Reykjavík, Iceland – May 18, 2021 – Today, CCP Games and Massively Multiplayer Online Science (MMOS) are delighted to announce that Project Discovery is the People’s Voice Winner in the Games: Public Service, Activism, and Social Impact category of the 25th Annual Webby Awards in recognition for its contributions to COVID-19 research. MMOS also revealed that it has recorded close to half a billion classifications across all its projects in the last five years, including multiple iterations of Project Discovery.
Hailed as the “Internet’s highest honor” by The New York Times, The Webby Awards, presented by the International Academy of Digital Arts and Sciences (IADAS), is the leading international awards organization honoring excellence on the Internet.
Project Discovery is a groundbreaking citizen science mini-game in EVE Online, allowing players to contribute to scientific breakthroughs in between exploring systems, mining resources, and waging cosmic warfare. Since last June, 327,000 EVE Online players made over 115 million data submissions, saving scientists over 330 years of research to understand how COVID-19 affects blood cells and the human immune system.
Created in partnership with MMOS, McGill University, UNIMORE, BC Cancer, and front-line COVID-19 clinicians, the COVID-19 phase of Project Discovery is a mini-game in EVE Online that lets players process flow cytometry data by grouping cell populations present in blood with a tracing tool. This helps scientists learn how different cell populations and types are altered through infection, and players are offered in-game rewards for participating.
Read more about the project and award on the CCP website.