Do you ever play video games? Do you see yourself as a gamer? Yes? No?
Whatever your answers are to these questions, you must’ve heard of the discussion on the influences of certain video games on its users. A 2015 survey by PEW Research Center showed that 76% of adults do not agree with the statement that “most games are not a waste of time” and only 11% of adults agree that “video games are a better form of entertainment than TV” (Duggan, 2015). Now I do agree that many video games are not adding any value to anyone else but the gamer, but we could take the step to change this around a full 180 degrees. Digital technologies have already enabled multiple initiatives to do so. Let’s take a quick look at two examples.
Have you ever heard of the game Genes in Space? It is a game developed by Cancer Research UK to help them analyze their data retrieved from gene microarrays. Over 400,000 people worldwide played the game and were able to collectively analyze close to 5,000,000 nuggets of data, which represented the entire genomes of 1980 patients, each checked 50 times for accuracy (Cancer Research UK, n.d.).
A second game is Foldit, an online puzzle game from 2011. This game about protein folding helped researchers to “resolve the structure of an enzyme that causes an Aids-like disease in monkeys” (Mohammadi, 2014). Gamers solved this puzzle in three weeks, after researchers had already spend 13 years on it.
There are far more games alike these two, enabling anyone to help science. But why are companies not yet investing in creating games that would help them analyze their big data? In a time where the amount of data created is doubled at least every two years, the pressure on big data analysts is high. Adding to that that 40% of companies are struggling to find and retain data analytics talent (Business.com Editorial staff, 2017) would make it seem that any help available can be deemed useful.
So wouldn’t it make a lot of sense if, especially large, companies start to invest their money in finding ways to feed their big data into games? Assuming that such a game could be made attractive to play, they would potentially be able to reach millions of gamers around the globe who can help them finding patterns in their data and understand the data better. Especially since we know that we spend around 3 billion hours a week playing online games (Mohammadi, 2014), the potential could be enormous. The data could then be replaced by objects or other things in a game to protect the data itself, as almost no company would want to have their big data open to the public. For example, in the game Genes in Space, the gene data was masked in the form of a substance called ‘Element Alpha’.
Could you imagine such a development to come, or do you know of any way this is already being applied? Or do you see major problems that would make this impossible? I would be very curious to hear what your thoughts are on this.
References
Business.com Editorial staff. (2017, February 22). Big Data, Big Problem: Coping With Shortage of Talent in Data Analysis. Retrieved from Business.com: https://www.business.com/articles/big-data-big-problem-coping-with-shortage-of-talent-in-data-analysis/
Cancer Research UK. (n.d.). The Projects. Retrieved from Cancer Research UK: http://www.cancerresearchuk.org/support-us/citizen-science/the-projects#citizenscience1
Duggan, M. (2015, December 15). Gaming and Gamers. Retrieved from PEW Research Center: http://www.pewinternet.org/2015/12/15/gaming-and-gamers/
Mohammadi, D. (2014, January 25). How online gamers are solving science’s biggest problems. Retrieved from The Guardian: https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2014/jan/25/online-gamers-solving-sciences-biggest-problems
Hi,
Good read! I’ve never heard of these games before. I think games are fine if you have some spare time to ease your mind. Games with the purpose of solving complex, scientific problems are even better. I don’t think companies would be at the front row regarding the development of similar games. The 2 examples you mentioned do differ a lot from the mainstream games which are played the most. However, if game development companies and scientist could work together and deliver a game that is attractive to play, looks good and helps the scientist with their research it would be a great achievement.
Companies on the other hand could use the game solving style on their own data as well. I’m however wondering what the impact of these games might be on PC performance. Might there could be an incentive for games to play such games?
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Hi Sander, nice post! I had never heard of this concept before, but it is very interesting! I think it does make gaming “more useful” in a sense. After reading your post I went and did some research to find more recent games with the same concept, and found some more games on the site I have linked below. Maybe you also want to check it out.
One thing I have noticed is that I spent more time playing those games than I should have. Me thinking it was okay to keep playing, as it was in the name of science, probably contributed to that. I feel like this might be the case for more young people, which could be seen as a key selling point by game creators. Therefore I am not sure if it would be a good idea if mainstream game creators start advertising this concept to young people who are more easily impressionable, as the main goal of mainstream game creators in general is to make as much money as possible. They might not be concerned with optimizing the research from the scientific concept, which could damage the concept’s reputation if the customer base finds out.
https://www.scienceathome.org/games/