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[skrimshander]

hey all,
I'm a college student and sometimes-Dwarf Fortress-player, and for an anthropology class, I've decided to look at the creation of what you could call game narratives (Boatmurdered is an obvious example) in the DF community. My primary interests are actually more in the area of literature/film/new media, so this definitely isn't a "look at these weird nerds" type of thing. Below are a few questions; feel free to critique them or add any further explanation.

1. How often do you play? Is Dwarf Fortress a fairly consistent activity or do you go in spurts?

2. Given that this is a strictly single-player game (succession games notwithstanding), how do you interact with other players?

3. Do you ever play/discuss the game with friends in real life?

4.Do you feel a sense of narrative—a "story unfolding" if you will—while playing or is that something to actively seek out?

5. Do you augment your own playing experience in any way (graphic tilesets, outside music, etc.)?

6. Do you create and share your own DF stories/art?

7. How do you respond to stories/narratives/illustrations that other people have posted?

8. Besides the fact that multiple fortresses can exist in the same generated world, do you feel a kind of historical cohesiveness between multiple games?

9. What other interests do you have? Books/movies/games/fields of expertise?

Thanks!

[Ghills]

Community Games and Stories is what you're looking for.  Also Other Games, there's an LP subforum.

Protip:  When trying to conduct original research, it's best to go to the right place and ask the right people.  Also, surveys are notoriously inaccurate and it's much better to use them as a complement to some other kind of data.

[Andrew425]

I'll help you out.

1. I play in spurts. Often I think of a challenge and then will spend however long it takes to achieve that. Once i've done that I usually stop until I can think of a new one.

2. On the forums.

3. I do tell stories if I think they were interesting, but usually not.

4. Nope

5. No, though once in a blue moon I will watch t.v. while playing

6. I occasionally share a story about a particular thing that I found amusing.

7. I smile at the funnier ones

8. No

9. I like books, movies, games, sports.

[blue sam3]

1. How often do you play? Is Dwarf Fortress a fairly consistent activity or do you go in spurts?

 - Very, very sporadic. I tend to get some inspiration, build like crazy, then have to go and do some RL stuff for a while, then come back and start on something else entirely.

2. Given that this is a strictly single-player game (succession games notwithstanding), how do you interact with other players?

Through the forums, through succession games, through some cooperative play via DFTerm.

3. Do you ever play/discuss the game with friends in real life?

Yes. These mainly revolve around me trying to persuade them that it wont make their brains explode and that big flashy 3D graphics do not a good game make.

4.Do you feel a sense of narrative—a "story unfolding" if you will—while playing or is that something to actively seek out?

Both, actually. There is a considerable amount of story that unfolds naturally, but the player can increase this considerably by actively following them.

5. Do you augment your own playing experience in any way (graphic tilesets, outside music, etc.)?

No.

6. Do you create and share your own DF stories/art?

Very, very occasionally on the stories, not on the art due to my absolute lack of artistic ability.

7. How do you respond to stories/narratives/illustrations that other people have posted?

I mostly just read them.

8. Besides the fact that multiple fortresses can exist in the same generated world, do you feel a kind of historical cohesiveness between multiple games?

A little, yes. My fortresses definitely follow a progression from one to the next as I develop ideas, at least until I get distracted by something else entirely, like I expect to be when the next patch comes out.

9. What other interests do you have? Books/movies/games/fields of expertise?

Books of most varieties, I play a variety of other games with varying degrees of regularity, from MMORPGs (of the distinctly non-standard variety, with the emphasis on the "RP") to chess and go (badly). As far as fields of expertise go, maths is the primary one, with a little ancient history and linguistics. I also sail (competitively and teaching it) a lot.

[Maggarg - Eater of chicke]

1. How often do you play? Is Dwarf Fortress a fairly consistent activity or do you go in spurts?

I generally tend to go in spurts. Right now (to my eternal shame) I haven't touched DF in about a month, despite totally intending to over the holidays. When I do play, however, I often play for several hours a day over a long period. To be honest, I still haven't got to grips with post 2010 DF since i haven't played it that much

2. Given that this is a strictly single-player game (succession games notwithstanding), how do you interact with other players?

