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[Uristisdying]

I can't remember exactly how i got addicted, I only know it took three attempts within two years to get me hooked. The first two attempts can be described as follows: "Fuck, I want to play this game. Fuck, what is this. Fuck, I have to work, screw you."

Then, on my third attempt to try out this game (what other game has managed to make me try it out more than once? Oh yah, none) I figured it out. And then told all my friends about it, who stared at me in terror. Then a few of them, including my girlfriend, saw me playing it and... they... stared at the screen. No explanation helped. After some silent moments, the situation was concluded with: "Uhm.. yeah... this is like... a game that is... uhm... like the game we'd imagine you to play".

We have never talked about DF again. Screw them, for if they don't want to join the cool gamers club, it's their fault alone! 

[Horizon9]

Dwarf Fortress: Nothing but self-congratulatory cirlce-jerk threads and the same four jokes about cats, lava, elves, and beards, over and over and over.

Hey buddy, you don't have to be here.

I recently got one of my friends to try Dwarf Fortress. He doesn't really understand it now, but he's actually trying. I told him about the Complete and Utter Newby tutorial that I used, and he starting to get into it.

I think he might actually become one of us.

[surturhero]

I got some of my friends into it after telling them the stories of my first fortress. After that I helped them understand the basics abit and they got into it. Had a few other people who after hearing stories got curious, but either they loved it or didnt get it at all.

[darkrider2]

It's impossible to force someone into understanding dwarf fortress. It's just too complex, they have to have the kind of mind that enjoys mindless complexity and the matrix.

[SkyRender]

 Pretty much everyone I know who doesn't play DF has set themselves against the idea of playing it entirely.  It really does take a particular mindset to tolerate this game.

[Urist Imiknorris]

I just explain it as "The first step of playing the game is learning how to read the Matrix."

[penco]

Oh come on... it's nothing like the Matrix. It's just roguelike graphics.

TBH, what keeps most people away more than the graphics is just the stupidly unintuitive control scheme. It took me several days just to figure out how to make a farm, and this was back in the days when you didn't even need to irrigate first. Once I figured out that in 99% of all situations you have virtually no direct control over your dwarves' behavior, it started to click.


My wife thinks it's kind of cool, until I explain that behind the moving letters and smileys there are chopping limbs and oozing guts.

[Urist Imiknorris]

(I use the matrix tileset)

[Samrobot]

When my dad sees me play DF he says " Your playing that C64 game again I see."  I just sigh and i try to tell him again that it is not a C64 game it is a complex game of smileys, blood, guts, magma, cat eating, beards, ect. He just says its a bunch of letters.

[Girlinhat]

Possibly the biggest challenge to getting into DF is realizing that it IS an RTS game, but it doesn't let you actually do anything.  You don't command units or give orders.  You just suggest.  "I think a workshop would go well here" and if the dwarf feels like it, and isn't too busy counting his socks, he'll follow the advice.  Luckily, I thrive on games like this.  The lack of direct control is what lures me in so badly.  I don't like ordering units and micro-managing soldiers.  I don't even like macro-managing armies and civilizations.  I enjoy make a mark on the sand, and watching the ants crawl along it.  Perhaps I'm a bit unique in that sense, I've always loved the beauty of automation.  Not programmed automation, like a production line, but reactionary kind, where you take nothing, you give it a push, and watch it react.  In short, I take joy in watching, and actively seek to make it where I don't do much.  Instead of ordering dwarves to patrol during ambush season, I change their schedule so that they're already patrolling.  I can't wait until we're able to give standing orders like "keep X booze on hand at all times".  At that point, screw things like eating.  I've got more dwarfs to fortress!

[Samrobot]

I've have reached the ASCII addiction stage were i now sometimes have dreams in ASCII.

[Eradacater]

I had a dream in ASCII. Enemy's had working siege machines, my dwarfs had a serrated disc launcher.

I got a friend too sit down and play dwarf fort for about 10 mins before he got a headache from trying to comprehend what was happening.

[ImaDwarf]

I tried to explain Dwarf Fortress to my friends, they didn't understand, so I printed a picture of my fort, and they said to quote, "Ew, what the fuck is that shit?!  Why don't you buy Black Ops and play a decent game?"  I printed a screen shot of some combat records of a war tiger ripping an elf's throat out, they now won't stop talking about it.

[Haruspex_Pariah]

Let's be honest here, how many of us could have understood dwarf fortress before playing roguelikes or other ASCII games? When you understand something it's hard to remember what it was like not understanding. When I first started I found the game controls impenetrable but after a while it became routine.

My roommates took a glance at the game and couldn't figure it out. The word "matrix" was mentioned. The thing is, you cannot understand DF from a glance at the screen. If they had spent a few minutes tinkering maybe they would have understood. Or if I was better at explaining. Maybe.

I've not actively introduced DF to anyone, but an educated guess says that anyone interested in sim/management games who could get through the graphics and UI might be interested. Also, those who don't mind losing. Guys who flip out like angry video game kid should stay away.

[Jacob/Lee]

DF was the first roguelike I've ever played. Afterwards, I constantly look for new roguelikes to play between Dwarf Fortress time and more Dwarf Fortress time.