EVE Fanfest 2023: EVE players will help cure cancer with new Project Discovery minigame

Back in 2016, EVE Online developer CCP Games announced an unusual partnership with scientific research organisation MMOs and the Human Protein Atlas. They created a new minigame inside EVE named Project Discovery that asked players to spot features in images of cells in exchange for in-game rewards. Over the years this minigame has been used to contribute to real-life research on gene expression, find exoplanets orbiting distant stars, and most recently helping with COVID research.

The next stage of Project Discovery was announced at EVE Fanfest 2023 this weekend, and this time we’re trying to cure cancer — so no pressure or anything. The next phase is intent on analysing data from flow cytometry to help with research into several immune system disorders and cancers. Data from players can reportedly be aggregated in a way that produces results just as reliable as a paid professional, and this will be used to train AI to analyse samples at scale. Researchers even confirmed that some of the individual players have had more accurate analysis than the professionals.

Disclosure: In accordance with Massively OP’s ethics policy, we must disclose that CCP paid for our writer’s travel to and accommodation at this event. CCP neither requested nor was granted any control or influence over our coverage of the event. If anyone could grind their way to curing cancer, it’s probably EVE players.

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