Bergur Finnbogason

Gaming with a Purpose: Empowering Players through Citizen Science

Over the last eight years, an unlikely marriage has formed between AAA games and crowdsourced citizen science. Players of EVE Online and Borderlands 3 were introduced to new in-game features through which players can resolve scientific challenges through EVE Online: Project Discovery and Borderlands Science, which engaged over 5 million players, amassed over 700 million scientific data analyses, and were praised by worldwide media in coverage from the New Yorker to the front-page of Nature Biotechnology, becoming two of the most active and impactful citizen science projects to serve science.

During this talk, panelists will discuss the story of how games and gamer communities can manifest themselves as a force for good in the world through lessons of community building and engagement, employee retention through real-world impact, and a pipeline to acquire new and ethically motivated employees.

Bio:

Bergur Finnbogason is the Creative Director of EVE Online. Bergur joined CCP Games in 2010 then later the EVE Online team in Reykjavik in 2014. Bergur is very excited about the prospects for EVE Online as the game heads into its third decade of live operation and is a firm believer that we have yet to tap into its full potential.