Table of contents
- Sid Meier is a real person who just wanted to make games, and his journey from creating a Star Trek game that crashed his company's network to founding a game development company is legendary.
- Sid Meier turned his passion for flight simulators into a gaming empire, but his creativity truly soared when he ventured into new genres, creating timeless classics like "Civilization" and "Pirates!
- Sid Meier's Pirates became a hit because it offered a romanticized pirate adventure with multiple right choices, breaking away from the rigid, frustrating game design of its time.
- Robin Williams inspired Sid Meier to put his name on game titles, turning a risky marketing move into a legendary brand.
- Sid Meier revolutionized gaming by making Civilization turn-based, transforming it from a boring real-time game into a strategic masterpiece.
- Civilization isn't about historical accuracy; it's about rewriting history and making interesting decisions.
- Sid Meier's best games are built on a series of interesting decisions.
- The myth of Gandhi's nuclear aggression in Civilization games started as a joke and spread like wildfire, but it was never based on actual game code.
- Even if the origin story of nuclear Gandhi in Civilization isn't true, the meme has become a fun and enduring part of gaming culture.
- One more turn becomes an all-night strategy session—Sid Meier's games are just that compelling.
- When your nerdy strategy game goes viral, suddenly having your name on the box isn't a sign of low confidence—it's a badge of honor.
- Sid Meier's name became the key to the success of the Civilization series, outshining corporate giants.
Sid Meier is a real person who just wanted to make games, and his journey from creating a Star Trek game that crashed his company's network to founding a game development company is legendary.
Sid Meier's Civilization is a game series that lets you build the pyramids in New York, upgrade your cavalry into helicopters, and then nuke France. Ah, Civilization, what a great game series you are. But who the hell is Sid Meier? It recently occurred to me that I've put a few thousand hours into this guy's games and I don't even really know who he is. I at least know that he was a real man who made video games because I have met multiple people who thought he was just like a company mascot—Sid Meier's Pirates, Mario Golf, that kind of thing.
First of all, I assure you he is a very real man. I've been playing a lot of Civ lately, and while I was, I started thinking to myself that with how much entertainment he's provided me, the least I could do is learn who he really is and what he's about. So I read articles, watched interviews, and got a copy of the man's book. It turns out there is some really entertaining stuff in here that I want to tell you about. I'm going to tell you about the strange connection that Robin Williams has with Sid Meier and his games. I'm going to do some internet archaeology on the nuclear Gandhi meme and its origins. Toward the end, we're going to get into the bizarre legal battle of how Hasbro, of all companies, owned the rights to Civilization for a bit before Sid activated his secret weapon to get the rights back.
I don't know what to call this, but if you guys like it, maybe I'll come up with a series name and I can talk about other developers in the future. Comment below for what other devs you'd like me to talk about and what I should call this thing—Game Dev Doc, Ver Rock, I don't freaking know. Let's get on with it. Get comfy, relax, make yourself some tea, and I'm going to tell you the story about the legendary game designer who created Civilization as we know it.
The first thing you need to understand about Sid Meier is this: much in the same way that your dad just wants to grill, Sid has always just wanted to make games. He got a job out of college working for General Instrument, an electronics manufacturer of the time, and they told him to work on the thrilling business of networked cash register systems. He was grateful to have a good job, of course, but he couldn't help himself from making little games on the company network where interested co-workers could play them. The first sign that he knew what he was doing was when he made a little Star Trek game in 1979. He only shared it with a few interested co-workers at first, but it spread so fast that eventually so many people were playing it that it was lagging the entire General Instrument network. Even the managers who had to tell him to delete the game were playing it themselves. Knowing what a compelling game he just made, this was a badge that Sid wore with pride.
Not too long after that, in 1982, Sid would meet a man named Bill Stealey. Sid was an introverted, humble programmer, whereas Bill Stealey, a Reserve Air Force pilot, would hand out business cards with the words "Fighter Pilot Supreme" printed on them. They both worked for General Instrument, but Bill wasn't a programmer; he was a businessman—a level 10 charisma kind of guy. The type of guy who joins the Reserve Air Force despite needing to wear glasses and somehow gets let in anyway. He passed a speech check or something, I have no idea. But basically, Bill was the extroverted opposite of Sid and the unexpectedly perfect match for making a game development company.
Sid, Bill, and the rest of General Instrument were sent to Las Vegas one year for a conference. Forced to sit through meeting after meeting, Sid was falling asleep. He decided to strike up a conversation with Bill, who was next to him, out of desperation to stay awake. They didn't really know each other and had barely anything in common, but Bill was more than happy to whisper excitedly about all of his flying stories. That's when Sid mentioned, "I'm making a flying simulator game in my spare time." Bill was thrilled by this and immediately suggested that they should start a company together. Sid, unsure of how serious Bill was being, replied with, "Uh-huh, yeah man, anyway, let's go find an arcade after this conference is over."
So that's what they did. There was a game called Red Baron, and I challenged Sid to play that game. I sat down and scored 355,000 points. Sid sat down and scored 65,000 points, and I was pissed. I hate to lose. Sid said he...
