the limits of interactive simulation and authoring technology, such as 3Dengines [Susi et al. 2007 ]. Some of the wide-ranging applications of serious games are firefighter training [Backlund et al. 2007 ], raising awareness of social issues,9 and military recruitment.10 In this book, the main goal is to generate useful scientific discoveries; however, other aspects of game design, such as the requirement that the game be fun, contribute to achieving this goal, as the results rely on players playing the game.
One particular subgenre of serious games is games for health. Playing games has, in some settings, been shown to be beneficial to the player’s health. Games have been shown to be useful for rehabilitation, development, and therapy, and even for distracting patients from pain or bad habits [Adriaenssens et al. 1988, Griffiths 2005 ]. Nintendo’s Wii Fit package11 is intended to help players improve their personal fitness.
Many games emphasize social interactions as well. Massively multiplayer online games (MMOs), like World of Warcraft12 and Second Life,13 often host persistent virtual worlds where players can customize avatars, socialize, and work together with other players. Diverse niche MMOs exist, targeting teens or people interested in racing, allowing people with similar interests to interact [Zenke 2008 ].
Similarly, Alternate Reality Games (ARGs) engage large groups of people to participating in narratives in the real world [Martin et al. 2006 ]. Often, multiple forms of technology will be used to coordinate the players, who will be working together towards a common goal. I Love Bees, a popular ARG, had players work together to find payphones and answer prerecorded questions [Terdiman 2004 ].
2.3 Computational Biochemistry
In the field of biochemistry, many computational methods have been used to study protein folding, predict protein structures, and design new proteins. The most closely related to our work is Rosetta. Rosetta combines structural energy minimization with a Monte Carlo search algorithm to predict native protein structures [Rohl et al. 2004 ]. Foldit uses the Rosetta software for its energy function, as well as many of the algorithms and functionality for energy minimization and protein manipulation. In order to access massive amounts of computation for searching a protein’s large structural space, the volunteer computing project Rosetta@home14 runs Rosetta’s algorithms on volunteer’s computers.
Another volunteer computing project, Folding@home,15 aims to simulate the process of protein folding. The Folding@home project has also been ported to the PS3, and thus has access to powerful hardware and gives gamers the opportunity to help science. Folding@home’s approach is based on simulating the molecular dynamics of protein folding [Pande et al. 2003 ]. Onedifference to note is that Rosetta and Foldit only attempt to determine the final structures, while Folding@home simulates the folding process. This makes Rosetta and Foldit more amenable to problems like protein design, where one is interested in the final folded structure, while Folding@home’s approach is more useful for studying topics like protein misfolding.
Many visualizations for biological molecules have been developed to aid biochemists. Popular visualizations include Corey-Pauling-Koltun (CPK) [Corey and Pauling 1953 ], which displays the chemical properties of individual atoms, and cartoon or ribbon, which shows a more abstract, stylized version of the backbone’s secondary structures [Natarajan et al. 2008 ]. PyMOL is a popular viewer that gives access to many of these visualizations.16 These visualizations are tuned for scientists, and may not be appropriate for novices.
One possible approach to manipulating three-dimensional objects is to use widgets. Widgets associate behavior with geometry in the scene, so users can interact directly with the environment [Conner et al. 1992 ]. The Sculpt system allows users to interact with and guide a protein as it folds in the presence of minimization of a physically plausible energy [Surles et al. 1994 ]. While Sculpt has some features in common with Foldit, it is a single-user application, while Foldit is a multiplayer game, with many new features.
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3 Framework
3.1 Introduction
This chapter introduces a general framework for scientific discovery games. We present guidelines for mapping a scientific problem into a game, and address
