Community Generation

Part 1: Cornerstones

By Annie Forsman-Adams & Kate Ringland

ASCII map of a Dwarf Fortress world.

The concept of community is ever-evolving. With the influx of technology and the change in the ways we interact, this discussion is relevant today more than ever. What is equally true is that we carefully construct the communities around us, because in most cases, we need them to survive. They are places where we can form our ideas and dreams. Places we can go for advice and support. People we can look to when we are feeling conflicted. We can rely on our community members to challenge us, support us, love us. When these spaces are safe, they help us to flourish and achieve our goals. And when they are toxic, they severely limit our human potential. Annie remembers first joining the Dwarf Fortress family, and how it wasn’t the complexity of the game that really fascinated her, but rather the massive fan base that really took her breath away.

“I remember when I was first starting to date Zach and he told me about Bay 12 games, so I googled him. I was just so fascinated about how they had cultivated this community that not just supported them, but actually really loved them and cared about them. People believed in this project and showed their commitment in a way that was totally foreign to me. I grew up in a really small community, where if you go back 7 or 8 generations, we are all basically related to the same 14 people. So, I had never really understood what it meant to build something like that, because my group, for better or worse, came pre-installed long before I was ever born. It was amazing to watch. It continues to be amazing to watch.”

Zach (left) and Tarn Adams in matching Dwarf Moot t-shirts.

The commitment of the Dwarf Fortress fan base is undeniable and they show it in a myriad of ways on a daily basis. In 2016, fans organized a special Dwarf Fortress award ceremony, coined Dwarf Moot. Completely driven by their love for the game and the gratitude of the space that these brothers had created, fans took it upon themselves to secure funding, find a venue, make t-shirts, arrange catering and 3-D print a trophy. Annie talks about that day,

“It was really so fun to watch unfold. I was in total disbelief. Dozens of people showed up and I kind of just hung out in the back, watching them answer their questions. And then when their talk was over, they were just swarmed by fans, asking them to sign their t-shirts, I think one guy even asked Tarn to sign his ARM. And I couldn’t even make my way up to the front. It was this huge crowd.”

But celebrations and meetups aren’t the only ways that everyone shows up to support Bay 12. Before Dwarf Fortress was even an idea, the forums were prominent on the Bay 12 website. The boys have been pretty open minded about how these spaces operate. “Basically, you can’t be an asshole,” Zach always says. And what is defined as being an asshole is not up for debate. On the forums, overt and chronic racism, sexism, homophobia, transphobia, nationalism or any other other aggressive, exclusionary behavior earns you a ban. “We used to just ban with one word: ‘bigot,’” Zach says. “We’ve started to realize that maybe it was more complicated than that, and actually a lot of thought goes into who gets to stay and who needs to leave on the forums.”

It’s painfully obvious that the boys value the forum community as much as anyone else. “It’s helped us through some really rough times,” Annie says. “We are pretty private people, it’s only been recently that we really started to share our struggles with the public. But it always helped to know that we had this wall of people behind us that wanted the same kind of world we did. They missed us when we were gone and were there to celebrate when big things happened. When we got married, we only briefly mentioned it on the website, and a whole thread started in the forum, wishing us well. Some of my own family didn’t even do that.”

The Adams brothers are going to be the first to tell you that they aren’t activists. They are political in the way most exceptionally thoughtful people are, but it’s certainly not something they are trying to push onto others. (Quite the opposite actually — you’d be hard pressed to find two people that value critical thinking more than these guys.) However, people should be careful to not conflate this with some kind of tolerance fallacy. For them, it comes down to a choice of what to tolerate and what not to. And for the Bay 12 family, including its various moderators, language and behavior that makes others feel unsafe is unequivocally going to catch you underneath a ban hammer.

Bay 12 isn’t shy about this. In a series of recent tweets, the idea of trans dwarves came up. Dwarf Fortress famously has no use for gender roles, and already has homosexual dwarves, so for Zach and Tarn, this wasn’t an unreasonable addition. Nor would it be difficult for them to include from a programming sense. The response varied from grateful to hateful, and some were quick to label the boys social justice warriors, liberal sycophants and even too talented for their own good (thanks, I guess?). Other comments quickly became violent in nature.

Tweet requesting the creation of transgender or intersex dwarves in Dwarf Fortress and the reply. Please follow the link in this sentence for the alt-text to the image.

(Editor’s Note: In solidarity with our trans relatives, we have chosen not to include tweets advocating violence in this piece. Transgender individuals experience violence (including homicide) at a much higher rate, lack equal protection under the law regarding employment and are disproportionately represented in individuals who are experiencing homelessness. These factors are amplified when individuals also identify as a person of color. There are many ways you can stand up for our brothers, sisters and relatives. Please visit The National Center for Transgender Equality for more information https://transequality.org/ )

The drive behind Dwarf Fortress is not a social justice agenda, but rather it strives for ultra realism and representation. The representation of transgender and gender non-conforming people is especially salient in the work Annie does to end violence against women.

“I grew up in an indigenous community and in these traditions, trans people, or probably what would be considered as non-binary or genderqueer today, were highly revered. We often thought of them as spiritual leaders, and at the very least we believed that they were sent to us so that we could learn from them. They would care for the children or be given other very important tasks. So to see someone advocate violence against or separation from my relative, it is physically painful for me to watch. And the link between violence against trans people and violence against women is undoubtedly the same. There is so much they can teach us, if we would only create the place to listen and learn. I’m proud that Bay 12 can be part of that larger conversation and that Zach and Tarn are willing to take a stance on it.”

Trans people exist, despite any assertions to the contrary, and are deserving of safety, security, protection and a place in the world. One day they may find their place in fortress as well.

In a world that is seemingly full of toxicity, Dwarf Fortress tries to be the antithesis of that. You aren’t going to find debates about who is or isn’t a real gamer, dehumanizing conversations about personal identity, threats or any other efforts to exclude people. Some could argue, illogically, that this excludes people who have divergent ideas about race, gender, sexuality, national origin or that it promotes a culture of censorship. But the priority has been, and always will be, the safety and support of the community members. The boys, the moderators and the entire Dwarf Fortress family works hard to set this example. Losing might be fun, but when we choose to fight toxicity by providing a healthy space for people to learn and grow; everybody wins.