Wow. I thought Realm of the Mad god (http://www.realmofthemadgod.com/) had low-fi appeal...
The Brilliance of Dwarf Fortress
41–50 of 146 posts
Re: The Brilliance of Dwarf Fortress
#42For 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/
Or if you cherish your time, you keep away from it. It's quite addictive and you can have a lot of Fun.
Re: The Brilliance of Dwarf Fortress
#43Very interesting: "Tarn sees his work in stridently ethical terms. He calls games like Angry Birds or Bejeweled, which ensnare players in addictive loops of frustration and gratification under the pretense that skill is required to win, 'abusive' -- a common diagnosis among those who get hooked on the games, but a surprising one from a game designer, ostensibly charged with doing the hooking. 'Many popular games tap…
Completely agree with Tarn. I would go further, and describe certain types of games as evil. Social games, in particular, I believe have evil game design.
Here's an interview with the somewhat controversial but always interesting game designer Jonathan Blow: http://www.pcgamer.com/2011/02/15/jonathan-blow-interview-so...
In the second half, he talks about social game design. I'm very much with him on this.
Re: The Brilliance of Dwarf Fortress
#44Earlier quoted context omitted.
In addition, might I also suggest the illustrations done by Tim Denee. * Bronzemurder: http://www.timdenee.com/bronzemurder.html * Oilfurnace: http://www.timdenee.com/oilfurnace.html
Bravemule ( http://www.bravemule.com/matulremrit/ ) is the best Dwarf Fortress-related writeup I have ever read. It is fantastically illustrated, and captures the black humor and horror of Dwarf Fortress better than anything else I have read. Check it out.
Seconded. Even if you don't know anything about DF, Bravemule is a wonderful read.
Re: The Brilliance of Dwarf Fortress
#45Cool piece.
Re: The Brilliance of Dwarf Fortress
#46If you're ever worried that a feature will be too complex to implement, take a look at the ridiculous number of things Dwarf Fortress keeps track of and simulates some time. The article briefly touches on it, but like any look at Dwarf Fortress, it bared dips its toes in the water. Just a quick list off the top of my head... In world gen, it simulates geology and erosion, climate/biomes, growing civilizations, politi…
Dwarf Fortress has a level of micro-complexity that I wish Civilization had.
I think there is a niche -- albeit probably a very small one -- for more super-hardcore strategy games in a variety of settings and genres. Folks like me would love to play a game like Civilization and have incredibly rich, complicated diplomacy and trade and other issues that simulate, as closely as possible, real-world geopolitical issues. (In some ways, for instance, I'd love to be able to fight a cold war with an AI opponent, rather than an actual war).
Re: The Brilliance of Dwarf Fortress
#47I've never heard of other games spawning threads like these: http://www.bay12forums.com/smf/index.php?topic=77736.0 http://www.bay12forums.com/smf/index.php?topic=82309.0 http://www.bay12forums.com/smf/index.php?topic=76007.0 http://www.bay12forums.com/smf/index.php?topic=80022.0 I've never seen other games where people use that as a reason to study geology, farming, beekeeping or whatnot. One person, not satisfied w…
I know of several people who have gotten history degrees because of an interest sparked by the Europa Universalis series (usually either EU2 or EU3), and of course some people have become fighter pilots after playing flight sims. But the sheer breadth of DF is different from anything I've seen.
Re: The Brilliance of Dwarf Fortress
#48For 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/
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.
Re: The Brilliance of Dwarf Fortress
#49If you're ever worried that a feature will be too complex to implement, take a look at the ridiculous number of things Dwarf Fortress keeps track of and simulates some time. The article briefly touches on it, but like any look at Dwarf Fortress, it bared dips its toes in the water. Just a quick list off the top of my head... In world gen, it simulates geology and erosion, climate/biomes, growing civilizations, politi…
I wonder what techniques Tarn uses to manage that complexity. Does he write extremely clean code? Use test-driven development?
Re: The Brilliance of Dwarf Fortress
#50If you're ever worried that a feature will be too complex to implement, take a look at the ridiculous number of things Dwarf Fortress keeps track of and simulates some time. The article briefly touches on it, but like any look at Dwarf Fortress, it bared dips its toes in the water. Just a quick list off the top of my head... In world gen, it simulates geology and erosion, climate/biomes, growing civilizations, politi…
Remember, what one person can program when they're truly dedicated is a pretty incredible feat.
And I wonder if the level of dedication he has demonstrated requires Asperger's. He has all of the classic symptoms, down to the the involuntary rocking. I've worked hard, and I've sacrificed a lot of my time to my work. But I'm not willing to sacrifice as much of my time as he has. And it's quite likely his life's work will be both larger in total and have more impact than mine.
That all leads me to my question, which is if his level of dedication requires Asperger's. Before people bring up people like Einstein and Feynman, consider that they had personal lives. They pursued personal lives.