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Gamer Keeps Civilization II Game Going for 10 Years

Have you ever wondered what a game of Civilization 2 would look like after running for 10 years? According to one gamer it's a "hellish nightmare of suffering and devastation." "Lycerius" says that he's been playing the same game of Civ II off and on for over a decade. Some highlights of the marathon session include: 1700 years of war, the ice caps melting over 20 times, constant guerrilla uprisings, and "Roughly 90% of the world's population has died either from nuclear annihilation or famine caused by the global warming that has left absolutely zero arable land to farm." It's too bad you can't build the Hanging Gardens more than once.

22 of 219 comments (clear)

  1. He must not be that good by Schezar · · Score: 4, Insightful

    He must be a pretty crappy gamer if, in all that time, there are still other civilizations in his way with which to have constant nuclear warfare. If he'd actually eliminated the other civilizations, he could easily rebuild everything.

    Also, how on earth did he have so much global warming? That can really only be the effect of poor decisions or poorly waged nuclear war.

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    1. Re:He must not be that good by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Interesting

      I did that once with the original Civ. Played through until about the year 6000 AD. It was a long, hard battle at the start, but as the game progressed I eventually won out. By around 2000 AD I had virtually the entire planet and the AI had one civilization with two cities. In that situation the AI simply won't attack because you're too powerful, so the game continues peacefully virtually for ever. It gets boring pretty fast. Soon everything was covered with railroads and irrigation, the planet was effectively terraformed, all the technology was discovered, the climate was stable because there was no need for production and neither side had nucs. Almost all the cities had masses of happy people, it was basically a very boring utopia.

    2. Re:He must not be that good by XiaoMing · · Score: 5, Insightful

      He must be a pretty crappy gamer if, in all that time, there are still other civilizations in his way with which to have constant nuclear warfare. If he'd actually eliminated the other civilizations, he could easily rebuild everything.

      Also, how on earth did he have so much global warming? That can really only be the effect of poor decisions or poorly waged nuclear war.

      Considering how his biggest gripes are when other countries violate ceasefires, as well as his reluctance in switching away from democracy, it looks like he was trying create an actual society that co-inhabits the world with other societies, rather than just play king of the resource mountain.

    3. Re:He must not be that good by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

      Hold on, I'm going to submit your comment as a slashdot story now.

  2. Re:MORONS!!! by Lord+Lode · · Score: 5, Informative

    It is pretty nerdy, and interesting!

  3. Re:MORONS!!! by JustAnotherIdiot · · Score: 5, Funny

    Go look at the front page of any news website
    Now look at this article
    You /can't/ tell me that this is less interesting than whatever crap the media is trying to feed you today.

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  4. Re:Reddit reruns by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

    I for one am sick of hearing about unemployment, the election and Syria. Want to hear about it? Go to News.google, cnn. USA Today, etc.

    Absolutely nothing wrong with nerd news appearing on a nerd website. Just because it isn't exciting enough for YOU doesn't mean others won't like it... nor does it mean everyone watches Reddit Live.

  5. 1984 by David89 · · Score: 5, Interesting

    This reminds me of 1984 actually, right down to there being three superpowers left in the world. For those who haven't read it, perpetual war is fought over border zones that constantly change hands, with each power too strong to ever be defeated.

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    1. Re:1984 by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Or at least that's what the government tells you...

    2. Re:1984 by SAN1701 · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Mod parent up, IIRC there's no reason to believe there's an actual war between the 3 superpowers in '1984' book, apart from the totalitarian government propaganda.

    3. Re:1984 by LordLimecat · · Score: 4, Interesting

      Actually, IIRC theres good reason NOT to believe that there is a war. As I recall there are several clues point to the fact that there simply isnt any war, and that the entire thing is a hoax to keep the people under control.

  6. Virtual machines by scorp1us · · Score: 4, Interesting

    First, I thought this was about a continuously running game... And my fist thought was dang, I bet he wish he started it in a VM, because he could have kept moving it to new hardware, rateh than keeping that old Pentium IV around. But I guess there's a save-game feature.

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    1. Re:Virtual machines by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Interesting

      Hibernate -> Copy HD -> Start in virtual machine.

      I've actually done this.

  7. "how on earth did he have so much global warming?" by StefanJ · · Score: 4, Funny

    Deny it exists and do nothing to stop it?

  8. Re:MORONS!!! by DemomanDeveloper · · Score: 5, Insightful

    It also shows that Reddit nowadays is often much more interesting than /.

    I would LOVE to have stories like this on Slashdot, but all we get is some pro-piracy, anti-microsoft circlejerking. The same goes for the comments, obviously. I remember when the John Carmack used to post here - he does not anymore, and you wonder why?

  9. Re:MORONS!!! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

    This is John Carmack. Stop being a bitch.

  10. Re:MORONS!!! by Trent+Hawkins · · Score: 5, Funny

    you're telling me you don't have Civ2 installed on your desktop? At the very least you must surely have MoO2 or Master of Magic.

    No? Not even x-com on steam? Well... frankly I don't think YOU matter.

  11. Re:MORONS!!! by Translation+Error · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Um... This story is on Slashdot.

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  12. Make him president? by bunyip · · Score: 4, Funny

    Wow, this guy has some serious management skillz! Maybe he should be running Spain or Greece or the US?

  13. the problem with reddit by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Interesting

    The problem with reddit is that its even more of an echo chamber because of the way they do moderation. Basically its all determined by the masses, like digg was. It used to be (circa 2006) that differing opinions were more visible. Now they are completely buried.

    Also 95% of the stuff on there is memes, pictures of girls or animals, people complaining, or self aggrandizing (bestof, iama, TIL) and also constant reposts of the same crap from 10 years ago.

    In short, its now a "community" as opposed to what it was when it started, a site which didn't require any email verification and was trying to be as anonymous as possible. Now they have karma, anniversaries (cake) and other "features" which make it more like a social networking site than a link agregator. They want people to build up their reputations, but this stifles independent thought. The delays on postings for non long term users is horrible now. Was much better when it was pseudo anonymous and not as popular. I blame the diggers who came over in 2008 or thereabouts.

    all that said, i read it every day, but not usually the comments. Slashdot comments and moderation are far far far superior.

  14. Re:MORONS!!! by crazyjj · · Score: 4, Insightful

    It also shows that Reddit nowadays is often much more interesting than /.

    A few years ago, everyone was saying the same about Digg--and how Digg was the /. killer. Heard from them lately?

    Reports of slashdot's demise are frequently exaggerated.

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  15. Re:Am I Missing Something Here? by KozmoStevnNaut · · Score: 4, Informative

    Give Galactic Civilizations II a try, you'll be amazed by the AI at higher difficulty settings.

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