10-Year-Long Game of 'Civilisation' Predicts Grim Future for Humanity

[Glass]

I've seen this posted a few places in the last couple days. I first got it on an RSS feed..... anyone know what they are?


'Hellish nightmare of suffering and devastation': 10-Year-Long Game of 'Civilisation' Predicts Grim Future for Humanity.

Can the fate of humanity be predicted by a video game?
Tuesday morning, Reddit user Lycerius wrote a post (http://www.reddit.com/r/gaming/comments/uxpil/ive_been_playing_the_same_game_of_civilization_ii/) in r/gaming asking for help with his 10-year-long Civilization II game. He described the world of 3991 AD as a “hellish nightmare of suffering and devastation”.


According to Lycerius, the ice caps have melted 20 times because of nuclear fallout. The only three remaining countries — the Celts, the Vikings and the Americans — are locked in an endless war over dwindling resources. Lycerius said he tried destroying or allying with the two remaining countries, but it hasn't helped. Apparently, most of the world's population has died due to lack of usable land, and the engineers and military forces can't make any improvements because they are working on supporting the war efforts.

Civilization II was released in 1996 by MicroProse. It's a very detailed simulation and turn-based strategy game that begins at the dawn of the world's civilisation, and continues throughout history. Players have to fight wars, develop technology and forge peace treaties with other nations. While the game ends in 2020 AD, you can continue playing into the future indefinitely.
Lycerius said he has been transferring his save file from computer to computer and continuing the old game off and on for 10 years. Reddit was so captivated by his story that they asked him to upload his save file so the community could try to crowdsource a solution. A new subreddit has even been dedicated to this research.
Interestingly, some Redditors discussed the comparison between this game and George Orwell's distopian 1984, which also features three nations locked in an eternal war that no one can remember the beginning or end of, where borders always change during minor power grabs.




Posted all over but linked from the Age. (http://www.theage.com.au/digital-life/games/hellish-nightmare-of-suffering-and-devastation-10yearlong-game-of-civilisation-predicts-grim-future-for-humanity-20120613-208xq.html)

There is a thread of comments about this somewhere. I think it is here (http://mashable.com/2012/06/12/civ-2-reddit/). Interesting suggestions on how to overcome the deadlock. The consensus is to save the world you need to dominate it.

[TheNocturnalEgyptian]

I have played every civilization game since Civ I. These games are genius, it is like playing a very complex board game essentially. Many Civ games turned into what he describes at the end and I admire his gusto to keep playing. I usually quit around 2050AD as the game tends to take longer as turns continue to progress and the calculations become larger.

And yes, Civ is a game that encourages you to ruthlessly square out other players. In fact, I used to expand in less than ideal ways just to do this. Instead of putting every city in the most defensive position (rocky terrain gave +50% to defense), I would position cities to deny resources to the other societies growing up around me. It sounds harsh but the borders you establish in the very beginning of the game can last for several thousand years if you are not careful. There is no reward in civ for stagnation - it's subtle but it's there, all the cities require growth, expansion, and ever increasing resources or else they become a drain on your empire.

If fact, I can remember clearly identifying that as something I didn't like about the games - it was impossible to create a society that could simply flourish as a closed, static system. There was always the need to expand in order to be productive.

[Glass]

I enjoy strategy games, however, I dislike turn based games. Don't know why. I think perhaps it's because once you set your moves you have to sit on your hands and watch yourself get anhilated if you got it wrong. I like to be able to react, pull back, re-deploy etc.

I enjoyed the early sim city games, before they lost the plot and went for that soap opera style game model they use in the Sims. I never really got into any others.

I guess my preferred gaming is RTS rather than TBS. I can't imagine playing for so long, but I guess if RTS games had that potential I might still be playing the same game.

I thought it was interesting the player described the deadlock the game had entered, where all resources were bing used solely to build and deliver new arnamanets and souldiers to the various front lines and there was no resources space to improve towns, cities, land etc. It sounds an awful lot like where we are headed as a global population.

War is the US of A's largest industry and several other countries are in the process of rejigging their economies to follow suit. Can you imaging a planet with only 1 industry. For a while it would be 2, War and hold digging but eventually they would just abandon the hole digging and leave people where they fall..... of course Nukes means they may not need to dig holes at all.

Anyway the final thing to take away from the story is that to save the world the world needs one government and no war so resources can be spent on making the world better or more acurately trying to undo the damage the war mongering has done. It's that bizzare situation where you have to kill everyone to save everyone.

[sirgonzo420]

Anyway the final thing to take away from the story is that to save the world the world needs one government and no war so resources can be spent on making the world better or more acurately trying to undo the damage the war mongering has done. It's that bizzare situation where you have to kill everyone to save everyone.

Aaaaaand that's the NWO-led direction in which we are heading.

[palani]

'Civilisation' Predicts Grim Future for Humanity

Civilization is a process that converts a common law crime to a civil one. As for humanity ... hue man is color of man ... never any expectation of survival as a species. The sooner you graduate from this level of development the better.

[madfranks]

I know modern video games are quite realistic, but just because a video game projects a "hellish nightmare" as what's in store for us in the year 3991 doesn't bother me one bit.

[Horn]

There was always the need to expand in order to be productive.

HT and inflate over previous inflate would have fun with this statement.