25 May Would you like to know more?
While we are pursuing our analysis of the tens of millions of solutions submitted by Borderlands 3 and Eve Online communities, we do in this post a recap of various announces made last weeks. We have been active on many fronts. We participated to several events to explain the motivations, objectives and status of our citizen science projects. But most importantly, for the first time, the contribution of all citizen scientists has been recognized with a Webby People’s Voice Award for Project Discovery 3 and Borderlands Science reached a milestone of 2 million participants! If you miss (one of) these announces or (even better!) want to read/watch it again, check the list below.
The (first?) documentary about citizen science and video games
The talented Flutter Brothers released a documentary for the series Off the Cuff that describes how video games are changing the science landscape. Members of both Borderlands Science and Project Discovery gave interviews to discuss their motivation and experience. The documentary features Bergur Finnbogason (Creative Director at CCP games), Daniel McDonald (Scientific Director, The Microsetta Initiative), Gabriel Richard (Lead Game Designer, Gearbox Studio Québec), Attila Szantner (CEO, Massively Multiplayer Online Science) and Jérôme Waldispühl (Assoc. Professor, McGill University) and is freely available on YouTube at https://youtu.be/zoWIOEm4EAw!
Borderlands Science reaches 2 million participants
For its first anniversary (Borderlands Science was launched on April 7, 2020), Gearbox Software announced that Borderlands Science engaged more than 2 million gamers: https://www.gearboxsoftware.com/press_release/gearbox-entertainment-celebrates-anniversary-of-borderlands-science-research/. To our knowledge, this is an unprecedented achievement. No other citizen project ever gathered so many participants in such short time. Congratulations to all Borderlands 3 participants!
Project Discovery wins a Webby People’s Voice Award
On May 18, the International Academy of Digital Arts and Sciences announced that Project Discovery won of the People’s Voice Winner in the Games: Public Service, Activism, and Social Impact category at the 25th Annual Webby Awards. This award recognizes the fantastic contribution and commitment to science made by the Eve Online community through Project Discovery since its first inception in 2016, and importantly it was awarded by the public itself! See the full announcement from CCP games at https://www.ccpgames.com/news/2021/eve-onlines-project-discovery-wins-webby-peoples-voice-award-for-public.
Blah blah blah!
We have been lucky enough to participate to several online events to present and discuss our projects. These talks are now publicly available online in English and French!
On May 3, Gabriel Richard and Jérôme Waldispühl presented Borderlands Science at the 88e conference of the association de promotion et défense de la recherche en français during a colloquium organized by the Fonds de recherche du Québec. The recording of the event is now available on YouTube at https://youtu.be/iF0opv8Stz4. En francais, s’il vous plait!
On May 5, for more than an hour, Ryan Brinkman (BC Cancer), Attila Szantner (MMOS) and Jérôme Waldispühl (McGill University) answered questions from the Eve Online community on the CCP games channel. Adam Laing and Abhi Das from King’s College London joined us at this occasion to offer their perspective on the practical impact of Project Discovery. Replay the stream at https://www.twitch.tv/videos/1012145080 !
Finally, on May 13 (and again during more than an hour!) Gabriel Richard and Jérôme Waldispühl answered questions from the public about Borderlands Science, while Dr. Sarah Hays and CamillaPanda from Queer Women of Esports were playing the game in background! This interactive online event organized by the Royal Canadian Institute for Science and Queer Women of Esports can now be replayed at https://youtu.be/N2k6snGSPn0 .