The Alphaville Herald

Getting Some Tail at the Furry Rent Party

by Alphaville Herald on 28/07/06 at 1:00 pm

by Daftcoho Callisto

It was an entertaining scene, a couple of Saturdays back, when the massive FurNation sim held its “Tail Sale.” Not unlike “dream date” auction fundraisers, the Tail Sale was an opportunity to buy a Furry for services or company, and all of the proceeds went to keep the FurNation sim alive. All of the auctionees were FurNation admins, and all of them brought something completely different to the auction platform. Some would be your friend for a day, whereas others would put you on their radio show. The rent party was inspired and necessitated by the recent end to Dwell payments. FurNation is not a commercialized sim, and due to Linden Lab’s decision to drop dwell incentives for communities, the Furries of FurNation now rely solely on the residents, developers and owners to keep the area running.

Despite all the sexual innuendo thrown around at the auction, only a few of those auctioned were actually selling “mature company.” The rest were using their talents and skills to lower FurNation’s fees. It was a very entertaining and off-color experience as half-dressed furries tried to convince the audience to raise the price. Creatures danced on stage as a large audience threw out comments and jokes. FurNation really is a close community.

There were some impressive bids, but no more impressive than the price that Selkit Diller, a FurNation owner, sold for. Paskis Robinson threw down a whopping $L25,000 (about US$83) to have Diller build for him. For those of you that might think that’s an insane price to pay, think again. At the Tail Sale, it’s not necessarily just about the service on offer. As SelKit put it, “It’s entertainment as well as an opportunity to donate into a community.”

The record-breaking price for SelKit’s services (record-breaking at a Furry auction, anyway) wasn’t his first lofty price tag. In the previous Tail Sale, SelKit’s services sold for L$15,000 (the previous record), and he built a Sith Temple on an 8,192 sq.m. plot of land for the buyer. He also made a build for another donator on a 6,000 sq.m. plot of land. SelKit wasn’t the only talented one though — all of the admins volunteered their services for free, so that they could keep their sim alive.

During the short time that I was there, the Furs pulled in over L$41,000 in donations. (And they weren’t anywhere near stopping.) The generosity of the residents and participants was only proof of how close a community FurNation is. What was undeniably a fun spectacle ended up securing a future for the FurNation sims, and all of its inhabitants.