# "Dwarf Fortress" is totally blowing my mind out of my head and all over the wall.
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dwarf-fortress-is-totally-blowing-my-mind-out-of-my-head-and-all-over-the-wall/415746
**Category:** Cafe Society
**Created:** [August 15, 2007, 10:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dwarf-fortress-is-totally-blowing-my-mind-out-of-my-head-and-all-over-the-wall/415746 "2007-08-15T22:51:59Z")
**Posts on this page:** 20
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@TLDRIDKJKLOLFTW](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TLDRIDKJKLOLFTW)
#### Post date: [August 15, 2007, 10:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dwarf-fortress-is-totally-blowing-my-mind-out-of-my-head-and-all-over-the-wall/415746/1 "2007-08-15T22:51:59Z")
Who knew? Seriously, who knew that a game so revolutionary would be so ridiculous in its presentation?
[Dwarf Fortress](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dwarf_Fortress) is completely mindblowing in its complexity, AI, persistent world existence, internal consistency…it’s basically what I never thought a video game or simulation would ever be able to accomplish. **Everything** is accounted for and everything interacts in a real, organic, **living** way. It’s downright **spooky** sometimes.
I can’t even begin to explain how weird and involved the world is, and by extension the stories that are created as you play it. If you want a good overview of what I’m talking about and why it’s so mindblowing, read [Let’s Play Dwarf Fortress: Boatmurdered](http://fromearth.net/LetsPlay/Boatmurdered/).
The big game companies could learn a lot from the complete opposite approach that this game has taken, and the brilliance that resulted.
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### Author:  [@Miller](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Miller)
#### Post date: [August 15, 2007, 11:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dwarf-fortress-is-totally-blowing-my-mind-out-of-my-head-and-all-over-the-wall/415746/2 "2007-08-15T23:15:41Z")
Yeah, and the sick thing is, it’s all the product of one dude working in his garage. It makes me warm inside to know that those days haven’t gone completely by the board yet.
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### Author:  [@Revenant\_Threshold](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Revenant_Threshold)
#### Post date: [August 15, 2007, 11:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dwarf-fortress-is-totally-blowing-my-mind-out-of-my-head-and-all-over-the-wall/415746/3 "2007-08-15T23:22:58Z")
I got into this the last time it was linked up on the PA forums. Delicious fun. How can any game be bad when the following may happen;
- A craftdwarf’s masterpiece work is destroyed, causing him to go insane and attack everyone else.
- A dwarf is taken by a mood, kills the nearest dwarf, and fashions a macabre item from his remains.
- Drowning the ENTIRE WORLD.
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### Author:  [@Miller](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Miller)
#### Post date: [August 15, 2007, 11:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dwarf-fortress-is-totally-blowing-my-mind-out-of-my-head-and-all-over-the-wall/415746/4 "2007-08-15T23:29:34Z")
[QUOTE=Revenant Threshold]
- Drowning the ENTIRE WORLD.
[/QUOTE]
In _ **MOLTEN LAVA!** _
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### Author:  [@TLDRIDKJKLOLFTW](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TLDRIDKJKLOLFTW)
#### Post date: [August 15, 2007, 11:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dwarf-fortress-is-totally-blowing-my-mind-out-of-my-head-and-all-over-the-wall/415746/5 "2007-08-15T23:54:41Z")
[These](http://fromearth.net/LetsPlay/Boatmurdered/chapter1-16.html) [two](http://fromearth.net/LetsPlay/Boatmurdered/chapter1-17.html) consecutive chapters basically sum up everything amazing about the game for me. I was absolutely in tears from laughter reading the descriptions of those engravings and of the shirt.
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### Author:  [@OneCentStamp](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/OneCentStamp)
#### Post date: [August 16, 2007, 1:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dwarf-fortress-is-totally-blowing-my-mind-out-of-my-head-and-all-over-the-wall/415746/6 "2007-08-16T01:13:18Z")
I don’t mean this to be snarky _at all_, but…is this for real? Those screen shots and text blurbs look like something I would have played on my Apple IIe in 1985. Like a cross between _Zork_ and _Ultima II_. What’s so cool about this crude-looking game?
😕
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### Author:  [@Telperien](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Telperien)
#### Post date: [August 16, 2007, 1:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dwarf-fortress-is-totally-blowing-my-mind-out-of-my-head-and-all-over-the-wall/415746/7 "2007-08-16T01:25:25Z")
They had me at “hoary marmot meat.”
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### Author:  [@Miller](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Miller)
#### Post date: [August 16, 2007, 1:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dwarf-fortress-is-totally-blowing-my-mind-out-of-my-head-and-all-over-the-wall/415746/8 "2007-08-16T01:29:18Z")
[QUOTE=OneCentStamp]
I don’t mean this to be snarky _at all_, but…is this for real? Those screen shots and text blurbs look like something I would have played on my Apple IIe in 1985. Like a cross between _Zork_ and _Ultima II_. What’s so cool about this crude-looking game?
😕
[/QUOTE]
Yes, it’s for real. Dwar Fortress is an incredibly deep strategy/city sim. It’s not a commercial release. It’s basically a labor of love by one guy, who’s giving it away free on his [website](http://www.bay12games.com/dwarves/). What’s cool about it? Everything that’s not graphics, that’s what.
Read the SA thread. It’s both a good primer on playing the game, and fucking hilarious.
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### Author:  [@Hal\_Briston](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hal_Briston)
#### Post date: [August 16, 2007, 1:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dwarf-fortress-is-totally-blowing-my-mind-out-of-my-head-and-all-over-the-wall/415746/9 "2007-08-16T01:31:53Z")
[QUOTE=OneCentStamp]
I don’t mean this to be snarky _at all_, but…is this for real? Those screen shots and text blurbs look like something I would have played on my Apple IIe in 1985. Like a cross between _Zork_ and _Ultima II_. What’s so cool about this crude-looking game?
😕
[/QUOTE]
I don’t mean this to be snarky either, but what does crude-looking have to do with quality gameplay? Hell, the two games you mentioned are classics.
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### Author:  [@TPWombat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TPWombat)
#### Post date: [August 16, 2007, 1:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dwarf-fortress-is-totally-blowing-my-mind-out-of-my-head-and-all-over-the-wall/415746/10 "2007-08-16T01:44:52Z")
[QUOTE=Hal Briston]
I don’t mean this to be snarky either, but what does crude-looking have to do with quality gameplay? Hell, the two games you mentioned are classics.
[/QUOTE]
Yea, what **Hal** said.
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### Author:  [@Precambrianmollusc](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Precambrianmollusc)
#### Post date: [August 16, 2007, 2:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dwarf-fortress-is-totally-blowing-my-mind-out-of-my-head-and-all-over-the-wall/415746/11 "2007-08-16T02:51:52Z")
Just to say, that Boatmurdered thread linked in the OP is a beauty, well worth a read.
Got to learn how to play this game.
NBC
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### Author:  [@DigitalC](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DigitalC)
#### Post date: [August 16, 2007, 3:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dwarf-fortress-is-totally-blowing-my-mind-out-of-my-head-and-all-over-the-wall/415746/12 "2007-08-16T03:28:24Z")
This game should have won game of the year honors last year. I can literally waste entire days on this and barely scratch the surface.
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### Author:  [@Balance](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Balance)
#### Post date: [August 16, 2007, 4:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dwarf-fortress-is-totally-blowing-my-mind-out-of-my-head-and-all-over-the-wall/415746/13 "2007-08-16T04:42:46Z")
Holy Hannah. It’s like the drug-crazed lovechild of _Dungeon Keeper_ and _The Sims_, all dressed up for Nethack cosplay.
**Chap** , I think the Boatmurdered thread proves, if nothing else, that you don’t have to learn to play the game to enjoy it. 🙂
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### Author:  [@OneCentStamp](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/OneCentStamp)
#### Post date: [August 16, 2007, 1:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dwarf-fortress-is-totally-blowing-my-mind-out-of-my-head-and-all-over-the-wall/415746/14 "2007-08-16T13:19:27Z")
[QUOTE=Hal Briston]
I don’t mean this to be snarky either, but what does crude-looking have to do with quality gameplay? Hell, the two games you mentioned are classics.
[/QUOTE]
I agree to an extent, and I loved those two games too. I was just surprised to see a game that, on the surface, looks extraordinarily primitive, get such rave comments.
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### Author:  [@Telperien](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Telperien)
#### Post date: [August 16, 2007, 2:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dwarf-fortress-is-totally-blowing-my-mind-out-of-my-head-and-all-over-the-wall/415746/15 "2007-08-16T14:25:10Z")
Holy geese, that was hilarious.
Afterward, I checked out the other ones and ended up reading through the Pathways into Darkness one. Ah, the nostalgia, though I never made it very far into that game because I was inept.
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### Author:  [@BlackKnight](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BlackKnight)
#### Post date: [August 16, 2007, 3:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dwarf-fortress-is-totally-blowing-my-mind-out-of-my-head-and-all-over-the-wall/415746/16 "2007-08-16T15:29:57Z")
I’m always one to point out that graphics are one of the least important aspects of a game, but dear god could that game possibly be more ugly? There’s “simple, unsophisticated” graphics, and then there’s “eyes bleeding and can’t tell what if it’s a game or the monitor shat itself” graphics.
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### Author:  [@flight](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/flight)
#### Post date: [August 16, 2007, 7:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dwarf-fortress-is-totally-blowing-my-mind-out-of-my-head-and-all-over-the-wall/415746/17 "2007-08-16T19:01:23Z")
Hmm, would anyone be interested in a Straight Dope version of Boatmurdered?
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### Author:  [@tanstaafl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tanstaafl)
#### Post date: [August 16, 2007, 10:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dwarf-fortress-is-totally-blowing-my-mind-out-of-my-head-and-all-over-the-wall/415746/18 "2007-08-16T22:44:49Z")
I would be, though I will be quick to point out that I fall clearly in the “has no idea what they are doing” camp. Though, from looking at the Boatmurderd threads, that doesn’t seem to be a handicap really.
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### Author:  [@Precambrianmollusc](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Precambrianmollusc)
#### Post date: [August 17, 2007, 12:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dwarf-fortress-is-totally-blowing-my-mind-out-of-my-head-and-all-over-the-wall/415746/19 "2007-08-17T00:33:49Z")
I guess so long as you can write about your disasters in an entertaining style all is forgiven.
Any idea a how long one year game time takes in real life (ish)
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### Author:  [@Bosstone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bosstone)
#### Post date: [August 17, 2007, 3:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dwarf-fortress-is-totally-blowing-my-mind-out-of-my-head-and-all-over-the-wall/415746/20 "2007-08-17T03:54:35Z")
[QUOTE=NaturalBlondChap]
Any idea a how long one year game time takes in real life (ish)
[/QUOTE]
FWIW, my roommate’s been playing a new game for about two hours and is at day 24 of month 1. So I’d estimate something like two weeks of regular playing.
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