Hosting Events on Furcadia

Everyone loves a good time with friends and Furcadia is the best place on the internet to be a party animal!

Unlike most games, Furcadia is not goal oriented, with players instead using their own skills and imagination to make something that's fun. The world provides the opportunities, the players provide the fun!

So without any higher game driven goal, making your own events is one way to bring more attention to your creations or community!

You can hold something as simple as a titillating game of "Truth or Dare" with close friends or get as complicated as a week-long festival with thousands of players invited.

Luckin Kindling Event with Floating Lanterns, 2018

Why host an event

There are infinite reasons, but here are some:

  • Bring players to a lovely Dream you worked so hard on
  • Meet people and make new friends
  • Increase membership for Guilds
  • Give back to the community
  • Show off you/your friends' talents
  • Host a wedding or heartbonding ceremony
  • Celebrate life events like birthdays
  • Host a Grand Opening event for a new section in your Dream

Besides all that, let's get real here, parties are just plain fun!

Annual Lighting of the Fires with Creators Felorin and Talzhemir, 2022

Brainstorming

Socializing

While weddings and celebrations are pretty self explanatory, you can still spice them up with a quest for the bridal gift or making a celebration into an ice cream social. Standard parties and balls are popular and always an option.

You can incorporate seasons, such as hosting a fall harvest, a spooky scavenger hunt, or even a whodunit. Competitive yet easy games work well for socializers, like soccer or checkers.

Helping Fleur and Scarlet have their wedding, featuring a fondue fountain 2022

Roleplaying

It helps to set up a pre-planned scenario that fits into your existing continuity. Tournaments are exciting too, perhaps with bot sparring. Your Guild might even like to sponsor special quests for players to go through.

A roleplay event where the Primes created the SkyPuffs, 2022

Sharing creativity

Things like art, Dream, or writing contests are really popular too. It doesn't have to be competitive either, with events like Furcadia Art Parties, poetry readings, or storytelling by a campfire.

Summer Dream Day 2022 event hosted by Roamheart, with a livestream!

Informal events

Not every event has to be complicated. You can certainly use existing Dreams and patches to throw an impromptu party.

Invite everyone you know and tell them to invite everyone they know. You might even send an alt around the main maps to invite anyone who'd like to come.

Just make sure you are willing to let things be a bit loose and not be too concerned about the behavior of guests. Also, the less notice you give people, the lower you can expect attendance to be.

Meggy's Informal Birthday Event 2022, playing the Monkey's Paw game

How to prepare

Getting helpers

The most important thing you need are helpers! Throwing a large event requires some prep work, which is way more fun to do with friends.

Designating one person to be in charge with final say on decision making helps to keep the event on track, focused, and prevents a major stall (something that happens if everyone involved goes off in too many different directions). This person should be communicative, responsible, patient, and have extra time.

How many other helpers you need really depends on how complicated your event is and how many are willing to help. Some can do more than one task for your event, but you should make sure you have at least someone in the group who can:

  • Dreamweave
  • Create DS
  • Make webpages
  • Create artwork
  • Post advertising
  • Monitor security
  • People to run each activity (booths, games, fortune telling, etc)

Playing Snowflake Catch in the Wylde, 2022 with Guardians and Eventers helping out!

Prizes

Giving out prizes, be they door prizes or prizes for winning contests, are always exciting!

Furcadia offers special Gift Packages, designed especially for events designed to draw more players in.

But you don't even have to spend money, either. You can give out the patch for the Dream, have an artist volunteer a portrait, give "virtual" prizes like pookies and necklaces, or even offer to build Dreams for others. While prizes aren't necessary at all, they definitely do attract more people!

Spring Maypole Dance Event 2022 with Pixel Pows and a Prrose avatar as prizes!

Special guests

Special guests will bring more players to your event, so consider sending invitations to one. A lot of times Council members would enjoy coming and will often even judge contests for you or sit in dunk tanks! You might also ask an online radio station to broadcast from your Dream that day, or run a Livestream.

Accommodations checklist

It's important to make sure your Dream is accessible and comfortable during the event. Here are some questions you can ask as you design the event space:

  • Is your Dream too big?
    • If it's too big, people will wander off and get lost / bored
  • Are the events taking place near the start / easily found?
  • Are the paths 3 tiles+ wide for free flowing traffic?
  • Can people accidentally block anyone from something important by idling?
  • Do landing spots, gathering places, and waiting areas have enough room?
  • Will everyone be able to hear what other people are saying?
    • Use the player view window in the Dream Editor to check seating hearing limits
    • Consider emit DS for players, enabling shouts, or other methods to keep everyone in the loop
  • Using an existing Dream?
    • Consider making a special event version to make it "user friendly" for crowds
  • Did you strip as much from the patch as possible (to help people on slow connections / machines)?
    • If it's too much to download / too complex, you can lose attendance
  • Are you reusing art/DS as much as possible, to save space?
  • Are your events spaced out enough from each other in the schedule? (Too much at the same time causes lag, especially DS timers)
    • Consider loading sub-Dreams for any complex games, rides, etc
  • Have you tested? And tested again? And again?
    • Getting one hundred people to leave and come back for a reupload is not fun!

Checklist for publicizing your event

Even small events need a bit of advertising!

  • What to include in your link:
    • Explains the who, what, where and when of it
    • Hype the event up a bit on the page; make it sound fun
    • Include the schedule and a way to contact
    • Include images like sneak peeks, or a screenshot of where the Dream will be uploaded
    • Consider how you might track RSVPs
      • Public RSVP counts help make an event look more exciting
  • Places to post the link:
    • Ask friends and Guild members to put it in their descriptions
    • Post it in the entry text in Dreams
    • Mention it casually in crowded areas
    • Send it to the News Channel
    • Social media
    • Discord server events

To have an event advertised on Furcadia's News Channel, all you need to do is fill out our News Channel Submission Form, and Furcadia may advertise it for free!

A sudden, player hosted crab rave event, advertised on Furcadia, 2022

The day before checklist

  • Did you get enough rest?
    • It's tempting to make changes right up to the last minute, but leave out a few things rather than be too tired to keep your emotions in check during the event
  • Is the Dream up and ready well in advance of your scheduled start time?
    • Sometimes people will want to gather before the start time in anticipation or to get a good seat
  • Is the news announcement scheduled right before you are ready to start?
  • Do you have plenty of helpers available?
  • Do you have your announcements written in advance?
    • Make liberal use of the "emitloud" command to let players know what all is going on in the Dream.
    • Making frequent announcements can add to the excitement and anticipation as long as they are not too long or too often repeated.
    • Don't forget to include ones thanking your helpers!
  • Are as many parts of the event as "hands off" as possible?
    • If you have to leave, the event should be able to go on without you
  • Do others have "share" so they can eject troublemakers?

The day of the event

Try to be a bit more liberal about what people are allowed to do during this time. They are generally excited and just trying to have fun, and remember, you are trying to make a good impression.

Take a deep breath, don't sweat the small stuff, make sure everyone helping has time to have fun too, and your party should go wonderfully.

Happy partying!

This tutorial was based off of the original article written by Emerald Flame for Massive Online Gaming Magazine's second edition.

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