I don't know many IRL and I don't visit the forum nearly as much as I used to, but I love reading about other peoples' experiences

3. Do you ever play/discuss the game with friends in real life?

Rarely, most of my friends aren't interested, a lot of them have a frankly pathological aversion to DF or just aren't gamers - the friends that are interested are generally computer scientists, haha.

4.Do you feel a sense of narrative—a "story unfolding" if you will—while playing or is that something to actively seek out?

This is something I've always loved about DF - it's capabilities as a sort of story generator are amazing, whether through the legends, in community/sucession fortresses or just my own private musings when playing, the stories that inevitably unfold are one of my favourite things. Frankly I often get quite attached to dwarves I feel that I like in some way, like tiny, virtual alcoholic pets with a propensity towards mental illness and extreme violence.

5. Do you augment your own playing experience in any way (graphic tilesets, outside music, etc.)?

I generally use a tileset that makes everything square (to ease my diseased mind, mostly) and I listen to music all the time anyway. I sometimes read when playing DF, I guess.

6. Do you create and share your own DF stories/art?

I do create DF art and stories, although I don't often share them and I haven't made much art for DF since probably 2009.

7. How do you respond to stories/narratives/illustrations that other people have posted?

I think that generally this community is filled with talented, creative and funny people, and even if their drawings aren't technically amazing, it's generally still something worth a look. I guess it helps that DF is so conducive to the creation of stories and/or art.

8. Besides the fact that multiple fortresses can exist in the same generated world, do you feel a kind of historical cohesiveness between multiple games?

Yes (mostly when I'm playing the game a lot), indeed, once or twice I've drawn up imaginary composite maps and things.

9. What other interests do you have? Books/movies/games/fields of expertise?

I'm a first-year History student, generally interested in medieval/ancient history. I love reading, I have a reasonable collection of books from sci-fi and fantasy to classics of both the conventional and avant-garde. I'm hugely interested in music - I play the bass and (to some extent) the guitar, and I've accumulated a fairly respectable collection of cds and records from harsh noise to synth-pop. I have to admit I'm not a film buff though, mostly out of lack of money to buy films. I've played and GMed my fair share of tabletop games, mostly D&D, but I've played Dresden Files (I have to admit I'm not fussed on the setting or the game system) and a few others.

[jimi12]

1. Spurts. Few hours a day when I do.
2. Forums or on Reddit.
3. No. I don't know anybody in real life who has heard of DF.
4. Yes.
5. I use Ironhand tileset. I don't listen to music while playing.
6. No.
7. Positively.
8. I do now that historical figures can migrate. I have had dwarves that were important that I gave custom names to and then retired that fort who then migrated to my new fort. That is a rare occurance though. I think that feeling will grow after further development.
9. I read sci-fi, classics, history, and philosophy books. I actually don't play many other video games. Other than DF I play DCSS, Mount and Blade, and Rome:Total War. I am an accountant.

[NW_Kohaku]

Sure, I'll take the survey...

1. How often do you play? Is Dwarf Fortress a fairly consistent activity or do you go in spurts?

2. Given that this is a strictly single-player game (succession games notwithstanding), how do you interact with other players?

3. Do you ever play/discuss the game with friends in real life?

4.Do you feel a sense of narrative—a "story unfolding" if you will—while playing or is that something to actively seek out?

5. Do you augment your own playing experience in any way (graphic tilesets, outside music, etc.)?

6. Do you create and share your own DF stories/art?

7. How do you respond to stories/narratives/illustrations that other people have posted?

8. Besides the fact that multiple fortresses can exist in the same generated world, do you feel a kind of historical cohesiveness between multiple games?

9. What other interests do you have? Books/movies/games/fields of expertise?

1. Spurts.  I take breaks of several moths, come back for several months, then do other things.  I do this for most everything, but DF is basically rare in that it's one of the few things I actually come back to.

