Nuclear Gandhi

Last updated
An example of Nuclear Gandhi as an Internet meme Nuclear Gandhi.png
An example of Nuclear Gandhi as an Internet meme

Nuclear Gandhi is a video game urban legend purporting the existence of a software bug in the 1991 strategy video game Civilization that would eventually force the pacifist leader Mahatma Gandhi to become extremely aggressive and make heavy use of nuclear weapons. The claim was mentioned on the TV Tropes wiki in 2012, and continued until 2020, when the series' creator, Sid Meier, confirmed that the bug would have been impossible in the original game. [1] Gandhi was programmed to exhibit this behavior in Civilization V , released in 2010, and it is unclear whether this led to the belief that the behavior had also been present in earlier games.

Contents

While fictional, Nuclear Gandhi is one of the most recognizable video game glitches and has been used as an example of integer overflow in computer science, and was included as an Easter egg in other games in the Civilization series.

Background

According to the legend, each leader's game AI in Civilization had a parameter that described their aggression on a scale from 1 to 10, with 1 being least aggressive and 10 most aggressive. [2] [3] Other sources say the scale went from 1 to 12. [4] Indian leader Mahatma Gandhi was the only leader in the game with the lowest possible aggression rating of 1 [5] and, as a result, was only able to wage defensive wars. [6] Once the AI changed its government form to democracy, which was preferred by peaceful nations such as India, [3] its aggression level decreased by 2. In the case of Gandhi, this would lead to an aggression level of −1. [7]

According to the legend, the aggression level was stored as an 8-bit unsigned integer variable that could only store values in the range from 0 to 255 (or 28− 1), and the negative value would therefore result in an integer overflow, with the value being stored as 255 [7] and Gandhi supposedly becoming about 25 times more aggressive than the most aggressive leaders in the game. [6] In Civilization's technology tree, nuclear weapons are generally unlocked only after democracy, so Gandhi's aggression level would have already spiked by the time India became nuclear-capable. This led to India suddenly attacking other civilizations with nuclear missiles. [2] Some versions of the story say that the bug was fixed in later versions of the game, [8] others the developers were so amused by it that they deliberately re-implemented as an Easter egg. [2] [9] [8] Some versions of the story claim that the bug first appeared in Civilization II . [4]

In reality, according to the Civilization II lead game designer Brian Reynolds, there were only three possible aggression levels in Civilization, and even though Gandhi's AI had the lowest possible aggression level, he shared it with one third of all leaders. Additionally, based on his memories of Civilization's source code, Reynolds stated that there was no unsigned variable in this section of code and that leaders could not act more aggressively than the most aggressive leaders of the game. A leader with an aggression level of 255 would act the same way as a leader with an aggression level of 3. [10] According to Sid Meier, since all integer variables are signed by default in both C and C++ (the programming languages of Civilization and Civilization II respectively), overflow would not have occurred if Gandhi's aggression were set to –1; moreover, the government form does not affect AI aggressiveness at all, so Gandhi's aggression level remained the same throughout the game. [4] During wars, India could use nuclear weapons just like any other civilization, but Gandhi would not use nuclear weapons more often than Abraham Lincoln or any other peaceful leaders. [3] [4] [10] One possible origin of the legend could be India's tendency to discover nuclear technology before most of its opponents because of the peaceful scientific nature of this civilization. [10] [4] Reynolds noted that all leaders in the game become "pretty ornery" after their acquisition of nuclear weapons, and suggested that this behavior simply seemed more surprising and memorable when it happened to Gandhi. [10]

Appearances

Jon Shafer made Gandhi a nuclear weapon enthusiast in Civilization V. Jon Shafer 2012.jpg
Jon Shafer made Gandhi a nuclear weapon enthusiast in Civilization V .

