Furcadia | |
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Developer(s) | Dragon's Eye Productions, Inc. |
Publisher(s) | Dragon's Eye Productions, Inc. |
Designer(s) | Felorin/Dr. Cat, Talzhemir/'Manda, Emerald Flame, and sanctimonious |
Version | 28 "Tied up with a string!" |
Platform(s) | Windows (Windows 2000, Windows ME, Windows Vista, Windows 95 no longer supported), Third party Mac support, Linux using Wine |
Release date(s) | December 16, 1996 |
Genre(s) | Massively multiplayer online game |
Mode(s) | Multiplayer |
Input methods | Mouse, keyboard |
Furcadia is a MMOSG/MMORPG (Massively Multiplayer Online Social Game/ Roleplaying Game), set in a fantasy world inhabited by anthropomorphic creatures. The game is based on user-created content, socializing and free-form roleplaying. Furcadia is not entirely In Character; however, the background world ('The Dragonlands') and rule system ('Furre!') exist for those who wish to participate. Furcadia is claimed as the longest continuously running MMO.[1][2]
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The character, or avatar on Furcadia is called a "furre", pronounced "fur", or occasionally "furry". The in-game avatar can be set to one of several species of anthropomorphic animal that Furcadia offers. A furre can be one of three genders: male, female, and unspecified. These genders modify the default portrait, as well as specitags seen in chat.
Players can customize their avatars by choosing colors from a palette. These colors are shown on both the walkabout and portrait. The walkabout has a basic walking animation with the ability to stand, sit, or lay. There are default portraits for each avatar, however, one may upload a 95x95 custom portrait for a small fee.[3]
Each character can also have a brief description, which can include character details, or external links to websites. Some players choose to link to third-party websites to extend their descriptions beyond the character-limit the standard Furcadia description allows.
Furcadia offers ten free species to choose from.
There are dozens of Digos that you can buy from the Digo Market to support Furcadia's development. You can buy Digos with a monthly subscription, yearly subscription, or even purchase a for-life Digo which will never expire.
Mythical Digos can do various effects. The Mythicals are as follows:
There are five different wing types. Wings may attach to any free avatar except Bugge. The Wings are:
Ferian Digos are more realistic, and walk on four paws. They are as follows:
Digos in the Avatar Series have male and female genders. They are as follows:
Seasonal Digos are sold during certain times of the year. Seasonals are as follows:
As of May 2007, Furcadia has over 70,000 regular players[4] and regularly sees between 4,000 and 4,500 players at peak times, depending on the day of the week. The record number of players on Furcadia at once is 4920 as of January 25, 2007.[5]
Although Furcadia's anthropomorphic animal characters are related to those of the furry fandom, and the game was inspired in part by FurryMUCK, Furcadia has never been intended as an exclusively 'furry' game. A significant portion of Furcadia's playerbase do not identify as 'furries' or have any interest in the furry aspect of the game.[6][7]
The primary focus of Furcadia is user-created content. To this end, the Furcadia game download includes an art editor and a map creating program. Users are encouraged to create their own virtual worlds, called Dreams, using these tools. These worlds can be uploaded to the Furcadia server and used for a variety of purposes, examples being role playing, a place to hang out with friends, or a number of other purposes. Dreams remain open to the public area in which they are uploaded, so long as it is inhabited, and, if unoccupied, it is eventually unloaded automatically. Dreams can include the use of audio files in the WMA, Ogg, MOD, S3M, WAV and MIDI (.mid) formats, to name a few.
Most Dreams take advantage of a relatively user-friendly coding language known as DragonSpeak, or "DS". DragonSpeak allows users to develop interactivity into their dreams, ranging from a simple action like opening a door, to far more complex uses, such as a complete game of chess or laser-tag.
Dream owners are allowed to make and use bots to accomplish things that DragonSpeak cannot, but these are not officially supported by Furcadia.
Dreams run off several file types. ".MAP" files hold the main Dream layout, ".DS" files hold the DragonSpeak code, and ".FOX" (replacing the older ".FSH" format) and PCX files hold patch art for Furcadia. Every aspect of the Furcadia interface can be customized with Furcadia skins. Skins are made with a "marbled.pcx" file that is used for the background, two ".FOX" files (buttons.fox and the customizable dsbtns.fox), a settings file (skin.ini) and several fonts.
