You're missing out too - and I say this as someone who used to only play DF. DF is amazing, but there are tons of other games that are just as amazing or nearly so (Minecraft, Fallout, Terraria, Portal, Spacechem ... dear deity, Spacechem. If you buy one game this year, buy it). None of them really compare to DF in learning curve or sheer complexity, but they're all really good.

Who's got the time though?

Well, ignoring the atypical nature of the HN crowd: most people, really. According to the BBC [1] the average (non-startup founding...) person spends 28 hours watching TV per week. That's plenty of time to do play games.

[1] http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-12651728

I view it similarly to any other varied hobby. If you like to cook you can either choose to cook American food all the time or you can branch out and try different styles.

Although, the difference is that hunger and food are pretty constant in relation to each other where as there are just masses of video games. But I think the principle is close enough :)

The problem with this comparison is that an average meal doesn't take upwards of 20 hours to prepare. For someone working full-time, completing a game can be a large time investment.

Generally I play games maybe 2-3 hours a week max due to the double whammy of having a family and working at a startup :) This means for the average game it might keep me busy for a few months at a time. DF on the other hand...