Sid Meier turned his passion for flight simulators into a gaming empire, but his creativity truly soared when he ventured into new genres, creating timeless classics like "Civilization" and "Pirates!
Bill was more than happy to whisper excitedly about all of his flying stories. That's when Sid mentioned, "I'm making a flying simulator game in my spare time." Bill was thrilled by this and immediately suggested that they should start a company together. Sid, unsure of how serious Bill was being, replied with, "Uh-huh, uh yeah man, anyway let's go find an arcade after this conference is over." So, that's what they did. There was a game called Red Baron, and Bill challenged Sid to play it. Bill sat down and scored 355,000 points, while Sid sat down and scored 65,000 points. Bill was pissed because he hated to lose. Sid explained that he memorized all the algorithms and watched it once to memorize where the bad guys appeared. Sid said, "Bill, that's not a very good game. I could write a better one in a week." Bill responded, "If you could, I could sell it." That last line by Bill would come to summarize most of their working relationship and the early history of their company.
Together, they founded Micros and made it into a smash success in very little time. This is the period of Sid's career that I like to refer to as 1 billion flying games because Micros started pumping out games like Hellcat Ace, Chopper Rescue, Spitfire Ace, Wingman, Solo Flight, Air Rescue One, F-15 Strike Eagle, Gunship, F-19 Stealth Fighter, and F-15 Strike Eagle 2. These games were popular and profitable, allowing Sid and Bill to quit their day jobs at General Instrument pretty early on and focus entirely on their new business. Sid would program, and Bill would handle the marketing, labeling himself as Wild Bill and always wearing his Air Force uniform during interviews and company photos.
Bill was content to keep the flying game train chugging along, but Sid started to burn out from making so many flight simulators. He began dabbling with other ideas, which were initially scoffed at but would later become some of the most memorable parts of his legacy. Sid is known today primarily for Civilization, but some may have heard of him through other big hits like Sid Meier's Pirates and Sid Meier's Railroad Tycoon.
It all started with Pirates. Sid had been making realistic flight simulators for years, as real as you could get for the time. These flight sims were selling well, but the creative part of him needed to make something else. He wanted to make a pirate game, an adventure game that put you in all the best moments of a pirate's swashbuckling life. This was a risky venture because there weren't many games like it. Most adventure games of the time were text-only, involving a lot of reading and arguing with the computer. Around the MicroProse office, these games were deridingly known as pickup stick games, and Sid was adamant that he would not make his pirate adventure game into one of those.
The problem with these games, according to Sid, was that there was only one correct path. You needed to get "ye flask" to proceed, but to do so, you had to type in a very specific string of words that the computer would recognize. This often led to infinite wrong answers. Sid wanted a pirate game where you weren't stuck on one singular narrative path but also didn't have infinite options to get wrong. He believed it was his job to whittle down the options and present only the best ones to the player, ensuring no wrong answers and more than one right answer, but not too many. He began to jot down ideas: Pirates wooed beautiful young women, so that would be a choice; Pirates pieced together old treasure maps, so that would be another choice.
Sid Meier's Pirates became a hit because it offered a romanticized pirate adventure with multiple right choices, breaking away from the rigid, frustrating game design of its time.
In the game development process, Sid Meier envisioned a pirate game where players wouldn't be stuck on one singular narrative path, nor would they face infinite wrong options. To proceed in the game, players needed to get "ye flask" by typing a specific string of words recognized by the computer. The challenge was that players had to go through potentially infinite wrong answers to find the correct string. Sid wanted to avoid this issue by creating a game with multiple right answers but no wrong ones, and it was my job to whittle down the options and present only the best ones to the player. I began jotting down ideas: Pirates wooed beautiful young women, pieced together old treasure maps, and sometimes had sword fights. Real pirates, of course, did none of these things; they slaughtered innocent people and got scurvy, which was not fun. However, Sid aimed to create a game with a heightened, romanticized feeling, incorporating everything people had heard or seen about pirates in media up to 1987.
Bill Stealey and the sales team were initially against releasing such a unique and different game, as it was unlike anything MicroProse had released before. However, Sid was determined, and Bill trusted him enough to let him proceed. This decision paid off, as Sid Meier's Pirates became one of MicroProse's most popular titles and the first game to use Sid Meier's name as part of the branding. Many people wonder why Sid put his name on his games. The answer is not due to egotism but because Robin Williams advised him to do so.
Sid Meier was no stranger to software piracy, having engaged in software swapping and sharing of code. He acknowledged that he didn't have a "peg leg to stand on" when it came to pirating his games. This story takes place in a time when buying software meant purchasing a physical copy, unlike today's subscription models. Back then, video games were not yet recognized as a significant form of media worth supporting, and people made copies of floppy discs without considering the impact on the developers. This practice needed to change to ensure the financial backing necessary for future game development.
Software piracy became so rampant that many developers formed a group to combat it, known as the Software Publishers Association (SPA). Bill Stealey was eager to join this group to protect MicroProse. Surprisingly, Robin Williams was connected to the SPA, attending regular meetings along with companies like Sierra, Microsoft, and Broderbund. Although Robin Williams never dabbled in game design, his involvement in the SPA was a unique and interesting part of this story.
