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[KaelGotDwarves]

Technically All you need to do in DF to survive is dig underground, make a few walls and doors, and make a farm plot and brewery.

That's fairly easy, but not fun.

The real challenge in DF is to lose. Spectacularly. Or to succeed in accomplishing a goal you set for your dwarves in spite of all the lose conditions.

[Creamcorn]

DF is already so intimidating that a casual gamer downloading it might be immediately turned off when faced with such a giant intricate UI.. you have to really want to play this game to PLAY IT if you know what I mean.

It seems that this game right now is really popular among a certain population I.E. the population that thought AP Trig or Calculus was a blast, or people who are just enchanted with Byzantine interfaces. Not that I want to have a bunch of morons swamp the forums with a bunch of leet speek, but DF is so complicated that it really takes an effort to learn.

And every month another layer or obscure option is added, and the only way anyone can keep up with this is either through this forum or the Wiki. Someone coming into DF at the present time would be so confused and would have to learn so much just to even begin playing that they might just not even try.

Nah, I just played hours, and hours of Adom, and was instantly hooked on ascii.

I've beaten the game on many dificulty levels. I started my rougelike days when I was nine. So I'm completly used to complex commands. Well actually I only needed to learn to dig, and really everything else just came to me.

[MaxVance]

Dwarf Fortress is destined to be the type of game Toady wants to play/make, and we put in our input on the forums as we alpha-test it.

This. Before DF became massively popular, Toady was making games in his spare time as a hobby. He put them up on his site figuring that someone else would enjoy them.

Dwarf Fortress is nowhere close to being finished. Perhaps it will have wider appeal when Toady finishes it, but that might be a long way away.

[Tilla]

I am totally 100 percent not a math geek. Earlier I had to use a calculator to remember how many DVD isos I could fit on my new terabyte harddrive <.<

[Tormy]

Technically All you need to do in DF to survive is dig underground, make a few walls and doors, and make a farm plot and brewery.

That's fairly easy, but not fun.

The real challenge in DF is to lose. Spectacularly. Or to succeed in accomplishing a goal you set for your dwarves in spite of all the lose conditions.

Actually I would like to add some note...for any player who never ever played with an ASCII based game before the game will looks like the chinese version of Romance of Three Kingdoms 11.  You know what I mean eh?
Here is my friend for example..when I introduced the game to him, he was yelling that "what is this crap?!". He couldnt understand anything at first look...around 2 weeks later when I was driving to his home since we were going to a party...what was he doing? He was playing with DF!
I was really amazed to be honest.
So basically, first the new players must accept the ASCII + not so perfect interface, and if that part is ok, they will have fun with one of the most diverse-awesome-unique game.

[GoldPanda]

So you guys thought AP Calculus was a blast too?

[Guy Montag]

I dunno, one of the major appeals DF has for me is likely due to the bizzare cirumstances that manifest themselves during game play.  Its so complex, yet so crude and undeveloped at the same time.

Perfect example is your typical dwarf civilian "fighting" a hoary marmot. IRL, a person would not be horrifed by one to the extent that he suspends the construction of a tower, and if forced into combat with one, they would not do what Urist would do. Urist grapples the Hoary Marmot by the nose, releases and attempts to break it, then punches the Marmot 20-60 times, in the left from paw, 5th toe 7 times, lower/upper body, and every single location on this poor critter. Then, Urist grapples the animal and grasps/releases every body part multiple times before finially deciding to STRANGLE the animal to death for the next 2 weeks.

IRL, a soldier would just step on the thing, in DF, an epic brawl commences between a drafted civilian and a ground hog.

Also, I knew I found the right game when my insane lead-loving noble had a captured (and released) goblin spearman stab him in the upper leg and do nothing but twist it in the wound for an hour while the noble passed out and woke up and at last bled to death.

[McDoomhammer]

The moral of the story being Less of the nerd stereotyping, kthxbai.

[Warlord255]

I hate math, but I love DF.

The Wiki makes it SO much easier. If you're confused about how ANYTHING works - soap, glass, removing stairs, cave-ins, monsters, why are my dwarves committing suicide - it tells you. Without it there'd be a lot of frustrating trial and error, but since it has it, it's a lot more enhoyable. This is the one game where having a strategy guide is a good thing.

[DG]

The wiki is very readable and without it I'm not sure if I would have stuck with the game. DF was recommnded to me by a friend but I read most of the wiki before even trying it out. The people who have worked on the wiki are to be commended.

[Tormy]

The wiki is very readable and without it I'm not sure if I would have stuck with the game. DF was recommnded to me by a friend but I read most of the wiki before even trying it out. The people who have worked on the wiki are to be commended.

Yeah, Toady will update the in-game manual also later on.

[Lazer Bomb]

Yeah, Toady will update the in-game manual also later on.

It is sorta annoying that it doesn't quite connect with the current game. Would be nice if it had info about building stairs.

[Tormy]

Yeah, Toady will update the in-game manual also later on.

It is sorta annoying that it doesn't quite connect with the current game. Would be nice if it had info about building stairs.

Yeah well, if Toady would document everything right now..that would take some time, you bet! He is focusing on the game development right now..
Thankfully we have a very good wiki site, that helps a lot to newbies.

[Void Rocket]

I got into Dwarf Fortress because once I grasped the sheer depth of the game, I told myself despite the fact that I didn't understand it completely (which I still don't), it had the potential to demonstrate itself as a great game.

Now I rank it at #2 on my top games of all time list.

[WillNZ]

I don't seem to remember ever having to calculate logarithms while playing Dwarf Fortress. Or really even add and subtract.