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Nuclear Gandhi

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An example of Nuclear Gandhi Internet meme

Nuclear Gandhi is an Internet meme and an urban legend about the Civilization video game. According to the legend, there was a bug in Civilization that eventually forced a pacifist leader Mahatma Gandhi to be extremely aggressive and to use nuclear weapons heavily.

The bug was first mentioned in 2012, two years after the release of Civilization V, and eventually became one of the most recognizable video game glitches; it started being used in computer science sources as an example of an integer overflow and was included in other Civilization games as an easter egg.

In 2020 Sid Meier refuted the possibility, stating there had never been a bug of this sort in the original 1991 game. Nuclear Gandhi was first implemented in Civilization V and then as a joke.

Bug description

Integer overflow can be explained with an odometer: on a six-digit odometer, the zero is preceded by 999999; and in an eight-bit integer variable zero appears after 255

According to the legend, in leader's artificial intelligence in Civilization there was a parameter that described leader's aggression on a scale from 1 to 10, with 1 being the least aggressive and 10 being the most aggressive.[1][2] According to other sources, there was a scale from 1 to 12.[3] Indian leader Mahatma Gandhi was the only leader in the game with the lowest possible aggression rating of 1[4] and, as a result, was only able to wage defensive wars.[5] Once the AI changed its government form to democracy, which was preferred for peaceful nations,[2] its aggression level decreased by 2. In case of Gandhi, it lead to a negative level of aggression with -1.[6] However, the aggression level was stored in 8-bit unsigned integer variable that can only store values in range from 0 to 255 (or 28-1), therefore democracy caused an integer overflow changing the value to 255,[6] so Gandhi became 25 times more aggressive than the most offensive leaders in the game.[5] Since in Civilization technology tree Democracy tech was placed near the nuclear one, Gandhi was driven mad at almost the same time as the discovery of nuclear weapons. That lead to sudden Indian nuclear bombardments.[1] The bug was supposedly fixed in the first game of Civilization series,[7] but the developers liked it so much they decided to re-implement it in successive games as an easter egg and joke.[1][8][7] According to other sources, the bug first appeared in Civilization II.[3]

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, one third of the leaders was on the same level. Additionally, based on his memories of Civilization code structure, Brian stated that there was no unsigned variable in this section of code, and the leaders couldn't act more aggressive than the most offensive leaders of the game, so a leader with 255th level of aggression would act the same way as a leader with the aggression level of 3.[5] According to Sid Meier, since all integer variables are signed by default in both C and C++ (programming languages of Civilization and Civilization II respectively), this exact type was used to store aggression level; moreover, the government form doesn't affect AI aggressiveness at all, so Gandhi's aggression level kept the same throughout the game.[3] During the war, India could use nuclear weapons just like any other nation, but Gandhi wouldn't use nukes more often than Abraham Lincoln or other peaceful leaders.[2][3] In addition, all leaders used the same set of lines, so the players could have received frequent threats of nuclear bombardments from Gandhi ("Our words are backed with nuclear weapons!"). However, these lines were not conflicting with Gandhi's pacific nature since their goal was to prevent a possible war.[9][3] On the other hand, India could have discovered nuclear technology before most of its opponents because of the peaceful scientific nature of this nation.[2][3]

In-game appearances

Jon Shafer made Gandhi a nuclear weapon enthusiast in Civilization V

Through Civilization IV, popular misconception held that Gandhi was still programmed with nuclear tendencies as an easter egg to the original games, 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" flavors to the highest possible value of 12. The aim of such artificial intelligence configuration was a joke: "it's fun to imagine that an Indian politician promoting Satyagraha may have a desire to nuke his neighbors". Following the game release in 2010, players noticed unorthodox offensiveness of the Indian leader; it was specifically addressed at the Critical Miss comic in The Escapist magazine.[2] Players nicknamed Civilization's Gandhi as "Thermonuclear", "The destroyer of worlds", "Kurchatov", etc.[10]

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

Gandhi of Civilization V is one of the most peaceful leaders, however, his artificial intelligence parameters that control building and using of nukes have the value of 12, which is the greatest value among all leaders (the next three leaders have this value of 8, and for the vast majority of leaders it's 4-6).[6] To bring more diversity to the gameplay, at the start of each game Civilization V adjusts these parameters randomly by adding a radom value between -2 to +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 max rating - 10 out of 10.[11]

Civilization VI introduced a secret goals mechanic that regulates the artificial intelligence behavior. Each leader has two goals: first is constant and specified by the game designers, and the second one is chosen randomly at the start of each game. History goal of Mahatma Gandhi is "Peacekeeper": Gandhi cannot be a war aggressor; also he likes peaceful nations and dislikes aggressors. However, as a second goal he has an increased probability of getting "Nuclear aggressor".[12][13]

