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[Topace3k]

Guys, don't bother getting upset about this.  The author is either an idiot or quite literally out of his mind.  Here is an article he posted a  couple months ago: http://www.tremblinghand.net/search/label/cats

In this article he praises DF.  This guy is just off his rocker or messing with us.

[The Minister]

Lol, he's praising the game guys.

"It's fun, interesting, innovative,"

"Perhaps the most surprising thing about Bay 12's $25,000 free game is that it's not worth more..."

"I donated many moons ago"

"We scratched the surface and caught a glimpse of another world. One where armies clash and civilizations rise and fall; where incredible obsidian fortresses dot the land, and foul tormentors lurk unseen. Right now, we're just struggling to keep the dwarves alive through winter, but each time we play, we scratch a little harder, and that ephemeral vision congeals a little bit more."

Yeah, this is an inflammatory editorial intended to invoke an emotional response.   He makes blatant contradictions within the article to draw contrast.  This is most certainly a positive review of DF, but the author went a little too heavy on the irony, so it wasn't entirely clear.

[Mr.Person]

LET'S ALL BLINDLY RUSH TO TOADY'S DEFENSE EVEN THOUGH THE ARTICLE BRINGS UP GOOD AND VALID POINTS LOLOLOLOL

If you think the ascii isn't hurting the game in many ways, you're a moron. If you think the interface a good one, you're a moron. If you think the game has depth, you're right. And it certainly has promise. Really now though, right now it's just an ascii version of Dungeon Keeper (in 3d, no less.) Would you pay to play DF if development stopped? I know I sure as hell wouldn't.

Do you guys watch the devlog? Have you seen the list of future goals. Shit man, the reason I personally get excited about DF is Toady's plans for the future. Specifically the Scenarios Arc and Nemesis Arc are probably the most important, but right now.. there really isn't much to do after the first year that doesn't amount to mindless, repetitive, tedious work.

And what the fuck is wrong with so much of the DF community? Take this fellow's comment on the article.

Your article is shit, and you should feel shit. Dwarf Fortress is a good game for all the reasons you consider it a bad one. The interface charming, and the graphics actually make you use this little thing called 'imagination' (look it up on wikipedia). Its strengths are its weaknesses, in the clunky random generation, unintentional humour and suicidal AI, DF is a masterpeice because it ISN'T all the slick corporate games out there, but because it so clearly is an induvidual vision of what games should be.

PROTIP: Bad qualities make a game bad while good qualities make it good, not the other way around. Oh and about the imagination thing, you see a grey capital E coming forward, do you see an elephant or an elf? What do you imagine? Are you right? Part of the reason so many people play DF is both graphic packs but also the fact that Toady is a master ascii artist. I especially love the idea that all commercial games are inheritly bad and all indie games are inheritly good. Bravo.

More generally, I've noticed this attitude around the forums that people who play DF are inheritly smarter than people who don't, which is, of course, bullshit. Circle-jerk attitudes like that create shitty communitys with the most closed-minded and stupid ideas imaginable. Trust me, it happened to several Fallout forums, it'll happen here to unless you guys stop assuming everyone else is inferior.

[andrea]

i like ASCII...  why is that a problem for people?

[Creamcorn]

i like ASCII...  why is that a problem for people?

Graphics whores or twelve year olds.

[Footkerchief]

raaaaaaaaaaage

Calm down, you don't even know who left that comment.

Some people do like ASCII for various reasons, like what it leaves to the imagination.  I don't, but I'm not going to claim full 3D graphics would make DF objectively better or whatever.

[Davion]

Bah. He should have worded things a bit better, it starts off sounding like the writer is angry that Toady is even getting donations.

[BurnedToast]

Wow

The guy praises the game overall and brings up a few valid points (the interface could use some work, you can't deny it) and he gets SLAMMED.

I don't understand it.

[Tormy]

What a crappy review.

You call this a review? 

*edit*
Here is the reply of the "author":

"David Kidd said...
All, thanks for contributing.

The reason I wrote the article was because I read how much money it was pulling in and wondered why. I like DF -- love it in fact -- but (in my opinion, obviously) it's incomplete and messy and I wanted to think about why people were donating.

I donated a long time ago, and when I thought about the reason, it wasn't because it was a great game there and then, it was because I was imagining what this rough gem would become.

I'm not bashing the game, aside from saying its incomplete and the interface is crap, which it is (you're welcome to call it charming, I call it crap). It may be a whole bunch of wonderful things, but being incomplete and messy doesn't make it a 'good game' right now. You might disagree, and fair enough.

Finally, I'm baffled that some think I'm criticising the game for making money. That bit at the end where I say "Perhaps the most suprising thing about Bay 12's $25,000 free game is that it's not worth more..." suggests the opposite -- a game with the promise of DF should be pulling in *more* money.

I concede, however, that I (evidently, from your comments) misspoke for the community of donators who weren't donating because of what they thought the game would become, but because of what it is now."

[Davion]

So he's criticizing the game based on the fact that it's incomplete...



That's on the same level as joining a beta test, starting up the software and saying, "Wow, there sure are a lot of bugs in this...What gives?"

[Tormy]

So he's criticizing the game based on the fact that it's incomplete...

Yeah, the author must be a genius. 

[JoshuaFH]

Thanks alot Tormy, now i need to retract my statement:

the man who wrote that doesn't need to burn!

there.

[Duke 2.0]

 Alright:

 Valid points were made. A lot of the reason I play DF is due to the future of it. I mean jeez, do you see what will be released next?

 ASCII is a mixed blessing. On one part it takes a while to learn what everything is. On the other, this level of abstraction makes everything look good. I know I would prefer ASCII to primitive graphics along the lines of most roguelikes. Toady even uses a good ASCII setup at that. #'s for walls is just horrible.

 I shall be filled with joy when graphics come in, but 'till Toady gets all the deep down program stuff in first I'm happy with ASCII.

 Interface is crap, but better than other Roguelikes. Everything works as expected and is always listed if you keep the tab open. That is, except for adventure mode which I don't use because it does not list the controls. I look forward to the day when Toady adds a better one, but I know I'll still use the keyboard shortcuts because I have memorized them by now.

 And we need to remember that this is still in development. Lets say that new apartment complex downtown is crap because only the metal and concrete framework is up. Lets say it is only praised because of promises that the future of it will include hot-tubs on every floor and robotic servants traveling the building through winding chutes. But in order to have that, we need to add the framework for plumbing and chutes before we add them themselves or else getting the rest of the framework up will be difficult, ultimately pushing back the release date.

 Or in the case of Armok, causing the project to be abandoned.

[Tormy]

Duke, that is correct, however there is an interesting fact about that "review", as Davion pointed it out:

So he's criticizing the game based on the fact that it's incomplete...

[Tahin]

Wow. This makes me sad. I understand that some people don't like ASCII, but this is a fucking roguelike!
And the thing about the E a while up being an Elephant or an Elf, that's what the [v] command is for.

He does bring up some valid points, but he's pretty much saying "This game sucks. It looks like crap. Why do you people like it?"