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[GreatWyrmGold]

And the graphics. That turns off loads of people. And, by the time we reach this hypothetical "User-friendly" point, graphics will have advanced to the point where some players just hear that the graphics arent stunningly realistic, and will automatically stop.

I love the ASCII graphics. They're responsible for turning me into a gaming recluse.

This. I prefer looking at a bunch f ,'s and g's and /'s and smiley faces and ~'s, and imagining a battlefield strewn with weapons and corpses and covered in blood, over whatever shoddy graphics engine could hope to encompass the awesomeness and complexity that is DF without melting my CPU.

User friendly DF? Not gonna happen. Hell will freeze first, etc.

Well, it's not impossible. After all, the bottom of Hell described in Dante's Inferno was already frozen over.

[Scoops Novel]

Ah! Viking hell was always frozen over .

[Askot Bokbondeler]

User friendly DF? Not gonna happen. Hell will freeze first, etc.

funny thing... i moded out slade by mistake on my personal mod... i had a neat surprise when i pierced the depths.
not sure if it picked a random material or if it's something i can reproduce, will have to try again in another world genned with the same raws

[Exlo]

I think Toady should go about fine-tuning the game's speed before he takes on a user friendly UI. IE - Recoding the entire game for multiple processors. And at the rate we're goin', that puts that UI at about 2000 years in the future. Which is fine with me. Most people don't really have an issue with it once they're used to it...

[GreatWyrmGold]

User friendly DF? Not gonna happen. Hell will freeze first, etc.

funny thing... i moded out slade by mistake on my personal mod... i had a neat surprise when i pierced the depths.
not sure if it picked a random material or if it's something i can reproduce, will have to try again in another world genned with the same raws

I think others have reported it. Beware, this means you can accidentally mine into Hell!

[Maur]

User friendly DF? Not gonna happen. Hell will freeze first, etc.

Speaking of it, can you embark in freezing biome, mine all the way down to hell, flood it with water and watch the hell freeze?

[My Name is Immaterial]

The forums are safe. I don't quite see it reaching a critical mass, ever. EVER. There's a huge amount of turn offs for the average gamer. It's impenetrable graphics, no mouse support, only a very basic manual, no real tutorial, and a whole new meaning of !!FUN!!

I like to refer to this useful chart.

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

 

Its very easy to compare us to Minecraft, except there are no whinny ten year olds playing this game. The only short people here are dorfs. Minecraft probably has around 10 million people playing, while I doubt that one million people have touched this game. It hit its critical mass at around 5 million, and we might do the same, but I cant see happening ever. The only reason is that Minecraft is a simplified version of DF. Its easy to go from DF to MC and get bored, but much more difficult to go the other way and enjoy it, and not just to have !!FUN!!

[Graknorke]

Minecraft probably has around 10 million people playing, while I doubt that one million people have touched this game. It hit its critical mass at around 5 million, and we might do the same, but I cant see happening ever.

I doubt your numbers of DF players. It's been around for five or so years now, and has been steadily gaining popularity. I would say Dwarf Fortress players (ever) is in excess of a million, pretty solidly.
Can't have something this amazing not be popular. It just doesn't happen.

67,000 forum users, and those signed pu to the forum make up a VERY small amount of those who actually play the game in most other games.

[reality.auditor]

Can't have something this amazing not be popular. It just doesn't happen.

I just let small, silent, sarcastic laughter from my mouth.

[Graknorke]

Can't have something this amazing not be popular. It just doesn't happen.

I just let small, silent, sarcastic laughter from my mouth.

How can something by both small and silent if it's a sound?

Anyways, I've seen a decent amount of media references to Dwarf Fortress. Often as a bit of an aside but still quite common. Even if most of my media is taken through Bay12, a lot of the main game information outlets have at least one article about Dwarf Fortress.

[GoombaGeek]

Actually, I am the Minecraft convert everyone talks about. Except I didn't seem to bring large amounts of whine with me?

I started playing, had some fun (not Fun, I have yet to lose a fortress because usually I get bored), and kept going.

[reality.auditor]

Can't have something this amazing not be popular. It just doesn't happen.

I just let small, silent, sarcastic laughter from my mouth.

How can something by both small and silent if it's a sound?

You can lauch without making any voice or noise. But this is digression.

I was just amused by your quasi-religious (and completely errorneous) conviction. Eager neophyte to DF, I assume?

[Graknorke]

-A shape with at least three triangular faces which converge to a point-

You can lauch without making any voice or noise. But this is digression.

I was just amused by your quasi-religious (and completely errorneous) conviction. Eager neophyte to DF, I assume?

I've been playing/lurking for about 2 years now. tUMUt

But the DF following IS pretty big. It's large enough that I can click on any thread and see posts from people I have never seen a post of or heard about before. Compared to the MSPA forums where I also visit and I can recognise just about all of the people who post regularly, because it's a smaller (active) community. It has more accounts though funnily enough. I guess a lot of one or two-post accounts who lost interest.
And I know for a fact that Dwarf Fortress gets decent mentions in online media outlets (The Escapist is the only one I can think of right now, but that kind of thing). I would call it popular. Most people who know about it respect it for its depth and flexibility, even if they're daunted by the learning curve. I haven't yet spoken to/read about anyone straight out saying Dwarf Fortress as a whole was bad.

And the conviction in my statement may or may not have been in ironic sentiment. I can't really tell anymore if I'm genuinely trying to be funny or if I'm trying to show up how other people are wrong by mocking them. I really need better opinions.

[WaffleEggnog]

Thats the thing, alot of people know about DF, but not many dare to actuly play it, as its too hard to understand/learn for them, plus people just have no imagination, and are impatiant, and lazy.

I call people lazy as i type this from a massage chain in a cottage in New Brunswick :3

[Gentlefish]

-A shape with at least three triangular faces which converge to a point-

You can lauch without making any voice or noise. But this is digression.

I was just amused by your quasi-religious (and completely errorneous) conviction. Eager neophyte to DF, I assume?

I've been playing/lurking for about 2 years now. tUMUt

But the DF following IS pretty big. It's large enough that I can click on any thread and see posts from people I have never seen a post of or heard about before. Compared to the MSPA forums where I also visit and I can recognise just about all of the people who post regularly, because it's a smaller (active) community. It has more accounts though funnily enough. I guess a lot of one or two-post accounts who lost interest.
And I know for a fact that Dwarf Fortress gets decent mentions in online media outlets (The Escapist is the only one I can think of right now, but that kind of thing). I would call it popular. Most people who know about it respect it for its depth and flexibility, even if they're daunted by the learning curve. I haven't yet spoken to/read about anyone straight out saying Dwarf Fortress as a whole was bad.

And the conviction in my statement may or may not have been in ironic sentiment. I can't really tell anymore if I'm genuinely trying to be funny or if I'm trying to show up how other people are wrong by mocking them. I really need better opinions.

I can tell you my girlfriend straight-up said DF was bad. She saw me playing and couldn't understand the graphics can called it terrible on the spot. I won't describe it to her because I cannot do it justice and because she likes her graphics too much.

Sad, really.