2. The forums.  I love DF mostly for the ability to read and learn about entirely new fields of knowledge than I would otherwise never be exposed to, like learning geology, ceramics, soil science, or even beekeeping from a man who has spent 20 years as a beekeeper talking about more information than you will ever need on bees, and I can be completely fascinated by it because of how it relates to the simulations in DF.  I didn't know anything about soil science before I played DF, but once I started going on improved farming, I wound up spending months on research to create a 60-page-in-Word suggestion based upon all I learned.  Who would have thought soil would be so interesting if you just make it part of a game?

3. Yes.  They don't really understand it, though, but they generally like the notion of the !!Pig Tail Sock!! that is so irresistible that dwarven children just have to run into the fire to go play with it.

4. No.  I have to actively try to create one.  My dwarves are unfortunately very obviously a very stupid object class with rudimentary AI and some numbers in personality cells to try to give them the slightest bit of personality that can only be accessed through looking at Dwarf Therapist and reading that they have "74 liberalism", whatever the heck that means.  Their incredibly rudimentary AI, which is predictable down to knowing what side of a wall they will always stand on to build it (west), and how to stop them from walling themselves into a corner (order construction of a wall to the west of the wall you want built, then suspend it) leaves me with absolutely no wonder over their distinctly mechanical "minds".  That said, I'm arguing on the suggestion forums for ways to change that, so maybe with personality rewrites coming up, and if Toady actually starts trying to add some of the AI functionality...

5.  Graphics, I have my music collection set to randomize (if I'm not playing an audiobook), I use Dwarf Therapist, I use Legends Viewer.  I'm looking into using Stonesense, as well, since I'm getting more interested in it as it works in the ability to display more data than the original game can.

6.  Not directly, but I've been making graphics tiles and such to share.  I'm more interested in the mechanical workings and the understanding of the game and simulations in general than some disposable story to begin with, anyway.  Anyone can create another generic fairy tale.  True understanding that comes from simulation is something of real value.

7.  I generally don't read them.  I just don't have the time or interest.  I stay in the mechanics and suggestions areas.

8.  No.  The game simply doesn't simulate this at all yet.  Especially in Adventurer Mode, the game is basically a model of entropic decay.  Nothing is ever created again after worldgen.  The only way you can interact with anything is to make it die.  The game is basically filled with thousands of nameless and faceless generic characters and a tiny handful of interesting characters that are mostly "monsters" like vampires, and you are expected to destroy the last few peaks of uniqueness and individuality in the world before eventually your own Generic Nameless Nobody is destroyed, and a new Generic Nameless Nobody Jr. (Or the 3rd or 4th or 28th) takes its place until everything of any interest is completely destroyed, and the game reaches a vast dead, empty plane of generic gray goop.

9. I am mostly interested in games, especially strategy and role-playing games.  I have side-interests in politics, anime, psychology, economics, and generally just trying to build a system of understanding the world around me.  I basically would be the sort of person that likes taking apart the remote control to see how it works, except that it would frustrate me that I wouldn't have the tools to subsequently improve upon it, and make it so that I could add a few more buttons to the remote.

[Findulidas]

1. How often do you play? Is Dwarf Fortress a fairly consistent activity or do you go in spurts?
I play dwarf fortress 2h per day or so. 2-6weeks in a row then I usually take a break and play something else. Then come back and check what has been updated.

2. Given that this is a strictly single-player game (succession games notwithstanding), how do you interact with other players?
Here, on the forums.

3. Do you ever play/discuss the game with friends in real life?
Very little, none of them play this game atm. Only mention when something has happened ingame that might interest them, like the addition of vampires.

4.Do you feel a sense of narrative—a "story unfolding" if you will—while playing or is that something to actively seek out?
Sometimes when I play adventure I do. Not so much when Im playing fort mode anymore.

5. Do you augment your own playing experience in any way (graphic tilesets, outside music, etc.)?
Graphic tilesets and most basic utilities (check lazynewbpack, usually has the best.)

6. Do you create and share your own DF stories/art?
No

7. How do you respond to stories/narratives/illustrations that other people have posted?
Unless its funny or has some quirk of the df world in it (like giant sponges killing dwarves) I usually ignore any longer story.

