EVE Online minigame helps with real-life medical research

By Brad Jones March 10, 2016

eve online project discovery minigame — Image used with permission by copyright holder

EVE Online might not have the mainstream name recognition of online games like World of Warcraft or even Destiny, but it’s a hugely popular title with hundreds of thousands of subscribers. Now, that massive player base is being called upon in the name of medical science.

Developer CGP Games has announced a new addition to the game called Project Discovery. In it, players will be called upon by the in-game humanitarian faction the Sisters of EVE to play a minigame based on recognizing patterns and differences between images.

Players will receive in-game rewards and see their Project Discovery rank increase as they complete more and more tasks. At the same time, they’ll be contributing to a significant scientific research project, as the images being analyzed are high-quality scans of real human cells.

CGP Games is working in collaboration with Massively Multiplayer Online Science and Reykjavik University to help improve and expand the Human Protein Database. By introducing the minigame — and the rewards associated with it — EVE Online players are being leveraged as an enormous international research team.

Not only is this a great PR move for a game sometimes associated with large-scale griefing, but it’s seemingly been executed with a huge amount of care and consideration. The same functionality could have been shoehorned into the game in a variety of ways, but taking the time to work the research into the game’s setting speaks volumes about the developer’s attention to detail.

The Project Discovery minigame is up and running now for anyone that’s looking to help out with the research, or simply start working on their rank. While a paid subscription is required for most of the content available in EVE Online, players can access Project Discovery without paying a cent.

Editors' Recommendations

Topics

Contributor

Brad is an English-born writer currently splitting his time between Edinburgh and Pennsylvania. You can find him on Twitter…

Gaming

How to beat the Green Monster of the Swamp in Lies of P

The green monster of the swamp in a swamp.

People are drawn to challenging games like Lies of P for a variety of reasons. Some enjoy the atmosphere, the storytelling, the exploration, and more, but for many, it is the bosses that make or break the experience. Without a doubt, Lies of P delivers on providing the kinds of challenging bosses fans of other soulslike games are after, but some may push things a bit too far. By the time you've reached the Barren Swamp, the game fully expects you to have mastered all the mechanics, weapons, Legion Arms, and more. At this point, you will be faced with the Green Monster of the Swamp. This boss's patterns are incredibly hard to read, plus it can inflict you with Decay if you're not careful. If this creature from the swamp is giving you grief, here's how to best this foul beast in Lies of P.
Green Monster of the Swamp strategy

The Green Monster of the Swamp fight will have two phases, the first of which it will bear the normal name. To most easily counter this form, you will want a Legion Arm or weapon that can deal fire damage, which is its elemental weakness. For yourself, equip something like the Defense Parts that buff your resistances, as well as Attribute Resistant Ampoules and Purification Ampoules to counter any Decay.

Gaming

The best games on PlayStation Plus, Extra, and Premium

A person plays Crash Bandicoot using a PS5 DualSense controller.

PlayStation Plus has gone through several iterations and changes since it was first introduced. Originally, the service wasn't required for online play at all and rewarded subscribers with extra discounts and free monthly games. Once the PlayStation 4 generation began, it was required for online play, but still offered those same benefits.

Now, PS Plus is divided into three different tiers of subscriptions. The basic tier, PS Plus Essential, still gets three games per month added, while the Extra and Premium tiers will have a varying number of games added to their catalogs. With hundreds of games already and more coming and going all the time, even the most dedicated gamer won't be able to play everything on offer. To help you get the most bang for your buck, and so that no hidden gems fly under your radar, here are all the best games to play on PS Plus Essential, Extra, and Premium right now.
Best PS Plus Essential games
As is usually the case, everyone with the lowest tier of PS Plus gets three games this month, two with PlayStation 5 versions and one with a PS4 version. Here's what you can play this month:

Gaming

I played Resident Evil Village on an iPad and it blew me away

Resident Evil Village

Back when the Steam Deck was just a rumor (dubbed the Steam Pal), I had my fair share of skepticism. It’s not that I didn’t like the idea of a handheld computer; it just felt like a short-term solution. At that time, I posited that we were quickly approaching a time when phones and tablets would be able to run PC games natively, making devices like a Steam Deck feel like a pricey stopgap. I’ve been won over by Valve’s handheld since then, but my prophecy may be coming true sooner than I expected.

Apple dropped a bombshell announcement this month when it revealed that Assassin’s Creed Mirage and Resident Evil 4, two current-gen games, will be natively playable on the iPad and iPhone 15 Pro, alongside older titles like Death Stranding and Resident Evil Village. That announcement has the potential to radically shift the handheld gaming market if Apple is able to launch new games on its devices at the same time as consoles and PC. That is, if those games actually run well.