Dwarf Fortress taught me to set my own goals, and that losing is fun. You can’t “win” DF, there’s no end of game: you build a fort and then just keep running it until either everyone gets killed or you get bored and start a new fort. But it’s not actually that hard to just wall yourself off from the outside world and survive indefinitely if you’re good at the game.[1] What kept the game interesting for me was setting my own goals and challenges, ranging from “I want to make a cool library” to “I want to build a fort cast from obsidian on top of a volcano in a biome with thralling clouds”. But—the most fun I’ve had playing DF are the times I’ve messed up, my fort overrun by goblins/forgotten beasts/were-gila monsters/clowns and all my hard work destroyed, because losing is fun, because the fun of a game like DF comes from the memorable experiences and the stories you write and tell yourself.
Dwarf Fortress taught me to set my own goals, and that losing is fun. You can’t “win” DF, there’s no end of game: you build a fort and then just keep running it until either everyone gets killed or you get bored and start a new fort. But it’s not actually that hard to just wall yourself off from the outside world and survive indefinitely if you’re good at the game. [1] What kept the game interesting for me was setting my own goals and challenges, ranging from “I want to make a cool library” to “I want to build a fort cast from obsidian on top of a volcano in a biome with thralling clouds”. But—the most fun I’ve had playing DF are the times I’ve messed up, my fort overrun by goblins/forgotten beasts/were-gila monsters/clowns and all my hard work destroyed, because losing is fun, because the fun of a game like DF comes from the memorable experiences and the stories you write and tell yourself.
Or at least, it was in older versions—they’ve recently added enemies that can dig