Print

Please login or register.
1 Hour 1 Day 1 Week 1 Month Forever
Login with username, password and session length

[darkrider2]

I have to agree that the main thing keeping DF nice is it's learning cliff.

I have to argue that single player doesn't filter anything out. I play Supreme Commander online, and the chat room is pretty polite there, SC has an insane learning curve.

The more complex a game, the better, always.

[nenjin]

Spend some time in the lower forums. It's more like the rest of the Internet 'down there.'

It's just in the DF focused forums, people tend to stay on topic (within the scope of magma jokes and lever nobles), so it seems like the whole community is positive and helpful. I'm not saying those aren't traits of the DF community....but it's concentrated where people talk about DF. Get them talking about other things, and the community here is more or less like others.

[NW_Kohaku]

Ugh, the Minecraft forums used to be actually halfway decent. Players might get into occassional arguments, but nothing too bad. And then someone linked it on Penny Arcade...then Something Awful....then 4chan. Griefing went through the roof, and now I can't even look at the forums for info. Blech.

Ummmmm, anyways, yeah, probably because the worst people from places like those can't take the learning cliff.

I hate to break this to you, but 4chan knows where bay12games lives.

Thing is, 4chan likes Dwarf Fortress.  Kitten genocide, mermaid factories, and magma cannons are kind of up their ally.

It's the same thing with TV Tropes as opposed to Encyclopedia Dramatica.  Encyclopedia Dramatica somehow managed to raise the ire of 4chan, so it was Eternal Septembered into 4chan's stomping ground - the 4channers who wanted to remake the place in their image managed to flood the entire wiki with enough force that everyone who used to be there fled.  TV Tropes, however, is something they actually like, and enjoy actually using as intended, or even editing in their favorite shows. 

Beyond that, there's the Eternal September effect up here, too.  The upper forums are "nice" because people apply pressure to follow the quasi-unwritten rules.  When you act outside the rules, troll, or act abusive to others, there are those who are willing to either state what the rules are, or push back against the ones who keep trying.  If you aren't talking about the proper topics for a forum, the whole thread gets moved or deleted.

It's not like it's hard to set up an account and start trolling, you don't have to prove you can play the game to actually get an account and troll.  It's just that self-policing makes this forum a less juicy target for trolling.

Also, this forum has a unique form of annoyance. It gets some pretty hilarious sycophants that will attack any remotely similar game and worry about other games syphoning off Toady's revenue. See my sig for reference. "Goblin Camp" drove people loony for a while on this board.

That's one of the real lingering problem on these forums...  Some people get so caught up in hearing positives about this game, and enjoying the game that they lose sight of reality.  The people who point out bugs, have suggestions, or have complaints about the game in general are often subject to abuse by those who seem to think of the game or Toady as utterly infallible at times.

Aside from that, there's the occasional person who gives people using graphics packs a hard time, saying that, "if the game is not ASCII, this game will turn into Minecraft, and the forums will become 4chan."  It appears sometimes in places like the Lazy Newb Pack thread. 

Either way, it's people being too defensive about a misperceived notion of what makes DF a great game.  Even if it is related to the self-policing that keeps the trolls away, it's like having too many white blood cells running wild and starting to cause harm instead of good.

[breadbocks]

Essentially, the reason that the forums are better than others is because, like NWK said, we don't have something like anon riding our asses to hell and back, and we are tight enough that anybody here to troll gets busted pretty fast.

[dirkzen]

Thing is, 4chan likes Dwarf Fortress.

Thats putting it mildly.  In the /v/ (Videogames)  section of 4Chan,  nearly every game on every platform is subject to trolls, sarcasm, hatred and ridicule,  with threads easily bursting into flames over just about any nonsense..   except for Dwarf Fortress threads.
Suddenly you see this group of screaming, raging adolescents turn into a quiet, respectful group of gentlemen as they post various screenshots and discuss the game in a civil manner.
It makes me smile and lol every time.   

[Unnoskol]

Threads like these make me glad I play DF.  And perhaps this also contributes to the community's general friendliness and helpfulness. It's self-affirmation, a way to remind ourselves who we are.

[Cruxador]

Thing is, 4chan likes Dwarf Fortress.

Thats putting it mildly.  In the /v/ (Videogames)  section of 4Chan,  nearly every game on every platform is subject to trolls, sarcasm, hatred and ridicule,  with threads easily bursting into flames over just about any nonsense..   except for Dwarf Fortress threads.
Suddenly you see this group of screaming, raging adolescents turn into a quiet, respectful group of gentlemen as they post various screenshots and discuss the game in a civil manner.
It makes me smile and lol every time.   

That's not exactly due to them liking it more than what ever other games. It's a different group of people, for one thing, and for another there's more to talk about.
The /v/ threads aren't really as good as the old /tg/ threads used to be, but /tg/ doesn't talk about Dwarf Fortress much since /tg/ started being moderated.

[Oliolli]

I have to argue that single player doesn't filter anything out. I play Supreme Commander online, and the chat room is pretty polite there, SC has an insane learning curve.

The more complex a game, the better, always.

I must say I agree. I also frequent the S.T.A.L.K.E.R. -subforums of the Steampowered Users Forum (SPUF), and it is also quite civil. The reason may well be that it is one of the hardest FPS-games ever made, and you can't just play it like an average FPS game. You try, you die. In a way a lot like Dwarf Fortress, and I have seen people comparing S.T.A.L.K.E.R. to DF there on multiple occasions.