8. Besides the fact that multiple fortresses can exist in the same generated world, do you feel a kind of historical cohesiveness between multiple games? Its the same setting and the same dumbass type of dwarves doing thier work, so it feels like it all sticks together somehow.

9. What other interests do you have? Books/movies/games/fields of expertise?
Im a computer game nerd who enjoys playing everything but sport/racing games. I used to read A LOT of fantasy books and scifi books of any kind when I was younger. Also have had periods of watching animes but I really dont enjoy the typical kind of anime people think of (well the ones that arent into it I guess). No pokemon/naruto/several girls one guy animes. I also enjoy shows like QI, nevermind the buzzcocks, whose line is it anyway and other english comedy shows like that (despite some of them NEVER airing in my home country). Im a student of biomedicine.

[Graebeard]

I may have time to give you a detailed response later on.

In the meantime, you might find my buddy's thesis on narrative development in DF to be interesting reading.

[Flying Dice]

1. Depends. I play it in cycles, the same as every other game. So I might play 15-20+ hours/wk for a few weeks, then go a few months without playing at all.

2. Through the forums.

3. Almost never, mostly because of lack of interest on their part (and typical responses, "is that the weather radar", etc.).

4. I notice it on occasion (certainly moreso here than many games), though I often happen across interesting stories only when I'm checking up on some other detail.

5. Utilities designed to make things easier/work better (e.g. DT, dfhack). Also some homemade modding.

6. Rarely.

7. Unless it has particular appeal to me, I ignore it.

8. Not particularly, though obviously this will change quite a bit in coming versions. Also, excluding reclaims, for similarly obvious reasons.

9. Literature (most noticeably speculative fiction), manga & anime, video games (predominantly RLs, 4X, tactical strategy, RTS, and to a limited extent PC FPS), fan fiction (pretty much exclusively well-written crossovers), webcomics, RP (to a limited extent). In terms of general areas of interest, international relations and human history.

[Blakmane]

Remember that by coming to forums you are getting a bias sample of more hardcore players. Also, your N is likely to be pretty small.

1. Spurts. I usually play one or two forts, burn out from staying up till 5am and then leave it for a month or so. I used to mod extensively but i'm afraid to get back into it since 2012 as it is a huge time sink.

2. Forums, or through friends that also play. (This question is going to have a high self-selection bias because you are ASKING on the forums!)

3. As above, yes. I have a few friends who also play religiously.

4. I create the narrative myself: I always turn every non-test fort/adventure into a story of some kind, linked into legends history if possible. Often I get frustrated with the interface because it won't let me quite create the story I want --- building a river community on stilts for example, or starting in the caverns and having the caravans/migrants come via underground. Ultimately DF is a game about creating your own narrative, with the occasional upset to keep things interesting. It provides an extremely rich backdrop of situations, characters and stories but if you don't have the self-motivation to take is somewhere it gives you nothing in return.

5. the rapist, music, tilesets, and often extensive modding.

6. Not anymore. I used to do this more often, but I no longer have time. There is enough activity on the forums now anyway without me adding to it.

7. Love them. Will post my encouragement if they seem underappreciated. I especially enjoy when people display intense creativity in modding and art.

8. Very little outside of adventure mode/fortress mode. I've been playing long enough that my fortresses rarely fail due to anything but eventual update or modding incompatibility/boredom. This means I have to abandon or regen to start a new fort, which to be honest leaves a sour taste in my mouth. I strongly wish it was possible to leave old forts as still functional so you could interact with them in a new fort.

9. My personal interests involve gaming and competitive gaming, fantasy/sci-fi, some anime, pnp RPGs. My professional interests revolve mostly around my PhD in medical neurobionics and I am more generally interested in bionics (medical or otherwise), BMI, nerve interface and AI. I guess you could call me a pragmatic transhumanist.

[DG]

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

1. How often do you play? Is Dwarf Fortress a fairly consistent activity or do you go in spurts? I tend to play regularly only when there is a long development cycle. When Toady starts pumping out regular updates I get paralzyed waiting for the next feature and don't want to play Fortress mode. Adventure mode is quick and easy to get into but I don't like investing in a fortress without the next awesome X that toady is developing and releasing soon. Stupid, but I don't think I'm the only one.

