Furcadia is ten
Furcadia is ten years old this month. It still flies under the radar of most of the MMORPG community, in part because the hardcore gamers aren’t interested in yiffing, and in part because it’s like so many other of the niche MMOs: isometric, low-end graphics, and far deeper design than most want to give it credit for.
I guess I’ve known Dr. Cat for just about as long. That is, in person; because the first time I ever saw his name, it was actually as a credit on an Atari 8-bit game Origin had published… The first day I met him, he was wearing a plush hat with a dragon on it. He hasn’t changed much. If you ever visit the house where where he and Katie live, you’ll be surrounded by plush of every variety, some of it large enough to sit on.
Furcadia gets 60,000 uniques playing each month, and sustains itself profitably off of microtransactions — in fact, it has successfully been using that model since launch, just about. Instead of dinging your repeatedly for tiny things, Cat & the others ding you a largish amount for something really special — like adding wings to your avatar. Everything is still cosmetic, as far as I know.
Furcadia has also been at the user content game a lot longer than many realize. It has a full coding language designed for end-users called “DragonSpeak,” and users can build their own zones called “dreams.” It not only preceded UO to market, but its predecessor, “Dragonspires,” preceded just about everyone in the mid-90s boom.
I remember being a guest at a panel at the VR Worldcon in maybe 1997 or 1998… held in Furcadia. 🙂
Congrats on this milestone, Cat!
Moo.
Ahead of his time. Those damn furries are everywhere.
Ahh, Furcadia, that takes me back. They also have a very nice volunteer program, the “Beekins” (of which I was a (rather insignificant) part of at one point). Between not having to really pay for their customer service and having a free game that makes money off of major microtransactions, I’ve always admired Furcadia for its economical model as much as anything else. I’d definitely feel inclined to plagiarize.
It was also the home of my first roleplaying experiences. Good times.
Oh those crazy yiffers.
Randy welcomes Dr. Cat’s Furcadia to the decigenerian virtual world’s club.
It’s starting to get a bit more crowded in here – we might need to get a clubhouse or something. 🙂
Don’t play Furcadia.
Anyone who has been in Furcadia long enough knows that the yiffy community pretty much keeps to itself. There are far more things to do there outside of the banal, particularly involving dream creation and roleplay. I first visited in 1999, and the thriving community of artists and musicians is what kept me there.