Robin Williams inspired Sid Meier to put his name on game titles, turning a risky marketing move into a legendary brand.
Back then, software piracy had become so rampant that many developers were panicked enough to form a group to try to combat it. This group would be known as the Software Publishers Association or SPA. Bill Steely was eager to join to try to protect MicroProse. Of all places, this is where the Robin Williams connection comes in. Sid says in his book that MicroProse was one of about 150 companies who attended their regular meetings, along with Sierra, Microsoft, Broderbund, and Robin Williams. Yes, as strange as it may seem, the comedian Robin Williams was connected to the Software Publishers Association. To my knowledge, he never dabbled in game design himself, but he felt strongly that all creative jobs should be fairly compensated. He had such a particular love for video games that he named his daughter Zelda.
According to lore, he and Bill were seated at the same table at an SPA event. During the course of conversation, Robin pointed out that all the other entertainment industries promoted their stars by name, so why should gaming be any different? Whether this was a passing comment or a hard sell on my name in particular, I have no idea. But Bill already had plenty of experience with fostering a cult of personality. Either way, I can't blame him for wanting to share credit on this one since "Robin Williams told me to do it" is a pretty good defense for almost anything. All I know is Bill made the executive decision to call the game Sid Meier's Pirates. I was too busy thinking about adventure game mechanics to question it. That's right, you heard me correctly. The guy who's known for putting his name on the titles of all of his games—it wasn't even his decision. He just wanted to make a fun pirate game; he didn't care what it was called.
Putting his name on the box would become an important part of Sid Meier's legacy from there on. This branding decision happened again later when Sid once again got bored of making flying simulators and went on to one of his childhood inspirations: trains. That's right, he has that kind of autism and I love him for it. He made what would become Sid Meier's Railroad Tycoon, which, like Pirates, would end up being one of MicroProse's most famous titles and part of Sid's legacy as a game developer to this day. But again, before its release, Bill did not particularly want to go through with this weird, risky railroad game. Pirates hadn't really seen its success quite yet, and the flying simulators were so much more profitable in the short term. But he trusted his business partner, so Sid's name was slapped on the box again.
This is when Sid began to realize something: his name being put on the box ironically was actually an indicator of low confidence from the marketing department. It was their message to him: "The game you're making is too risky and unusual. We need your name to sell it, or it'll never work." To put this in perspective, here's a quick look at the titles of the MicroProse games from that time period: Gunship, Sid Meier's Pirates, Red Storm Rising, F-19 Stealth Fighter, F-15 Strike Eagle 2, Sid Meier's Railroad Tycoon. Yeah, the pattern is pretty noticeable. Sid noticed it and knew when the marketing department didn't really care for his new, weird video game ideas that hadn't been tried yet. But he wasn't discouraged and he wasn't done yet. He had one more weirdo, unmarketable, non-flying simulator game in him that he wanted to try, and this one would change that low-confidence impression of his name on the box very, very drastically.
Did you know that the first Civilization was almost a real-time strategy game? Part of this initial decision was influenced by the fact that Sid Meier was playing a lot of SimCity at the time. SimCity helped establish the idea of a God game to the public, and it inspired Sid's own God game with help from Sid's newest working partner, Bruce Shelley. Bruce wasn't a programmer—that was Sid's department—but he was a talented game designer. First, Bruce would co-design Railroad Tycoon with Sid. Look, there he is in his train engineer overalls. Now he would work with Sid in co-designing the first Civilization game. The first versions of Civilization shown to Bruce to playtest were completely real-time, like SimCity, but on a global scale. By our modern standards of what a Civ game is, it was completely unrecognizable. You could see the whole map from the very beginning; you didn't settle cities; you instead started with pre-settled locations.
Sid Meier revolutionized gaming by making Civilization turn-based, transforming it from a boring real-time game into a strategic masterpiece.
At the time, Sim City helped establish the idea of a God game to the public, and it inspired Sid's own God game with help from Sid's newest working partner, Bruce Shelly. Bruce wasn't a programmer—that was Sid's department—but he was a talented game designer. First, Bruce would co-design Railroad Tycoon with Sid. Look, there he is in his train engineer overalls. Now, he would work with Sid in co-designing the first Civilization game.
The first versions of Civilization shown to Bruce for playtesting were completely real-time like Sim City but on a global scale. By our modern standards of what a Civ game is, it was completely unrecognizable. You could see the whole map from the very beginning. You didn't settle cities; instead, you started with pre-settled locations. You spent your time zoning them, making your farms, plotting out your areas for production, and then sitting back to watch your empire grow with the march of time. According to Sid, this would get boring pretty quickly and have very little replay value. As he says in his book, "unfortunately, neither sit back nor watch are features to be proud of in a game—that's what movies are for." Sid is full of good quotes like that.