Through Civilization IV, a popular misconception held that Gandhi was "still" programmed with a tendency to use nuclear weapons as an Easter egg, but no such behavior was purposely added to the games by Firaxis. The first such intentional inclusion of Nuclear Gandhi was in Civilization V . Civilization V lead game designer Jon Shafer set Gandhi's "Build Nuke" and "Use Nuke" parameters to the highest possible value, 12. Shafer said that he did this as a joke: "it's fun to imagine that an Indian politician promoting Satyagraha may have a desire to nuke his neighbors". Following the game's release in 2010, players noticed Gandhi's incongruous behavior; it was addressed in The Escapist magazine's comic Critical Miss. Players nicknamed Civilization V's Gandhi "Thermonuclear," "The destroyer of worlds," and "Kurchatov." [11]

An artificial intelligence configuration of Civilization V. Gandhi's high values of "Build Nuke" and "Use Nuke" favors are clearly visible. Civilization V AI Chart.png
An artificial intelligence configuration of Civilization V . Gandhi's high values of "Build Nuke" and "Use Nuke" favors are clearly visible.

Gandhi is actually one of the most peaceful leaders in Civilization V, but his artificial intelligence parameters that control building and using of nuclear weapons have the value of 12, which is the highest of any leader. The next three leaders have a value of 8, and most leaders have a value between 4 and 6. [7] To bring more diversity to the gameplay, at the start of each game, Civilization V adjusts these parameters by adding a random value between −2 and +2 to each of these two values; in the case of Gandhi, this means the "Build Nuke" and "Use Nuke" parameters will never go lower than the maximum rating: 10 out of 10. [12]

Civilization VI introduced a secret agenda mechanic that regulates the artificial intelligence behavior. Each leader has two agendas: the first is constant and based on each leader's personal history, and the second one (as well as a third one in Civilization VI: Gathering Storm ) is chosen randomly at the start of each game. Gandhi's fixed goal is "Peacekeeper": Gandhi is much less likely to start wars, and disdains civilizations that do, as well as appreciating those that do the opposite. However, he has a fixed 70% probability of getting "Nuke Happy" as his secondary agenda, which causes him to focus on building nukes, appreciate civilizations that do, and disdain civilizations that do not. [13] [14]

Urban legend

In 2012, 21 years after the original Civilization was released, the TV Tropes page for Civilization was edited by user Tunafish to add a claim that a software bug caused Gandhi to act much more aggressively, but did not include any proof for the claim. [15] [4] [3] In November, the same information was added to Wikia. [4] According to Sid Meier, over the next two years, the story spread across the Internet, and each time someone doubted it, a link to a wiki was used as a proof. [3]

In 2014, the story gained publicity after a reposted Critical Miss comic caused a discussion in the comment section on Reddit over why Gandhi was made that aggressive. [3] Ten days later, the video game news website Kotaku posted the article "Why Gandhi Is Such An Asshole In Civilization", [7] which prompted other news websites and blogs to republish the information. [3] [4] Soon, "Nuclear Gandhi" became a common video game Internet meme and joke. [3] Moreover, as the "Nuclear Gandhi" meme spread, many people remembered that they were particularly annoyed by India in the first games of Civilization series, a false memory attributable to the Mandela effect. [3] Information about "Nuclear Gandhi" was later added to Know Your Meme , which stated that the bug first appeared in Civilization II . [4]

On June 18, 2019, Firaxis marketing manager Kevin Schultz posted a tweet stating that he was going offline for two weeks due to a business trip to China, and offered to reflect on the question, "What if the widely shared and reposted story about Gandhi's love for nukes in the original Civilization being caused by a bug is totally false?" This prompted ex- Eurogamer columnist Chris Bratt to start a journalistic investigation. [6]

Bratt contacted 2K's PR department and asked for an interview with a Firaxis representative, but his request was denied. Bratt then contacted ex-Firaxis game designer Bruce Shelley, who stated that he did not remember whether the glitch existed, since the development of Civilization was 30 years ago: "I vaguely remember an issue with Gandhi, but the guy you would have to speak with is Sid [Meier]." The next person Bratt contacted was lead Civilization II game designer Brian Reynolds, who replied: "Although it's been ~20 years since I've seen the Civ 1 code, I can still tell you with 99.99% certainty the Gandhi bug is completely apocryphal." Bratt contacted 2K and Sid Meier once again but did not receive a direct refutation. Meier stated that he did not know the correct answer, but he thinks that the urban legend is a good thing: "given the limited technology of the time, the original Civ was in many ways a game that took place mainly in players' imaginations", so "I'd be reluctant to limit what that player can imagine by introducing too many of my thoughts". Bratt posted a YouTube video with his investigation's findings. [10] Later, in an Ars Technica interview, Sid Meier similarly stated that the bug was possible, "but it was not intentional". [16]

