This betrayal is right up there with the Easter Bunny, Father Christmas, and the Loch Ness Monster.
You may have heard tales of the Nuclear Gandhi. Internet legend has it that, in the original Civilization game, Gandhi had the lowest possible aggression rating, so that he might better match his, famously nonviolent, historical namesake. However, it was said that his aggression was so low that, once the player achieved democracy (lowering aggression by two) the programming would get confused by the negative number and bump Gandhi’s aggression all the way up to the maximum. This led to Gandhi going into warmonger mode and pushing the nuclear option every chance he got. Thus, the legend of the Nuclear Gandhi was born. Oh, the memes!
Except it never happened.
In his recently-released memoir, Civilization creator Sid Meier confirms that such a bug never existed and Nuclear Gandhi was just a myth, but they enjoyed the joke.
It’s one of those mysteries that it’s almost fun to keep mysterious.
Must 2020 take everything from us?
To learn more about Meier’s life, pick up a copy of Sid Meier’s Memoir!: A Life in Computer Games from a place where books are sold.
Via GameSpot.