Growth as a meme

In early 2012, 21 years after the original Civilization was released, in the TV Tropes wiki a user nicknamed Tunafish published an article about a bug that allegedly existed in 1991 Civilization videogame, that caused an increase of Gandhi aggressiveness. Tunafish did not included any proof in the article.[3][2] In November, the same information was added to Wikia.[3] According to Sid Meier, in the next two years the story had been spread across the forums and players, and each time someone doubted it, a link to a wiki was used as a proof.[2]

In 2014, the story got a lot of publicity after a re-posted Critical Miss comic caused a discussion in the comment section on Reddit explaining why Gandhi was made that aggressive.[2] 10 days later a video game news website Kotaku posted an article "Why Gandhi Is Such An Asshole In Civilization",[6] that prompted other news websites and blogs to republish that information.[2][3] Because of such interest in mass media and blogosphere, lots of series fans discovered this story, and "Nuclear Gandhi" became a common videogame Internet meme and a joke.[2] Moreover, due to the Mandela effect, many people remembered that they were particularly annoyed by India in the first games of Civilization series.[2] Information about "Nuclear Gandhi" was later added to the Know Your Meme website, however it was stated that the bug first appeared in Civilization II.[3]

On June 18, 2019, Firaxis Games marketing manager Kevin Schultz posted a tweet, stating that he is going offline for two weeks due to 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?". That forced ex-Eurogamer columnist Chris Bratt who worked on People Make Games YouTube channel to start a journalistic investigation.[5]

Bratt contacted the 2K's PR and asked for a interview with Firaxis representative, but his request was denied. Bratt then contacted ex-Firaxis game designer Bruce Shelley, but Shelley stated that he does not remember such problem 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". 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 he didn't get a direct refutation. Meier stated that he does not know the correct answer, but he thinks it's good: "giving the limited technology of the time, the original Civ was in many ways a game that took place mainly in players imagination", 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.[5]

Lately in Ars Technica interview, Sid Meier stated that the story about Gandhi software bug was fabricated.[2] On September 8, 2020 a Sid Meier's autobiography Sid Meier’s Memoir!: A Life in Computer Games was released. It contained a detailed background of this legend's formation.[2][4][14]

Influence

The legend of "Nuclear Gandhi" is the one of the most recognizable bugs in the history of videogames[5] that formed lots of Internet memes.[8] It is also used as an example of integer overflow in computer science courses in Harvard University, among others.[2]

References

  1. ^ a b c Ethan Maurice (2020-06-30). "Why Gandhi Is So Violent In Civilization Games". Screen Rant. Retrieved 2020-09-18.
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n Алексей Афанасьев (2020-09-16). "История появления мифа о «Ядерном Ганди» — по версии самого Сида Мейера". DTF (in Russian). Retrieved 2020-09-18.
  3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j 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.
  4. ^ a b Dustin Bailey (2020-09-08). "Sid Meier says Civilization's nuclear Gandhi bug isn't real". PCGamesN. Retrieved 2020-09-18.
  5. ^ a b c d e f Артемий Леонов (2019-09-05). "Почему история о баге с «ядерным Ганди» в Civilization, скорее всего, выдумана". DTF (in Russian). Retrieved 2020-09-18.
  6. ^ a b c d Luke Plunkett (2016-02-03). "Why Gandhi Is Such An Asshole In Civilization". Kotaku. Retrieved 2020-09-18.
  7. ^ a b 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.
  8. ^ a b Angus A. A. Mol (2017-04-20). ""From the Stone Age to the Information Age": History and Heritage in Sid Meier's Civilization VI". Cambridge University Press. Retrieved 2020-09-18.
  9. ^ Ian Walker (2020-09-09). "Civilization Creator Shoots Down Our Memories Of A Nuke-Happy Gandhi". Kotaku. Retrieved 2020-09-18.
  10. ^ Михаил Андреев (2016-08-30). "«Разрушитель миров» Ганди возглавляет Индию в Civilization VI". Overclockers.ru (in Russian). Retrieved 2020-09-21.
  11. ^ Anton Dizon (2016-11-14). "In 'Civilization VI,' Gandhi might not be as nuke-happy anymore". Rappler. Retrieved 2020-09-18.
  12. ^ Gita Jackson (2016-08-11). "Gandhi Is Still An Asshole In Civilization VI". Kotaku. Retrieved 2020-09-21.
  13. ^ Михаил Андреев (2020-09-09). "Сид Мейер опроверг главный миф серии Civilization". Overclockers.ru (in Russian). Retrieved 2020-09-21.
  14. ^ Дмитрий Рудь (2020-09-10). "Создатель Sid Meier's Civilization развенчал миф о происхождении «ядерного» Ганди". 3DNews (in Russian). Retrieved 2020-09-18.

Further reading

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