The Brilliance of Dwarf Fortress • Hacker News Board

Re: The Brilliance of Dwarf Fortress

#131

Post by palish » Sat, Jul 23, 2011, 11:42 PM UTC

cma wrote: post #107

vessenes wrote: post #99

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Steve Wozniak recreated a disk controller in assembly on a motorola 68k chip in less than a day, and it worked pretty much perfectly first time, and you are complaining that he's not much of a hacker? What do you do in your spare time, if I may ask politely?

From his head and from his listings ? How much was from the listings? Do you know what listings are? (I know Woz is a godly Hacker, I'm just playing devil's advocate)

Heh. For what it's worth (and at the risk of karma annihilation), you're probably correct. A lot of the seemingly-godly things people have done are from 'simple tricks' that they've learned. People just don't like to admit it.

Woz was as brilliant as technical brilliance could possibly ever be, though.

Re: The Brilliance of Dwarf Fortress

#132

Post by Crabe » Sun, Jul 24, 2011, 12:25 AM UTC

forensic wrote: post #105

saraid216 wrote: post #92

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>The sex thing is a big problem. Seriously? Not everyone in the world is a sex addict. He's living his own life. He'll look for what he needs when he needs it.

Everyone in the world has needs for sex and romance. Some people have their needs unfulfilled or repressed, and they suffer for it. Sex is one of the most basic biological needs, and romantic intimacy (which is a part of good sex) is crucial for happiness, especially for a deeply social species like humans.

Don't you think you're simplifying it a bit? Some people get along fine without having sex, you seem to suggest that anyone who doesn't have sex is bound to be unhappy and lead a horrible life.

While for most people sex is important, I think you need to take a step back and look at how different people's needs can be.

Re: The Brilliance of Dwarf Fortress

#133

Post by shin_lao » Sun, Jul 24, 2011, 7:51 AM UTC

I seriously discourage you from checking out this game if you're on a deadline, building a startup or have any project you'd like to take on.

On the other hand it's a must have if you have a nuclear shelter in your backyard.

Re: The Brilliance of Dwarf Fortress

#134

Post by hugh3 » Sun, Jul 24, 2011, 8:42 AM UTC

pavel_lishin wrote: post #48

eru wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You might benefit from having played Nethack first. At least the culture shock will be a smaller.

I still can't get a grip on Nethack. I think I need to print out the list of key bindings in order to actually play.

Key bindings is the least of your problems. If you want to play Nethack well (ie with any chance whatsoever of ascending), you'll need to read hundreds of pages of FAQs to understand exactly what the hell is going on.

And once you've read all those, most of the surprise is gone, since you'll know that kicking a sink has a 1/20 chance of producing a black pudding and so forth.

Re: The Brilliance of Dwarf Fortress

#135

Post by hugh3 » Sun, Jul 24, 2011, 8:47 AM UTC

joshklein wrote: post #8

For those of you who are seeing this for the first time and have any love for games like Minecraft, Civilization, etc... please take the time to break through the very steep learning curve to give this game a fair shake. It is truly a work of art. Please note that the Wiki helps make the game playable: http://df.magmawiki.com/

please take the time to break through the very steep learning curve to give this game a fair shake

I don't know, I don't think we have the same attitude towards games. I already spend hours a week sitting in front of a computer doing really difficult stuff with screenfuls of ugly text for non-obvious rewards. It's called "work", and it pays me in real-world money and real-world glory. I don't have much desire to do the same sort of thing in my spare time.

Nope, give me a beautiful, overproduced and shallow game any day.

Re: The Brilliance of Dwarf Fortress

#136

Post by Sharlin » Sun, Jul 24, 2011, 11:13 AM UTC

forensic wrote: post #105

saraid216 wrote: post #92

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>The sex thing is a big problem. Seriously? Not everyone in the world is a sex addict. He's living his own life. He'll look for what he needs when he needs it.

Everyone in the world has needs for sex and romance. Some people have their needs unfulfilled or repressed, and they suffer for it. Sex is one of the most basic biological needs, and romantic intimacy (which is a part of good sex) is crucial for happiness, especially for a deeply social species like humans.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Asexuality

NB. There's of course a gradient between complete asexuality and total 24/7 horniness. People are different.

Re: The Brilliance of Dwarf Fortress

#137

Post by VirInvictus_ » Sun, Jul 24, 2011, 12:07 PM UTC

I was terribly happy to see this article all over my Twitter feed. This game is an inspiration for budding programmers, even if the game is terribly difficult to get into comfortably. I've been playing it for quite some time now. Very happy to see it.

Re: The Brilliance of Dwarf Fortress

#138

Post by JabavuAdams » Sun, Jul 24, 2011, 4:17 PM UTC

DanielBMarkham wrote: post #51

Some notes: First, these guys are the real hackers. Not Carmack, Woz, Bill, or Zuck, or all the super-cool guys that made the bucks and then coasted (technically). These guys are living the life just because they love it. They're a much better representation of the inner hacker in all of us than those stories of riches and fame. I got the impression they would continue doing this no matter what their financial circum…

You need to find out more about Carmack and Woz. Agree with the rest.

Re: The Brilliance of Dwarf Fortress

#139

Post by JabavuAdams » Sun, Jul 24, 2011, 4:23 PM UTC

hugh3 wrote: post #135

joshklein wrote: post #8

For those of you who are seeing this for the first time and have any love for games like Minecraft, Civilization, etc... please take the time to break through the very steep learning curve to give this game a fair shake. It is truly a work of art. Please note that the Wiki helps make the game playable: http://df.magmawiki.com/

please take the time to break through the very steep learning curve to give this game a fair shake I don't know, I don't think we have the same attitude towards games. I already spend hours a week sitting in front of a computer doing really difficult stuff with screenfuls of ugly text for non-obvious rewards. It's called "work", and it pays me in real-world money and real-world glory. I don't have much desire to do t…

Reminds me of the experience of sitting around a table with some brilliant people arguing about what our role-playing-game characters should do next. Hey, we're in a heated, passionate, frustrating meeting, and we're not even getting paid!

We should start a company or something...

Re: The Brilliance of Dwarf Fortress

#140

Post by JabavuAdams » Sun, Jul 24, 2011, 4:32 PM UTC

forensic wrote: post #84

marvin wrote: post #66

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You've got it backwards. Women aren't scared of hackers, hackers are scared of women. This is a gross generalization, but it fits for the examples you mention. Yes, some nerds are completely unattractive and girl-repellent. But it doesn't take that much effort to become attractive, and a lot of hardcore computer guys are attracted to computers precisely because working with computers allows you to lead a solitary lif…

You're right. The issue is that for a woman to pick up one of these nerds she would have to be unusually aggressive in pursuing the nerd-genius and yet also unusually submissive since the nerd-genius (like any great artist) would have strange and demanding needs to which she would need to conform and satisfy. She'd have to be Courney Love, and there aren't many of those. And shed have to somehow meet the nerd despite…

Find a partner with equally strong passions.

I.e. he/she understands that you need your time to geek out on your stuff because he/she needs the same thing.