Sid was hitting a roadblock due to the birth of his child and being consumed with tweaking this Civilization prototype. He hadn't published a game in quite a while, and tweaking a prototype does not earn you money. He was told by Bill that he had to put something out, so he brought back a different game he had given up on before called Covert Action. Begrudgingly, he put the finishing touches on it and had it sent out for publishing. He wasn't entirely happy with Covert Action, but it gave him space to think about how he could improve Civilization. That's when he decided, "why don't I try out a turn-based system instead?" This was the secret sauce he needed, and now Sid was cooking.
He then realized it would be a magical, epic feeling to have the rest of the map be unseen and unexplored. Instead of being simply given a city and zoning it, it would be more interesting to start from nothing and make your own decision on where to settle your first cities. Symbolically, it felt like the difference between signing a deed for a distant frontier versus driving a flag into the dirt with your own calloused, sweaty hands. The player should plant their first city right where they stood, or close enough to it, and it should trigger a suitably commemorative full-screen animation: "Rome founded 4,000 BC." Never mind the covered wagons and simple huts—this is Rome, capital city of a mighty civilization, and it will be glorious. To this day, when I play Civilization, I almost always choose the Romans.
It was at this point in development that Sid started to decide what civilizations should be in the game and with what leaders. There are hundreds of countries, past and present, that would warrant being included, but computer limitations of the time would only let him pick 14 of them, so it wasn't easy to choose. He figured he should go with most of the major world powers and then decide from there. Basically, it was decided via Sid Meier's vibe check. Ultimately, Civ 1's world stage would include America, Greece, Rome, England, Germany, Mongolia, Babylon, Japan, and India.
Unrelated to the main topic, did you know that 20 years from now, David Cage would release the games Heavy Rain, Beyond: Two Souls, and Detroit: Become Human?
Civilization isn't about historical accuracy; it's about rewriting history and making interesting decisions.
Never mind the covered wagons and simple yts, this is Rome, the capital city of a mighty civilization, and it will be glorious. To this day, when I play Civilization, I almost always choose the Romans. It was at this point in development that Sid started to decide what civilizations should be in the game and with what leaders. There are hundreds of countries, past and present, that would warrant inclusion, but computer limitations of the time only allowed him to pick 14 of them. So, it wasn't easy to choose. He figured he should go with most of the major world powers and then decide from there. Basically, it was decided via Sid Meier's Vibe check.
Ultimately, Civ 1's World stage would include America, Greece, Rome, England, Germany, Mongolia, Babylon, Japan, India, China, the Aztecs, France, Egypt, the Zulu, and Russia. Sid thought to himself that obviously the civilizations should have their most iconic leaders of all time, at least iconic generally speaking to the average American in 1990. So, let's see, we got America with Abraham Lincoln, Greece with Alexander the Great, Rome with Caesar, England with Elizabeth I, and Germany... Germany. Sid wanted to include each country's most famous leader, but he also knew that for Germany, this could maybe be a problem. Among other reasons, doing this would make it so that Germany would instantly ban the game—a painful move for MicroProse, who already had some of their flight simulators banned in Germany at the time for depicting military operations.
Germany is a pretty big market to lose out on, and MicroProse had just recently fought to get those flight simulator titles taken off the ban list. Was Sid really going to get this one intentionally banned from the very beginning? Because of this dilemma, Germany almost didn't get included in Civ 1 at all. Sid went back and forth on Germany throughout the game's entire development—they were in, then they were out, and then they were in again, until he finally made the decision: screw it, I'm putting Germany in with Frederick the Great. He's not as well known and gets overshadowed by the failed painter in the mind of the average Normie, but at least he's still a very prominent German leader, and then they get to be in the game. This was such a last-minute decision that the first run of manuals that came with Civ 1 still referred to Germany's former placeholder, the Turks.
I played Civ 1 recently with this knowledge in mind and was kind of surprised to learn that despite all this stuff with Germany, Russia is led by Stalin and China is led by Mao. There's a poignant quote about this in the book where Sid says, "It's worth noting that Chairman Mao and Stalin both went into the game without any doubt on my part or comment from others. The rules about what was acceptable didn't always make a lot of sense." Fair enough, Sid, fair enough. But really, that's pretty much Civilization as a series—it doesn't make a lot of sense for the leaders to survive as long as they do, but in Civ, that's what you are: an eternal emperor of legend, a god even. Abraham Lincoln, God Emperor of Mankind.
I've seen good critiques about Civilization and its historical representation and inaccuracies, but Civilization is not a game about historical pinpoint accuracy. There are other games that strive for that and succeed well enough. The core principle of Civilization was always, from the very first game, that you were rewriting history, not reliving it. A big foundation of Civilization is personal success, something Sid learned from his experience with Sid Meier's Pirates. In Pirates, you had multiple correct answers to victory, multiple interesting decisions you could make. The same is in Civ, which allows you to decide what kind of leader you want to be when given the reins of power. Do you choose to focus on your military and drink out of your opponent's skulls, or do you want to focus on science and get your genetically engineered catgirls on Mars by the end of the game? Even within these two paths to victory, there are many interesting decisions to be made about your empire's happiness, production, economy, food, and more.