On September 8, 2020, Sid Meier's autobiography, Sid Meier's Memoir!: A Life in Computer Games, was released, containing confirmation that the Gandhi software bug was fabricated and a detailed background of the urban legend's formation. [3] [5] [17]

Legacy

Despite its non-existence, "Nuclear Gandhi" is one of the most recognizable bugs in the history of video games. [6] It has spawned a large number of Internet memes, [9] and has been used as an example of integer overflow in computer science courses at Harvard University, among others. [3]

See also

Related Research Articles

<i>Sid Meiers Alpha Centauri</i> 1999 strategy video game

Sid Meier's Alpha Centauri is a 4X video game, considered a spiritual sequel to the Civilization series. Set in a science fiction depiction of the 22nd century, the game begins as seven competing ideological factions land on the planet Chiron ("Planet") in the Alpha Centauri star system. As the game progresses, Planet's growing sentience becomes a formidable obstacle to the human colonists.

<i>Civilization</i> (video game) 1991 video game

Sid Meier's Civilization is a 1991 turn-based strategy 4X video game developed and published by MicroProse. The game was originally developed for MS-DOS running on a PC, and it has undergone numerous revisions for various platforms. The player is tasked with leading an entire human civilization over the course of several millennia by controlling various areas such as urban development, exploration, government, trade, research, and military. The player can control individual units and advance the exploration, conquest and settlement of the game's world. The player can also make such decisions as setting forms of government, tax rates and research priorities. The player's civilization is in competition with other computer-controlled civilizations, with which the player can enter diplomatic relationships that can either end in alliances or lead to war.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Sid Meier</span> American game programmer and designer (born 1954)

Sidney K. Meier is an American businessman and computer programmer. A programmer, designer, and producer of several strategy video games and simulation video games, including the Civilization series, Meier co-founded MicroProse in 1982 with Bill Stealey and is the Director of Creative Development of Firaxis Games, which he co-founded with Jeff Briggs and Brian Reynolds in 1996. For his contributions to the video game industry, Meier was inducted into the Academy of Interactive Arts and Sciences Hall of Fame.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Firaxis Games</span> American video game developer

Firaxis Games, Inc. is an American video game developer based in Sparks, Maryland. The company was founded in May 1996 by Sid Meier, Jeff Briggs and Brian Reynolds following their departure from MicroProse, Meier's earlier venture. They were acquired by Take-Two Interactive in August 2005, and subsequently became part of the publisher's 2K label. Firaxis Games is best known for developing the Civilization and XCOM series, as well as many other games bearing Meier's name.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Brian Reynolds (game designer)</span> American videogame designer

Brian Reynolds is an American videogame designer. Reynolds has designed at SecretNewCo, Zynga, Big Huge Games, and MicroProse and has been chairman of the International Game Developers Association. He has played a major part in designing a number of multi-million selling games including Civilization II, Rise of Nations, Sid Meier's Alpha Centauri, and FrontierVille. He has also founded or co-founded three game companies, SecretNewCo, Big Huge Games, and Firaxis Games.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">4X</span> Genre of strategy-based video and board games

4X is a subgenre of strategy-based computer and board games, and includes both turn-based and real-time strategy titles. The gameplay generally involves building an empire. Emphasis is placed upon economic and technological development, as well as a range of military and non-military routes to supremacy.

<i>Civilization IV</i> 2005 video game

Civilization IV is a 4X turn-based strategy computer game and the fourth installment of the Civilization series, and developed by Firaxis Games. It was designed by Soren Johnson. It was released in North America, Europe, and Australia, between October 25 and November 4, 2005, and followed by Civilization V.

