Online gamers crack AIDS enzyme puzzle | Games Blog - Yahoo! Games
I can almost hear it now...
"EEELIIIII WAALLAAAAACE!!!!!"
I can almost hear it now...
"EEELIIIII WAALLAAAAACE!!!!!"
Gamers crack an AIDS mystery!
- Thread starter Dannyalcatraz
- Start date
The news on this is generally of the form, "Gamers crack problem scientists have been working on for a decade!"
Because, you could also spin it, "Scientists get really clever, and use gamers as massive computer to solve difficult problem."
It is interesting how the emphasis is on the gamers, and not the scientists.
Because, you could also spin it, "Scientists get really clever, and use gamers as massive computer to solve difficult problem."
It is interesting how the emphasis is on the gamers, and not the scientists.
Relique du Madde
Adventurer
That's because they don't want to give props to the scientists and the programmers who built the system to allow the gamers to tinker with the enzyme. If they did then you would quickly realize that all they needed was people to play with the virus's component molecules in a 3d environment before they could figure out it's structure.
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Ahnehnois
First Post
If only more things in life worked this way. How often do we see a construction project described as the work of a politician who only stuck one shovel in the ground at the dig site. Imagine if those buildings were named in honor of the people who actually built them?
(Not that the hypothetical policitian's contribution to funding the project was meaningless; I'm just saying that the laborers' work typically goes unappreciated).
I could say similar things about doctors and nurses, or generals and grunts. Really I have no problem with recognition going to basic labor.
Thunderfoot
Hero
I love how they mention Second Life and D&D... Real deep research there Sherlock.
Everyone knows if D&D players were involved they would have just cast "Cure Disease" and got on with it.
Everyone knows if D&D players were involved they would have just cast "Cure Disease" and got on with it.
Just you wait- next year's Bird Flu vaccine will be linked to playing Angry Birds.
I have no problem with recognition going to labor - if the labor is, well, laborious. Somehow, I'm not driven to pat someone on the back for being entertained by playing a game.
I strongly expect that the design and coding of the program was a far bigger pain in the neck than playing the game. I don't see a whole lot of accolades in the headlines for that effort.
