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| Furcadia: Furcadia Brings Furry Little Friends Together |
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Furcadia is a free Massively Multiplayer Online Social Game (MMOSG) where 40,000 people routinely gather to play puzzles, chat, role play, and explore dreams the users themselves create with the easy to use tools the developer makes available for download. Although it may seem unlikely for such a community to exist in this modern age where profits are the only thing publishers care about, Furcadia is actually thriving, proving once again that delivery is more important than the empty promises of Electronic Arts or some of the other big publishers that keep failing at this Massively Multiplayer Online (MMO) business.
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The developer of Furcadia, Dragon's Eye Productions, Inc., includes veteran game developers and artists. These people have worked on games for publishers like Electronic Arts, Apogee, Looking Glass Technologies, Maxis, Microprose, Origin, and others, and on such loved franchises as the original Ultima series. Although Furcadia's current engine boasts modest graphics and sound (they are currently hard at work on a more modern design), its simple interface, easy to use editing tools, and wide open game play make it attractive to those who wish to get directly involved in creating the content that others will play.
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One of the main focuses of Furcadia is dreams, and these are created by the users themselves. Dreams are made up of a map, which is itself made up of easy to create patches. Patches are little bitmaps for everything from walls and flooring to furniture and other objects displayed indoors and outdoors. Next, one must use the 'DragonSpeak Editor' to create triggers and other conditionals. Based on these, users can manipulate the entering Furre (the name given to the furry little creatures that populate the realm of Furcadia), thusly providing an experience for the end user. Finally, one must tie together the patches and scripts with the 'Dream Editor'. All of these tools are relatively easy to use, and they are definitely simpler then those supplied with Morrowind or Neverwinter Nights.
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Whether one is simply looking for an online community or maybe less stressful (or at least less expensive) role playing then what is offered by the various MMORPGs available, or you are drawn in by the concept of lots of two legged furry creatures hanging out together, you will likely find something in Furcadia for you. It's not for everyone, and it definitely can take a big commitment, as those who are actively involved are not simply users, but they are also content creators, participants in what is likely the biggest, most successful MMO game currently available. It may not make as much money as Ultima Online or Everquest, and it definitely doesn't offer much graphical glitz, but it is accessible, and that, for some, is far more than the canned content they are used to getting on a daily basis.
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-Gordy, GameVortex Communications AKA Gary Lucero |
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