1. How long have you been playing on The Endless Forest?

I believe I registered my account March 24, 2010.

2. What do you call your community? (For example, "Furry Fandom" for furries, "Creatures Community" for fans of the game Creatures, "Potterheads" for Harry Potter fans, etc)

TEFers

3. Is there any unique terminology your community uses? (Example: "Hexies" is what the Petz fandom call game mods- this is unique to them)

We shorten "pictograms" to "pictos". When connecting to the game, we says "pictos have spread" when the game successfully connects to where we can see other players and they can see us.

4. How has the community changed from the early days to now?

It used to be a lot more interactive in-game. My pet theory is that moving spell data server side helped disincentivize interacting with other players. There are other factors, such as the proliferation of text based messaging apps. TEFc is used a lot less for text interactions and biographies because there was a prolonged period where it was nearly unusable, and more useful alternatives exist.

5. What other places do you congregate to enjoy TEF's community/fandom? Other forums, websites, chatrooms?

Today, it's pretty much all Discord and Toyhou.se. The first messaging app popularized among us was MSN, then it was Skype when the merger happened.

6. Describe how roleplay functions in your community, and what it is about. Imagine you're explaining this to a newbie or outsider.

There's usually some in-forest interaction that leads to connecting over an instant messaging app or posts on the TEFc site where characters can interacting in text based roleplay.

7. Have there ever been any major controversies in the community?

Several. I don't want to be specific, but they largely centered around different opinions regarding the ethics of roleplay styles, boundaries, and content. These result in pretty prolonged fractures and resentments. Sometimes it's just a lack of communication or people being immature. There has also been more than one case of pretty serious abuse that is hidden until it's not, fracturing relationships of both players and characters alike. Things are relatively calmer than a few years ago, but there are some allegations currently, and I have zero illusions about more things happening in the future. That said, people who had prior resentments have made up and in some cases become close friends. This community has matured with its players, as most started here as teenagers or in their early 20s.

8. Would you say you are a "deer person?" If so, how do you see this as differing from other species-based communities? (Example: such as communities focused around lion characters, or around horse characters, etc)

I wasn't before this game/community but now I kinda am!

9. Do you know anyone who has played TEF who has gone on to do something else note worthy? (Example: Ehtere making the Fawnlings ARPG in 2012)

A few people have gone on to work for AAA gaming studios, and Munkel is a professional illustrator (they did official Star Wars art).

10. Anything else interesting you'd like to say about the community or game?

TEF has a fairly wide range of personalities, but I think the "human faced deer" does select for those with an affinity for the strange. It's funny seeing people outside of TEF be really unsettled by it.

omg Bayleen I don't think I've seen your name here in years! Hope you're doing well! I still have your art of Phai saved on my hard drive, it was so sweet ;;

1. On-and-off for about 12 years now.

2. I don't view myself as part of the community (I don't mingle enough), until I see some trend I don't like, and have to speak my mind about it.
So I just call us people.

3. There are some interesting ones, not sure I remember them all. A combination of spells (horns+mask+pelt) a deer is wearing at a time/wants to get/got saved is called 'a set'. A devs' played Halloween character, Velocity, is nicknamed 'BZD', which stands for Big Zombie Deer. 'The Playground' was probably the oldest community-coined name for a landmark. There's also this patch of blue berries/flowers? in the Birch Forest we call 'The Blue Bowl'. (There are other player-given landmark names I didn't mention because of their traceable origins rather than anonymous as in folklore) We call the developers M&A, and we shortened the Abiogenesis to Abio. There should be more. Hm.

4. I can't speak about the golden era because I wasn't there to see it. I could about the community in my account's early years, but I'll just pick one aspect of it that I enjoyed the most. It's the community involvement plots, where everyone could pitch in on a bigger story whether through text/art on the comm.site or interaction ingame. Here's two examples, one, two. (Here I only picked those I got involved in. All community plots are great tbh)

5. I visited a russian tef group to take part in an event, once. Otherwise, none.

6. In a nutshell, the game is like an experimental theatre (complete with costumes), where each player is both the actor and the director as they control their deer proxies (characters). The rest is up to body language, imagination, and, in most cases, other means of communicating what's going on (community site, messengers, etc)

7. Again, there were more, but I'll mention the one that bothers just me, likely.
Thing is, over time the way the game was played strayed from its original concept (albeit a conveniently vague one), and became a roleplaying tool.
Along with that, the names of the accounts - the pictograms, lost their original meaning and acquired practical value, instead.
Which is gauged from the generation (the older the better) and/or aesthetics. Possibly other individual factors.
They were given away, traded, swapped and renamed, hoarded whenever a new generation came out, and, if I recall, at some point the name registration script got messed with, just to procure more rares. Also, if I recall, an older player had to come back from a hiatus to say they were not giving away theirs, because somebody bugged them about it, through email or sth. I think the community drew the line at selling pictograms for money, but the rest is still considered to be fine.

