New Avatar: Kitsune, Nine tails, green eyes, long legs... Options

[Keriss Pferranon]

The Kitsune Avatar: silky, furry, oh so tempting. I've passed the idea to a large number of people on Furcadia, both friends and people that I don't even know. It's received rave reviews on all fronts, too, and seems to be something that many people would look into buying.

It would be an entirely new avatar, such as the phoenix, dragon, or gryffe. It would be slightly taller and more ornate than the standard canine, perhaps with short wings. It would have nine tails, which swoosh and sweep about as it walks. You could create quite the comfortable bed of tails about the avatar when it lies down, too. All around desirable, very popular.

[Caecus]

The avatars in Furcadia have been made to fit Furcadia's own mythology, I don't think it should dabble around too much with Japanese or other cultures and stick to it's own.  I don't know, it always gave furc some kind of sense of individuality to me.



This post has been edited by Caecus: Mar 16 2003, 06:54 AM

[Keriss Pferranon]

I can certainly see where you're coming from; 'oh, no, this'll just make those Japanese characters all the more popular'. However, for one, many players on Furcadia do indeed play characters of Japanese origin, but more importantly, all other Furcadian avatars have real life roots, thus I digress that it would detract from the game at all.

Here are some fun facts.
The Phoenix takes its roots from ancient Egyptian and Roman societies. It was a bird with a beautiful voice and feathers of gold and red.  The bird lived for a long time, usually 500 years.  When a phoenix reached the end of its life, it would build a nest of herbs and twigs, light it and throw itself into the flames.  A new phoenix would be born from the ashes. It was associated with life, rebirth and immortality, and appeared on coinage in both societies.

The Dragon's roots appear in more than a dozen ancient societies as a 'great scaled beast'. While its shape, size, and mentality differ(major difference between Asian, European, African, and Native American dragons, for instance), its basis lies in the fact that it is generally large and a force to be reckoned with. Dragons represent different things in different cultures, ranging wildly from wisdom to evil.

The Gryphon originates in the Middle East; specifically, the area once occupied by the Babylonians. It has been found on Babylonian, Assyrian, and Persian paintings, and many scuptures of the creature have been unearthed. Around 3,000 B.C. in Egypt emerged the myth that the gryphon was the companion of the Pharoah, and the myth migrated to Minoa, where the gryphon was a sacred guardian. Indian and Greek mythology mention the creatures widely, making them one of the most well-known mythological beasts.

[Mechan Stargazer]

Oop, someone beat me to the post! *gestures up one space*  I agree with him.



This post has been edited by Mechan Stargazer: Mar 16 2003, 08:08 AM

[Keriss Pferranon]

Something I forgot to add. And, yes. I'm a walking encyclopedia(read as: book of useless facts).

The idea of anthropomorphic animals itself has existed since, at the most accurate estimates, between 3,200 and 2,800 B.C. Ancient Egyptian society both feared and revered these combinations of human and beast, which took the form of greater and lesser deities throughout their empire. Many paintings, carvings and sculptures still exist to this day of anthro critters thought of some five-thousand years ago.

[Leticia]

Quite frankly, Gryffes and Phoenixi don't really fit the official Furc continuity as it was when I started playing Furc.  There was pretty well a blanket "No sentient birds" thing at the time.

However, your best bet to get a particular avatar you want is to patch it yourself or find someone who will.  A kitsune is really close to a canine, even if you do want to make it basically a bigger, fancier, cooler canine (AND tails 'n wings!) so I don't see it being a priority for the Furc crew - there are people out there playing seals and otters with musteline graphics and bears with feline or musteline - and a kitsune is closer to canine than a bear is to a mustie!

[Youlanda]

Isn't a Kitsune just a fox with many tails?

[misticmagic]

You mean like tails from Sonic the Hedgehog?? hehehe... BUt the Idea does sound cool... Love to see where it goes.. maybe someone could make a patch of it first? like kestrels dragons. They started out as a patch.

[Crucified]

Isn't a Kitsune just a fox with many tails?

Is that anything like Mage Rooster?

