What's that, Furcadia?

Furcadia’s updating soon.

Silver Sponsors will be soon testing the test build of the client. This is a stress test for the client to make sure there are no catastrophic bugs still in the system, and also to make sure all the new DS is going off without a hitch.

Lets get the big stuff out of the way, first. This is from the update page, which will be linked at the bottom of the article. (For those who want to skip ahead; cheaters!)

Rabben Ferian

The newest Ferian to hop into Furcadia is this bouncy bunny avatar. Portraits were made by Talzhemir with additional work by Youlanda.

Noble Equine

A Spirited Purebred horse avatar and the next in the ‘Noble’ series. Avatar by Tiggerbaby with portraits by Aries.

Woolie Seasonal

A Fluffy Sheep avatar flocking to Furcadia for Easter! Avatar by Tiponya with additional work by Tiggerbaby and Gar, Portraits by Tiponya and Kittrel (Available Now!)

Toytle Seasonal

Slowly but steadily getting to Furcadia is this Toytle. Its portraits were made by Kaelin’yFiae. Additional animation by Emerald Flame and Gar. (Available May)

Tusker Seasonal

Certainly not a boring avatar, this perfect piggy was made, portraits and all, by Kaelin’yFiae (Available June)

Those’re the new avatars.

Some of the cool new features, (perhaps previews later)

New Icons – All of Furcadia’s Icons have been re-worked for 32bit colors. You can see them in the Furcadia folder after it’s installed to check out how they look.

New DS – More on this a little further down.

Tab Functionality – The Tab feature for showing names is getting an overhaul. Not only will you be able to set it and forget it to leave names on all the time now, but you’re also going to be able to see who is afk, which ties into another new feature…

Furcadia Pounce – A proprietary, first party Friends List and Whisper center that has been a staple of proxies for ages. This feature, (surprisingly? Not really) works much like the Dogproxy feature. I wonder if it’ll look and act like the Dogproxy feature… #SD

Cookie Economy – A precursor to the Attention Economy and one that has been touted for years, this has finally made it into the client. You can read more about the Cookie Economy Here.

The New DS that made it into the update Focuses on a few core areas:

Cookies – The New DS focuses a lot on cookies because DEP is trying to get the Cookie Economy to hit big with the community. As a result, you can buy additional cookies on the Digo Market for a dollar.

The iPhone – There’s an iPhone Client on the Horizon. DEP is now making a publicly official statement by putting the DS in for the iPhone. This is DS that will only affect iPhone Clients, so only use this for features you want iPhone users to see. (Maybe soon we’ll see “Windows” “Linux” and “Mac” DS too? I hope not; that seems like it would cause problems.)

Arrays – Not often used by most dream owners, (because each portion of an array takes up an additional variable slot.) DEP is trying to add increased functionality to these long-forgotten brethren of the standard Variable. Basically, they’re trying to give more power to the Arrays so they will seem more attractive and lucrative to dream owners and dreamweavers in general.

Avatar – New DS focusing on Avatar location and Avatar Animation. Some of this seems cool and looks like it might be useful for patchers and dragonspeakers alike.

So, that’s the update in a nutshell. Pre-order your new avatars on the Digo Market and check out the update page for more in-depth info here.

Yeah, I haven’t posted in a while, but that’s because I’ve been busy doing IRL things. Like working.

I do have something to tell you all about though, and it’s pretty neat.

The Scribes haven’t been idly sitting around with their thumbs in their ears, waiting for someone to kick them into action. Apparently, with Emerald Flame at the head, they’ve been developing several new pages for the Furcadia Website aimed at helping new (and old) players get more out of the game. Here’s a brief list of what they’ve been working on:

A new series of Help Pages, including instructions on how to get help.

A glossary of terms.

A press page, (for press releases, I would imagine.)

A Dragon’s Eye Productions Page. (About the company itself.)

A page about chatting in Furcadia.

A page about Roleplaying.

A page about creating new things for Furcadia, possibly including tutorials.

A page about places you can explore and possible things you might find therein.

I’m allowed to giggle deliriously at myself, right?

This is What’s That, Furcadia’s 100th article. (Mredria Lulz in Peace was the 100th post!)

