The article is quite explicitly calling it a classic it doesn't actually mention any predecessors that it inherits from (I haven't played DwarfFortress, but reading about it suggests to me, games such as Ultima, Moria, Angband).
Actually Shakespeare also pulled many of his themes from other writers very much closer to him in history (and he was criticized for it in his time actually), but as it remains those writers i.e. Christopher Marlowe are not well known and Shakespeare is (but it is essential to this that merely reusing-retelling-retheming of classical aspects is not enough for this, many others besides Shakespeare did this in those days, as many films, and tv-series do it now).
It is revolutionary because its scale and breadth, the way it integrates so many moving parts and procedural generation.
But "inspirational" it's not: procedural generation has been used in games since the dawn of times (the 80s!), and same goes for huge sandbox games (Elite), economic/military simulations (civilization, sim city, star control), etc... if anything, DF it was insipired by some of these games, and merged their gameplay into something unique.
In a way, it´s depressing (although understandable) how AAA titles in the last 20 years have focused on graphical improvements and standardized gameplay, instead of exploring new territory.
The recent resurgence (and commercial success) of indies it's the best thing to have happened to gaming in some time.