Sid Meier would come to be known for a phrase including the words interesting decisions. His feeling is that the best games are a series of interesting decisions, and so far, Civ's prototype is living up to that ideal. But his company life was about to shift pretty drastically, at least legally and in terms of liability, as the co-founders of MicroProse, Sid and Bill, often made the most important decisions together.
Sid Meier's best games are built on a series of interesting decisions.
Do you want to focus on your military and drink out of your opponent's skulls, or do you want to focus on science and get your genetically engineered cat girls on Mars by the end of the game? Even within these two paths to victory, there are many interesting decisions to be made about your empire's happiness, production, economy, food, and more. Sid Meier would come to be known for a phrase including the words "interesting decisions." His feeling is that the best games are a series of interesting decisions, and so far, Civilization's prototype is living up to that ideal.
However, his company life was about to shift pretty drastically, at least legally and in terms of liability. As the co-founders of MicroProse, Sid and Bill often made the most important decisions together. During the time Civilization was in development, Bill told Sid that MicroProse needed to start heading in a new direction: arcade cabinets. Sid was a bit baffled by this, accurately recognizing in hindsight that arcades were on the decline. He wanted to continue making software, whereas Bill and the marketing team saw Sid's recent non-flight sim games as anomalies. Even if they saw some success, they were indulgences that they let him get away with, which in retrospect is pretty insane considering these indulgent games are vastly more memorable than whatever plain nonsense they had him working on before that.
Unfortunately, they couldn't come to a compromise on which direction the company should go. Bill was determined on this arcade idea, and Sid, doubtful about the positive impact it would have on the company, decided to sell his half of MicroProse to Bill, making him the sole owner. They still wanted to work together; they weren't bitterly breaking up. So, they arranged to have Sid continue working at MicroProse but as an independent contractor. His title had changed, but he was still around and making games. Now, he was free to work on whatever he wanted, like his indulgent little God game Empire simulator, which was nearing completion.
There is no shame in deterrence; having a weapon is very different from actually using it. I'd like to take a break from Civilization to instead talk about Civilization—more specifically, a certain aesthetic preacher of peace in the Civ games who is known for being unusually hungry for war. His name is Mahatma "Only Nuclear Fire Will Quench My Desire" Gandhi. It's a meme, a big meme, probably the best-known Civilization meme, and known even by people who haven't played the games. It's easy to understand why; it is inherently hilarious to have the peace advocate Gandhi jump-scare you with dialogue telling you that "my words are backed with nuclear weapons, so watch your [__] step."
What's even funnier is that it's not real—well, it is today, kind of, but only because we memed it into existence. The common explanation of the meme goes like this: in Civilization 1, all leaders were given a score in their code from 1 to 12 that would determine their aggressiveness. If Genghis Khan was a 12, naturally Gandhi was a one. When democracy is adopted as a government, though, it would subtract two points of aggressiveness from this score. But in a world of programmed integers, negative-1 doesn't exist, and this caused his aggression level to underflow from one backwards to 255 out of a possible 10. Cue the Indian nukes dropping on Rome.
That story has been commonly understood and repeated by Civ players, myself included, for the last 10 years. But according to the guy who coded the entire game, it's not true. Sid notes in his book that he finds the entire thing hilarious, but he also wants to put the facts on the table. That kind of bug comes from something called unsigned characters, which are not the default in the C programming language and not something I used for leader traits. Brian Reynolds wrote Civ 2 in C++, and he didn't use them either. We received no complaints about a Gandhi bug when either game came out, nor did we send out any revisions for one. Gandhi's military aggressiveness score remained at one throughout the game.
Well, what the hell then? What's the deal? Why does everybody remember Gandhi being so bloodthirsty if he wasn't actually that way from the beginning like the story goes? First of all, Sid says that it's true that Gandhi would eventually use nukes if India was at war, but every civilization was coded to use nukes at some point. Every leader had a point that they would draw a line in the sand, no matter who they were, and Gandhi would actually take more [__] than just about anybody else before drawing that line.
The myth of Gandhi's nuclear aggression in Civilization games started as a joke and spread like wildfire, but it was never based on actual game code.
Brian Reynolds wrote Civilization II in C++, and he didn't use any coding tricks that would have caused the infamous Gandhi bug. When both Civilization I and II were released, there were no complaints about a Gandhi bug, and no revisions were sent out for it. Gandhi's military aggressiveness score remained at one throughout the game. So, what's the deal? Why does everybody remember Gandhi being so bloodthirsty if he wasn't actually that way from the beginning?
First of all, Sid Meier confirms that it's true Gandhi would eventually use nukes if India was at war, but every civilization was coded to use nukes at some point. Every leader had a point where they would draw a line in the sand, and Gandhi would actually take more provocations than just about anybody else before drawing that line. Part of the meme's existence might be that the idea of Gandhi using nukes at all is so memorable that it sticks in your brain. Another part of it is the victory conditions of the game. There were only two ways to win in Civilization I: kill everybody else or win a Science Victory. Since Gandhi had low aggression, he would focus heavily on science to achieve that Science Victory. Thus, he would often gain the technology to create nukes much earlier than the player, leading him to threaten to nuke the player while the player is still training knights on horseback.
