Community
Dwarf Fortress has attracted a significant cult following. The game's steep learning curve, two-dimensional graphics, numerous developmental bugs, and great depth of field have lent it a reputation as brutal to learn and impossible to master, a conclusion acknowledged by Adams on multiple occasions. A better in-game help system and better graphics are both long-term goals, but are nowhere near the current development schedule; as such, the game in its current state is enjoyed mostly by hardened DIY-type gamers who are able to overcome the game's challenges. Its members have compiled a dedicated wiki for the game, the most comprehensive reference the game has and a tome that Adams admits to referencing himself on occasion. An illustrated guide to the game, called Getting Started with Dwarf Fortress, has also been released by O'Reilly Media.
Prior to releasing the game in 2006, Tarn Adams expected he would have to get a job in order to support himself; his primary source of funding, besides his saving, was a PayPal donation link on his website, which brought in only enough to cover the site's $20 hosting cost. However, the release of the game brought forth an enormous increase in donation volume, and the Adams brothers were able to support development, albeit only just barely at first. Donations generally hover at a few thousand every month, and the highest numbers coincide with new major version releases; for instance, a major release in February 2012 saw $12,586.51 donated by the end of the month. Supporters receive either a short story written by Zack, or a crayon drawing signed by both brothers. This gives Dwarf Fortress the distinction of being one of the few games supported solely by voluntary donation.
Tarn Adams has admitted that the intrepidness and occasional masochism of the community surprised even him. In an interview with HASTAC Adams stated that the most impressive thing he had even seen done with the game was when a player managed to create an entire Turing-complete calculator powered by dwarves. Because of this, the game is a staple of Let's Play type walkthroughs, the most famous of which is "Boatmurdered" ("Koganusân" in the game's dwarfish language).
The game's code base is proprietary, and Adams has stated firmly that he has no plans to release it into the open source domain, citing his particular vision for the game and stating that it will remain a closed operation so long as Bay 12 Games remains financially healthy. Nonetheless, he acknowledges the role of the community in making the game more understandable and supporting its development. A number of external utilities exist that add graphical tilesets, three-dimensional visualizers, graphical user interfaces, and management tools to the game, all community-developed.
Read more about this topic: Dwarf Fortress
Famous quotes containing the word community:
“When you have come into the land that the LORD your God is giving you, and have taken possession of it and settled in it, and you say, “I will set a king over me, like all the nations that are around me,” you may indeed set over you a king whom the LORD your God will choose. One of your own community you may set as king over you; you are not permitted to put a foreigner over you, who is not of your own community.”
—Bible: Hebrew, Deuteronomy 17:14,15.
“The community and family networks which helped sustain earlier generations have become scarcer for growing numbers of young parents. Those who lack links to these traditional sources of support are hard-pressed to find other resources, given the emphasis in our society on providing treatment services, rather than preventive services and support for health maintenance and well-being.”
—Bernice Weissbourd (20th century)
“The peace loving nations must make a concerted effort in opposition to those violations of treaties and those ignorings of humane instincts which today are creating a state of international anarchy and instability from which there is no escape through mere isolation or neutrality.... When an epidemic of physical disease starts to spread, the community approves and joins in a quarantine of the patients in order to protect the health of the community against the spread of the disease.”
—Franklin D. Roosevelt (1882–1945)