[Keriss Pferranon]

Youlanda: Yupyup.

Leticia: I see where you're coming from, and I totally understand. I've seen plenty of characters who have a lot of creativity but have to make due with an avatar wholly unlike what they're playing. They are a minority, but they -do- exist within the continuity. Skunks are popular, bears are somewhat popular, and there are quite a few nagas running about.

I realize that not every possible avatar is going to be included in Furcadia, however, DEP -needs- money to maintain the game. Owning and maintaining the type of servers needed to run Furcadia is a -very- expensive and time-consuming endeavor, and the DEP staff put so much of their time into the game that they need monetary compensation atop that. You might not think about it when you buy that shiny new gryffe, but you're helping to put food on Felorin's table.

From a technical standpoint, it's rather easy for an accomplished patch artist to create a very nice looking avatar patch within a week or so. I assume the difficulty in adding new avatars lies in the codework. You must update the client to recognize the new avatar type in movement, interaction, portraits, and every other command. This is likely a very tedious process, and the reason that we don't have a large selection of avatars -- would -you- like to go through thousands of lines of code and make changes?

Anyhow, the purpose of this board is suggestion, and I'm just bringing to light the possibility of an option that would appease many Furcadians.

[Ayumi-Snowe]

The Phoenix takes its roots from ancient Egyptian and Roman societies. It was a bird with a beautiful voice and feathers of gold and red.  The bird lived for a long time, usually 500 years.  When a phoenix reached the end of its life, it would build a nest of herbs and twigs, light it and throw itself into the flames.  A new phoenix would be born from the ashes. It was associated with life, rebirth and immortality, and appeared on coinage in both societies.

The Furcadian phoenix in actuality stylistically resembles the Chinese Feng-Huang much more than the western concept of the phoenix, despite its little self-immolation trick.

As for Kitsune.. Well, nine tails is considered the pinnacle of kitsune power, with the owner of the tails being nine hundred to ten hundred or more years old. I personally think it would be a little awkward to have hundreds of ninetailed kitsune traipsing about Furcadia.

[Youlanda]

Just tack a few more tails onto the canine avatar and go through and use the first... five or six colors in the white row of the furc palette to give them a white belly.

Or just state in your char's desc that it has more than one tail.



This post has been edited by Youlanda: Mar 16 2003, 04:16 AM

[Aeronyth]

...Sounds like a pokemon.

`ichooseyou,kitsune

[Axis]

don't diss the kitsune, i use that for basis on my new feral breed i made up, the mage-fox.

i think thats a nifty idea but ill go with Leticia, furc is supposed to be its own society. you can always just put multi-tails in your desc, that's what i do.

interested about the mage-fox? find me on furc ill be glad to tell ya

[Caecus]

Well.... didn't mean to spurr a history lesson there.... but it was pretty interesting.

I remember reading somewhere, maybe even on these forums, that the pay avatars were nonfurry for a reason.  Since the game is called Furcadia, the furry avatars are free.  A kitsune would be a furry avatar and would be free but it wouldn't make sense for it to be free since it's mythological and another canine.  It'd be unfair to the fans of other furc species to not have variations of their species.  Can't please everyone, that's what imagination is for.

Not sure if that made any sense or not... maybe someone else who read what I read will get it.

[Inhandra]

I dunno about y'all, but I would rather see the planned new free species before any new pay avatars.

[Glyndon]

... there are people out there playing seals and otters with musteline graphics and bears with feline or musteline - and a kitsune is closer to canine than a bear is to a mustie!

Uhm, otters -are- musties.

As for playing bears, it's not that different, if you want to be technical.  Bears and mustelids are more closely related to eachother than to any other species.
Rather off topic, but I wanted to share some of my useless facts too.  

[Guest_Reptine_*]

What I'd like to see is to make one of the older avatars or whatever you want to call it FREE and make the newest ones what you pay for.

[Youlanda]

So what about people who paid for the older avatars?

Are they s*** out of luck?

[Merle]

That, and sales for the new avatar would be lower because people might get the impression that if they just wait it out, they'll be able to get it for free and what's the point of wasting money?