STALKER and Dwarf Fortress have the same idea of fun: they both beat you in the head with it until you have brain damage.

[NW_Kohaku]

I have to argue that single player doesn't filter anything out. I play Supreme Commander online, and the chat room is pretty polite there, SC has an insane learning curve.

The more complex a game, the better, always.

I must say I agree. I also frequent the S.T.A.L.K.E.R. -subforums of the Steampowered Users Forum (SPUF), and it is also quite civil. The reason may well be that it is one of the hardest FPS-games ever made, and you can't just play it like an average FPS game. You try, you die. In a way a lot like Dwarf Fortress, and I have seen people comparing S.T.A.L.K.E.R. to DF there on multiple occasions.

STALKER and Dwarf Fortress have the same idea of fun: they both beat you in the head with it until you have brain damage.

You know, that was one of those games I just narrowly avoided buying because of reading up on how buggy the whole thing was.  Maybe I should look back into it...

[Oliolli]

I have to argue that single player doesn't filter anything out. I play Supreme Commander online, and the chat room is pretty polite there, SC has an insane learning curve.

The more complex a game, the better, always.

I must say I agree. I also frequent the S.T.A.L.K.E.R. -subforums of the Steampowered Users Forum (SPUF), and it is also quite civil. The reason may well be that it is one of the hardest FPS-games ever made, and you can't just play it like an average FPS game. You try, you die. In a way a lot like Dwarf Fortress, and I have seen people comparing S.T.A.L.K.E.R. to DF there on multiple occasions.

STALKER and Dwarf Fortress have the same idea of fun: they both beat you in the head with it until you have brain damage.

You know, that was one of those games I just narrowly avoided buying because of reading up on how buggy the whole thing was.  Maybe I should look back into it...

It is buggy, true, but if you download the Complete-mods for all of them there are much fewer bugs.

And honestly speaking, I think it is the best game ever made, with Dwarf Fortress being a narrow second.

Just my opinion though, some people may think otherwise.

[darkrider2]

I have to argue that single player doesn't filter anything out. I play Supreme Commander online, and the chat room is pretty polite there, SC has an insane learning curve.

The more complex a game, the better, always.

I must say I agree. I also frequent the S.T.A.L.K.E.R. -subforums of the Steampowered Users Forum (SPUF), and it is also quite civil. The reason may well be that it is one of the hardest FPS-games ever made, and you can't just play it like an average FPS game. You try, you die. In a way a lot like Dwarf Fortress, and I have seen people comparing S.T.A.L.K.E.R. to DF there on multiple occasions.

STALKER and Dwarf Fortress have the same idea of fun: they both beat you in the head with it until you have brain damage.

You know, that was one of those games I just narrowly avoided buying because of reading up on how buggy the whole thing was.  Maybe I should look back into it...

It is buggy, true, but if you download the Complete-mods for all of them there are much fewer bugs.

And honestly speaking, I think it is the best game ever made, with Dwarf Fortress being a narrow second.

Just my opinion though, some people may think otherwise.

You just posted that, on the dwarf fortress forums.

prep the magma guys.

[Armok]

*pulls leaver*

[Itnetlolor]

Long ago, I was a bit of a drifter looking around for a community to hang around in, and after having checked out Something Awful (which eventually supported it's title after being in there for a good while; I was in it mostly for the LPs; long story short, it didn't end well for me there), I needed to find a better community that wouldn't bash everything at first glance without even opening their minds to an idea or something. And that is something I like about these forums. Creativity is respected, criticism is used as a way to improve a work, than to condemn it to non-existence, and overall, most-everyone else is pretty level-headed (albeit a bit off-beat sometimes, but in a good way) with just about anything else (also why I hang out in the lower forums sometimes; there's a good topic that comes every now and then).

Ironically, it was especially through Something Awful and their Boatmurdered LP, that I took interest in the game, and took a glance in the forums (lurked a good year before posting anything). I think what truly put me in a good place was getting a megaproject done as well as providing some good input on other topics that I came across. What I liked from then on was how easily I could be involved in the forums and how welcoming the atmosphere was attitude-wise.

It is odd to put it this way, but these forums feel very much like a good place to call "home" in regards to the internet. The community just feels that welcoming, albeit a tad insane at times. Then again, sanity is a bit overrated, though it does tend to be handled quite better than most other locations. I've met a good number of people I could hang out with, as opposed to just about every other place I've been. Kinda a reason I was a drifter back then.

Other Games and Creative Projects have been interesting to look through, and have gotten me interested in things I never really expected to take interest in either. Good for finding an outlet besides DF or socializing much of the time.

[Julien Brightside]

I think that whatever you say on the forum can't be any worse than what is happening in the game.

Anyone remember classics such as making a business of selling mermaid bones, beating a village to death with an orphans arms or perform ethnic cleansing on elves?

To be honest, this game trolls you harder than any forum troll can ever do.

[darkrider2]

The game has never trolled anyone, except for those who are easily offended by things such as mother's protecting themselves with baby shields, but those people are pretty good at trolling themselves without our help anyway.

Another great thing about these forums, especially the upper forums, are that there is a sense of history to them. In any thread you can have someone reference a number of famous things from the games past.

Also... Plump Helmet Men (So Delicious)