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[BlackBronze]

One day, I was talking about video games with a friend of mine in my Programming class. At some point, I mentioned that I played Dwarf Fortress quite a bit. He seemed taken aback and said, "wait, you're THAT kind of gamer?", after which I jokingly exlaimed, "Heck yeah, I'm one of those GAMERS!" (It's the tone that's different).
Truthfully, I hadn't even known of DF until I stumbled upon it by accident, and I've been hooked since. My question is, what does being a dwarf fortress player mean to people and how are we viewed in the public eye? It doesn't even matter if it's falsely based or negative; I'm just curious to see how "we" look from a different perspective.

What's your say on this?

[quekwoambojish]

The outside world looks at my screen, and thinks I'm being productive...

I'm not.

[Bearskie]

It ain't productive if you don't have a 0 idler count.

[Deon]

Obligatory meme time.

[Diamond]

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

Obligatory meme time.

Spoiler: Oh, it's on! (click to show/hide)

[PrimusRibbus]

One day, I was talking about video games with a friend of mine in my Programming class. At some point, I mentioned that I played Dwarf Fortress quite a bit. He seemed taken aback and said, "wait, you're THAT kind of gamer?", after which I jokingly exlaimed, "Heck yeah, I'm one of those GAMERS!" (It's the tone that's different).
Truthfully, I hadn't even known of DF until I stumbled upon it by accident, and I've been hooked since. My question is, what does being a dwarf fortress player mean to people and how are we viewed in the public eye? It doesn't even matter if it's falsely based or negative; I'm just curious to see how "we" look from a different perspective.

What's your say on this?

DF's community has had some major image problems stemming from the community's attitudes in the late 00's. Lots of elitism, snobbery over the "right" way to play games, somewhat of a cult of personality, raiding forums of games that included features that DF also had, etc.

My introduction to DF in early 2008 was when B12 forumites raided a roguelike game's forum I was on and accused its developers of stealing ideas from Toady. I ended up playing 40d but not registering on the forums for a couple years because of how toxic the upper boards were.

The DF community has chilled out a LOT since then, but some of the stereotypes still persist.

[therahedwig]

Really? Mostly these days DF seems to still have the reputation of being incomprehensible but divine in content. People think we're doing rocket science, while all we really is set up a plump helmet farm, set up military and then go fuck around the caverns.

[Blue McRanger]

Really? Mostly these days DF seems to still have the reputation of being incomprehensible but divine in content. People think we're doing rocket science, while all we really is set up a plump helmet farm, set up military and then go fuck around the caverns.

When I tell people I play DF, they either go "What's that?"--or begin bowing down in (misplaced) awe. Really, guys. All I do is mass produce rock crafts and attempt to capture and tame every animal that wanders onto my map ever.

[Putnam]

hey i deserve that awe thank you very much

seriously though no i don't this game is easier to mod than it is to play, it's easily got the biggest difficulty ratio in that regard, the only reason I'm good at the game itself is because it's hard to mod properly when you can't test

actually really the idea that the game has mods is probably something that never crosses peoples' minds too hard, except maybe utilities that help with the interface

[Zuglarkun]

Oh come on, we were all "outsiders" once.

Most gamers of my age group (late 20s to early 30s) that I have met IRL are pretty casual (as in mobile gaming casual). Even the hardcore gamers (those that owned gaming stations and/or gaming laptops and also owned and played a prodigious amount of games) I know of have little to no idea what DF is. They are more preoccupied with the latest titles and hyped games from previously known quality game developers to bother with some indie game that has been around for some time that they've never even noticed. In my opinion, DF caters to a very VERY niche audience that knows what it wants from their gaming experience, isn't afraid of "insane" difficulty, non-existent "graphics" and horrible UI and has the patience to slog through a game as intimidating and time engaging as DF is or is rumored to be. Does that sound like the average gamer to you? It sounds pretty masochistic to me. Most people I know are looking for some quick entertainment provided in a neatly bundled package. Whereas all the entertainment value in DF is usually gleaned in between the lines. You'll have to have some imagination AND engage in that imagination while playing to derive entertainment from DF. Otherwise, its just a slog to play through. I reckon that's why I burn out on DF sometimes.

Most casual gamers I know would take a look at DF and decide then and there that they aren't interested in it at all. To them, DF is not even on their radar, so they wouldn't give it a second glance. If it wasn't for coming across, reading, enjoying and being intrigued by the quirky playthrough of Boatmurdered from the LP archive, I too would not have been interested enough to pick up DF. Even then it still took some convincing before I was sure that DF was the game for me, I read more playthroughs from the Hall of Legends here (and discovered that I really enjoyed them) and lurked around on the forums for quite awhile before even deciding to download the game and giving it a go myself. From then on, I was hooked. If not for a background in playing MUDs and ASCII games like The Two Towers, Nethack, Angband, as well as games that involved a modicum of reading like Kingdom of Loathing and so on, I doubt Dwarf Fortress would have sustained my interest. Indeed the ASCII had a certain charm of its on that harkens back to these older games.

Does that describe most us in a nutshell? I doubt it. Just like in real life, we are likely to be of a very diverse gaming backgrounds. Its just that if you aren't looking for something like DF, you aren't likely to stumble across it. Even then, it might take some time to harness the courage to take the dive and actually download and play. For the general gaming public, I reckon we probably don't exist. Does it even matter? Other than as some intellectual exercise, nope, not at all. I'll be happy building my own imaginary microcline castles in the sky, pursuing some megaproject or something and lining up my dwarves for the slaughter thank you very much.

[Libash_Thunderhead]

DF is my first ascii game.
I didn't even play nethack before that.

I decided to try it because I saw some site recommanded it. Not much I still remembered about the description but I recalled it mentioned someone was attacked by a crocodile and died a horrible death. 

[Insanegame27]

Watching to post

[Deon]

this game is easier to mod than it is to play

This. Could not say better. Thank you. You summed up my feelings towards DF. I don't play it much, but I love to mod it (and try other mods) and see what occurs.

[Beast Tamer]

Whenever my uncle sees me playing DF he thinks I'm coding a game, and that DF is some sort of script to do it. He's kind of right, I guess.

[Greiger]

I was once fixing someone's internet connection over the phone and we were waiting for his modem/router combo to restart after turning on bridge mode and he asked me what kind of games I play. 

When I mentioned Dwarf Fortress he practically bowed down to me.  Admitting that he kinda figured [company] tech employees were not the brightest of the bunch, but said he tried to start playing it on 3 separate occasions and could never get anything going.  If I can play that game I have to be smarter than he is.

That's really by biggest encounter of someone knowing the game.  Most don't seem familiar with it, even among gamers in my opinion.