You may ask, then, why would Gandhi threaten to use nukes at all? The idea was that any civilization that didn't want to go to war, like Gandhi who was coded to be very unaggressive, would make sure to remind the player about mutually assured destruction. "Hey, remember that thing called mutually assured destruction? Well, I have nukes, so don't mess with me." The idea was deterrence, even if it comes off a bit strong. So, it's fair to say that Gandhi could occasionally seem a little unnecessarily zealous, if only verbally.
Some people point to Civilization V as evidence of the meme's reality, but they actually have it backwards. Gandhi was given his nuclear bloodthirst Easter egg in Civilization V as a reference to the already present hilarity of Gandhi using nukes at all in the Civilization community. It had nothing to do with the negative overlapping to 255 thing, and the designer of Civilization V, John Schaer, had never heard of this when he put his nuclear Gandhi in Civilization V as a fun Easter egg.
So, where did the whole coding overflow story come from? Here's the short version: a guy named Tuna Fish on TV Tropes made it up. In 2012, a guy named Tuna Fish posted to tvtropes.org, two years after Civilization V, which had the actual first official appearance of nuclear Gandhi. For whatever reason, Tuna Fish claimed that the nuclear Gandhi thing went as far back as Civilization I due to a coding error. God only knows why he said it; he could have been trolling, it may have been revealed to him in a dream, or he could have been shooting up heroin. Nobody knows. It didn't matter; it was plausible, funny, and on the internet now, and nobody would lie on the internet. So, it ran on its own from there.
An anonymous user added the story to the Civilization fandom page, called Wikia at the time, which to most of the internet was enough to make it truly official. For a year and a half, the story spread as a fun little bit of trivia around the internet. The real wildfire started in 2014 when the comic "Real Life Gandhi vs. Civilization Gandhi" was reposted on Reddit. It wasn't even the first time it was shared; it was several years old as a comic and wasn't even about the overflow story. But, just like Civilization V's inclusion of nuclear Gandhi, the comic was poking fun at Gandhi using nukes at all.
Here are some comments from people at the time, confidently declaring this completely wrong information to be well-known trivia. And by the way, I'm not calling these people stupid. The average person does not want to look up and fact-check every single thing they find. I believed this at the time as well, just as these people did. The people who should be investigating and fact-checking these sorts of things, you would think, would be journalists. Unfortunately, when the news of this comic's popularity got to the games journalists, our bulwarks of truth and evidence, they didn't dig down deep into the story. They didn't find out that the paper trail led to a dead end. They didn't realize it might be unfounded. They didn't go and ask Sid Meier. Instead, they rushed to let the public know the "facts." I'm just kidding—they fell for it too and started citing each other as official sources.
Even if the origin story of nuclear Gandhi in Civilization isn't true, the meme has become a fun and enduring part of gaming culture.
Trivia and by the way, I'm not calling these people stupid. The average person does not want to look up and fact-check every single thing they find. I believed this at the time as well, just as these people did. The people who should be investigating and fact-checking these sorts of things, you would think, would be journalists. Fortunately, when the news of this comic's popularity got to the games journalists, our bulwarks of truth and evidence, they dug down deep into this story and found out that the paper trail led to a dead end. They realized it may be unfounded. They went and asked Sid Meyer and then they rushed to let the public know the facts.
I'm just kidding. They fell for it too and they started citing each other as official sources. Kotaku writes a story citing the Reddit comic and the comments. Geek.com does the same. Now it's officially true because they made articles about it. The other gaming websites and blogs publish their versions of the story while citing Kotaku as their source. Isn't journalism fun? Did you know that people go to school for this?
Okay, let me be a little nicer and say probably part of the reason that it propagated as far as it did for as long as it did is just because it was so, so funny. We wanted to believe it, myself included. Some part of me still does believe it even if the guys who made the games tell me it isn't so. But I appreciate Sid's demeanor about the story in the book. He has no intention of debunking the story just to ruin everyone's fun. Sid just puts the facts on the table, but he's more than happy to have nuclear Gandhi live on in the latest Civ iterations throughout whatever Easter eggs they choose. Gandhi firing nukes is and always has been apparently funny no matter how rarely it actually occurs. I'm glad to see players engage with the game and each other in whatever way makes them happy.
So, nuclear Gandhi will live on despite us knowing now that the origin story is untrue and that the Civ5 nuclear Gandhi is not in reference to it. The Civilization 6 one may have been after all. Civilization 6 came out in a time when basically everyone believed it. Therefore, despite not being real, nuclear Gandhi also is real. He has been willed into existence via meme magic. I imagine his future appearances in Civ games will also reference the story, and in a roundabout way, I think that's kind of cool. It's not real, but it is real, and either way, it's fun. Why not? Now we can add nuclear Gandhi to the list of meme magic concepts like Santa Claus and North Dakota.
