[vinceguidry]

> and the gameplay is brutally difficult.

Dwarf Fortress is not particularly difficult once you figure out the obtuse interface. It's only a little bit more difficult than Minecraft without the boss fights. I got bored in a few months. Admittedly, much of this was the tendency of the game to slow my machine to a dead crawl. Once you're proficient at avoiding the pitfalls, the only really interesting thing to do is to keep growing the fortress. Sadly, the performance cliff is steep.

[dunstad]

There is of course a certain extent to which you can adjust how difficult the game will be for you, such as where you embark or just restricting your playstyle, but ultimately coming up with goals is necessary to keep enjoying the game. I never last very long myself...

[jtolmar]

The problem with embark locations is that they mostly just increase the size of the initial difficulty cliff. The game still settles down to more or less the same amount of challenge once you've dug in. Maybe your migrant waves are smaller after wading through the river full of zombie hippos, but once the survivors get indoors they're as safe as anywhere else.

[PhasmaFelis]

Almost all single-player games are easy once you've had sufficient practice. That doesn't mean they're actually easy by any normal standard.