Tapestries MUCK

Tapestries MUCK
Developer(s)	Project community
Engine	TinyMUCK
Platform(s)	Platform independent
Release date(s)	October 1991
Genre(s)	Adult social MUD
Mode(s)	Multiplayer
Distribution	Online

Tapestries MUCK (frequently informally shortened to Taps) is an adults-only social and roleplaying MUCK popular within the furry fandom. The overall theme of the game is a world of anthropomorphic animal characters who may participate in BDSM and sex freely in the public areas of the game world. Because the MUCK, a MUD-style online social game, is text-based, this amounts to cybersex (sometimes called "yiff" in the furry fandom, although this word has a subtly negative connotation).

No players under the age of 18 are allowed to join. Though this is almost impossible to verify, players found to be under the age of 18 are typically banned from the game server.^[1]

As of 2002 Tapestries became the largest and most populated furry fandom non-graphical online game, with an average of over 800 simultaneously connected users at peak times, surpassing FurryMUCK by a wide margin. As of March 2007 it has 18,179 accounts of which 11,743 have been active within the last sixty days.^[2]

Mission Statement (Stated)

Tapestries MUCK is a cross between a real life BDSM play party, a free form role-playing environment, and a social gathering place all within a furry theme. It strives to provide a place for safe and free exploration of dominance and submission roleplay, as well as other forms of sexual expression in public and in private. Tapestries facilitates this by providing an environment that is populated exclusively by adult players and furry characters, as well as by setting guidelines that encourage tolerance and respect of other's fantasies and beliefs.

WIXXX

Tapestries is noted for its system of "wixxx tags," by which players may indicate their characters' sexual attributes or interests.^[3] This system has been copied, often with modifications, by other adult MUCKs. It was itself a modification of the more general "wi" system used by FurryMUCK to indicate nonsexual attributes of characters.

The world of the MUCK

Tapestries is based around a "culture nexus," where furry characters (as well as certain humanoid beings like elves, ogres, or centaurs — humans are against the game's policies) from different backgrounds may interact with each other. Aside from the species restriction, themes are not strictly enforced. An unlimited variety of character origins are permitted by the game's administrators.

The game world itself is based around the town of Layleaux, the center of most social interaction. Because of the overall adult theme, many of the MUCK's peripheral areas are themed around certain BDSM-based fetishes or interests.

Reception

In January 2005, Tapestries was mentioned in a Wired News article as a place to find cybersex and a factor in "the deterioration of sex chat" on IRC.^[4] Because the servers were beginning to get flooded, the game's administrators shut down new character registration for over a week, with an explanatory note.^[5]

Tapestries was chosen as Sex & Games' "link of the day" on October 3, 2005.^[6]

References

• "Animal Magnetism". San Francisco Bay Guardian. 1998-08-26. 
• Bernhardt, Stephen A. (May 1993). "The Shape of Text to Come: The Texture of Print on Screens". College Composition and Communication (National Council of Teachers of English) 44 (2): 151–175. doi:10.2307/358836. JSTOR 358836. Lay summary. 
• "Beyond Computers". 1999-01-22. Public Radio International.
• Frost, John (1994-03-19). "Cyberpoet's Guide to Virtual Culture". Retrieved 2008-08-30. 

External links

• Official website
• Tapestries MUCK at WikiFur