[Pristina]

if you did that, it would be boring.

The difference between a livestream of somebody's house and a soap opera is the storyline.

Without the story, only the world, the intensity is much lower and you would need the world to be much much more detailed to hold any interest. A real fractal of details like in a real world is much more effortful to implement compared to a good story.

[pnathan]

The interesting thing in the article is that there is no story, yet it holds the writer's interest. Narrative is not a hard requirement. Same for, e.g. Minecraft, or Legos, or other common toys.

And also, Dwarf Fortress is essentially a story building simulator, it is designed to generate interesting stories.

anyway, just some thoughts, people get fun from different things.