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[shadow_archmagi]

So, one thing I've noticed is that there is a huge, hugely greater emotional response to things that happen randomly.

Like, if I'm playing Lord of The Things and I get to the level where my wife ditches me because she finally realizes the full extent of the Ebay addiction, then yeah, it's a well voice acted scene and all, but it's scripted. I can replay the level a dozen times and get the same effect.

And even the first time I see it, there's a certain degree not of "oh how heartbreaking how cruel is this guys life" but of "Wow the developers really know how to make a sad scene"

Whereas if in Dwarf Fortress, my mayor is hit with an arrow and dies and his wife commits suicide... that wasn't  scripted. That was something that only happened to me. That was something I could've prevented, and my game will just have to live with the ramifications of that.  And I think that makes the game feel a lot more real than if I knew I was just playing the questline where the mayor is shot.

Is this something everyone knows? Would the story of, say, Cacame Awemedinade the Immortal Onslaught still be as epic if instead of occuring randomly, someone had sat down and written it?

[ein]

No, if Cacame were just another story written by somebody, he wouldn't be as prominent.
The randomness is attractive because chaos is a natural state of being.

Were DF scripted, there would be no chaos, it would all be order.
Order is unnatural.

[QuakeIV]

One of the many reasons i love this game so.

[Timst]

Yeah, I like randomness too. The only problem with it is, for one epic event, there's also tons and tons of inane story without anything interesting happening.

[Chicken Launcher]

Is this something everyone knows? Would the story of, say, Cacame Awemedinade the Immortal Onslaught still be as epic if instead of occuring randomly, someone had sat down and written it?

Nope. The beauty of DF is that it's such a great simulator that it's almost as if the events really happened, which makes them amazing. If someone came up with a story about an elf king, it's hardly as amazing as knowing that there really was an elf badass enough to become king of the dwarves (in DF at least).

[Tryptic]

"Reality is unrealistic".  As a corollary, fiction must actually be more realistic (in its way) than reality.  It has to have a backstory, it needs to have no Deus Ex Machinas, etc.

I use this to agree with your point.  Dwarf Fortress is actually more interesting than most games, because what happens in it is "real" in the sense that it can have Deus ex Machinas.  Things can suddenly happen.  Because all of its rules are internally consistent, it actually models reality more accurately than most video games, which in turn, means that things that happen in it feel more real, and thus better stories.

[QuantumSawdust]

I remember in one of my early forts when I had a married couple who were both in the army and had a single child - still a baby in fact. The baby should have had a younger sibling, but life in the wilds is cruel and the wife had suffered a miscarriage in a recent sparring session. The sadness of this still haunted her even as she fought goblins in the coming siege.

I had set up walls against most of the cliff entrances into my fort, but had left open one by the time the siege came. Which, sadly, corralled the enemy crossbowgoblins to a cliff right above my fort entrance. As they began slaughtering civilians below, I sent out my army to defend. In the dwarven tradition, the wife of this story went into battle carrying her only child.

Sadly, the army was quite untrained, and the several dwarves were quickly struck dead. One of which was the husband of this married couple. But dwarves are a hardy people in the face of disaster, and the wife repressed her sorrow and charged headlong into the goblins, a few other soldiers trailing behind. She took several bolts before collapsing, not even reaching a single enemy.

However, before she could be finished off, the rest of the army was able to inflict enough causalities on the goblins to get them to retreat (lucky, they could have destroyed the entire fort). The now widowed dwarf slowly pulled herself to the safety of her bedroom, but progress was slow and her injuries too great. It wasn't long before she fell unconscious, her healthy baby still clutched in her arms. She awoke to another dwarf helping her up to carry her to a bed to recover in. Unfortunately, she was unable to carry the baby on this dwarf's back, and in her pain she dropped it. Onto a bridge. Seconds later, it took the single step which led it into the moat. The mother slowly watched her baby drown as she was briskly carried away by the clueless dwarf.

Several weeks passed. As soon as her legs could carry her again, she fell into a berserk rage. Grabbing her trusty hammer she stalked through the halls, chasing any dwarf in her view. But even still luck was against her, and a single dog ripped her apart limb from limb before she could fell a single living creature.

.....
There are plenty of tragedies in games and stories. But with DF, knowing that this happened without scripting makes it far, far more memorable for me. Hearing about the features coming in the next version makes me giddy with anticipation.

[FluffyToast J]

Thats actually a really sad story. Too bad its also incredibly funny.

[ein]

Thats actually a really sad story. Too bad its also incredibly funny.

This sums up most DF stories.

[Neonivek]

Another great aspect of Dwarf Fortress is that the impact of your actions over the years are real.

If you release a great demon and let him live on... He does stuff...

How many games do that unless it is part of the main storyline?

[ein]

Another great aspect of Dwarf Fortress is that the impact of your actions over the years are real.

If you release a great demon and let him live on... He does stuff...

How many games do that unless it is part of the main storyline?

"Oh no! There's no way we can beat this demon that has just been released from the pits of Hell!"
"Whatever, let's just run away and kill some things until we level up a bit."

[Neonivek]

That... actually does happen in Dwarf Fortress.

Except you know... the thing you were fighting still does stuff while you do stuff.

[ein]

Also, you don't exactly level up in DF.
You just get more experienced in a skill.
I mad a master swordsman armed in full adamantine get killed by a redactosaurus only to come back later with somebody with no skills and about three giant spiky steel balls and kill it.

[Deon]

with no skills and about three giant spiky steel balls

Man that's badass.

P.S. I know him:

[ein]

I've found that spiky balls are incredibly effective weapons.
No gibbing, but they do tend to instakill just about everything when thrown.
Of course, I haven't used them since changing the damage type to gore...