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. Furcadia has been running since 1996 and is possibly the largest online furry community, with over 70,000 registered characters and 2,000 - 4,500 online users active at any given time.

Overview
Furcadia is free to all users. To join Furcadia, the Furcadia 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),  Ursine, and Bugge. 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 optional add-ons for their character using real-world money. These add-ons are known as "Digos". These include Portrait spaces (for one port each), wings (Classic Wings, Tricolor Wings, Butterfly Wings, Bat Wings, and Prime Wings), mythicals, including the (Dragon, Phoenix, Gryphon, Kitterwing, Unicorn, Kirin, and "ferian" (non-biped) species). Some of these avatars include abilities, such as flight and fire-breathing effects for example. Furcadia also offers Furlings (child furres), Nobles (regal male and female versions of the 'default' species) and Seasonal avatars (only available during certain times of year). All purchases help support the operation costs and development of Furcadia.

Real-world money can also be translated in to game currency, known as "DragonScales". DragonScales are only usable for spending at the Digo Market 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.

An advantage of the Dragonscales system (as well as one of the reasons for it's creation) is that the in-game staff and volunteers are able to safeguard trades against scams or thefts, without having to resort to lodging disputes with the players bank or money-trading service(s), such as Paypal.

History

 * 1994: DragonSpires, a predecessor of Furcadia, is created by Felorin and Talzhemir.
 * 1996: 12/16 - First release of Furcadia
 * New MUSH seeking builders - July 1996 usenet post
 * 1998: The Circle Help Guild is chartered
 * 2000: 08/28 - Dragon update (V. 13)
 * 2000: 09/06 - Version 14 update (V.14)
 * 2000: 11/27 - Version 15 update (V.15)
 * 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 reaches 10 year anniversary
 * 2007: 04/06 - Kitterwing and Bovine update (V. 23)
 * 2007: 10/28 - Lions & Tigers & Bears Update (V. 24)
 * 2008: 01/31 - Fox Update (V. 25)
 * 2008: 12/19 - Christmas Catten Update (V.26)
 * 2009: 04/14 - The Whisper Update (V.27)
 * 2010: 01/20 - Tied with a string Update (V.28)
 * 2010: Furcadia earns the Guinness World Record for the longest-running social MMORPG, having been active for 13 years 345 days as of 28 November 2010
 * 2012: 04/14 - The Purrwing Update (V.29)
 * 2012: Furcadia has a successful Kickstarter campaign, raising more than 100k in donations for future development
 * 2013: 12/24 - AngelCats Unite! Update (V.30)

Community
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.
 * Acropolis is a socializing area where furres can load their own dreams.
 * Allegria Island is a socializing area where furres can load their own dreams.
 * Challenges contains many single and multi-furre games, including chess, bumper spiders, and checkers.
 * Imaginarium is a place where furres can load strict roleplay-oriented dreams.
 * Meovanni Village is a free-form "persona play" role playing map.
 * Theriopolis is a Renaissance-themed freeform roleplaying area.
 * The Village of Goldwyn a place for freeform roleplay for those wishing to roleplay in Furcadia's official canon.
 * The Wylde An area in which it simulates a wild life area built to cater to Feral characters.
 * 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.
 * Adults Only Clean
 * Olde Town is a map for adults to socialize without violence or explicit content.

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 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.


 * Furre! - The official Furcadia RP Character Generation Rules
 * Furcadian Primes

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


 * Registered Groups(Free listings)
 * Persona Pounce (Chat/Broadcast) Groups
 * Strict Hearth (Small) Groups
 * Dream (Medium) Groups
 * Realm (Large) Groups
 * World (XL) Groups

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 scripts to add interactivity, with two modes, Classic and DragonSpeak Constructor, and FoxEditor to draw new objects, floors, walls and portraits. There is also skinner which allows you to edit the Furcadia skin files as well as PCX editor, which define the look and feel of the client user interface, and the Kitterspeak Editor, part of the foxEditor which allows you to edit animations on objects.

Patches
Patches on Furcadia are free to make "mods" or "add ons" 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.

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 and answering questions relating to dreamweaving in general. The Elder/Master Masons help with creating and maintaining official Furcadia maps.
 * 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 and also work on official Furcadia Art
 * Scribes maintain the Furcadia web site
 * Welcomers welcome new furres, provide orientation tours and answer questions
 * Teachers provide classes for furres in the Beekins program

Server hardware
In April 2010, Furcadia's hardware was: These servers were running on a shared 1GB backplane with 3TB of monthly transfer.
 * Game server: AMD Opteron Dual CPU Dual Core 8212, 16GB RAM, 2x 300GB drives in RAID-1 + small IDE hard drive
 * Pounce (IM): Intel Xeon Quad Core E5405 CPU, 2GB RAM, 500GB hard drive.
 * Web and email servers: Twin Intel Core 2 Duo 2.66 E6700 CPUs, 2GB RAM, 2x 160GB HD (without RAID).

Dragonspeak

 * Dreamless Dancer's site
 * The Dreamer's Archive

Dreams and guilds

 * Furcadia Historical Society - Dream Archives (archived)
 * The Circle Help Guild
 * Lost Lake - Social RP Guild
 * Elysian City

Patching

 * Furcadia Patch Archive
 * Roamheart Patching Database
 * Furcadia Art Zone: Furcadia Art Zone
 * Kell Bengal's Furcadia Patches

Historical

 * Furre! Furcadian news, events and help (2001-2002 archives)
 * GameSpy article about Furcadia - Tricia "Kazi Wren" Harris (15 January 2003)

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