Games in Science

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Encyclopedia of Computer Graphics and Games

Synonyms

Citizen science; Crowdsourcing, scientific games; Educational games; Games with a purpose

Definition

Games in Science are used for scientific purposes, like crowdsourcing scientific problems, collecting data from gamers, educating the gamers, or gamifying science itself.

Introduction

Games are not only used for entertainment but also for several serious purposes. Academia has used games for research and knowledge generation as well as for teaching and knowledge transfer. It has been proven that some complicated scientific problems can be solved much better by human players than algorithms. If it is possible to transfer a problem into an entertaining game structure, it could possibly be crowdsourced to a worldwide gaming community. Motivated by game mechanics and the higher purpose of hel** science, many players have invested a tremendous amount of time in these games.

One of the most popular examples of this strategy is Foldit, an experimental computer game in which the...

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References

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Correspondence to Christian Stein .

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Stein, C., Lilge, T. (2024). Games in Science. In: Lee, N. (eds) Encyclopedia of Computer Graphics and Games. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-23161-2_152

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