Civilization is a series of turn-based strategy video games, first released in 1991. Sid Meier developed the first game in the series and has had creative input for most of the rest, and his name is usually included in the formal title of these games, such as Sid Meier's Civilization VI. There are six main games in the series, a number of expansion packs and spin-off games, as well as board games inspired by the video game series. The seventh installment in the series is slated for release on Feb 11, 2025. The series is considered a formative example of the 4X genre, in which players achieve victory through four routes: "eXplore, eXpand, eXploit, and eXterminate".

<i>Civilization IV: Beyond the Sword</i> 2007 video game

Sid Meier's Civilization IV: Beyond the Sword is the second expansion pack of the turn-based strategy video game Civilization IV. The expansion focuses on adding content to the in-game time periods following the invention of gunpowder, and includes more general content such as 11 new scenarios, 10 new civilizations, and 16 new leaders.

<i>Civilization Revolution</i> 2008 video game

Sid Meier's Civilization Revolution is a 4X, turn-based strategy game developed in 2008 by Firaxis Games with Sid Meier as designer. It is a spin-off of the Civilization series. The video game was released for the PlayStation 3, Xbox 360, Nintendo DS, Windows Phone, and iOS. A Wii version was originally expected but was cancelled. The absence of a PlayStation Portable version was attributed to a lack of development manpower.

<i>Civilization V</i> 2010 video game

Sid Meier's Civilization V is a 4X turn-based strategy video game in the Civilization series developed by Firaxis Games. The game was released for Windows in September 2010, for Mac OS X on November 23, 2010, and for Linux on June 10, 2014.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Circular reporting</span> Multiple sources for single-source data

Circular reporting, or false confirmation, is a situation in source criticism where a piece of information appears to come from multiple independent sources, but in reality comes from only one source. In many cases, the problem happens mistakenly through sloppy reporting or intelligence-gathering. However, the situation can also be intentionally contrived by the source or reporter as a way of reinforcing the widespread belief in its information.

<i>Civilization: Beyond Earth</i> 2014 video game

Sid Meier's Civilization: Beyond Earth is a turn-based strategy, 4X video game in the Civilization series developed by Firaxis Games, published by 2K Games and released for Microsoft Windows on October 24, 2014, the Mac App Store on November 27, 2014 and for Linux on December 18, 2014. The game's premise is that Earth became uninhabitable due to an undescribed disaster known as "the Great Mistake", forcing humanity to colonize space. As a spiritual successor to the 1999 game Alpha Centauri, Beyond Earth shares much of its development team and some concepts, most notably its setting on an exoplanet in the future.

<i>Civilization: Beyond Earth – Rising Tide</i> Expansion pack for the game Civilization: Beyond Earth

Sid Meier's Civilization: Beyond Earth – Rising Tide, is an official expansion pack for the turn-based strategy video game Civilization: Beyond Earth. It was released on October 9, 2015.

<i>Civilization VI</i> 2016 video game

Sid Meier's Civilization VI is a turn-based strategy 4X video game developed by Firaxis Games and published by 2K. The mobile and Nintendo Switch port was published by Aspyr Media. The latest entry into the Civilization series, it was released on Windows and macOS in October 2016, with later ports for Linux in February 2017, iOS in December 2017, Nintendo Switch in November 2018, PlayStation 4 and Xbox One in November 2019, and Android in 2020.

<i>Civilization II: Conflicts in Civilization</i> 1996 video game

Sid Meier's Civilization II Scenarios: Conflicts in Civilization is a single-player historical turn-based strategy game, and the first expansion pack to Civilization II. It contains 20 new scenarios; 12 made by the expansion pack developers, and 8 "Best of the Net" scenarios created by series fans. These were the fan-made scenarios that were "deemed the best by the developers". The game was developed and published by MicroProse. The game was "produced by the players and the development team, including some of the script and the 'new content'". This content contained new worlds, new maps, units, an updated technology tree, and new music. The game also allowed players to create their own custom scenarios. it was released November 25, 1996.

<i>Civilization VI: Rise and Fall</i> 2018 video game

Sid Meier's Civilization VI: Rise and Fall is the first official expansion pack for the turn-based strategy video game Civilization VI. Released on February 8, 2018, the expansion adds new features, civilizations, and leaders.

