Media Blog 3: Strike the Earth!

Dwarf Fortress is a game that I've enjoyed for a while now, but that many people find difficult to play.  It could be described as "The Sims on Steroids".  The gameplay is complicated and limitless, while the graphics are almost nonexistent.  Here is a picture of the graphics in their original state: 

The infamous BoatMurdered

There are many graphical mods though that will improve how the game looks, three of the more popular ones can be found in the Lazy Newb Pack.

Don't let the graphics fool you, Dwarf Fortress has a lot to offer.  The fun in the game comes from simply how much you can do and how intricate it is.

You start off with 7 dwarves which you can assign skills, and from there you must survive and build your fortress.  As the fortress becomes larger and more succesful you begin to attract migrants who wish to join your fortress.  Eventually you may even attract the king of your civilization who will then declare your fortress the new capital city.

There is no end to the game though, you can continue forever.  Even after a fortress has been destroyed you can form a new party of dwarves to reclaim the land.  The motto of the game is "Losing is fun", this comes from the very odd ways that fortresses have fallen.  The famous BoatMurdered suffered from rampant elephant attacks, other fortress fall from demons from the depths of the earth, and other fall from dwarven ingenuity when a mistake is made and the fortress ends up flooded with water, or magma. 

It can be hard to get started, but luckily there are many tutorials:



The maker of the above video, CaptnDuck has a full series of videos to explain everything that you need to get started, in addition there is also the Dwarf Fortress Wiki.  Once you get started you can find that the game is very fun to play.  It's the fun of The Sims but with more combat, alcohol, beards and digging.  Who wouldn't like that?  Plus it's free!