Criticism of Furcadia

This article covers general criticism and/or controversy regarding the furry graphical multiplayer online community (MMOSG), Furcadia.

Some players have criticized Furcadia for not providing an interesting gaming environment. 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.

Bans
The Furcadia Guardians enforce community standards for behavior 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 main map.

Some players have complained about the "Banish" commands which are available to dream owners. 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.

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 a registered group, a spot on a main 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. People who upload their dreams or sit in Lost Lake's "spot" may be ejected from AI if they ignore the warnings to move.

Avatars
One area of contention is the ordering in which additional avatar species have been added to the game. A list of requested species is compiled as a post on Furcadia's community forums, however, some players have requested that species be introduced in a different order. For example, the bear avatar was finally added in 2007, after almost eight years of constant requests, being bumped up from after Deer on the list of avatars to be created.

Character theft
Because alt trading is not officially supported by Furcadia, there are often issues with players scamming each other. The only way to recover a stolen character is through the Furcadia Support Center via a ticket.

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.

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.

Pay options problems
Two problems were reported in 2009 (though there are no current recurring complaints) with pay-to-use options in Furcadia. There were Glitches with five dollars desctags, and paid Dream packages.