Several popular types of dreams are build-a-homes (where you can buy a temporary house from staff for free and decorate it with items, but is usually deleted after you leave the dream), hangout dreams (Usually featuring a bar or café area) and roleplay dreams. Furcadia hosts a wide variety of roleplaying dreams, ranging from strict-continuity roleplay (In which the dream is its own independent world) to persona play (Roleplay that is light and is governed by few rules). Roleplaying dreams also come in a myriad of different forms, ranging from feral (Feral wolf and horse dreams are immensely popular, concentrated in the Northeast region of the popular 'main map', Allegria Island) to furre to human. Many dreams revolve around fantasy plots and themes, based on popular books, television programs and even ancient mythology; some dream ideas are created entirely out of the minds of their creators.
Furcadia itself is basically made up of several dreams, the ones made by its users, and the main maps.
Although Furcadia itself is unrated, individual dreams may specify a standard which details what kind of behavior, language, and content may be allowed. Before March 2007, Furcadia used a rating system akin to the MPAA film rating system. Since March 2007, Furcadia uses its own dream standards system which allows users to define exactly what kind of behavior should be allowed on a per-dream basis. The dream standards are based on age groups, ranging from Everyone8+ to Adult Only, with specific behavior, language, and content restrictions. Some main maps—FurN and Hawthorn (previously Haven)—immediately block the user from entering the main map if they are not within the specified age group and parental controls are enabled.[8]
Furcadia includes a number of "main maps"--that is, public, permanent areas created by game staff. Main maps are always available, and many are included with the initial Furcadia download. The ones directly accessible from the user interface include:
There are several other official maps that are not accessible directly from the user interface, but are maintained by Dragons Eye Productions and/or have permanent status. The following is an incomplete list of these other official maps:
First opened to the public on December 16, 1996, Furcadia is developed by Dragon's Eye Productions, Inc (DEP). Its engine was developed in 1994, originally for a preliminary graphical MUD project called DragonSpires, which featured very simplistic real-time combat, and used a DOS-based client limited to the 16 EGA colors. At its public release, Furcadia featured a graphical improvement: art with a 256 color VGA palette. New support for 24-bit non-remappable portraits (the first art to extend beyond 256 colors), and Windows Vista support were implemented in the April 6, 2007 "Kitterwing Edition." On December 16, 2006, Furcadia became the first-ever MMORPG to celebrate ten years of continual service.[1][2]
Furcadia was originally designed and programmed by Dr. Cat (known as Felorin in-game) and Talzhemir. Two additional people have since been credited as part of the creative team for their work: game producer Katie Bazor (known as Emerald Flame), who developed (and still coordinates) the Beekin volunteer staff project, and Aleksi Asikainen (known as Fox, formerly sanctimonious), who created the game's editors and is now involved in coding the client and the server as the game's part-time programmer. Two others that assist with programming are Ryvn and Farrier.[9]
The developers continue to make several minor updates to the code per year. Major updates to the code (such as the addition of new character avatars or improved DragonSpeak commands) occur approximately once per year. As of 2007, the game remains in a public alpha development stage. An iPhone client is also in development.[10]
The game is supported by a unique structured volunteer program called the Beekins, who assist players and enforce Furcadia's rules of conduct. As of January 2008, there are approximately 700 volunteers in the beekin program.[11] The Beekin program is divided into several groups based on function:
Downloading and playing Furcadia is free of charge. DEP has publicly stated that Furcadia will remain free of mandatory playing charges. To fund staff and cover the costs of running Furcadia's servers, DEP sells several game-enhancing products, known in the game as Digos, sold in an online store known as the Digo Market (named after an in-game location). Possession of these game enhancements can last anywhere from one day to 'life' (an indefinite amount of time), depending on the product and package one purchases.[12]
These Digos include premium avatars, in-game wings of several types, the ability to upload custom in-game character portraits, in-game roses, and small images, such as cupcakes or even engagement rings, that display in a character's profile (known as Desctags). Additionally, players may purchase 'Silver Sponsorships', which provide a number of game-enhancing abilities and features.[12]
DragonScales are an in-game currency that may be used to purchase Digos. DragonScales may be purchased in the Digo Market, or received in-game as competition prizes or gifts.[13]
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