''FurryMUCK'' is one of the oldest and largest non-combat MUD-style games in existence. It was founded in 1990 as an online gathering place for furry fans to meet and socialize in a virtual

role-playing Role-playing or roleplaying is the changing of one's behaviour to assume a role, either unconsciously to fill a social role, or consciously to act out an adopted role. While the ''Oxford English Dictionary'' offers a definition of role-playing a ...

environment. Over time, ''FurryMUCK'' has become one of the central focal points for furry fandom, with a user base consisting of several thousand, with over 150 users regularly signed on simultaneously. Many furry fans state that their first exposure to furry fandom came from ''FurryMUCK''. West Corner of the Park is the central meeting place within the MUCK. It is held to a non-explicit rating and is generally continually populated. Visitors will emerge into the Park. There also was a

webcomic Webcomics (also known as online comics or Internet comics) are comics published on a website or mobile app. While many are published exclusively on the web, others are also published in magazines, newspapers, or comic books. Webcomics can be c ...

of the same name which is set on ''FurryMUCK'', usually in the park.

History

The first MUDs appeared in 1978, and provided a

text-based In computing, text-based user interfaces (TUI) (alternately terminal user interfaces, to reflect a dependence upon the properties of computer terminals and not just text), is a retronym describing a type of user interface (UI) common as an ear ...

virtual world A virtual world (also called a virtual space) is a computer-simulated environment which may be populated by many users who can create a personal avatar, and simultaneously and independently explore the virtual world, participate in its activities ...

focused on

adventure An adventure is an exciting experience or undertaking that is typically bold, sometimes risky. Adventures may be activities with danger such as traveling, exploring, skydiving, mountain climbing, scuba diving, river rafting, or other extreme ...

. While the first MUDs were clearly focused on the game, things changed in 1989 when Jim Aspnes released

TinyMUD A MUD (; originally multi-user dungeon, with later variants multi-user dimension and multi-user domain) is a Multiplayer video game, multiplayer Time-keeping systems in games#Real-time, real-time virtual world, usually Text-based game, text-bas ...

. TinyMUD allowed users to focus on building and socialisation, rather than game playing. It did not take long until

had emerged as the "most popular MUD on the internet", and a subculture of furry fans emerged within the system. These players "described themselves as anthropomorphic animals", and proved to be "somewhat controversial". With TinyMUD's success a number of alternative systems derived from TinyMUD's basic architecture emerged. One of these variants was

TinyMUCK TinyMUCK or, more broadly, a MUCK, is a type of user-extendable online text-based role-playing game, designed for role playing and social interaction. Backronyms like "Multi-User Chat/Created/Computer/Character/Carnal Kingdom" and "Multi-User Const ...

, a program originally developed and released by Stephen White. Piaw Na became interested in White's TinyMUCK in 1990, and decided to implement Forth as the

programming language A programming language is a system of notation for writing computer programs. Most programming languages are text-based formal languages, but they may also be graphical. They are a kind of computer language. The description of a programming ...

for development within the environment. The result was MUCK Forth (MUF), as implemented in TinyMUCK 2.0, which became the core to Na's short-lived ''AtlantisMUCK'', which was launched in 1990. ''AtlantisMUCK'' grew to be "tremendously popular", but was shut down in August of that year. Nevertheless, by that time copies of Na's code had spread, and by late 1990, ''FurryMUCK'' had been released using Na's version of TinyMUCK. According to Tina "Jahangiri" Smith, the founders of ''FurryMUCK'' were looking for a theme for their new MUCK, and "furries" emerged as an option. The aim was to combine furry fandom with the MUD's users — the former group needing a better method of communication, while the latter understood "high speed roleplay". However, one early difficulty faced by the growing ''FurryMUCK'' community related to where to host the system. The original version of ''FurryMUCK'' was hosted at North Carolina State University until mid-1991, when it was forced to move. A new home was found at the

University of California at Irvine The University of California, Irvine (UCI or UC Irvine) is a public land-grant research university in Irvine, California. One of the ten campuses of the University of California system, UCI offers 87 undergraduate degrees and 129 graduate and pr ...

, where it resided until November of that year. While at UC Irvine ''FurryMUCK'' was limited to 63 concurrent users. In November ''FurryMUCK'' moved again, this time to a server at

Carnegie-Mellon University Carnegie Mellon University (CMU) is a private research university in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. One of its predecessors was established in 1900 by Andrew Carnegie as the Carnegie Technical Schools; it became the Carnegie Institute of Technology ...

. It remained there until September 1992, when ''FurryMUCK'' was deleted and had to be restarted (with the loss of considerable work) at the

University of Toronto The University of Toronto (UToronto or U of T) is a public university, public research university in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, located on the grounds that surround Queen's Park (Toronto), Queen's Park. It was founded by royal charter in 1827 ...

. Toronto proved to be only a short-term home, and in October 1993, after a call for volunteers to host the system, it was moved to

St. Norbert College St. Norbert College (SNC) is a private Norbertine liberal arts college in De Pere, Wisconsin. Founded in October 1898 by Abbot Bernard Pennings, a Norbertine priest and educator, the school was named after Saint Norbert of Xanten. In 1952, the c ...

. This time the address proved to be more stable, and ''FurryMUCK'' remained at St. Norbert until 1999, when it was finally relocated to a dedicated server. At times, ''FurryMUCK'' has undergone turmoil in response to Internet content legislative efforts. In spite of the many moves, ''FurryMUCK'' grew rapidly, and by 1995 was regarded as one of the "most successful MUDs". A Wired.com article called FurryMUCK ''"the first anthropomorphic MUD."''.ohnny Manhattan Meets the Furry Muckers - Why playing MUDs is becoming the addiction of the '90s.
on wired.com ''"FurryMuck, for instance, "the first anthropomorphic MUD.""'' (1994) Four years later, in 1999, ''FurryMUCK'' had become "one of the longest-running and best-maintained social MUCKs online", and it is still online today.

References

External links

Official web site
*

FurryMUCK ''FurryMUCK'' is one of the oldest and largest non-combat MUD-style games in existence. It was founded in 1990 as an online gathering place for Furry fandom, furry fans to meet and socialize in a virtual role-playing environment. Over time, ''Fur ...

on WikiFur {{MUDs Furry fandom MU* games Video games developed in the United States

History

See also

References

Further reading

External links