EVE Online publisher and developer CCP alongside Massively Multiplayer Online Science have announced the start of Project Discovery’s third phase, calling players to take part once more in the MMOs citizen science project.
Starting with June, Project Discovery has enabled Eve Online players to contribute to a real-life scientific program that “aims to understand the immune system’s response to the novel coronavirus” by simply playing a minigame found inside the MMORPG.
“The newest iteration of Project Discovery allows you to analyze data produced by flow cytometers. Using a tracing tool, you will draw polygons around clusters of cells. In doing so, you will participate in analyzing COVID-19 data, as well as other related flow cytometry charts, which will help scientists understand better how our immune systems are impacted by this novel coronavirus.” reads the minigame’s description on the MMORPG’s official website.
EVE Online Project Discovery
Since the start of Project Discovery, the publisher has received 39.6 million submissions, 466,000 already being verified. This is “a quantity and accuracy of data that would not exist without the efforts of EVE’s dedicated players around the world”, according to an emailed press release.
During the same period, the project has also reached:
- 41.4 million classifications completed
- 264 average classifications per user
- 171,000 players completed the tutorial
- 157,000 active players solving tasks
- 148.35 work years spent on solving tasks
- 32.51 years spent on solving tasks
- 707,000 unique tasks in the system for players to solve
The project’s third phase involves submitting more complex data that will further help the process of understanding COVID-19.
To participate, players simply need to create a character, complete the tutorial, then access the minigame by selecting the double helix icon in the Neocom menu. By playing, they can level up and also earn in-game rewards.
“The current phase of Project Discovery is perhaps one of the most timely issues we have ever engaged in and the response from players has been nothing short of astounding,” said EVE Online Creative Director Bergur Finnabogson.
“[The players’] efforts will not only contribute to the understanding of COVID-19, but the data they are generating will also be freely and widely shared with the entire scientific community. There is a very high interest in re-using their results for the generation of machine learning algorithms. There is simply no other resource out there for this anywhere close to what is now being generated.” said Dr Ryan Brinkman, Professor in Medical Genetics, the University of British Columbia, Distinguished Scientist at BC Cancer.
CCP has partnered with institutions like Massively Multiplayer Online Science, McGill University, BC Cancer and the University of Modena for Eve Online’s Project Discovery.
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