I just wanted to get feedback from you about something I've been thinking about for a while.
Would it be a good or bad thing for a big-name publisher to pick up Dwarf Fortress and sell it at <pick> with a shiny box, manual, professional graphics and easy-to-use interface?
I've actually heard this rumor flying around the web. They're saying that it is simply inevitable for DF to get noticed and eventually become published and/or ported to another gaming platform.
I think a lot of people would immediately say how awesome that would be, but I'm starting to think that it may be a bad idea. Am I the only one that thinks that the Lord of the Rings books have been ruined (maybe a better word is raped) since Peter Jackson made them into movies? I mean, it's no longer cool to see Farmer Maggot in Nethack (or any other game for that matter), and when I read the books now, I just see Elijah Wood, instead of Frodo. I can't impress my friends any more that I've read just about all of Tolkiens works, since they've "been there, done that".
I think this would have the same effect on a cool, "culty" game like DF if it went mainstream. In our heads we would see an image instead of an imagination. Instead of Toady's vision, we would see someone elses interpretation of it. The community and forums would be overrun with the not-so-mature crowd and the awesome player-made wiki would simply become a bystandard to Gamespot's and IGN's FAQs and player guides. Teaching someone how to create their first irrigation system, would no longer be a penchant to only the most dedicated player. Instead of the great player-written Role-play stories, we would see a lot more meta-game stories.
I know this can happen because it's happened so many times with other overnight-hits. Think of how XCOM, Civilization and Sim City started - they are ingrained in our minds as our childhood favorites and considered among the greatest of all time. Now think of the franchise today: Graphically watered-down, simplified b@$tards of the originals.
Maybe it is inevitable. Maybe, success spawns this sort of thing. Maybe Toady needs to stop making DF so awesome, so it can avoid these pitfalls. But that would be an oxymoron in and of itself.