Furcadia
Encyclopedia
Furcadia is a MMOSG/MMORPG (Massively Multiplayer Online Social Game/ Roleplaying Game) or graphical MUD, 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
.
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, icons seen to the left of players' names in chat.
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.
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 Furcadias player-base do not identify as 'furries' or have any interest in the furry aspect of the game. Furthermore, players can use hyooman (human) avatars if purchased.
. To this end, the Furcadia game download includes an art editor, a map creating program and a script editor. 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.
Dreams take advantage of a 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 bot
s to accomplish things that DragonSpeak cannot, but these are not officially supported by Furcadia.
While there are several types of dreams that are popular, users continue to create new things with the tools they are given. Furcadia hosts a variety of roleplaying dreams, ranging from strict-continuity roleplay (in which the dream is its own independent world) to persona play. Roleplaying dreams also come in a number of different forms, ranging from feral (wild animal) to furre (anthropomorphic animal) to human. Many dreams revolve around fantasy plots and themes, based on popular books, television programs, ancient mythology, or original creations of Furcadia players.
Furcadia itself is basically made up of several dreams, the ones made by its users and the main maps.
. 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/New Haven)—immediately block the user from entering the main map if they are not within the specified age group and parental controls are enabled.
(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.
Furcadia was originally designed and programmed by Dr. Cat
(known as Felorin in-game) and Manda (known as Talzhemir in-game). 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 Ryhn and Farrier.
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 avatar
s or improved DragonSpeak commands) occur approximately once per year. As of 2007, the game remains in a public alpha development stage.
The iPhone/iPad/iPod Touch client was released on July 19, 2010. Players cannot enter adult dream standards, due to Apple's conditions on Apps.
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.
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.
Another limitation of the "free" part of furcadia is the size of user-created maps - Maps must be limited in size to 208*200 tiles. This number can be expanded only after buying the "group package" item at the digomarket.
Fantasy
Fantasy is a genre of fiction that commonly uses magic and other supernatural phenomena as a primary element of plot, theme, or setting. Many works within the genre take place in imaginary worlds where magic is common...
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
Massively multiplayer online game
A massively multiplayer online game is a multiplayer video game which is capable of supporting hundreds or thousands of players simultaneously. By necessity, they are played on the Internet, and usually feature at least one persistent world. They are, however, not necessarily games played on...
.
Characters
The character, or avatarAvatar (virtual reality)
In computing, an avatar is the graphical representation of the user or the user's alter ego or character. It may take either a three-dimensional form, as in games or virtual worlds, or a two-dimensional form as an icon in Internet forums and other online communities. It can also refer to a text...
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, icons seen to the left of players' names in chat.
Customization
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.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.
Digos
There are dozens of graphical and functional enhancements ("Digos") that can be bought from the Digo Market to support Furcadia's development. Digos can be bought with a monthly subscription, yearly subscription, or bought permanently. These include a variety of pixelised species, including cats ("Catten"), dolphins ("Flutterphins") and even the newly released ponies ("Poneighs").Player Numbers
As of May 2007, Furcadia has over 70,000 regular players 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.Furcadia and the furry fandom
Although Furcadias anthropomorphicAnthropomorphism
Anthropomorphism is any attribution of human characteristics to animals, non-living things, phenomena, material states, objects or abstract concepts, such as organizations, governments, spirits or deities. The term was coined in the mid 1700s...
animal characters are related to those of the furry fandom
Furry fandom
Furry fandom is a fandom for fictional anthropomorphic animal characters with human personalities and characteristics. Examples of anthropomorphic attributes include exhibiting human intelligence and facial expressions, the ability to speak, walk on two legs, and wear clothes...
, and the game was inspired in part by FurryMUCK
FurryMUCK
FurryMUCK is one of the oldest and largest non-combat MUD-style games in existence. It was founded in 1990 as an online gathering place for furry fans to meet and socialize in a virtual role-playing environment...
, Furcadia has never been intended as an exclusively 'furry' game. A significant portion of Furcadias player-base do not identify as 'furries' or have any interest in the furry aspect of the game. Furthermore, players can use hyooman (human) avatars if purchased.
Dreams
The primary focus of Furcadia is user-generated contentUser-generated content
User generated content covers a range of media content available in a range of modern communications technologies. It entered mainstream usage during 2005 having arisen in web publishing and new media content production circles...
. To this end, the Furcadia game download includes an art editor, a map creating program and a script editor. 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
Windows Media Audio
Windows Media Audio is an audio data compression technology developed by Microsoft. The name can be used to refer to its audio file format or its audio codecs. It is a proprietary technology that forms part of the Windows Media framework. WMA consists of four distinct codecs...
, Ogg
Ogg
Ogg is a free, open container format maintained by the Xiph.Org Foundation. The creators of the Ogg format state that it is unrestricted by software patents and is designed to provide for efficient streaming and manipulation of high quality digital multimedia.The Ogg container format can multiplex...
, MOD
MOD (file format)
MOD is a computer file format used primarily to represent music, and was the first module file format. MOD files use the “.MOD” file extension, except on the Amiga where the original trackers instead use a “mod.” prefix scheme, e.g. “mod.echoing”...
, S3M, WAV
WAV
Waveform Audio File Format , is a Microsoft and IBM audio file format standard for storing an audio bitstream on PCs...
and MIDI (.mid) formats, to name a few.
Dreams take advantage of a 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
Chess
Chess is a two-player board game played on a chessboard, a square-checkered board with 64 squares arranged in an eight-by-eight grid. It is one of the world's most popular games, played by millions of people worldwide at home, in clubs, online, by correspondence, and in tournaments.Each player...
or laser-tag.
