contention is the ordering in which additional avatar species have been added to the game. Dragon's Eye Productions maintains a list of requested species[7], however some players have requested that species be introduced in a different order. For example, the Bear avatar, as requested by a petition for bears in Furcadia started in 1999 was finally added in 2007, after almost eight years of constant requests.

[edit] Player Created Content

Section five of the Furcadia User Agreement states that when any original work or derivative work is uploaded to Furcadia, the player grants Dragon's Eye Productions the right to redistribute their work electronically or via other formats and media.[8] Dragon's Eye Productions stated in their 2006 Town Hall Meeting that this is intended to allow them to distribute promotional copies of Furcadia on CD-ROM, complete with examples of player dreams. Despite this, some players have worried that this permits the creation of others to be used by Dragon's Eye Productions without credit or payment.[citation needed]

[edit] Art Theft

A common complaint from players who create patches is the unauthorized use of their creations by other players.[9] While Furcadia allows patches and dreams to be uploaded in an "encrypted" format, this does not prevent players from taking a screen capture, and Dragon's Eye Productions disclaims any responsibility for unauthorized use of player-uploaded content in the Furcadia User Agreement.

For contests and special events which are sponsored by Dragon's Eye Productions, players submitting dreams are required to include text that details credits to ensure that all non-default patches are used with permission.

[edit] Pay to Play

Furcadia has long had a policy of being "Forever Free", a community principle that players will never have to pay in order to use Furcadia. However, some have argued that the addition of many "pay" options, such as wings, additional species and custom portraits, have created two tiers in Furcadia, with those who do not pay having an inferior experience.

As of the "Fox Upate" there are a total of over 55 Paying Player Only options [10] including around 18 kinds of givable description tag items [11] [12](not including the weekly sale desctags), five kinds of wings [13], 17 different avatars (including alternate forms)[14], Portraits visible outside of personal dreams[15], and the 18+ "benefits" only available for sponsorship accounts [16] such as special dream upload colors and spots, character color change in-game, and Beta testing.


Dragon's Eye Productions has indicated that there is an inherent tension between providing a service that requires expensive equipment, bandwidth and staff to operate, and having a game that is completely free, and that these pay options enable Furcadia to continue to exist. Over time, many of the pay-only features have been made available for free, such as the ability to use PhoenixSpeak.

[edit] Release History

Main article: Furcadia (software)#Release history

[edit] See also

[edit] Unofficial Sites

[edit] General

[edit] Dragonspeak

[edit] Criticism

[edit] Dreams and guilds

[edit] Patching

[edit] References

  1. ↑ Furcadia's contributor page
  2. ↑ Furcadia Timeline
  3. ↑ "May 2007 Newsletter", Dragon's Eye Productions.
  4. ↑ Furcadia DragonScales Overview
  5. ↑ Group Packages Community Talk
  6. ↑ Official Furcadia Suggestions Forum
  7. ↑ List of Requested Species
  8. ↑ Furcadia User Agreement
  9. ↑ Forum complaints about Art Theft
  10. ↑ Paying player Only options
  11. ↑ digo market: Desctags
  12. ↑ Digo Market: Roses and other Desctags
  13. ↑ Digo market: wings
  14. ↑ Digo market: Avatar selections at bottom
  15. ↑ Digo market: Portraits
  16. ↑ Sponsor Perks
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