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[Loud Whispers]

Oh man, I'm so hurt by that meme jab.

I feel like doing some !!SCIENCE!! with MAGMAAAA and Elves to release the HFS, because I'm too stupid to do anything else.

[/sarcasm]

[bombzero]

welp, i can see that whoever posted that is fucking retarded

its HIDDEN fun stuff you god damn morons.


anyways..

So what is it? Jealousy? Spite?

I believe that the term you're looking for is "GIT OFF MAH LAWN".

Or, more specifically, "This thing that I used to like but have no real control over has changed a bit and I don't feel like adjusting to these changes so I'll just pretend that they're the WORST THING EVAR so that I can feel like I'm right for not accepting them." It's a fairly common geek affliction, from what I understand.

Spoiler: ...Actually, you know what? I'm feeling bored, so I'm actually going to try to address his arguments. (click to show/hide)

I'd like to point out that cavern critters and poisonous FB's added more variety to fortress threats (something which I found 40d to be sorely lacking in), that ghosts add more variety to fortress threats, that necromancers, werewolves, cursed rain, and especially vampires will add more variety to fortress threats (hmmm, a trend! It's almost like Toady does, in fact, know where he's going with all of this!), and that the next release looks like it may finally make adventurer mode worth playing.
In addition, 31.25 runs faster (on my computer, at least) than 40d ever did and most of the really harmful bugs have been addressed. Furthermore, animals are easier to manage, injured dwarves are better-attended, and modding is much more versatile. In fact, the only thing 40d really has on the current version is an easier-to-understand military.
As a final point, Toady's new release plan looks pretty functional to me, Toady being able to singlehandedly manage a project as large as DF makes him ten times the programmer I'll ever be, and Necro910 is not, was not, and will never be every single member of B12.

Whew. Okay, I'm done venting now. Best wishes to that new game's devteam.

EDIT TO THE EDIT: I made an edit, but deleted it because on further inspection it made no sense.

what he said

[NobodyPro]

Back to the game.

The idea doesn't appeal to me. AT ALL. This doesn't even have the Far Cry 2 problem of "I'm really impressed and hyped but these decisions *points* are clearly stupid and frustrating."
That announcement just has no... hype.

[YetAnotherStupidDorf]

About cited criticism, I can agree only with "bugs lingering for years". I do not agree with rest, especially "game is worsening" bit.

That announcement just has no... hype.

I consider this good thing. I hate hype.

[bombzero]

I just don't like them insulting Toady, the guy who makes a game he full well intends to possibly devote his life to, makes it FREE. (sure he gets like 7k donations a month if you REALLY want to argue that, its barely above the cost of middle class living in america nowadays.)

also, how the fuck is dwarf fortress getting 'worse'.[/rant]

but in all seriousness the game looks like it will be good, i just see a serious issue with the people over there saying that kind of shit about dwarf fortress.
$500 says they are pissy since they're fort died in the first week, and they ran buthurt back to call of duty.

[Deon]

It looks like Toady has created a new generation of dwarf-loving folks. Some of them may dislike DF but they still like dwarves. It's awesome in any case .

It's better than the "zombie appreciation" for me (although I have a bit of that), before DF the last time I saw a bit of "dwarf appreciation" between my friends was back when we were kids and we were reading The Hobbit .

[GreatWyrmGold]

As long as they mention that it was inspired in part by DF, I say go ahead and make similar games. If (when) the players get bored with the other game, they might decide to glance at the games it was inspired by, try to make a megaproject in "their" game, decide to play DF, and maybe it sticks. It's kinda like advertising in exchange for ideas.

[bombzero]

It looks like Toady has created a new generation of dwarf-loving folks. Some of them may dislike DF but they still like dwarves. It's awesome in any case .

It's better than the "zombie appreciation" for me (although I have a bit of that), before DF the last time I saw a bit of "dwarf appreciation" between my friends was back when we were kids and we were reading The Hobbit .

i feel you on this one Deon, the zombie fanaticism is getting a bit old. 

[Lord Dakoth]

If Dwarves ever become popular in mainstream culture, I'm just going to say that "I was into Dwarves when they were still underground."

