this post was submitted on 21 Nov 2024
147 points (98.7% liked)

Games

32633 readers
1002 users here now

Welcome to the largest gaming community on Lemmy! Discussion for all kinds of games. Video games, tabletop games, card games etc.

Weekly Threads:

What Are You Playing?

The Weekly Discussion Topic

Rules:

  1. Submissions have to be related to games

  2. No bigotry or harassment, be civil

  3. No excessive self-promotion

  4. Stay on-topic; no memes, funny videos, giveaways, reposts, or low-effort posts

  5. Mark Spoilers and NSFW

  6. No linking to piracy

More information about the community rules can be found here.

founded 1 year ago
MODERATORS
you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
[–] [email protected] 16 points 5 hours ago (2 children)

Nothing clever to say except that this is fascinating and it would be cool to see mmorpg-like environments for other studies of virality, social phenomena etc. Anyone know of anything else like this?

[–] [email protected] 3 points 3 hours ago

There's only one I can think of, the Faldor Massacre. https://runescape.wiki/w/Falador_Massacre Basically a bug let players kill anyone they wanted even in safe zones. This meant a lot of people lost a lot of gear. Ironically occurring on the date 06/6/06.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 3 hours ago (1 children)

Not exactly the same, but Borderlands 3 had a minigame that helped map the gut microbiome.

Developed in conjunction with McGill University, Massively Multiplayer Online Science, and The Microsetta Initiative, Borderlands Science is a puzzle game that benefits the real-world scientific community as you play. Borderlands Science presents you with simple block puzzles based on strands of DNA, and by solving them you're helping to map and compare the microbes contained therein. Completing these puzzles also earns you in-game currency.

In case you're curious about the practical applications for the raw data gathered through Borderlands Science, the human gut is linked to numerous diseases and conditions, including diabetes, depression, autism, anxiety, obesity and more. By mapping these microbes, the hope is that scientists will be able to better understand these ecosystems, which may help guide future research into novel treatments and interventions.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 3 hours ago (1 children)

Exactly the sort of thing I was looking for thank you!

[–] [email protected] 2 points 3 hours ago

My pleasure! The game was actually fun, so I love seeing more of this stuff.

The project site has occasional updates on what is becoming of this data.