Interesting story on a long-lasting leader who helped bring the planet to ruin:

It was just a game. But it was the longest sustained run of Civ II anyone's ever seen. The player shared his saved games, and online communities started to form around the dystopia the game had created. The player, yes, but also the game. Why does this matter? For one thing, it's a reminder that not even saving the program is enough. It doesn't tell you how people played the game. The story quotes Henry Lowood, the Curator for History of Science & Technology Collections and Film & Media Collections in the Stanford University Libraries.

I think he means future historians will be interested in how people played the came 100 years before. Right? I don't know what "how was it part of the culture 100 years from now" could possibly mean otherwise. It's a nice idea, but depressing: there's no way to carry forward all these games, all these experiences. In the end we'll be lucky if we have screenshots for anything that existed before 2006.

After that, things look better - people started filming game play, and as long as their YouTube accounts are active - a big if, granted - we'll be able to watch someone play that Doom mod where you have the eight-barreled shotgun. Because six barrels wasn't enough.