Graphics have been a bigger factor than anything I've seen. But then if people can't look past the graphics, chances are they can't fully utilize the game either.
It's not so much looking past the graphics as, well...
Several days of staring at the ASCII, until you realize that the " is a bush and the ` ' , . etc aren't. Hours of trying before realizing that the magic combo of d>p will let you harvest a plant so as not to starve. Another day or two before you realize that you can
designate a whole area with the aforementioned command. Then the learning curve of stockpiles. THEN you find out that oh, lord, the stockpiles have barrels and things that go in them too?!
Then, one day, you wake up, and
you see the matrix achieve satori run out of sanity points you simple see that a green paragraph break is a tree, has always been a tree, and always will be a tree. Or maybe an olivine goblet, whichever.
What is an untainted fortress like, free of the blight the community encourages?
No kitten-killing, catsplosion or not. Yeah, I'm a wuss. I pioneered my first metal/glass smithing industry ever just so I could foist the furballs off on the elves without them having hissyfits over wooden cages.
I mean, it's basically Hostel, Saw, Hellraiser, and any other torture fest rolled together into a game, and then given sandbox open-ended-ness, lol.
Not really. Hostel/Saw struck me as being gross and childish. DF atrocities have
purpose, man... Mermaid soap is a profitable business venture.