Toady > Notch
OBJECTION!
Dwarf fortress is the second best game I have ever played. Minecraft is better.
Notch makes millions off his game.
Minecraft has more players (though admittedly, a worse community)
Dwarf fortress is great for Fortress Mode, Minecraft is better for Adventurer mode and building stuff 
I rest my case.
Well Since this post is not as well thought out as it could be. Let me give it a shot. First lets get on the asbestos suit....
Ok.
In order to make an argument you have to compare the two games as well as the two developers.
First the basics Dwarf Fortress is a sandbox fortress building game and Adventure game wrapped together.
Dwarf fortress has the follow features
Fort Mode:
Randomly generated world
Randomly generated history
use of agents (dwarfs) to build a fortress under the control of a god like director with no direct control over the agents.
Dwarf fortress is a complex game including several aspects such as: crafting, healthcare, resource management, trade, diplomacy, combat, cultural development.(this list is incomplete.)
Dwarf fortress has several obstacles for the user to overcome with his civilization (FB's, non stop goblin raiding, Titans)
Pros for Dwarf fortress
DF has possibly the most content of any indie game I have ever played.
DF has an amazing culture/appearance/thought and preferences engine
DF has good long term playability as each time you play it can be a different encounter.
Price (free)
Cons for DF
DF has a very steep learning curve.
DF is at its heart and ASCII game (for those of you who don't believe graphics matter I would beg to differ but that is another topic)
DF has some glaring bugs that take a great deal of time for the dev team to work out (crutches anyone? How long was the Barron missing? Frame rate?)
DF requires outside tools to play enjoyably (Therapist, Manager etc)
DF's interface is cumbersome.
Adventure mode.
I really cannot have a intelligent conversation about adventure mode as I don't play it.
Minecraft has the following features
Randomly Generated world
World has a day night cycle with dangerous MOB's attacking the player at night.
Player takes the role of a character in a randomly generated world. The play can mine/build/craft items to help ensure his survival during dangerous night time portion of the cycle. MC is generally a sandbox game with building and crafting being the focus.
Pros for MC
Smooth clean play with few bugs
Graphics that are not ASCII based. (some will say are worse however I would say they appeal to a specific type of player)
stable development cycle with (so far) good testing of new features
Online play with friends
Cons for MC
Lack of Content
Lack of content (yes I know this is here twice)
Less of a community around the game itself
Price (9 euros or ~$14.00)
So based on this list you have to take into account one other peice of data. Release dates.
DF August 8th of 2006
MC May 17th of 2009
So I would make the argument that based on where the games are at in their development cycle Mine Craft is the better game. I feel that both are quite good games. I feel that Notch has a better development approach. I also prefer that development for MC seems to be coming along more quickly. The lack of content is a bit of an issue at this point however if Notch continues the approach of building one feature at a time and thoroughly testing it his finished product will be more polished and likely to be a overall better product.
Graphics:
Con for DF
DF is at its heart and ASCII game (1)(for those of you who don't believe graphics matter I would beg to differ but that is another topic)
Pros for MC
Graphics that are not ASCII based. (2)(some will say are worse however I would say they appeal to a specific type of player)
Bold point one and 2 for the graphics, in particular point 2. Couldn't point two be said for both games? Wouldn't that place the graphics comparison out of the pro and con of either game?
Cons for DF
DF requires outside tools to play enjoyably (Therapist, Manager etc)
I contest that its required. In my personal play through, I never used Therapist or Manager, or any third party program in order to play or enjoy DF. I'm not alone. Its popular to boot.
However custom server set up, that include more bricks, extended server controls ect, are all third party addition and tools that suit the players of MC. Its not required, but I would say equally as popular to the tools of DF.
Bugs (for either)
Mine Craft is no where near as complex as DF, nor does it aim to be. Minecraft has shallower goals for its game then in DF. These will generate less bugs then the scope of DF. And to say that "glaring bugs" are taking a long time to solve. Again, this isn't true. Every release contain bug fixes, and some releases are just bug fixes. The bugs you in particular listed, are most likly bugs you personally find more annoying. Bugs are constantly getting quashed, and fairly regularly.
The bug comparison, again, I find to be poor area for comparison. Of course a simpler program is going to have less bugs then a complex program. I think a durr is in order.
Minecraft has the following features
Randomly Generated world
World has a day night cycle with dangerous MOB's attacking the player at night.
Player takes the role of a character in a randomly generated world. The play can mine/build/craft items to help ensure his survival during dangerous night time portion of the cycle. MC is generally a sandbox game with building and crafting being the focus.
Really? Day night cycle is one of its greatest features that it deserve mention? There nothing here listed that DF adventure mode doesn't have, or will have.
MC does have more adventure mode crafting then DF. That is so far, one of the few points that I feel are legitimately in its favor. However, Adventure Mode in DF will it eventually, and will be more in depth then what MC is aiming for. (Clear glass requires perl ash! Steal requires pig iron!)
MC adventure mode does allow for mining, and building. This again, is for now, a point in MC favor. Though DF will be going here, eventually. Again, in much greater depth then MC.
Minecraft generated world, is useless mostly. The play area generated is beyond what the player will use in most play through. Though, it wouldn't surprise me some of the larger servers do use maybe half the world generated. And its mostly the same over and over again.
Compared to the randomly generated world that DF does, its quite infantile. True, that the information generated by DF isn't used in its entirety, however, more and more of that information is making an impact on adventure mode and dwarf mode.
You can have fun in both games just exploring, but there is no story element to the survival mode MC. Where as in DF adventure mode, narratives with the players interactions and adventures come quite easily, and continuing to becoming more engrossing in time.
Dev Cycles
Are you saying that DF dev cycle is unstable? Unstable to me, would imply there are bouts where Toady isn't working on the game. Even through the dreaded year of no release, Toady was continuing to make dev posts about the game. And the release have been fairly common now since the Dreaded Year of no releases. With respect of their depths, I would say their releases are on par.
Interface
The interface for MC is smooth, because of its simplicity. It'd be hard to fuck up MC interface for what it needs to do. However, the use of Red Powered line stuff, is quite awkward and doesn't make any internal sense. I would say this is an interface hiccup.
DF interface does have issues, I would say this is DF true con, and not its ASCII graphics. However, they are making incremental improvements over time. Though, one of its greater flaws was its lack of constituency, but that has now more or less been taken care of.
Author
Topic: Dwarf Fortress 0.31.18 Released (Read 74717 times)