Furry-Paws

Name: Furry-Paws
Genre: Dog – breeding, showing
Members: 900,000+
Age: Roughly six years
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If you’ve ever played a sim game, you’ve surely heard of Furry-Paws (affectionately known as FP). It is an old sim with a surprising amount of members. It hasn’t changed too much from how it was a few years ago, so I assume that only a few changes here and there have been made since its birth. That isn’t to say it even has to change by much. FP obviously has something working for it, which I can’t help but assume that it’s its simplicity – both in gameplay and community.

It’s not FP’s fault that it’s home to what people call “n00bs.” It just so happens that it’s the first sim of its kind for many people venturing away from Neopets. It’s a breeding ground for ten year-olds first learning the magic of the forums and the mystic of sending messages. They are in awe over the virtual canines (“OMG! They can breed!”) and swoon over the amazing showing system. I remember the feeling, as FP was my first sim, as well. I also recall doing the same as they do: going on the forum and doing whatever I felt like. It wasn’t like Neopets; you had more freedom. I abused it and so do they.

It’s not their fault necessarily. If anything, I would blame society. There’s a lot to be said about that, so I won’t get into it. It is inevitable that there will be n00bs and that they will be irritating little twits. It is also inevitable that they will grow up. Still… that takes too freaking long, so the community on FP sucks. The end. (There are the few good points, but overall, it’s an unorganized brawl.) So, COMMUNITY: 2 pts.

FP isn’t all about the community (well, after awhile, it is, but there is other stuff!). There is gameplay, which revolves around dogs: showing and breeding. There are some sims out there that only focus on certain shows and certain breeds, but FP has a wide variety – one of the largest and it definitely has something for everyone. However, FP being one of the older sims and with its lack of cosmetic updates, the overall appearance of the game is… cluttered and unimpressive. The coding is efficient and all the features function correctly, so that is good to know.

The downside to the FP gameplay is the lack of things to do. Sure, you can show, breed, and train, but those can be completed within an hour or so. If you spend as much time on the computer as me, you’ll agree that there’s not much else to do than to go onto the forums, which, as mentioned before, are not too appealing. Then there’s the problem of money being too easily obtained. Sure, you may be a little short on cash in the first month (if you buy a lot crap, that is), but eventually you start making A LOT of money. Enough to the point that 1 million FPD (dollar-like currency) is hardly a feat. That, needless to say, makes the game too easy. Which makes the game boring. GAMEPLAY: 5 pts.

Again, FP is old. It’s design is old. It’s concept is old. That means that it’s layout is way out of date. Compared to some sims, it may be fairly nice, but compared to others, it’s hardly anything. With the plain white background and sparse brown decorative graphics, it’s dull and shameful compared to what the creator is capable of. If you’ve seen her other games, she’s able to do a lot better. It’s obvious that FP is in need of several touch-ups. Kahlem (the creator) has said herself that the coding is a little sloppy and needs to be redone. Perhaps revamping the layout while you’re at it, please? I don’t see why she can’t – she’s updated Mweor’s layout several times.

Perhaps the most annoying thing about the layout is the lack of color. Again, it’s brown and white. Personally, I love that color combination; it’s classy. Unfortunately, there’s an overload of white, especially on my monitor (yay for widescreens?). Honestly, a few touch-ups could fix that problem. Add a nice background, a new navigation bar, a few tables and it’s like a whole new sim. The members wouldn’t be too opposed to that, would they? I understand Kahlem works hard, but it’s like fixing your hair all nice and pretty and then wearing a garbage bag as a dress. It negates all your efforts. LAYOUT: 2 pts.

It is a pet peeve of mine, one that simply irks me. It doesn’t actually stop me from playing a sim, but it most definitely has me rolling my eyes in annoyance. That is the frustrating irregularity of image banks. I could say that any site that has image banks is merely host to lazy artists, but I hardly think that’s the case. Well, maybe a little, but it’s just a fleeting suspicion. I think they’re really there just to give the users a variety of images to choose from. That doesn’t change the fact I hate them.

It’s rare for a breed of dog to be without images. It does happen, though. It could easily be avoided by the site artists creating official images for each breed. I would love that, personally, because it gives the site a sense of stability and I love breeding sims when the likeness of the parents is clearly displayed on the offspring in the form of markings and colors (or in Pure Felinity’s case, body structure).

Other than the image back annoyance, the various artwork throughout the site is just as inconsistent. It’s done by various artists in various styles. It may look nice, but it seems random to me. Which I don’t like. So, I’ll give FP its dues according to the beauty of the work, but I’m taking away for inconsistency. ARTWORK: 7 pts.

I don’t know the FPian staff too well, but I have spoken to a few on other sites. I understand that speaking to them on another site doesn’t really reflect their abilities as administrators and moderators, but I assume it does remove some sense of anonymity and gives me a general idea of their demeanor in typical situations. With my fascination of psychology, I’m relatively good at dissecting what people mean in messages and conversations. Still, it’s over the internet and face to face association is much more accurate. However, I am confident in my impression of a decently balanced system.

Kahlem is a dedicate administrator with ambitions for all her games. She has loyal followers who obediently do her bidding reasonably handle most situations. Considering I’ve not had trouble with the staff, nor have my friends, I’m still uncertain if their is any treachery afoot, but knowing the creator and her wise decisions concerning such important things, I highly doubt anything malicious is going on behind the scenes. Still, you never know. STAFF: 8 pts.

THE DIAGNOSIS

Community: 2/10 pts
Gameplay: 5/10 pts
Layout: 2/10 pts
Artwork: 7/10 pts
Staff: 8/10 pts
Total: 24/50 pts
Rank: Fair Game

Unfortunately, Furry-Paws is not the best game. I guess we’ll just keep looking, huh?