2. Given that this is a strictly single-player game (succession games notwithstanding), how do you interact with other players? Read the forums. Interacting with other people in this game isn't too important to me.

3. Do you ever play/discuss the game with friends in real life? I've tried to once or twice but none of my friends are interested. I'm not bothered. DF is something you need to want for yourself. If you need to be convinced, you're not ready. It's human nature to try and make other people like what you like, because it validates your own sense of taste.

4.Do you feel a sense of narrative—a "story unfolding" if you will—while playing or is that something to actively seek out? The further the game goes from formulaic starts and game progression the stronger the narrative feeling will be. If you can start each game the same and progress through doing exactly the same thing a thousand times the sense of story unfolding disappears. I find that now I actively have to set out with a goal/scenario in mind to have a sense of story (I've been playing since 2D). Otherwise I'm just trying to build something cool or test something impractical. I look forward mostly to whatever features will help the sense of story. Mine carts are alright but the personality rewrite is what I look forward to.

5. Do you augment your own playing experience in any way (graphic tilesets, outside music, etc.)? No, I don't mod or use second party apps. I either use the ingame music or silence. Lately though I've been tempted to edit out some of the animal men because it's getting ridiculous. I do use a square version of the original tileset. I like how the ascii encourages your own imagination and interpretation of things, like a book.

6. Do you create and share your own DF stories/art? I do a bit. I crank out more poor art than I do writing. I started doing a story that was meant to span adventure and fortress mode but it died when I realized I couldn't move ogres from cages to chains. http://www.bay12forums.com/smf/index.php?topic=92906.msg2603140#msg2603140

7. How do you respond to stories/narratives/illustrations that other people have posted? Rarely to stories and narratives. I will to illustrations but am less likely to say "I like it, too!" if someone has already got heaps of positive comments because then it seems like spam. I rarely know enough about anything to give constructive comments.

8. Besides the fact that multiple fortresses can exist in the same generated world, do you feel a kind of historical cohesiveness between multiple games? Not really. Toady says he aims for people to grow attached to the world they've gened and played in. I can't wait for that to become reality.

9. What other interests do you have? Books/movies/games/fields of expertise? I like books. Fantasy genre mostly.

Thanks! No probs.

[Kel]

Sure, I'll answer a few questions.

1. How often do you play? Is Dwarf Fortress a fairly consistent activity or do you go in spurts?

Definitely the latter, I tend to play somewhat infrequently, and usually find that I can't play during the post-major-release bugfixing cycle, because I'll always want to abandon what I've done so far and play with the new stuff, so I try to wait it out until it's all there.

2. Given that this is a strictly single-player game (succession games notwithstanding), how do you interact with other players?

The forums, though I'm something of a long-time lurker, short-time poster. This being my 7th post, I believe, I don't think I can provide a good answer to this question.

3. Do you ever play/discuss the game with friends in real life?

In passing at best. None of them are really that bothered about it.

4.Do you feel a sense of narrative—a "story unfolding" if you will—while playing or is that something to actively seek out?

Sort of. The best example is when I'm playing adventure mode, slaughtering all before me, I tend to construct narratives in my head based off the events, letting my mind do the bulk of storytelling and have the game provide only the framework of what's happening. I don't seek it out though, beyond deciding that 'I should go this necromancer's tower and probably die horribly' etc.

5. Do you augment your own playing experience in any way (graphic tilesets, outside music, etc.)?

I use a different ASCII tileset (although ASCII it still is), and a couple of 3rd party programs (Legends Viewer, etc.), but beyond that no.

6. Do you create and share your own DF stories/art?

Nope, can't write or draw for toffee.

7. How do you respond to stories/narratives/illustrations that other people have posted?

Usually with a chuckle at the insane-ness that is the DF community! This community is insane and brilliant and awesome.

8. Besides the fact that multiple fortresses can exist in the same generated world, do you feel a kind of historical cohesiveness between multiple games?

