What’s better than a science MMO story or a feel-good MMO story? One that’s both. And this one is both, as EVE Online and CCP Games have officially announced the next phase of Project Discovery, the citizen science campaign it’s been waging to reward EVE players for helping in actual, real-world science projects.
Having previously launched initiatives to isolate exoplanets and explore the human genome, CCP turned its attention to fighting COVID in 2020. Last spring, the company announced it was working with multiple universities on a minigame in EVE that would essentially use a tracing tool to mark groups of cell populations in blood to give scientists a clearer idea of how different cell populations and types are altered through infection.
Today, the studio announced that it managed to generate over 41 million submissions – 264 on average per user – with nearly half a million verified and usable so far. CCP communicated its current stats to us yesterday; we’re looking at…
• 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
It’s been so successful that now CCP is embarking on another tier of the campaign with “even more complex submissions” and is asking players to redouble their efforts in exchange for in-game rewards. You’re doing amazing, sweeties. Here’s Dr Andrea Cossarizza, Professor of Pathology and Immunology at the University of Modena and Reggio Emilia School of Medicine in Italy, reminding everyone that yes, you’re really helping:
“EVE Online players are doing an exceptional job. The accuracy of their analyses is very high, which demonstrates the extraordinary attention that is paid to what is not just a game but actually a real fight against COVID. Players from all over the world are proving that collaboration with scientists is absolutely successful and that together we can do a lot, in a very difficult moment in which the uncertainties are much greater than ever.”
