Furcadia is a free-to-play MMOSG/MMORPG or graphical MUD,[1][2] set in a fantasy world inhabited by magical creatures. The game is based on user-created content with emphasis on world building tools, exploring, socializing, and free-form roleplaying. Furcadia hosts a large volunteer program called the Beekin Helpers,[3] allowing players to help with community moderation, welcoming new players, handling in-game technical support, running in game events, creating art for the game itself, accessing and updating the game's website, and bug hunting.[4] Furcadia holds the Guinness World Records title for the longest continuously running social MMORPG and, in addition to being one of the first games to heavily encourage modding and let users build virtual worlds for themselves,[5][6][7][8] it was also one of the first freemium online games.[9] In 2008, Furcadia was reported as having over 60,000 players.[10]
The character, or avatar on Furcadia can be set to one of 11 free species, including both humans, insects, and anthropomorphic animals.[11] Players can choose between one of three genders: male, female, and unspecified. These genders modify the default portrait, butler (the large character art), and specitags, icons seen to the left of players' names in chat.
Players can customize their avatars by choosing colors from a palette. These colors are shown on the butler, walkabout, and portrait. The walkabout has a walking animation with the ability to stand, sit, or lie down. There are default portraits for each avatar, however, players may upload a 95x95 custom portrait for a small fee.[12] 22 Custom avatars (non-gendered) may be added and used inside private dreams, for free.[13]
Each character can also have a written description, which can include character details, external links to websites, or internal links to private dreams. Some players choose to link to third-party websites to extend their descriptions beyond the character-limit the standard Furcadia description allows.
The primary focus of Furcadia is user-generated content. To this end, the Furcadia game download includes an art editor, a map creating program, a skin editor, and a script editor. Users are encouraged to create their own virtual worlds, called Dreams, using these free tools.[14] These worlds can be uploaded to the Furcadia server for free and used for a variety of purposes, examples being text based role playing, a place to hang out with friends, or playing multiplayer games and quests with other users, etc. Dreams remain open to the public area in which they are uploaded, so long as it is inhabited, and, if unoccupied, it is eventually unloaded automatically.
While there are several types of dreams that are popular, users continue to create new things with the tools they are given. Furcadia hosts a variety of roleplaying dreams, ranging from strict-continuity roleplay (in which the dream is its own independent world) to persona play.[15] Roleplaying dreams also come in a number of different forms, ranging from feral (wild animal) to furre (anthropomorphic animal) to human. Many dreams revolve around fantasy plots and themes, based on popular books, television programs, ancient mythology, or original creations of Furcadia players.