Dream owners are allowed to make and use bot
Internet bot
Internet bots, also known as web robots, WWW robots or simply bots, are software applications that run automated tasks over the Internet. Typically, bots perform tasks that are both simple and structurally repetitive, at a much higher rate than would be possible for a human alone...
s to accomplish things that DragonSpeak cannot, but these are not officially supported by Furcadia.
While there are several types of dreams that are popular, users continue to create new things with the tools they are given. Furcadia hosts a variety of roleplaying dreams, ranging from strict-continuity roleplay (in which the dream is its own independent world) to persona play. Roleplaying dreams also come in a number of different forms, ranging from feral (wild animal) to furre (anthropomorphic animal) to human. Many dreams revolve around fantasy plots and themes, based on popular books, television programs, ancient mythology, or original creations of Furcadia players.
Furcadia itself is basically made up of several dreams, the ones made by its users and the main maps.
Dream standards
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 systemMPAA film rating system
The Motion Picture Association of America's film-rating system is used in the U.S. and its territories to rate a film's thematic and content suitability for certain audiences. The MPAA system applies only to motion pictures that are submitted for rating. Other media may be rated by other entities...
. 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/New Haven)—immediately block the user from entering the main map if they are not within the specified age group and parental controls are enabled.
Development
First opened to the public on December 16, 1996, Furcadia is developed by Dragon's Eye Productions, IncDragon's Eye Productions
Dragon's Eye Productions, Inc. is a PC game developer and publisher based in Round Rock, Texas.-History:It has released two online games, the graphical MUD DragonSpires in 1994 and the MMOSG Furcadia in 1996. Dragon's Eye Productions continues to develop Furcadia.Founded by Dr...
(DEP). Its engine was developed in 1994, originally for a preliminary graphical MUD
MUD
A MUD , pronounced , is a multiplayer real-time virtual world, with the term usually referring to text-based instances of these. MUDs combine elements of role-playing games, hack and slash, player versus player, interactive fiction, and online chat...
project called DragonSpires
DragonSpires
DragonSpires is a series of massively multiplayer online games or graphical MUDs that share the same name and a common history. The original DOS version of DragonSpires was launched in 1994.- Original version :...
, which featured very simplistic real-time combat, and used a DOS
DOS
DOS, short for "Disk Operating System", is an acronym for several closely related operating systems that dominated the IBM PC compatible market between 1981 and 1995, or until about 2000 if one includes the partially DOS-based Microsoft Windows versions 95, 98, and Millennium Edition.Related...
-based client
Client (computing)
A client is an application or system that accesses a service made available by a server. The server is often on another computer system, in which case the client accesses the service by way of a network....
limited to the 16 EGA
Enhanced Graphics Adapter
The Enhanced Graphics Adapter is the IBM PC computer display standard specification which is between CGA and VGA in terms of color and space resolution. Introduced in October 1984 by IBM shortly after its new PC/AT, EGA produces a display of 16 simultaneous colors from a palette of 64 at a...
colors. At its public release, Furcadia featured a graphical improvement: art with a 256 color VGA
Video Graphics Array
Video Graphics Array refers specifically to the display hardware first introduced with the IBM PS/2 line of computers in 1987, but through its widespread adoption has also come to mean either an analog computer display standard, the 15-pin D-subminiature VGA connector or the 640×480 resolution...
palette. New support for 24-bit non-remappable portraits (the first art to extend beyond 256 colors), and Windows Vista
Windows Vista
Windows Vista is an operating system released in several variations developed by Microsoft for use on personal computers, including home and business desktops, laptops, tablet PCs, and media center PCs...
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.
Furcadia was originally designed and programmed by Dr. Cat
Dr. Cat
Dr. Cat is president, co-founder, executive producer and creative director of Dragon's Eye Productions. He is best known for creating the 2003 Independent Games Festival finalist MMORPG Furcadia with game artist Talzhemir...
(known as Felorin in-game) and Manda (known as Talzhemir in-game). 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
Aleksi Asikainen
Aleksi Asikainen is the president of media services company Infire Ltd. and the former Technical Director, Server Administrator, Composer, and Sales Manager of the online game Furcadia...
(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 Ryhn and Farrier.
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 avatar
Avatar (computing)
In computing, an avatar is the graphical representation of the user or the user's alter ego or character. It may take either a three-dimensional form, as in games or virtual worlds, or a two-dimensional form as an icon in Internet forums and other online communities. It can also refer to a text...
s or improved DragonSpeak commands) occur approximately once per year. As of 2007, the game remains in a public alpha development stage.
The iPhone/iPad/iPod Touch client was released on July 19, 2010. Players cannot enter adult dream standards, due to Apple's conditions on Apps.
Business model
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 Furcadias 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.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.
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.
Another limitation of the "free" part of furcadia is the size of user-created maps - Maps must be limited in size to 208*200 tiles. This number can be expanded only after buying the "group package" item at the digomarket.
Awards
- Finalist for the 5th IGDA awards
- Honorable Mention in WarCry NetworkWarCry NetworkWarCry Network is a fan-based web site network centered around MMOGs and other similar interests. It boasts a large community of professional web sites and databases for these games....
Editor's Choice Awards 2006 (Indie Game of the Year) - Softpedia Pick Award from SoftpediaSoftpediaSoftpedia is an Internet web site that indexes information and provides software downloads. The site also covers major technology, science, health, and entertainment news from both external and in-house sources and provides software and game reviews. , it is one of the top 500 websites according to...
- AllApp.com 5 Star Award
External links
- Gamedev.com interview with Emerald Flame and Felorin (21 February 2003)