Print

Please login or register.
1 Hour 1 Day 1 Week 1 Month Forever
Login with username, password and session length

Yes

11 (15.5%)

No

14 (19.7%)

Only adventure mode

46 (64.8%)

Radiohead

0 (0%)

Total Members Voted: 71

[Okenido]

One of the things that has always made me curious is the reason why Dwarf Fortress is considered a roguelike by many of people.

To me, and my opinions this is mostly absurd due to my thought of that it only got this title due to it's appearance of the usual ASCII that often reveals itself into the genre.

From my knowledge a roguelike is usually defined by these 3 characteristics:

1. Perma death: Although it bears it's face into the depths of the adventure part the game, the Fortress mode which mimics that of several city building entertainment programs is that of similer quality, and is common through the branch. Which causes it to be even on the balance.

2. Undiscovered item use: A necessary feature of many roguelikes that is tragically null in this build of Dwarf Fortress. In several rogues it is a major factor in the game's entertainments is to ponder if the bottle contains a fatal substance or the ability to rejuvenate you to health.

3. Dungeon diving: A basic that is at current unimplemented to the game. The majority of our locals are twisted descents into caves, forested lands with named trees, sparsely populated towers, and towns constructed by the humans. None of which present the basic principles of the basic dungeon.

That is all I have to give right now, and I would like to see your opinions on the matter.

[olemars]

The similarity is peripheral in my opinion (I guess some people see the ascii graphics and automatically think "roguelike"). DF is a unique game in itself, far beyond the scope of any roguelike.

[jellyman]

Its like a roguelike.  It is fantasy based, ascii, savescumming is considered cheating.  Depth of gamplay over graphics.

But its a fortress simulation game so its not really a roguelike.  More a  roguelikelike.  Or perhaps a roguelike²

[Charmless]

It's half and half.

Games like Nethack, ADOM, etc. were entitled roguelikes because they were like Rogue.

Fortress mode is quite unlike Rogue. You could call Adventure mode Roguelike, if you want to.

[sneakey pete]

Adventure mode is Aimed to be like a rougelike, isn't it?

[vallannion]

The best roguelike definition I have heard was this:

1. Permadeath.
2. Random maps.
3. Rich worlds(lots of items etc).
4. A major goal(Find the amulet, close the gate and so on).

[McDoomhammer]

In my mind- and I'm not saying this is any more valid than other interpretations, i just say it to offer a perspective-  the defining trait of a Roguelike is a top-down perspective in which things are represented with a combination of colour and abstract ASCII-or-similar symbols.  I guess DF has, by its very existence, caused me to distinguish between (what I see as) "the Roguelike genre" and "Games that closely resemble Rogue".

- It does also have randomness, richness and permadeath, naturally.
- I believe unidentified objects is taken straight out of D&D.  I think of it more as extremely common because of that than a defining feature.
- There are roguelikes out there that don't have "Dungeons" per se- there are Mecha roguelikes, space roguelikes, even a DOOM Roguelike.  So if you mean literal fantasy dungeons, no, but if by "dungeon crawl" you mean in the general RPG sense of "venture into an enclosed, danger-filled space to acheive goals and find things of value", no, not so much of that, although I think there might be one or two Roguelike that don't have that.

I dunno, its an interesting question.  Some of the greatest games out there, like DOOM or Civilisation, define a genre.  Others, like Dungeon Keeper, acheive greatness by smashing our ideas of a genre into little pieces (although it's interesting to note that the former kind tend to come early in that genre's development, and many of their taken-for-granted features were actually quite original when they were released).  So I would say that DF *is* a Roguelike... in the same sense that Dungeon Keeper is a real-time strategy, and an action game and a sim.  Being Roguelike is part of what it is but doesn't wholly define it.  It may be the start of a new Genre.

[John Johnston]

I'll not go by definition, but by playing style:  playing adventure mode requires you to do very much the same sort of things as playing a Roguelike would.  I never bothered with the original Rogue but IME adventure mode plays very similarly to playing Angband without magic.
Same movement, similar combat, same display, same sort of inventory management, similar (by which I mean, of course, massively better in many different ways) environment to adventure in.

Fortress mode, on the other hand, plays like... uh, well, fortress mode.  More complicated than DK or Evil Genius, more freeform than any Civ any other game I can think of, more combat oriented than Sim-whatever, more gruesome (in its own special way) than any FPS, and with an unhealthy dose of anal micromanagement required on a regular basis and a user interface from the fourth circle of hell.   


(we could add another one to the list of Roguelike traits: moddability)

[Jude]

It's not like Rogue in any significant way, so no.

Adventure mode, is sort of a roguelike....but not that much.