*Ahem* Silly puns aside, I honestly don't see the problem. It's not like this new dwarf game is going to displace DF from the "market." For one thing, Dwarf Fortress is a cult favorite and not a traditional game. Toady gets his donations from fans who have watched the game grow over the years, and are waiting with bated breath to see what it will become in the next few years. Traditional games, however, market towards people who are looking to buy a new game, play it for a while, then buy the next new thing once it comes out. Even though these markets are not mutually exclusive, they are certainly different.

[Mickey Blue]

It is sort of sad that every time a game that is even slightly similar to DF (even simply one that involves dwarves in some way) people leap all over it as stealing ideas (Heard it about Dwarfs!?, Delve Deeper, and even Minecraft early on).

As for the comment made.. I cannot say I haven't heard it before and like most criticism there is a kernel of truth to it, unfortunately like most criticism its also blown way out of proportion and steeped in bias.  Yes there are flaws with DF, however ultimately I think its one of the better, of not the best, game I've ever played (its certainly the game I've played the longest).  It gets far more support than most games (particularly a free game) and has been consistently updating itself for about a decade now.  In addition, since I started playing back in 40d, despite its flaws it has always been 'playable' (save for some game-breaking bugs that occur near major releases that are always dealt with quickly), which is more than you can say for many AAA titles. 

Push comes to shove, nobody has to love DF, its got some major flaws that do a lot to unnecessarily increase the barrier to entry (the UI perhaps being the prime example of that) and I'm sure everybody has their pet feature they wish were focused on and/or fixed.. But its a great game, its playable, and most importantly its a unique experience.  There are lots of shooters, there are lots of RPGs or RTSs, but there are like a half-dozen games that are even slightly similar to DF, and most of them are far more simplistic and/or suffer from their own flaws.

Best of all though, DF is continuing to update, free of charge, to this day, but if they stopped tomorrow I'd still have a game that is uniquely awesome and has sucked up a truly embarrassing amount of my time.

[Mr Frog]

I can sort of understand NobodyPro's comment regarding the lack of "hype". The article boils down to "So, there's this game, and it's in development right now, and it's sort of like Dwarf Fortress! ...Yay?" It didn't really give me any reasons why I should care. I could tell you that I have a game in development that's sort of like Rogue (and I do, but that's kind of besides the point), but that doesn't automatically mean that it'll be fun (TIP: I know nothing about game design, so it probably won't be) or even that it'll ever be released (with the way I typically approach large projects, current projections for a release date fall somewhere in between early 2012 and whatever our universe's expiration date happens to be).

Granted, considering how many times I've seen video games be fawned over by journalists only to turn out to be mediocre or worse, I suppose I can commend RPS for only telling us what they know for sure.

Also, what Lord Dakoth said.

[Mickey Blue]

Eh, I guess but I find that lack of hype tends to result in better reviews later.  Crappy (or at best mediocre) games getting hyped up like crazy aside, a game that is over hyped is almost doomed to fail.  It cannot possibly live up to the hype.  I mean if he was coming out saying how this was going to be the perfect blend of Dwarf Fortress's custom fortress building and Dungeon Keeper's defense against invaders there is just no way it would stand up to what people were expecting.

Lets take Spore for example (a game I have never played to be fair); when it was coming out people were talking about how amazing it would be, how it was a universe simulator that you could populate with your own creations from single celled organisms to galactic travel.  The result was (officially at least) underwhelming.  Now granted the problems it allegedly has would always have been there, but perhaps people would have been more forgiving if they didn't go in assuming it was going to be a miracle of game creation.

Or to use cinema examples; I really enjoyed the movies Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs, The Emperor's New Groove, and Flushed Away.  While they all have their strengths I suspect a big part of the enjoyment was going in with basically no expectations and hoping to be mildly amused at best.  Where as movies that I hear are going to be amazing experiences are often 'ok', even good, but not as good as I was expecting.

[Mr Frog]

I completely agree with you there. I just wish that the article provided more information -- I'm not asking them to sell it to me, I'm just asking to give me enough data to make a judgement either way.

'Course, aGoD looks to be fairly early in production, so I guess there'd still be plenty of time for bad decisions to be fixed and good decisions to be botched anyway.