The best way to explain the fanbase, is that we are debase, violent, OCD, and we schedule our psychotic breaks with train-station frequency. But, in all that, we are real. We don't puff up, we don't brag (ok we do), we don't cheat and lie and troll (much). What we do is what we play, and we're earnest in our endeavors and we're open with our relationships to other fans. You want to know how to designate a stockpile? We'll put you on the experimental multiplayer server and hold your hand. You need to kill a mayor very fast? We will outline the details of a magma purge system within ten minutes. Tired of tantrum spirals? We can engineer a death fall trap in your dining hall, organized and synchronized to encourage death at the times of highest foot traffic and designed so that none of the falling animals/migrants are accidentally saved by landing on a wandering dwarf.
We are sick. And we do it right.
The game itself also lends credence to the fanbase's style. Your fort will die. It will. You will not win. You will only have fun as you come closer to failure. Your entire goal is to have fun, as the only measurable success of a fort is enjoyment. Got steel clad legendary axedwarves? Got a platinum plated dining hall with waterfalls? Got a magma-duct that ritually kills goblin sieges with clockwork precision? It doesn't matter, because you will fail. The only measure of success, is how much you enjoyed the route to failure. That's what makes Dwarf Fortress, and its players, so unique. We don't strive to level up, or to get top-tier gear, or to finish the quests, or to earn achievements.
We play for fun. And we do it right.