What's that, Furcadia?

Original posting can be found in this thread.

First, adding ‘humans’ would not make Furcadia a clone of WoW any more than it would make it a clone of Deal or No Deal. They’re not the same thing, they’re barely in the same Genre.

Furcadia, as Felorin has said numerous times here on the forums, is not about furry. It’s about user created content.
Anthropomorphism is all about being /like/ a human. By the way, Humans are animals too, in case you all weren’t aware, so saying, ‘it’s all about animals’ is kinda silly.

The thing a lot of people overlook insofar as Furcadia is concerned is that The game is pretty much unique insofar as other games go. I don’t, for example, get the same feel from a game like Second Life or World of Warcraft that I do from Furcadia.

People aren’t claiming that this 1 avatar will make-or-break their Furcadia experience, so please stop telling them to GTFO for wanting to play a human, and stop trying to act like it would flat out destroy the game entirely; it would do neither, just like every update hasn’t done so.

Anybody remember how many people were complaining and moaning about how much Gendered avatars were going to ruin Furcadia? Or how about Feral avatars ruining Furcadia?

Seems Furcadia’s still standing to me, and both of those were huge milestones that Furcadia overcame that a lot of players wanted, and a lot of players didn’t. A lot of both sides are still around.

The avatars aren’t Furcadia’s biggest draw to keep players around anyway. It’s the community and dreams that do it. The addition of a human avatar wouldn’t change either of those dynamically.

If DEP does offer one, (which I’m sure they will in the future; I’d almost bank on it,) it will 98.8% likely be a pay-for ‘seasonal’ avatar. Why? Because they aren’t in-cannon. For private dreams, you can turn those off, so it won’t mess up continuity. It’ll make Furcadia a lot of money; that’ll allow’em to add in more features.

I know I’ve been writing a -lot- about what all I’ve been doin’ for the site here and haven’t really written much about what’s going on with Furcadia.

Well, suffice it to say there are two stories brewin’ on the horizon about Furcadia.

I’m also going to start ‘ranting’ about some of the stuff I dislike on Furcadia. Not really about the company, (Don’t want to bite the hand that feeds necessarily,) but there might be some things that creep in from time to time.

As for Furcadia itself, the update didn’t happen yesterday, as I’m sure you noticed. Why?

The new client has a lot of bugs left. For those of you keeping count, the number of days left until the server -has- to move is 3. Feb 2nd is the day it has to be done by.

That said, they’ve been adding things to the client still. This latest RC has remapping Digo Buttons, so they appear dressed in your colours. I thought that was pretty cool. The phoenix glamour looks kinda neat, but it’ll wear down after time, I’m sure.

I got to test out the Live Dream Editing, and while still buggy, it’s a lot of fun to play with, just like client-side animations.

The butler is now a button, too, so it’ll be easier to modify skins using him. Your skins might (will) break with this addition, so be prepared to fix it.

There’s a test mode coming out. 15 minutes to muck around inside a dream that goes beyond your normal limits. Then you get kicked out. Should be enough time to fix some of the more pesky issues and let you see how a bigger map and such works.

All in all, it’s shaping up to be pretty nice if they can get the kinks out in the next few days. The kinks seem to mostly do with the way the client is rendering things, though, so it shouldn’t be too hard to fix.

By the way, there are some slight issues with Furnarchy in the update; I’ve given it a test and passed along the information to the programmer. Hopefully a fix will come out shortly after the update. As it is, the proxy is more than usable without any tricks or spoofs, so everything should be fine. The issues revolve mostly around memlocs.

Ever just been sitting there minding your own business?

If not, you’re probably doing something wrong.

Most of us, however, do sit around chatting with friends about stuff that interests us when:

BAM. OUT OF NOWHERE YOU GET ATTACKED!

This attack leaves you reeling at first. You’re thinking to yourself, “What the hell? Did Furcadia implement a combat system? Was I just hit by a random Monster that suddenly appeared like in Final Fantasy?”

No, my dear readers, that is not what has happened.

You’ve been subjected to a beggar.

Beggars, insofar as Furcadia is concerned, are people that go around asking others to buy them Furcadia related items; give them Dragon Scales or the like. A lot of times these people will whisper-spam a large group of people.

Over the past few years, (and specifically around heavily-promoted Digo-related seasons,) the beggars fire up their words and put on their best sob-stories. This seems particularly dense around Naia Green, The forums, and AI.

Things they look for?

People who have Digos are their primary target. They’re hoping that you’ll “Share The wealth” as it were. The same goes for people who give out a lot of digos to people randomly; they’re hoping that you’ll be ‘nice’ and give them one.

What can you do about it?

The thing is, these are usually young kids. (Or people pretending to be young kids.) Giving in to their wishes doesn’t help the matter. They go away temporarily, but they’ll tell their friends, and they’ll all start asking you for free handouts.

Don’t stop buying Digos, that’s just denying yourself a treat. If/when they ask, refer them to this article. If you want Digos, work to get them yourselves. Dream contests, patchwork, dreamweaving and the like are all good ways to get Dragon Scales.

