short version: this is a game. it's like sim city, but better. get it, faggot.
elongated rendition:
This game is a sandbox / god game akin to sim city. However, comparing this game to sim city is approximately akin to comparing a dip at your local YMCA's pool to a scuba diving expedition in the Great Barrier Reef. It's a goddamned deep game.
For one, instead of controlling a city en masse, via little more than assigning "zones" and watching buildings magically appear with nothing but statistics and small blue two- or three- pixel cars populating them, you control the population of a fortress right down to the individual level - dwarves have names, likes, dislikes, needs, wants, and so on, that may or may not be attended to depending on how much you care about a single dwarf. There's more to it than just babysitting a bunch of tiny alcoholics, however - your fortress will (probably not in your first few playthroughs) eventually grow to sizes of up to 50 or 60 dwarves.
But the makers of this game realize it's a daunting task to start playing with that many heads to worry about. You start out with a measly six dwarves, each of whom is vital to the fortress' survival through the first winter. Jobs should probably be focused only on the essentials - fishing and farming are preferable to soap making, for example. You don't tell single dwarfs what to do, however. Instead, you tell them what types of jobs you want them to accomplish, and they will automatically decide who does what as you assign tasks to be accomplished. For instance, you can set one dwarf's labor preferences to "armoring" and "weaponsmithing", and that dwarf will complete any armor- or weaponcrafting tasks you assign at the blacksmith's workshop you've created. In this way, you can generally just let the dwarves handle the work distribution themselves; micromanagement isn't something you have to fret over
too much.
You are also, as the fortress diety, responsible for telling your little friends exactly how you want your fortress to be built. Want it to be above-ground? Your dwarves will go insane, but sure, have at it. Want nothing more than a stairway entrance into huge catacombs you've built underground, that you've littered with stonefall traps to stop invaders? Go for it. Want a gigantic, five-story wall with archers posted every few steps protecting your dwarves? Feel free. I've only scraped the surface of the depth this goes to. The game is truly the definition of a sandbox game.
Now, the downfalls. For one, the learning curve is steep. Steep as hell. I won't lie, it's tough getting started on your first fortress. But there's plenty of tutorials out there, and I've even linked one at the bottom. (The dwarf fortress wiki is also helpful, on the whole, but it contains megaspoilers, so if you want to discover the game for yourself avoid it.)
For two, the interface is a bit... lacking. The developer has stated that implementing a very sweet graphical interface is not very high up on the priority list. As such, our eyes are treated to the sensational delight that is ASCII graphics. Fear not, however. There are a number of tilesets people have made that make the game give your eyes less AIDS, that can be easily downloaded and installed. Instructions are included in the link below.
Despite these drawbacks, however, the game is impressively immense, and if you have the attention span to get through the first half hour to and hour of figuring everything out and like god games, you'll love it.
By the way, it's free.
SUP RESOURCES:
http://www.bay12games.com/dwarves/ - official site, complete with download links
http://dwarf.lendemaindeveille.com/index.php/List_of_user_graphics_sets - tilesets for the game. instructions included with most sets.
two tutorials in the wiki. I prefer
this one because the other one tells you some silly things, but
this one's illustrated, which is very helpful.
I'm also open to any questions.
tl;dr:
OH GOD LONG WALLS OF TEXT WHY WOULD YOU DO THIS
