'Hellish nightmare of suffering and devastation': 10-year-long game predicts grim future for humanity

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This was published 11 years ago

'Hellish nightmare of suffering and devastation': 10-year-long game predicts grim future for humanity

Updated

This post was originally published on Mashable.

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

The world in 3991AD ... a “hellish nightmare of suffering and devastation".

The world in 3991AD ... a “hellish nightmare of suffering and devastation".

On 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 AD as a "hellish nightmare of suffering and devastation".

Lycerius said the ice caps had melted 20 times because of nuclear fallout. The only three remaining countries - the Celts, the Vikings and the Americans - were locked in an endless war over dwindling resources.

Lycerius said he tried destroying or allying with the two remaining countries, but it had not helped.

Apparently, most of the world's population has died due to lack of usable land, and the engineers and military forces cannot make any improvements because they are working on supporting the war efforts.

Civilization II was released in 1996 by MicroProse. It is a very detailed simulation and turn-based strategy game that begins at the dawn of the world's civilisation, and continues throughout history.

Players have to fight wars, develop technology and forge peace treaties with other nations. While the game ends in 2020 AD, 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 it 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 dystopian 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.

Mashable is the largest independent news source covering digital culture, social media and technology.

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