Sort of. As before, the game provides the skeleton and my mind provides everything else, so I get a nice sense of story out of it all, but not directly from the game.

9. What other interests do you have? Books/movies/games/fields of expertise?

Books (fantasy and sci-fi, largely) and games (board games and on the computer) are probably a couple of my favourite past times. I've done some programming and modding to a small degree as well. Oh, and I spend far too much time reading webcomics! 

[asnys]

1. Usually an hour or two, two out of every three days or so.   DF is moderately consistent, or at least has been over the last few months.

2. Mostly, I don't.

3. Not really.   I think I've had one DF conversation with a fellow player in real life.

4. I do in adventure mode.   Not really in fortress mode.   In fortress mode, I tend to have an idea of the sort of Fortress I want to make, but not really of a story I want to tell.

5. Nope.   I've tinkered with mods but I've never made one worth playing.

6. No.

7. I don't read them, it's not really my kind of thing.

8. No.

9. Mathematics (I'm a grad student in pure math), H. P. Lovecraft and his imitators, ancient Greek philosophy,  the history of the early Cold War, atomic energy, and literature in general - I'm always reading something, usually nonfiction these days.

[Mimidormi]

1. How often do you play? Is Dwarf Fortress a fairly consistent activity or do you go in spurts?
Somewhat long spurts, e.g. three weeks on a daily basis, one week off. They last as long as a fortress or a project lasts.

2. Given that this is a strictly single-player game (succession games notwithstanding), how do you interact with other players?
Through the forum, or talk with the only one other player i know.

3. Do you ever play/discuss the game with friends in real life?
Not really, only with the aforementioned player (my significant other). I may have briefly mentioned it to other people but, as a rule, when it crops up, if they don't show interest i don't go on details.

4.Do you feel a sense of narrative—a "story unfolding" if you will—while playing or is that something to actively seek out?
Most of the time the story unfolds by itself, but still requires input from the player. I may imagine a background or a motivation, especially for the first seven dwarves, and usually the random events i attach significance to take over the narrative. Example: a jeweller that moonlighted as a mason had the gift to be the most responsive builder and saved his fort in two occasions by completing some walls critical to the defense. He was obviously randomly chosen by the rng, but it's still entertaining to imagine his motivations, or lack thereof, in a story.. in this case, i choose to picture him as a selfless, mindful invidual, but so many different interpretations would have fitted (just to name a few: reluctant hero, closet thrill-seeker, opportunist looking for glory, suicidal dwarf looking for a way out). In turn these visions end up influencing the game (sometimes in very direct ways, e.g. roleplay as a very friendly community in which each dwarf gets some furniture made of his/her favorite material), which inspires other scenes, which influence the game again, in a sort of a self-reinforcing cycle.

5. Do you augment your own playing experience in any way (graphic tilesets, outside music, etc.)?
Very rarely i may put on some fitting music, but it's more the exception than the norm.

6. Do you create and share your own DF stories/art?
Create yes, i don't share though 

7. How do you respond to stories/narratives/illustrations that other people have posted?
I may comment on them but my lurking tendencies get the best of me most of the time.

8. Besides the fact that multiple fortresses can exist in the same generated world, do you feel a kind of historical cohesiveness between multiple games?
At the moment, no. History stops whenever we play, eerily crystallizing around the fort, the end of world generation inevitably kills that feeling of a world teeming with life. I realized through this question that i deliberately choose to create each new fortress in a new world to ease this disconnect, like each fortress is a unique, one-shot deal of its world, for whatever reason i imagine or the events suggest to me, and the lack of outside events is just a case.
The recent feature of domestication knowledge shared with the parent civilization tempted me, for the first time, to create some consecutive fortresses in the same world, but being aware of being the only driving force in the world is still too much of a turn-off to attempt doing anything about it.
Still, while i'd really like for world gen to go on during play, i don't begrudge the actual state of things.

9. What other interests do you have? Books/movies/games/fields of expertise?
Mainly humanities, art, science. Philosophy, mythology, literature, psychology, linguistics, physics, astronomy.. both interest and at least some expertise.