In fact, earning the Digos makes the Digo that much more special and that much more meaningful. If you beg for it, it won’t be as ‘special’ to you; you’ve basically gotten charity and hand-outs aren’t as nice as getting something you deserve.

If you don’t have any skills, develop some. You may find a way to make spare cash in real life. Speaking of cash…

If you’re under 18, and don’t make your own money, and your parents don’t give you money, then it’s understandable to be upset. But that doesn’t mean you should beg, (Or demand) that other people give you their hard earned money. Digos are nice, but they aren’t necessary for playing Furcadia.

Trying to take advantage of people who have been nice and handed out lots of digos to other people is a bit rude. You shouldn’t demand ‘presents’ of someone who hasn’t decided to give you one. The more you ask, the less likely you are to receive from someone who does that.

All in all, show some decorum and don’t beg for things you can get on your own.

Are you ready for it? It’s pretty big. Deliciously dastardly, and awfully scrumptious.

Ready? Then read on.

I’m going to start this off by saying that this is my own personal opinion, and that it is not supported, asked for, or even endorsed by Dragon’s Eye Productions.
I fully expect Emerald Flame to hire Ninja Furre’s to come kill me in my sleep tonight for posting this.
It seems to me that a lot of things have been happening lately on Furcadia that have people all in a tizzy over what’s going on.
The general consensus amongst older players is that Furcadia is changing away from something that they loved and turning in to something they will hate, forever.
Apparently, these epic changes are so deep and run so hot that if they do come to pass the foundation of Furcadia will forever be altered, casting every veteran from their perch and send them reeling off into the eternal blackness of the Internet.

To them, I say: Get a grip.

Furcadia is changing. A lot of what is going on that is changing is good. Phoenix Speak, new Dragonspeak lines, The ability to have 24bit ports, (and as a result, PCX’s), Bears, new digos, and such are all excellent things for Furcadia to come out with.
One thing people seem to forget is that DEP is a company. They have every right to think about the bottom line before they think about anything else that is going on. (Incidentally, that is the stance they should take, as a business, and nobody should begrudge them for doing so at any point in time.)
The real fact of the matter is that people are resistant to change. For years, when something new is added to Furcadia, someone, inevitably, shouts that Furcadia is going to be over run very soon by capitalistic ideals that will ruin the game, spamming everyone with constant advertisements, and bring about the end of Furcadia that everyone knew.
Well, they get it right in part. Furcadia will never be the same that it was when you first started. The changes and evolution of the game are needed. If the game remained the same forever, it would eventually stagnate and die, leaving the game without a source of income, thereby making the game vanish.
If truth be told, a lot of people feel ‘outraged’ when they come across something that seems like a lie. I’m one of them. When I find a piece of information that I think is a lie. In fact, it really starts to get my feathers ruffled.
But I don’t go out of my way to post them here. There are about a thousand different things that I’ve heard that could send me into a ranting rage that makes me want to do nothing more than pull down Furcadia’s makers by their ears and rub their faces in what I’ve heard.
But I don’t. I don’t even try.
I do some research. I back up my findings, or I let loose the wild, fanciful protests. What I do find that I dislike, I tuck aside into a back pocket of my mind with the following statement: While it sucks, I’m not running the company, and if they decide that it is the way they want to do business, that’s up to them. I can always leave if I want to.
And I wish other people would have that attitude, too. A lot of what DEP does is good for the community, and it is overlooked by almost everyone in an attempt to run-to-ground a group of people who produce a game.
The thing is, we’re customers, and we’re not allowed to dictate company policy to them. Those of us with some kind of experience with running businesses understand that it is quite hard to create and manage a company.
Another thing that people need to do is understand that DEP does a hell of a lot more than any other company, insofar as talking to players.
It is no secret that What’s That, Furcadia? is not supported by DEP. It is no secret that DEP would like to be able to tell me to stuff it when I ask them for information about various different things.
However, most of the time DEP in general has been willing to come forward, on the record, and state facts for me to replicate inside What’s That, Furcadia? so that the players of Furcadia can have a clear cut source of news, presumably that doesn’t come directly from the mouths of DEP staff members.
Felorin and sanctimonious have both answered some tough questions for me about Furcadia in general, and how they operate.
Rumors fly around faster than mashed potatoes in a food fight when they’re about Furcadia.
DEP is not trying to cover up anything. If they’re doing something, it’s letting the community know more about their game and hidden processes than any other gaming company would.
There is no super-conspiracy that DEP is the mastermind behind. They’re trying to make a living creating a game that offers a lot of tools to players who, for the most part, seem ungrateful.
To be perfectly honest, the people who bitch about not getting enough information from DEP remind me of spoiled children who need a good spanking. You’re not owed anything by DEP, and while you might like more information, you certainly don’t deserve it.
So, if you’re reading through the rumors that say Talzhemir is a guy, or reading up about how Felorin and Emerald Flame are busy rolling on piles of money while laughing at players, think again. Don’t let your imagination run away with you. There is a simple, logical answer to almost everything that comes up.