So, I figured I’d pull out all the stops and throw a bunch of crap at all of you, my loyal readers, because hey, that’s what I do. I throw things at you. Don’t like it? Tough. Take some of this. And that. AND THIS!

…

I think My brain is still broke from getting everything ready for this.

To commemorate the situation, I did a podcast. (I know; stop your cryin’. Babies.) It has a lot of neat content in it.

I figured I’d also let you all know that there’s a new website up called Kasuria’s Really Awesome Paper. KRAP is a poor attempt at mimicking The Muskrat and Randomism. It’ll update every Monday so you can start your week off right with a good and healthy amount of KRAP.

If you’d like to help out and support Krap, you can send an e-mail to krap@entwinedstudios.com

For people who have a problem pasting DS Code into the Furcadia window, (I do!) I set up The DSBin for people to share and collaborate on DS Together. Hopefully Masons will find it helpful in getting Furres the help they need whenever they’re working on Tricky DS.

Anyone going to conventions, (at any time) might want to consider printing out several flyers or by perhaps taking a few of the conbadges Talzhemir cooked up. You could make your own based on Badge 5 and Badge 6 if you were wanting to, perhaps, hand out something similar to a business card so that people aren’t as likely to get rid of it. (Not as big or bulky).

Remember, if you’ve got any rumours or anything that you’d like debunked or supported, let me know. (Contact info is on the About Page.) I’ll go ahead and delve into any rumour you give me and let you know if it’s true, false, or similar to something else. If I get enough of them, I’ll turn it into a weekly thing.

FAB seems to be getting some decent use, which makes me happy. Make sure you swing by and take a look at the artwork that Mredria, Kotra, Sync and others have been doing!

Here’s a quick bit of information I picked up from Turquoise (Head Alt-Trading Guru) about Alt-Trading. She gave me valuable information about things like: why it’s done, how it’s done, prices, and other things.

Alt trading seems to be inspired by a general desire to be unique. Some people spend their time trading alts for the money. Others, however, do it for the unique names, and no amount of Dragon Scales, digos, or cold, hard cash would get those people to give up a specific alt name.

Alt trading started in rudimentary forms, (at least, in organized forms) in 2001. It started becoming popular in 2002. Now days, it seems that everyone is trying to get in on the Alt Trading Craze.

If you were looking to sell an alt, the first thing to remember is that it’s a buyer’s world, not a seller’s. Just because you want a certain price for an alt doesn’t mean you can demand it. If it’s not worth it to someone else, like everything else in life, you can’t sell it.

Most of the time it is unique, (or very special names) that go for the big money. Things such as IRL names, the names of Friends/Significant Others, Anime Characters, Colours and the like are where money tends to be.

Some of those names, (especially the really rare ones) come with a certain amount of prestige. They could also come with a certain amount of infamy, too.

There are lists of known scammers out there to avoid so that you don’t lose your money. In general, it’s a trust issue; after a while, you learn to pick out the ones you can trust and the ones you can’t . Much like police officers learn to do, I imagine.

A note of caution: Alt trading is still not supported by DEP. You cannot transfer ownership of characters at this time. Failure to use the system DEP is implementing at a later date will result in permanent loss of the character for both parties involved, plus whatever digos or scales were used in the purchase. Until then, it is a Buyer and Seller beware situation. Trade at your own risk.

And just for fun, I thought I’d let you all know that I can beat up a bunch of five year olds A bunch. Shayde En’Kiar can beat up more than me, though. Damn her.

22

Quick Edit: The Podcast is the purple and yellow thing just below this, alright? Click on it (the right side) and it’ll start to auto-play. You can also download the podcast to your computer using one of the links below. Thanks for listening/reading! Hope you’re here for article number 200!

Here are a few tips and ideas to help artists get fair compensation. These are steps to be taken with careful consideration, of course. If webspace is required to implement some of these, then it will be provided free of charge. These won’t work for everyone, and they require some hard work on the part of the artist, but if you’ve got an artist friend who is down about how much they’re getting for commissions or their art, point them here.

It might help.

