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[ChildofSolitude]

I wanted to start them with Adventure, so they could see that it was fun, and I kept telling him that fortress mode was really, really cool because you could do the same awesome combat, but with a lot more people.

He got hit by a random ambush and died while walking to his first mission. Told me the game was stupid, and refuses to play it to this day.

[FrankMcFuzz]

I wanted to start them with Adventure, so they could see that it was fun, and I kept telling him that fortress mode was really, really cool because you could do the same awesome combat, but with a lot more people.

He got hit by a random ambush and died while walking to his first mission. Told me the game was stupid, and refuses to play it to this day.

Quitting Dwarf Fortress because 'adventure mode is shit' is like to stop playing Pikmin because you hate using the Pikmin and you want to do everything with Captain Olimar himself.

IE: It's stupid.

[Graknorke]

I had one friend say that basically it's not his thing (he prefers games where everything is a controlled factor, so things like Minecraft and linear FPS games, you can always predict what'll happen and do something to fix it or whatever, or at the least reload) but he does admire Dwarf Fortress for being what is is, however another friend had a great reaction.

See, this other guy's really bad at explaining himself. And extracting information from anything. He loves most Nintendo games, I suspect, because they don't require a lot of thought (he's the kind of person who plays pokemon by just choosing the highest damage moves all the time. He's awful at it but it's an easy game and it doesn't matter so much), so a game where he has to understand different interacting systems and so on was way above him. But despite that he would continually bang on about the graphics, saying such comically stupid things as, "It's all pixels," and, "It doesn't mean anything." Of course no amount of explaining that all screens display things with pixels and trying to show what the different symbols meant would help, the prejudice was there from the moment he couldn't click on the menus.


So yeah not a single success. Thing is trying to explain something like DF is an exercise in frustration, because I tend to learn by experimenting but then other people won't and they want you to explain it and then I don't because that cheapens the learning then they get upset that I'm not telling them and it doesn't turn out well.

[Nixonitus]

I tried for two. Sort of worked, but they just don't really care enough to bother spending the several hours worth of time per fort.
Eh. I have a similar problem, so I can't hold it against them.
One is liking adventure mode, though.

As far as texture packs go, I think you really need to start off with one. But once you are comfortable with the game, switch to ACII. It is much more rewarding, as far as enjoyment goes. Lets you run a bit more imagination and such. Sort of like a book, vs a movie. You make your own scenes of what happens, so to speak.

[Nyxalinth]

I introduced my friend to it back in 2010, shortly before d40 evolved into what we now have.  She wasn't digging it at first, but then suddenly she did.  She won't move beyond d40 (interestingly, I can't go back to it, after having clung to it for two more years) and she won't play without Mayday's graphics, but she has f (and Fun) and we trade stories.  I'm still trying to lure her to the current versioncersion by telling her about minecarts.

[thecrimsonbeard]

I've really only had one friend claim to have played it due to me, but then quit because he was spending too much time on it.  Then he talks about playing Slash'em even more.  I should tell him to try adventure mode when the new version is released and the world is finally fleshed out with physical non-human sites to visit.  I have another friend that I will pretty much force to play adventure mode on the next version.  I already got him hooked on Spelunky.

As for the graphics pack sub-discussion, I eschew them.  partially because I'm so used to the ASCII, and party (as other people have mentioned) because it's actually easier to tell most things apart if they're a brightly colored letter as opposed to teeny sprites with minor alterations to distinguish them. The biggest issue with ascii is just learning the colors well enough to know at a glance.

And as far as "spoiling" the game by walking people through things, I think it's best to strike a balance.  When I first started, I had no idea where to begin.  I skipped over the designations menu, and look at about everything else, including burrows...in fact, on my first embark, I ended up using burrows just to exert SOME influence over my minions.  I also skipped the buildings menu for the most part, and had no idea workshops was a sub-menu (the second thing a newbie should look at).  I think a light touch is best so you can see how different imaginations come up with different solutions to problems...that said, for some stuff, I just end up going to the wiki to see efficient methods because I don't want to dig out a giant area that ends up as a useless FPS killing room due to a botched experiment...that, and I would never have figured out by myself the weird stuff such as the fact that diagonal blocks allow water to flow, but kills any pressure exerted on it after passing through...and that there's no flow on fully filled tiles due to the teleportation of pressurized liquids through 7/7 tiles.

