10-Year-Long Game of ‘Civilization’ Predicts Grim Future for Humanity

Can the fate of humanity be predicted by a video game?

Tuesday morning, Reddit user Lycerius wrote a post in r/gaming asking for help with his 10-year-long Civilization II game. He described the world of 3991 A.D. 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 civilizations, and continues throughout history. Players have to fight wars, develop technology and forge peace treaties with other nations. While the game ends in 2020 A.D., 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.

Not that a game is an extremely reliable source of futuristic predictions, but still interesting nonetheless.

I loved me some Civ 2

i had civ III, played it for about 5 minutes, and gave up because i couldnt figure it out

Civ 3 was really, really hard. Civ 4 was a lot better.

none of the civilizations were "complicated" enough in regards to the tech tree. Also, the ICBM thing never made sense...

Interesting article, I especially liked where the OP linked to his source...

:whoa:

When I was a kid I used to set up Madden to simulate the super bowl while we would actually watch the super bowl but it was never very accurate.

Originally Posted by Rubenk

Interesting article, I especially liked where the OP linked to his source...

Forgot... good thing it was so easy to google...

http://news.yahoo.com/10-long-game-c...151445903.html

http://www.reddit.com/r/gaming/comme...vilization_ii/

These are the types of things that prove how dumb people are.

Originally Posted by cowmoo32

When I was a kid I used to set up Madden to simulate the super bowl while we would actually watch the super bowl but it was never very accurate.

They do that these days on ESPN Show clips from the sim'd game and everything.

You were ahead of you time

Originally Posted by Carskibum

These are the types of things that prove how dumb people are.

Elaborate

Originally Posted by jeffro3000

Elaborate

Trusting an overly simplistic model isn't wise, especially one that's 16 years old. Having said that, I don't think anyone is reading too much into this. It's interesting, but no one is taking it as a prophecy.

Originally Posted by ghorn

They do that these days on ESPN Show clips from the sim'd game and everything.

You were ahead of you time

Hahaha really? Hells yeah

Originally Posted by cowmoo32

Having said that, I don't think anyone is reading too much into this. It's interesting, but no one is taking it as a prophecy.

Which is pretty much what i said in the OP, so i'm not sure who he's referring to...

Yeah I don't either

love that series, never got the latest one because my dinosaur of a computer can't handle it lol.

I want the new SimCity too.

I played a game of Civ 5 all the way through with the goal of getting a nuke to drop on someone. Once I finally got it, I unleashed it on a rival city and it didn't even level the city. That was the last game of it I ever played.

I played the first three civ games. Loved them. Although every once in a while I will play Civnet with my brother.

Originally Posted by deadpass

I played a game of Civ 5 all the way through with the goal of getting a nuke to drop on someone. Once I finally got it, I unleashed it on a rival city and it didn't even level the city. That was the last game of it I ever played.

Hiroshima and Nagasaki weren't leveled...

Originally Posted by rohde88

Hiroshima and Nagasaki weren't leveled...

Pretty goddamn close though. Nagasaki: