According to designer Sid Meier, the infamous Nuclear Gandhi glitch from the renowned Civilization series isn't a glitch at all. The legendary game developer is releasing his memoirs, titled Sid Meier's Memoir! and has taken the opportunity to reflect on his illustrious and eventful career. The Civilization franchise is perhaps Sid Meier's best-known creation. The strategy games put players in control of a nation competing to become a global superpower, making alliances, fighting wars, and developing technological breakthroughs along the way.
The first Civilization game released in 1991 and it included a feature that turned a lot of heads. Mahatma Gandhi, famous in real life for leading a series of peaceful protests that eventually ended British occupation of India, would suddenly become the most aggressive leader in the game once he acquired nuclear weapons. The apparent glitch became famous throughout the internet for turning the conception of such a peaceful figure on its head, and was immortalized in future games which consistently saw Gandhi as a nuclear warmonger. Most players believed that Gandhi's murderous intent was the result of an integer overflow glitch; his base aggression score was so low that when it was lowered by the advent of democracy it wrapped around to a number far higher than any leader should be able to achieve, causing him to suddenly aspire to nuke the world.
But according to Meier, this story is completely false. As Bloomberg reports, Meier wrote in his memoir that there was never any sort of bug or glitch causing Gandhi's unnatural hunger for violence. He finds the premise amusing but ultimately false, and claims that Gandhi's behavior was a completely intentional design. As for the real reason Gandhi is so bloodthirsty, Meier chose to remain enigmatic. To quote the man himself, "it's one of those mysteries that it's almost fun to keep mysterious."
For years, fans thought they'd cracked the code behind Nuclear Gandhi. The original story was a very funny anecdote about the perils of computer programming that resulted in a nonviolent activist giddily chucking nukes everywhere. It's almost disappointing to hear that the story isn't true, but the unknown reason why Meier and the rest of the development team intentionally made Mahatma Gandhi a murderous warlord makes for a very intriguing mystery in its own right.
Meier and his Civilization series have left a legacy that endures to this day. The proud genre of 4X video games would be much, much different if it didn't have Sid Meier. Nuclear Gandhi has always been a quirky and beloved part of this genre's legacy, and even if it wasn't caused by a glitch, it's still a fun story and a delightfully baffling inclusion. Fans may never know the real reason Civilization's version Gandhi loves nuking people, but as long as the Civilization games continue to endure, they can be content in the knowledge that he'll be there, waiting to wipe them off the map.
Source: Bloomberg