[Mr.Mountain]

he's the kind of person who plays pokemon by just choosing the highest damage moves all the time. He's awful at it but it's an easy game and it doesn't matter so much

Ohhh, not easy if you're playing the competitive metagame!

[Graknorke]

he's the kind of person who plays pokemon by just choosing the highest damage moves all the time. He's awful at it but it's an easy game and it doesn't matter so much

Ohhh, not easy if you're playing the competitive metagame!

Well yeah, but he doesn't do that.

[Indricotherium]

Introduced the game to my young nephew. Several days and forts later he could feed his dwarfs and so move on to greater challenges. About a week later he came to tell me that he had thought of the best mod to help his dwarfs survive, firebreathing dogs, and promptly modded it in.

I asked him how it went. His reply:

"So much fire...."

[McDonald]

I introduced DF to my friend. His reaction was "WTF IS THIS" and going back to playing some stupid FPS. I seem to never meet people who like strategy or "scientific" (ie. Kerbal Space Program) games. They all prefer to play League of Legends or shooters. I once introduced my friend to KSP. He said that it looks boring and started grumbling about how come I don't like LoL. LoL and shooters are like "Start match, kill somebody, die, kill, die times 100, end match". What's so entertaining about them? You just do the same things over and over. The only game we managed to play together was Minecraft, and they still got bored after a few days.

[WanderingKid]

@McDonald:  From what I've seen, it comes down to a satisfaction in large scale persisted worlds vs. instant gratification with resets preference.  You prefer to build worlds, they prefer to sit down and just game against friends.  There's value in both concepts, but it depends on your purpose for gaming.  One thing LoL, FPS's, and other similar games have going for them is the matches are short.  15 minutes at the outside, usually.  Then everything resets and you can have another go at each other, or whatever. 

And, I hate to say it, Minecraft IS boring.  Bad graphics, boring environment once you've seen a few cool randomly generated biome edges, and almost no internal gameplay.  It's a lego box.  It's only interesting for the first three days while you fear the dark.

Now I've heard there's interesting mods out there that make it a game, but I don't want to go shopping around mods.  Under most circumstances I've been horribly disappointed by mods, and don't find it worth my time.

[oldark]

I have a friend who keeps saying he really wants to try the game and that it looks like fun. He's been saying this for the past 2-3 years now and always has an excuse for why he hasn't tried it yet.  Its not just DF with him though, there's a few other games that I know he's bought and never even loaded up afterwards.

[TheFlame52]

Minecraft has bad graphics

Sir, you are playing Dwarf Fortress.

[WanderingKid]

Minecraft has bad graphics

Sir, you are playing Dwarf Fortress.

Composite issue.  I played Mario and NetHack, along with MUDs back in the day too, because that was the best there was during their development, but they were interesting.  I've also played games that were as boring as knitting yet beautiful to watch go by, so I played them through.  *shrugs*  And honestly, without the graphics packs that some of the great folks round here have put out, I probably wouldn't play DF either.

[FrankMcFuzz]

And honestly, without the graphics packs that some of the great folks round here have put out, I probably wouldn't play DF either.

Oh no, we're invoking the Dwarf Fortress version of "Xbox is better than Playstation" argument.

I digress. I use tilesets, but were they not available I would brave the ascii. Dwarf Fortress impresses me more every time I play it, so I wouldn't let the matrix stop me for playing what is, in my opinion, the best simulation game in existant.

Though it's made me a HUGE hipster. If Dwarf Fortress does somehow manage to leak into the mainstream, I will be amongst the first to say "I played Dwarf Fortress before it was cool."

On topic; I introduced someone else to DF the other day, and had to sit with her on skype to explain how to carve bedrooms and dining rooms. It took 2 hours.