>>718035978
I unironically agree with this.
I remember reading some essay about what makes art "compelling" or "stimulating," and the author described this sweet spot between something being too easy to understand and being too obtuse. Like in a horror film, if the twist is too obvious where you can see it coming from a mile away, you get bored while watching. If the twist is too ridiculous and seems to come out of nowhere, you lose interest in a similar way. The art has to have some kind of "challenge" to it, so that you sort of get rewarded for being able to follow along and understand it. I think DF's ASCII art fulfilled this role, there was something compelling about seeing the little abstract icons and letters move around and being able to understand exactly what was happening. The art wasn't too literal like in the Steam version, but it also wasn't so abstract as to be unintelligible.
Seeing a tiny "g" on the map and being able to deduce from context that it was a guineafowl instead of a goblin felt good, somehow.