I have been playing Dwarf Fortress lately. I am continuously impressed by the game, especially given that it was programmed by only 1-2 people.
While I could write hundreds of pages on how interesting the game is in itself, I wanted to share my recent experience with the simulated dwarfs.
The game goes into incredible lengths to simulate each dwarf, such as their thoughts, needs, preferences, health (mental and physical), items, skills, rooms, relations, etc etc.
Recently, my fortress was being attacked by dwarfes from a neighbor civilization. As my heroic dwarves were battling the attackers, I paused the game to click on each attacking dwarf to gain insights on why they were attacking me.
Inspecting one of the attacking dwarves items, I could see standard dwarvish equipment -- sheep wool gloves, leather armor, woolen socks ...
But then I noticed:
...
dwarf tears covering - right eye
dwarf tears covering - left eye
...
I realized that the dwarf was crying. I am still not sure why he was crying... Perhaps from the pain from the injuries? Perhaps he was forced to be a part of this attack? Perhaps he has family members in my fortress? Perhaps he is just an innocent dad that misses his family... There could be countless of reasons for his tears, and they wouldn't be random -- they would be backed by all the events within that game.
I couldn't really get myself to unpause the game, knowing that this dwarf will most likely meet his doom.
I don't know if I have ever felt so bad for any game character before. The funny thing is that Dwarf Fotress is a terminal game (although I play it with the official GUI version). I can't really see the face of the dwarf, but reading his feelings make it all too real still...
I truly feel bad for him.