what is fdcmuck?

FDCMuck is a Multi-User Chat server operated at muck.fdcmuck.org port 3333. It opened in November 1994 as a place for members belonging to the virtual community of the Future Disney Cabinet (e-mails and names now defunct) to meet and roleplay without bothering regulars on the rec.arts.disney newsgroup who were not interested in such things.

The Future Disney Cabinet (FDC) itself began as a joke by a reader of that newsgroup when he placed a line in his .signature stating that he was the Future CEO of the Walt Disney Company; others picked up on the idea and chose other positions within the company as their "Future Position". What began in Spring 1992 as a joke has grown into more than 300 listed members in the FDC and over 600 requested characters on FDCMuck.

FDCMuck has evolved over the years. When it opened in November of 1994, there were fewer than 100 players, almost all of whom were active members of the rec.arts.disney newsgroup and had been reading said group for several years. As of October 1997, there were 216 active characters on FDCMuck, more than half of which have never read any of the r.a.d newsgroups (there are now four such groups following a successful vote to split the original group in the spring of 1995) and even more than that who had never heard of the FDC before joining the muck. The purpose and atmosphere of FDCMuck have also changed gradually; what began as a refuge from rec.arts.disney and a place to do some real-time roleplaying has become a tight-knit community on the Internet. Many players feel a family-like kinship with each other; this creates a wonderful atmosphere for chatting with friends whom we truly care about. We occasionally have our problems, but we always get through them together.

Since FDCMuck is home to such a diverse base of people, there are varying levels of roleplay that occur on the muck. Some players are always IC ("in character"), others are always OOC ("out of character"), but most people tend to mix the two almost without thinking about it. As a new character, you may want to observe other players for a while and learn what their styles are. Additionally, if you have a problem with something that someone says or does, make sure that you aren't reacting personally to an action that was meant as IC . Many of the problems that have occurred in the past could have been avoided if the players involved had simply taken the time to step back and re-evaluate what actually happened, or if they had communicated better with each other.

We have had our moments when it seems that the muck is comprised of nothing by bickering and unhappy players, but we have pulled through those trying times, and most of us feel that we are a great deal stronger because of it. A lot of that is due to the fact that we have become a family, and although there are different branches of the family who don't always get along, there is one thing that we all have in common: we love FDCMuck, we love what it stands for, and we will continue to feel that way no matter what comes our way.