8. I never saw the forest as a "species" game, it's always been a "theatre" game, to me. I guess the human faces on deer were just the trick to keep the concept in the 'artistic' category, in my mind. I did discover the fun of drawing deer via this game. But not a fan of the animal, no.

9. I don't, but some artists/writers/musicians/others here are neat, so I wouldn't be surprised. They could.

10. Yeah. A word of advice to a newbie. Read the official info. Play the game itself. Experience it for yourself, foremost. Tempting as it is (we are a talkative species), don't touch Discord, or the community site.
And you might just find value in the way the forest connects you to people you'd otherwise never have met, or become friends with. Because the things that make us individuals also divide us. That game takes it all away, leaving you with just a name that is a symbol, and the next moment you look, people're all one and the same. That sort of raw human connection isn't easily described. It's either there, or it's not. Pretend the game is like a wire, maybe that's it. But it only works if you let it.

A hobby Anyone can join, edit, and add onto the Fanlore wiki. I wrote the page for FeralHeart as well, and many others, along with other editors of the wiki. Video game fandom/community pages are considered to be lacking, and luckily I have an interest (and some knowledge, depending on the game fandom), to help.

My questionnaire here is not promoted or sponsored by any party. It is done on my own to gather a wider range of congregated information to expand the page.

At first I wasn’t going to answer these as everything I had to say had already been covered, but then reading the questions again I had some additional I wanted to add so I’ve skipped some:

1. How long have you been playing on The Endless Forest?
14 years overall, 9 years ‘actively’.


3. Is there any unique terminology your community uses?
Just quickly most of the ones covered, but also referring to the makers of the game, Michael and Auriea, as M&A or the gods if they’re in game.


7. Have there ever been any major controversies in the community?
Haaaaahahah so many. Again as most mentioned I’m not going to retreat old, old dramas that have long since been resolved or aged, but there used to be such a thing about people having the same character sets, or character names, or sitting in the same place as what someone had claimed. I’m very glad that’s died down now.


8. Would you say you are a "deer person?" If so, how do you see this as differing from other species-based communities?

I like deer a lot, but that’s literally because of TEF that my love went from ‘they’re pretty cool’ to having like, a top 5 spot. I was drawn in when my friends at the time were drawing their characters and that’s what twigged me on to the fact there was actually more to the game than running around in laps and spinning in circles around people sat AFK.

I think one thing no ones really hard touched on here is that I am only here and only remain here because I love sphinxes, I love human faced animals greatly and they make up most of my characters overall.

I think theres nowhere else on the internet to my knowledge I could roleplay a sphinx character without people in some way commenting or thinking it is weird to do so. I could go on FH for instance and play a deer using the wolf model, and no one really cares. But I could go on and say I’m a sphinx but I reckon it’d only be a little while before someone is like ‘what is that? Ew I looked it up, its weird’

10. Anything else interesting you'd like to say about the community or game?

In mild opposition to Uitleger I think it’s vital that new comers, after the first or second boot up, need to find the discord or community. I know it’s not what M&A have in mind or their hearts for the game, but I’ve asked, seen and heard a few too many people being like ‘Oh I played that! I ran around as a fawn but everyone was ignoring me and nothing happened’ because they don’t know that the two deer stood idly in front of each other are part of a roleplay, or the three sat together in a circle are in a voice call and tabbed out, etc.

A lot of people still use it as an ambience they enjoy, but the true intention of the game hasn’t been lost its just evolved and it will never be how it was when it was first made. But I’ve also never met such a giving community who are always happy to have interactions, help with pictos or sets to people they’ve never met before and have asked for help, not even including times one of our own has been in trouble and needed something like a fund raiser.

I'm sad so many of my friends have moved on, but I'd not trade any of the memories even the drama-full ones for anything.

Can players clarify what they mean by "casting spells?" Is this another way to say preform an emote, or is this something like directly clicking on another player and "cast spell" is a unique action? Is casting a spell on another player only used to give that player cosmetics, or are there other uses?

1. How long have you been playing on The Endless Forest? Have two phases. Something happened to my original account that the password stopped working so made a new account and changed symbols. The second account is 7 years old and the original account was 4 or 5 years old

2. What do you call your community? (For example, "Furry Fandom" for furries, "Creatures Community" for fans of the game Creatures, "Potterheads" for Harry Potter fans, etc) I only play here and write here so I call it Deer Forest. I tend to when I play come in and out of groups. Early years there were flyers so I hung around the pond much.

3. Is there any unique terminology your community uses? (Example: "Hexies" is what the Petz fandom call game mods- this is unique to them) Not in an outside group. Play here. What I do is watch what some deer do and read the blog and view their art to see what they have new. Or I check the categories and scroll through since art will run in trends and several will be on the same theme. Some sets seem to play games like a tag. One will create something then others of their group will create using a piece of the original art. Usually lasts a few days. Like presently blood and death slice scenes seem to be a theme.

