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.