Oh, oh no. Oh no, no, no. Anyway, back to our main story. Civilization 1 is almost finished. Huge strides have been made and Sid was ready to let some other people, other than his co-designer Bruce Shell, try out the game. But he was only willing to let a different Bruce play it, his younger brother Bruce Meyer. This was the day that Sid discovered that his little God game had an interesting effect on people. Sid was visiting family one day and was open to letting his younger brother Bruce playtest the latest version of Civilization. So he gave the game to his little brother and said, "Alright buddy, I got to go watch my newborn son. I'll come check on you in a little bit, okay? See you soon." Bruce took the game and they headed their separate ways.
Sid gets distracted and before he knows it, the next time he looks at the clock, six hours have passed. He runs back to the computer room to check on Bruce. He opens the door and sees Bruce completely enthralled and completely unaware of how much time had passed. The one more turn effect had just become reality and the game wasn't even finished yet. For those of you who don't know, the one more turn effect is what makes people equate the games to crack. Just one more turn, then I'll quit and go to bed. I just need to finish building this catapult. Okay, now this guy is trying to attack me, so just one more turn so I can defend myself properly. Okay, I've got him on the retreat, just one more turn so I can use my catapult on this guy's cities. Ooh, I got the tech to upgrade, just give me one more turn and then I can upgrade too. And on and on and on until it's 5 in the morning, the sun is coming up, and you're going, "Oh no."
Sid attributes this effect to simple plus simple equals complex, drawing comparisons to chess. Understanding each chess piece is simple, but it's the plans within plans that make things really compelling. Those are the decisions, the thinking ahead that can get you to stay up for hours and hours and hours. For example, understanding that making a farm for your city leads to more food is easy to understand, but it's when you start to...
One more turn becomes an all-night strategy session—Sid Meier's games are just that compelling.
The experience of playing Sid Meier's games can be incredibly immersive. Players often find themselves saying, "just one more turn," as they try to defend themselves properly or use their catapults on enemy cities. They might think, "I got the tech to upgrade, just give me one more turn," and this cycle continues until they realize it's 5 in the morning and the sun is coming up. Sid attributes this effect to the principle of simple plus simple equals complex, drawing comparisons to chess. Understanding each chess piece is simple, but the plans within plans make things compelling. These decisions and the need to think ahead can keep players engaged for hours.
For example, understanding that making a farm for your city leads to more food is easy. However, when you start to plan out 12 different cities, each with different military units, and aim to conquer the other guy, it gets complex. You need to make a certain number of units with a specific amount of food and production, while also considering the happiness of your empire. This complexity makes it easy to lose track of time.
Once the game received approval from two different Bruces, it was time to open up playtesting to non-Bruces. Sid allowed his peers at MicroProse to try the game, and it became an instant office hit. People constantly approached Sid with suggestions, some of which became Civilization staples, such as building the seven world wonders or having more than seven. Sid went through many iterations of the game, removing some mechanics like the rise and fall of nations, a secondary tech tree for minor discoveries like beer brewing, and landmine weapons that broke the AI. Religious leaders were added and removed, and Germany was included after much deliberation.
The marketing team was eager to finish the project, believing that a strategy game would only appeal to hardcore nerds and not turn a profit. They decided to give it a big push to get any attention. Despite these challenges, Sid was happy to make the game he wanted to play. His family and friends loved it, and that was enough for him. Surprisingly, the game didn't flop; it gained slow success at first and then an overwhelming wave of popularity, which was a lot for humble Sid Meier, who just wanted to make fun computer games.
Allow me to introduce you to Brian Reynolds. Brian would eventually form a company with Sid, but at the moment, he had just started at MicroProse, programming their answer to Leisure Suit Larry, "Rex Nebular and the Cosmic Gender Bender." After that, he was allowed to design a strategy game called Colonization—Sid Meier's Colonization, to be precise. Despite Sid not coding any of it and only helping toward the end of its development, the marketing department decided to use Sid's name. This decision was ironic, given that Sid's name on the box was no longer a mark of low confidence but a selling point.
Sid was uncomfortable with this at first and quickly acknowledged Brian as the main creator of Colonization. When Sid asked Brian how he felt about Sid's name potentially being on the game, Brian welcomed the idea. Having Sid Meier's branding on his game would likely mean more players and more opportunities to make games if it was successful. Thus, "Sid Meier's" now meant Sid Meier mentored and approved instead of personally coded. This change was inevitable, and it wasn't long before...
When your nerdy strategy game goes viral, suddenly having your name on the box isn't a sign of low confidence—it's a badge of honor.
It's funny how success can change perceptions. When a nerdy strategy game becomes super popular, suddenly putting your name on the box isn't seen as a mark of low confidence anymore. Sid Meier felt uncomfortable about this shift. He was quick to acknowledge Brian as the main creator of Colonization. Sid even asked Brian how he felt about potentially having Sid Meier's name on the game. To his surprise, Brian welcomed the idea, recognizing that the Sid Meier branding could attract more players and, if successful, allow Brian to make more games. Thus, "Sid Meier's" came to mean "Sid Meier mentored and approved" instead of "Sid Meier personally coded."
It wasn't long before MicroProse wanted a sequel to their big hit, Civilization. Sid Meier didn't want to be the lead designer anymore but admired Brian's work on Colonization, so Brian was chosen as the designer of Civ 2, with Sid acting as a mentor when necessary. This pattern of different designers for each mainline Civilization game continues to this day.
