The Corona virus is an omnipresent topic, which even has serious consequences for the video game industry: Various gaming trade fairs and events have already been postponed or canceled, while the production of PC and console hardware is being delayed, resulting in delivery bottlenecks and delays.
However, the gaming industry is not just a "victim" of the corona virus – in fact, video games (and we gamers) could help find a cure for COVID-19. Specifically, this is about the title Foldit.
A game against the virus
This is a crowdsourcing video game developed at the University of Washington and published in 2008 "to help scientists optimize proteins."
Less abstract and specifically related to the corona virus, this means for players to solve a puzzleto discuss which drugs are effective against COVID-19.
So you get involved
No prior knowledge of medicine, research or science is required to use Foldit. The aim of the developers is, after all, that almost every video player can participate in the crowdsourcing project without being overwhelmed by technical terms or medical know-how.
Among other things, various tutorial puzzles or the calculation of high scores help – depending on how well or badly the players have done to solve a puzzle.
Today we're calling on YOU to help design antiviral proteins against #coronavirus:https://t.co/ecqJmpXaj8
The most promising solutions will be manufactured & tested at the Institute for Protein Design (@UWproteindesign) in Seattle. #CitizenScience #COVID # COVID2019 #citsci pic.twitter.com/TsknpmwCyN
– Foldit (@Foldit) February 28, 2020
The aim is to support scientists in their research by daring as many different people as possible with different approaches and strategies to tackle an (unsolved) problem.
Especially in this case: the corona virus and finding an antidote. To take part in the fight against the corona virus with the help of a video game, go to the official homepage of Foldit.
Gaming vs. Corona: What are the chances?
The University of Washington has already confirmed that the most promising ideas that Foldit comes up with in the corona puzzle are be tested and tried out. However, the researchers cannot promise that the endeavor will be successful soon or at some point.
more on the subject
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However, nobody should let this get them down: Currently, the Corona puzzle from Foldit has a high score of 16,780. It is held on the one hand by the player toshiue and on the other hand by a group called Go Science. It is hoped that these numbers will give even more video gamers an opportunity to beat the current highscore and thus support the developers of Foldit.
At the current time over 92,000 people worldwide infected with the coronavirus while 3,110 did not survive the disease – many of them were elderly people with a weakened immune system. There is currently no vaccine against the coronavirus.
