*inserts two cents*
I have to say I'm with Amalgam on this one. There are only so many times you can be sent on an "epic quest" to hunt bears to prevent the farmers' sheep from being eaten before you start hitting the deja vu "glass ceiling". Dwarf Fortress manages to circumvent that glass ceiling from the beginning with its long-heralded motto: Losing is fun! I honestly can't think of another game which encourages the chaotic tumult of kitten-butchering dwarf-berserking apocalypse...at all...ever...
Dwarf Fortress is one of the rare few games I've experienced in which the game itself (effectively a "simulation" game) created a truly "sandbox" effect. Sure, there are a healthy number of simulation games floating about...but nothing to this level of detail, and certainly nothing to this level of detail during its alpha stage. The honestly surprising thing about DF is that, despite being graded during its alpha stages, it's easily competing for the attention of gamers (those that have climbed the learning 'wall') against the mainstream, big studio productions.
I think we all need to take a step back from the apparent contraversy for a moment and realize the purpose behind a game, which is to be fun and entertaining. I think we can generally agree that DF accomplishes an acceptable awesome level of "Fun and entertaining"...but we have to remember that it's being developed by one programmer and one writer and still in its infancy, which are monstrous hurdles in themselves.