References

  1. ↑ Meier, Sid (2020). Sid Meier's Memoir!. New York, New York: W. W. Norton & Company, Inc. p. 262-263. ISBN   9781324005872.
  2. 1 2 3 Ethan Maurice (2020-06-30). "Why Gandhi Is So Violent In Civilization Games". Screen Rant . Retrieved 2020-09-18.
  3. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 Алексей Афанасьев (2020-09-16). История появления мифа о «Ядерном Ганди» — по версии самого Сида Мейера [The story of the appearance of the myth of "Nuclear Gandhi" - according to Sid Meier himself]. DTF.ru  [ ru ] (in Russian). Retrieved 2020-09-18.
  4. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 Meier, Sid (2020). "Funny Business". Sid Meier's Memoir!: A Life in Computer Games. W. W. Norton. pp. 261–266. ISBN   978-1-324-00587-2.
  5. 1 2 Dustin Bailey (2020-09-08). "Sid Meier says Civilization's nuclear Gandhi bug isn't real". PCGamesN . Retrieved 2020-09-18.
  6. 1 2 3 4 Артемий Леонов (2019-09-05). Почему история о баге с «ядерным Ганди» в Civilization, скорее всего, выдумана [Why the story about the "Nuclear Gandhi" bug in Civilization is likely fictional]. DTF.ru  [ ru ] (in Russian). Retrieved 2020-09-18.
  7. 1 2 3 4 Luke Plunkett (2016-02-03). "Why Gandhi Is Such An Asshole In Civilization". Kotaku . Retrieved 2020-09-18.
  8. 1 2 James Plafke (2014-11-03). "What caused Gandhi's insatiable bloodlust in Civilization". Geek.com . Archived from the original on 2016-07-22. Retrieved 2020-09-18.
  9. 1 2 Mol, Angus A. A.; Politopoulos, Aris; Ariese-Vandemeulebroucke, Csilla E. (2017). "'From the Stone Age to the Information Age': History and Heritage in Sid Meier's Civilization VI". Advances in Archaeological Practice . 5 (2): 214–219. doi: 10.1017/aap.2017.9 . hdl: 1887/73407 .
  10. 1 2 3 4 5 Bratt, Chris (31 July 2019). Did Nuclear Gandhi Ever Really Happen in Civilization? (Video). People Make Games . Retrieved 27 March 2023– via YouTube.
  11. ↑ Михаил Андреев (2016-08-30). «Разрушитель миров» Ганди возглавляет Индию в Civilization VI ["Destroyer of Worlds" Gandhi leads India in Civilization VI]. Overclockers.ru (in Russian). Retrieved 2020-09-21.
  12. ↑ Anton Dizon (2016-11-14). "In 'Civilization VI,' Gandhi might not be as nuke-happy anymore". Rappler . Retrieved 2020-09-18.
  13. ↑ Gita Jackson (2016-08-11). "Gandhi Is Still An Asshole In Civilization VI". Kotaku . Retrieved 2020-09-21.
  14. ↑ Михаил Андреев (2020-09-09). Сид Мейер опроверг главный миф серии Civilization [Sid Meier refuted the main myth of the Civilization series]. Overclockers.ru (in Russian). Retrieved 2020-09-21.
  15. ↑ The edit history of the TV Tropes Civilization page shows that user "Tunafish" added the claim about a bug on 2012-07-17. See this web.archive.org capture of the history (captured 6 weeks later on 2012-09-01), scroll down to the edit dated "17th Jul '12"
  16. ↑ Ars Technica (2019-09-23). "How Sid Meier Almost Made Civilization a Real-Time Strategy Game | War Stories". YouTube. Retrieved 2023-05-08.
  17. ↑ Дмитрий Рудь (2020-09-10). Создатель Sid Meier's Civilization развенчал миф о происхождении «ядерного» Ганди [Sid Meier's Civilization creator debunked the myth of the origin of "nuclear" Gandhi]. 3DNews  [ ru ] (in Russian). Retrieved 2020-09-18.

Further reading

This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.