4. How has the community changed from the early days to now?
Community changes all the time depending on the players and the time you come in to play. I cannot speak to the last 2 years since Aussie work has kept me busy but before that in the game groups are fluid. Some have a set of activities they do. I do check the community drawings and writings. Blood, death, and slicing was rare in the early years I looked at categories. It was more about people drawing and artists trying to survive so lots of compliments to encourage sketching and drawing. For a time children were obviously in the game. Think there was a festival or event Endless Forest invited children to play the game. Plus at that time many people had children that played. It is in the blogs and exchanges. Many professional artists are here as well and certain types of drawing, drafting, and color palettes show up like they are preparing for an exhibit or job so they use the community to relax a bit or up their creativity.

5. What other places do you congregate to enjoy TEF's community/fandom? Other forums, websites, chatrooms? Just here. I do draw but most of mine is personal unless I am illustrating or doing educational sketches for state test items in math. We have to do a preliminary sketch and Endless Forest has a way of doing intriguing slants which art begins with point, lines, geometric figures. So looking at how they creatively put a deer and background together differently lets one think about different perspectives for math objects, and symbols or just graphics at elementary level. Like what does a table look like looking down on it, underneath it, from the side, from the corner. Since the theme here is deer there are thousands of perspectives of how people drew deer here. There were some children drawings at one time that were useful for being reminded how children see the world.

6. Describe how roleplay functions in your community, and what it is about. Imagine you're explaining this to a newbie or outsider.
Most communication is nonverbal so the Endless Forest gives an opportunity to explore that in depth. In different groups they will use the buttons of deer action to create a sequence of actions they became known by. That was 2012 to 2015--deer would come up one had a fabulous bow and twist that slid the deer paw to greet you. Then would teach it and the next time you greeted that deer like that. One would be in the trees by the pond then drop on you when you went underneath. Groups use to charge up the twin god hill all in the mask of white and red and in the fall groups gather by the Ruins graveyard and play games then reform deer groups. Some of those I participated in some I did not and was just a spectator.
7. Have there ever been any major controversies in the community?
Sometimes deer behavior changes and deer go to other groups. If you looked in the original forums where you download the game sometimes it was a commission going on and they grouped to play together. The game has been refreshed in minor ways several times. Deer would gather then to fight for their idea usually about the pond stuff and the where the fountain is with the critters. The community will do a community event and the forest will have rainbow, bubbles, bats etc and a new idea you saw proposed in the forum or discussed in the chats here somewhere. Use to be glitch discussions on fixing it. Most of the glitches were positive like flying deer happened I think because joysticks happened. Graphic artist deer would hang out visual glitch sites sometimes and point it out how I learned about some. See ancient deer gathered at a spot moving around exploring. Go over and do that like in the corner of the pond where the world turns upside down. Never mentioned in this forum but in the original where you download it was. More masks was one.

8. Would you say you are a "deer person?" If so, how do you see this as differing from other species-based communities? (Example: such as communities focused around lion characters, or around horse characters, etc) The dynamics of the game is such if you want to up creativity the one theme of deer makes you think on how to make something different from others. At the same time it allows newbies to fully participate and integrate in. Just viewing what all deer do with the small number of button actions makes you realize you can do many things with a bit. So for people who can only spend so much on art or even for a job with all its constraints (like 9 pages of direction for triangle in a math problem for a 4th grader) being a deer person shifts it off linear thinking blocking a creation that your art mind knows is possible but your linear side screams in your head rules that are not there it is a pleasurable way to remove the block or to learn something new. Simple lines are not always simple made in a graphic for the state math test database.

9. Do you know anyone who has played TEF who has gone on to do something else note worthy? (Example: Ehtere making the Fawnlings ARPG in 2012)
It has been an extremely humble place considering the immense talent and professional level who play the game. University professors in fine arts, in gaming, artists of museum quality, video graphics creators, geologist and engineers that must have sketching as part of their job, are all here. If you follow European festivals of art you find some of them. If you read the original forum on the download page and follow those names you will find leading professional artists groups. Some are high level commercial artists with businesses that sell their products. Leading edge people who create things that are not commercial but do it to extend the realm of art even in cyberspace. Lots of experiments go on around Endless Forest. Some were noteworthy before they even played. They often put a raw sketch to get feedback--have a way of chatting. Graphic artists several years back rose high and the precison of line, intersection of cyber materials and textures with specifications were a thread for at time. I am not that level but observation taught you approaches and methods to things by reading.

10. Anything else interesting you'd like to say about the community or game?
As you walk around your art eye gets better. You see pictures in the grayness of the stones like master paintings and scenes of life. In the grass you find designs as well as tree trunks. If you go to the same spot it will be the same for your mind. The outlines are useful when you go to create for what ever reason like a large amount of schema of line and color stored in memory for use when needed. A library.