It is a game totally worth consuming your life. It have too much depth and there's so much to learn. Designing your own defense system, figuring out how to satisfy and juggle the requirement of your fortress, and so on. It's mind expanding. Other than that, I like killing and skewing globins.
Someday, I'll be able to handle trapping globins and use them to automate my fortress.
A game like dwarf-fortress is a 6+ year labour of love from its creators (and its players!), and screw anyone who says dedication like that is wasting your life.
And more broadly, a game is as artistic & life-changing as the developer is able or willing to make it.
As cool as Dwarf Fortress is, I really don't think we should go along with judging games by the metric that is suggested by the GP ("killing simulators"). It is like forcing kids to only play with Lego, because 'cops and robbers' is a 'crime simulation'.
I have played less than 4 video games in the last decade, all of them either flash or shipped with my mobile phone. I'll give this one a try (helps that it has a Linux port :-)
It is a game totally worth consuming your life. It have too much depth and there's so much to learn. Designing your own defense system, figuring out how to satisfy and juggle the requirement of your fortress, and so on. It's mind expanding. Other than that, I like killing and skewing globins.
Someday, I'll be able to handle trapping globins and use them to automate my fortress.