Ellington

I need a platinum weapon rack, or my fortress is going to collapse. I mean, I don't actually need a platinum weapon rack, but the Queen of the Mountainhomes demands one in her bedchambers, and she has a tendency to murder her subjects when her needs aren't met.

What I need is a squad of dwarves who know their way around an axe, so I can do something about the never-ending goblin siege just outside the fortress walls. I had a handful of soldiers, but four fell to archers, now bleached skeletons, and two lie dismembered in the muddy cave I carved out for a hospital. My guard captain faithfully limps along the castle walls, his spine damaged, pausing now and then to pass out, only to wake up moments later and resume his vigil.

In her tantrum, the Queen kills someone's brother, and this drives the victim's family berserk. The brawl that follows is too much for the fragile psyches of my besieged citizens. Before the end comes, I send a deeply distressed tailor to pull a hidden lever I knew I'd have to use one way or another, and the mountain around my fortress bleeds lava. Everything is smoke and misery, and then I'm whisked away to a black screen that politely informs me that my fortress has fallen.

This is the only ending of "Dwarf Fortress": spectacular tragedy.

It's telling of the neurotic, obsessive genius of "Dwarf Fortress'" programmer, Tarn "Toady One" Adams, who co-created the game with his brother, Zach. The function of the program is to simulate in unnerving complexity a chaotic, living world, from its geology to its psychology. The player brings a little sliver of it under almost dictatorial control, to exploit it and rule it and, in due time, to watch as it spirals into death and disaster.

The devoted community's official motto (perhaps even religious mantra) is, "losing is fun," a phrase you can't fully appreciate until you encounter one of the moments every player learns to treasure--such as when the dragon you painstakingly trained to devour intruders casually vomits fire on your world-renowned armorsmith.

To be sure, "Dwarf Fortress" is a brutal teacher. Despite more than a decade of development, it remains firmly in alpha, which typically means a product is barely playable. In "Dwarf Fortress'" case, it's more a commentary on the ever-growing nature of the game. The learning curve is more like a cliff, and prospective players will have to overcome a sea of menu screens and keyboard shortcuts and still find themselves at the mercy of forums and player-created wikis for help.

Even the graphics are optional, if highly recommended; the game's unmodified build simply uses extended ASCII art to express its vibrant world. But with a little endurance, the audacious depth of "Dwarf Fortress" emerges, and players juggle managing an intricate society and ecosystem, fending off invasions, building enormous constructions brick by brick, and mining into the earth.

Donations mean Dwarf Fortress is free to download and play from bay12games.com. Just remember: Losing is fun.