Print

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

[MAurelius]

So I was surfing the net today and saw Minecraft Legos! Legos! Yesterday, I got a ThinkGeek holiday catalog and they have a whole spread devoted to Minecraft merchandise. I check on my android for Dwarf Fortress, and there is only one app - (however awesomely cool) a DF background. Minecraft? Oh, you can play the entire GAME.

I am not the developer of DF but I have so much fun with it that it KILLS me that some hack basically ripped Toady off and made his game (only slightly, really) prettier and now that guy has more money than God, worldwide name recognition, and is ingrained into the culture in a way that DF SHOULD BE.

At work, when people tell me to play Minecraft and how fun it is I explain to them that it's no fun to ride a trike when you have a ATV waiting for you at home.

[Capntastic]

A forceful rant but it doesn't really belong in DF General Discussion. 

Anything that promotes the idea of a DF/Minecraft/Terraria rivalry is pretty un-fruitful.

[MAurelius]

Oh, I'm sorry. I looked thru the folders and thought this was the most appropriate. You can move it to wherever it fits best.

I don't think it's a rivalry. Stanford and Cal is a rivalry. Texas and Oklahoma is a rivalry. Now, if you had two college football teams where one completely ripped off the playbook of the other but also wore more stylish uniforms and got all the media attention and you called that a rivalry then ok, that's pretty close.

[Joost66]

Look, as similar as these games are, they aren't the same. Minecraft is much, much, simpler. I think that the reason minecraft is more popular than DF is because DF is much harder, much less accessible. Minecraft, almost anyone can play, it's simple, you dig, you craftm you mine. In df, you dig, you make homes, provide for people, smelt, keep people from going mad, assign jobs, micro-manage, fight off golbins, fight of elves (at least I try to...) fight of dragons... and all with a force starting with 7 short, bearded men. Not to mention the learning curve

For those wondering, DF's Learning curve  |
                                                         |
                                                         |
                                                         |
                                                         Etc.

[MAurelius]

So what you're saying is the relative inaccessibility and complexity of DF really puts it in a class by itself, rising above any potential similarities in the margins it may have with other games.

I'll buy that.

And you're right. Playing DF kinda makes me feel like a marine compared to other gamers. I mean, I'm not saying I'm anything like a *real* marine...those guys are hard core, but the general idea applies. The few, the proud, and all that.

"Oh, you spent an hour on a nice scripted CoD mission where you didn't even need to fire your gun and still win? That's cool. I just built 15 platinum tables, trained a grizzly bear for war, and

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

dug a hole straight into HELL!

Yeah, that's right."

[Joost66]

I am, in no way, trying to tell you that you are "Better" in any way for playing dwarf fort, though I can't help thinking that myself sometimes. I play both minecraft and dwarf fort, and I simply think that they are different types of games. Minecraft is good in it's own right, but I prefer my dwarf fort.

[NonconsensualSurgery]

Oh, I'm sorry. I looked thru the folders and thought this was the most appropriate. You can move it to wherever it fits best.

I don't think it's a rivalry. Stanford and Cal is a rivalry. Texas and Oklahoma is a rivalry. Now, if you had two college football teams where one completely ripped off the playbook of the other but also wore more stylish uniforms and got all the media attention and you called that a rivalry then ok, that's pretty close.

I wouldn't say it's a cheap ripoff. The focus is different. In Minecraft, you build things and you survive as a lone absurd hero in an empty world without edges. They could have programmed cave-ins and other things to increase realism a bit but that would mean you could not live on a flying island over the middle of the ocean and build a windmill. It's a very zen game.

[The13thRonin]

Minecraft and Dwarf Fortress aren't without similarities but they are not the same game. I don't know how you can compare the squad based, top-down, almost RTS-like Dwarf Fortress to the individual, first person, almost FPS-like Minecraft.

Also as far as developers are concerned Toady and Notch are chalk and cheese. For one thing Toady actually knows what he's doing whereas Notch seemed to stumble blindly into fame and then do everything physically in his power to mess that up by trying to make a linear RPG out of his game... He also took the first opportunity to 'finish' his game so he could cash out and work on something else. His updates also contain next to no meaningful content whereas Dwarf Fortress gets a full reworking every single new version.

The communities are vastly different too. While the Minecraft community is full of people who have nothing better to do than sit around and complain all day or have all the freedom in the world given to them only to use it to solely grief and/or PvP other players whereas the Dwarf Fortress community I believe is definitely by far the best community on the web.

[Kogut]

EDIT: OMG, I misspelled dwarf fortress

[Silophant]

Here's the previous image with DF actually showing up, for what it's worth.



http://www.google.com/trends?q=dwarf+fortress%2C+minecraft&ctab=0&geo=all&date=all&sort=1

[Cruxador]

There's a lot of problems with Minecraft, but similarity to DF isn't really one of them. DF's small market penetration is arguably a problem (although Toady can live off of his current income and seems to be pretty much satisfied with it), but it's basically unrelated to Minecraft.

Minecraft and Dwarf Fortress aren't without similarities but they are not the same game.

They're the same game to the degree that X-Com and XCOM are the same game. You could argue that they are if you have a strong vested interest in the matter, but doing so will just make you look stupid.

[thvaz]

Notch's success is completely accidental, but he didn't ripped of Toady's work.

=

[Gatleos]

Oh boy, this thread again.

It's barely even worth repeating anymore: DF != Minecraft. As for me, my debt is paid. I paid 10 bucks for Minecraft back in alpha, and I've donated 40 dollars to Toady. I plan to donate again. If you feel that a skilled, dedicated programmer making a truly remarkable game and only barely squeaking by on a minimal budget while another, far less skilled and lazy one got lucky and made millions off his game's mass market appeal is a travesty, then you should too.

[jellsprout]

No matter how you feel about Minecraft and Notch, you have to agree it is still better than Angry Birds. Every time I see Angry Birds merchandise or advertisements I die a little inside. And by now I am practically a zombie.
I don't like Notch and the Minecraft fanbase, but the Apple Drones who have managed to make an unoriginal non-free Flash game the most popular game of this time absolutely sicken me.

[peskyninja]

I hate minecraft's fan base, EVERY FUCKING BOARD is filled with threads like this :
"LOL I HAZ THA NUKE!"
"LOL WUT NOTCH U MAD"
"NUKEZ HERE I HAZ NUKE"