• The top tip is to have manners. Saying “Please” and “Thank you”, and in general just being courteous will get you a lot of repeat business. Remember, you’re offering a service. “The customer is always right” is one of the best mottoes you could have, so long as you’re not being walked on.
• Get a paypal account. This is the best/fastest/safest way for you to get money. Accepting snail mail is fine, but if you can, get them to use paypal. There’s less of a chance for a mixup. (Or a scam.)
• Do some freebie work. Not commission-grade material, mind you, but definitely put up, say, a free item or two, or maybe a canine or feline male/female/unspecified port set for use in different dreams. Why? Because people will view your content more if there’s free stuff for them to have. (It happens.) and the more they visit your site, the more likely they are to buy something from you, (if they’re the type that buys things,) or drive other people to your site. Just remember to state explicitly whether or not you allow changes, and that you require credit. A good way to get credit easier is to include this with every freebie:

(0:9) When a furre arrives in the dream, (5:200) emit message {Say !credits to see a list of the artists who allowed their artwork to be included.} to the triggering furre. (0:31) When a furre says {!credits}, (5:200) emit message {<Your name here + whatever patches/ports you did.>} to the triggering furre.

Obviously you’ll be replacing <Your name Here + whatever patches/ports you did> with your name and the patches/ports that are being downloaded, with copyright date and such.

• Don’t be afraid to cancel a commission if someone is being a jerk to you. If they fronted you part of the money, refund it to them and be done with them. You don’t need, or deserve, to be harassed just because someone is paying you. Have some pride.
• Don’t be afraid to auction off your art. Set a starting price, and an auto-buy price, and let people go at it. Be prepared for the port not to sell if you set the price too high. The idea here is to start low, (Way less than standard commission prices,) and go up. (Buyout price being above normal commission price.).
• When pricing your artwork, put your pride on the back shelf. It’s good to be proud of your work, but sometimes it blinds people to reality. (Especially artists; no offense.) Get a wide sampling of how people think of your work, and what it’s worth. Remember, other artists might be telling you to ‘price it high’ because they want commissions too, so look at the people who get commissions a lot for an estimation of how much it’s worth to them. You’re in a competitive field, so you probably won’t get minimum wage for the hours you put into work. As always, be respectful.
• Have a portfolio showing a wide array of what you can do. People who can show that they have experience, (and a lot of it at that,) are more likely to get a commission. They show that the artist can handle a big job and will be a professional about it.
• Watermark anything you show to other people on the Internet. If you don’t, it will get stolen. A watermark should be subtle, but visible. (Think translucent so that it’s harder to pull out.) and across a good part of the image, (like the shoulder or body, or across a good portion of the item) and not over the background so that it is harder for them to steal it.
  • Put up items that are pay-to-download. Using paypal, this is simple. Here are some directions:
  • Log into Paypal.
  • Click “Products And Services”.
  • Click “Website Payments Standard” on the right-hand column.
  • Click the “Accept Contributions” link under the “Donate” button.
  • Read through what it says, and then click “Get Donation Buttons”.
  • Fill out the form with information about what you’re getting a donation for. (IE which artwork.)
  • Put a minimum amount you want for the item. (I suggest $.50 cents to $1.00 for an item pack, and $3.00 to $5.00 for a 3 character portrait set.)
  • Pick a button. (Or make your own.)
  • Choose whether or not you want it to be encrypted.
  • Press the “Add more options”
  • Fill in the website with a link to a page that tells people how to download the patch files. (Or how they’ll get them, if you want to e-mail.) Remember to follow PayPal’s rules about this.
  • Press the “Create Button Now” button.

You’ll get some code that you’ll need to put into a website; I suggest doing so beneath the item you’re trying to sell. It gives them the option to ‘buy now’, as it were.

You can use this website template for your website/portfolio. (Pre-setup for use with ports/items/freebies and commission slots, including mouse-over links to larger preview images.)

Remember, these are just guidelines. They’re not concrete, they won’t work for everyone. If you have any feedback, or other tips that you might find of interest to artists.

I would rather this not turn into a discussion about “How artists are unappreciated” or something. This is specifically to make life for artists easier.

I can’t go into great detail about the new information, but here’s what I’ve got for you all. It’s after the jump and for registered members only. Sorry!

(continue reading…)