Talk:Person

Hi!

Is 'Person' a mechanic in DF? To my knowledge, its not. So if I understand correctly, this is merely a way of describing game mechancis in another way, right?

Does 'person' somehow play any role in any game mechanic? Of not, this article is purely arbitrary.

Also: In my opinion, the properties CanLearn and CanSpeak are the most importand ones determing if someone is a person. I think you have added to much dwarven properties to the comparison. For example: CanOpenDoors. This is surely not a property of a person. Because also angels, demons, bogeyman have this token, are they a person? in real live, monkeys and dogs can open doors, parrots can 'speak', and you've added 'Magma Crab' to the list? Where is this going to? Is having a body a property of a person, so every creature can be added to this list! It is an interesting way to discuss about, but I think it has no value to this wiki. Sorry

What do we learn about Dwarf Fortress from this page? What does it add? Joostheger (talk) 14:03, 10 October 2024 (UTC)

You can learn a lot about Dwarf Fortress from this page because this seems to be the only page that lists every non-procedurally-generated creature that can open doors, can speak, can spit, and is a playable character. I wrote this article because I wanted to know what a person is and there was no article to explain it to me. Aside from the magma crab, the ability to spit does a pretty good job of capturing a set of persons.

Personhood is not a game mechanic, but the concept effects how people play the game. This game has a lot of unfamiliar creatures. A player might see a mud man and think, "is that a person?" They can check the person article and make a determination for themselves. Jecowa (talk) 13:25, 10 October 2024 (UTC)

Listing any arbitrary filtering of creaturetypes in itself doesn't add to much in terms of usability. Why does anyone want to know what a person is? Why did you want to know?

If you say: because I, as an adventurer, want to know if I can talk to it, or: I want to know which characters I can play as, as an adventurer, then your goal is much clearer. Maybe it is to know if a visiter can become a member of your fortress, then also its clearer. And then when your goal is clearer, you can use that to determine which creatures to list.

Unfamiliair creatures can already be found in Creature

Oh and by the way, if you continue on this path ;-) you might consider the existence of personality to determine personhood

I appreciate you take the time to counter my questioning Joostheger (talk) 14:03, 10 October 2024 (UTC)