During the development of Civ 2, Sid feared that Bill Stealey's push into the arcade market would fail, and it did. Bill was forced to sell MicroProse to new corporate overlords in 1993, named Spectrum Holobyte, and stepped down as head of the studio. Spectrum Holobyte even took the MicroProse name due to its better recognition. Since Sid had sold his shares to Bill years ago, MicroProse was no longer theirs. The new corporate mandate was to produce nothing but licensed games. Civilization 2 released under their rule but was not really their making. They predicted it would sell only 38,000 units, but it went on to sell over a million units. Brian and Sid were very happy with Civ 2's release, but it was an exception under the new management.
For several years, everyone at MicroProse was forced to work on licensed games they might not care about, with no signs of change. Sid, Brian, and composer Jeff Briggs decided to create their own company to make the games they wanted. This company would be called Firaxis, where Sid works to this day as Creative Development Director. However, they still had to leave MicroProse. Their separation was amicable, mainly because Spectrum Holobyte knew that Sid, Brian, and Jeff could easily convince other employees to join them at Firaxis, potentially causing a giant mess. So, the three of them backed away slowly, fulfilling their remaining obligations before leaving.
One consequence of this departure was that Sid Meier did not retain the rights to Civilization. The new MicroProse owners could still make sequels to his original creation. The history of the Civilization IP is complicated and involves Hasbro making their own Civ computer game at one point. Sid described these events as "corporate shenanigans," which seems accurate.
To simplify, Francis Tresham of England created the board game Civilization in 1980 through the company Hartland Trefoil. It was licensed for release in the US by Avalon Hill. Although Sid never played the board game, Bruce Shelley, a former Avalon Hill employee, might have been influenced by it. Bill Stealey worked out a deal with Avalon Hill to share the Civilization name rights for a small fee and a cross-promotional flyer in every box. Civilization 1 for the computer was released and became hugely popular. Avalon Hill, jealous of this success, made their own computer game called Advanced Civilization. After Civilization 2 was released, Sid, Brian, and Jeff all left MicroProse.
Sid Meier's name became the key to the success of the Civilization series, outshining corporate giants.
Civilization was licensed for release in the US by a company called Avalon Hill. Although Sid Meier never played the board game, Bruce Shelly, a former Avalon Hill employee, might have brought some influence to the computer game. Bill Steely negotiated a deal with Avalon Hill to share the Civilization name rights for a small fee and a cross-promotional flyer in every box. When Civilization 1 for the computer was released, it exploded in popularity. Avalon Hill, the owner of the Civ board game, became jealous and created their own computer game called Advanced Civilization.
Civilization 2 for the computer was then released. Sid Meier, Brian Reynolds, and Jeff Briggs left MicroProse to create Firaxis Games. Avalon Hill licensed their Civilization board game rights to Activision, which led to a video game called Civilization: Call to Power. Both companies sued MicroProse for copyright infringement. Activision had the money, and Avalon Hill had the legal standing. However, the new corporate overlords at MicroProse, previously known as Spectrum Holobyte, made a bold business decision instead of counter-suing. They went to Hartland Trefoil, the original owners of the English board game Civilization, and bought the entire company. This move completely removed the legal ground Avalon Hill was standing on.
In the courtroom, MicroProse pointed out that Avalon Hill no longer had the licensing rights, which MicroProse now owned. Avalon Hill lost so much due to MicroProse's buyout of Hartland Trefoil that they were forced to sell their company to avoid bankruptcy. They sold it to American toy conglomerate Hasbro. Eight days after buying Avalon Hill, Hasbro also bought MicroProse. In 1999, Hasbro made a big push with their newly acquired Civilization intellectual property by releasing a game called Civilization 2: Test of Time under the MicroProse label. In the same year, Activision released Civilization: Call to Power.
Sid Meier, from Firaxis, also released a game in 1999, a spiritual successor to the Civilization series called Sid Meier's Alpha Centauri. Despite all the corporate shenanigans, only one of the three Civ games released in 1999 is remembered today, and it’s the one with Sid Meier's name on the box. Hasbro realized they would never profit from the Civilization IP without Sid Meier's involvement. They essentially handed over the rights to Firaxis, taking whatever cut they could get. This move marked a significant turn, as Sid Meier's name went from a mark of low confidence to a stamp of quality and the deciding factor in his burgeoning indie studio winning against a corporate giant.
The Civilization series continued in Firaxis' hands to this day with large success. Despite some flops, the series has been consistently solid compared to many other longstanding game series. The final paragraph of Sid Meier's book encapsulates his philosophy: "I think that in life as in game design, you have to find the fun. There is joy out there waiting to be discovered, but it might not be where you expect it. You can't decide what something's going to be before you embark on it, and you shouldn't stick with a bad idea just because you're fond of it. Take action as quickly and repeatedly as possible, take advantage of what you already know, and take liberties with tradition. But most importantly, take the time to appreciate the possibilities and make sure all of your decisions are interesting."
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