EVE is a massively multiplayer game, set in a world of galactic proportions. This online universe is governed by a hyper-capitalistic economy where space flight is the path to all commerce, communication, and conflict. Your mission is to establish yourself as a major competitor, trusted by your friends, feared by your enemies. To accomplish this, your principle tools -- apart from an impressive array of sophisticated equipment, customizable space ships and in-game corporations -- will be your natural business acumen, social skills, Machiavellian thinking and cunning combat strategies.

Set tens of thousands of years in the future, EVE Online is a breathtaking journey to the stars, to an immersive experience filled with adventure, riches, danger and glory. With nearly a quarter of a million subscribers worldwide inhabiting the same virtual universe, EVE features a vast player-run economy where your greatest asset is the starship, designed to accommodate your specific needs, skills and ambitions. EVE offers professions ranging from commodities trader to mercenary, industrial entrepreneur to pirate, mining engineer to battle fleet commander or any combination of these and much more. From brokering business deals to waging war, you will have access to a diverse array of sophisticated tools and interfaces to forge your own destiny in EVE.

Today CCP Games, in conjunction with Massively Multiplayer Online Science (MMOS), are calling on EVE players to re-engage with the third phase of Project Discovery, the groundbreaking citizen science project and mini-game found within EVE Online, CCP’s deep and uniquely player-driven spacefaring MMO.

Since June, Project Discovery participants have contributed to a major real-life scientific program that aims to understand the immune system’s response to the novel coronavirus (COVID-19). By marking cell populations on graphs that researchers are then able to analyse, players have been helping scientists further understand how COVID-19 specifically affects blood cells.

Today, CCP is pleased to announce that it has already received an astounding 41.4 million submissions, with over 466,000 already verified and now able to be used in scientific research - a quantity and accuracy of data that would not exist without the efforts of EVE’s dedicated players around the world.

With such an astounding level of engagement, CCP Games is therefore excited to announce that scientists behind the project -  including teams at McGill University, BC Cancer and front-line COVID-19 clinicians such as Dr Andrea Cossarizza (Professor of Immunology at the University of Modena and Reggio Emilia School of Medicine in Italy) - are asking players to level up and provide even more complex submissions that will help further the accuracy of fresh COVID-19 data.

This new level of challenge will provide scientists with advanced data that will be able to be shared with the global scientific community and contribute towards research aimed at understanding the pandemic.

Prospective participants can find further information on how they can better contribute to the fight against COVID-19.

Progress updates from the team of computer scientists and bioinformaticians based at the School of Computer Science at McGill University can be found here.

“The current phase of Project Discovery is perhaps one of the most timely issues we have ever engaged in and the response from players has been nothing short of astounding,” said Bergur Finnabogson, EVE Online’s Creative Director at CCP. “With over 40 million submissions made by our players I am reminded once again of the amazing community that sits at the core of EVE Online, and the proof that we can once again achieve the impossible over the insurmountable.”

“We have been working on Project Discovery for five years and it is amazing to see how the EVE player community even after all this time keep tirelessly participating in research efforts. This contribution is especially important and valuable in these pressing times. Thank you all!” said MMOS CEO and co-founder Attila Szantner.

“The participation and quality of the data produced by the EVE community has been truly amazing and exceeded all our projections. We are thrilled to be able to mine this unique source of wisdom for the immediate benefit of biomedical research,” said Jérôme Waldispühl, Associate Professor, School of Computer Science, McGill University.

“This project is crashing through all my expectations, with players continuing to show great engagement and interest in the work we are doing, as well as providing huge amounts of high-quality data for our research,” said Dr Ryan Brinkman, Professor in Medical Genetics, the University of British Columbia, Distinguished Scientist at BC Cancer. “Their efforts will not only contribute to the understanding of COVID-19, but the data they are generating will also be freely and widely shared with the entire scientific community. There is a very high interest in re-using their results for the generation of machine learning algorithms. There is simply no other resource out there for this anywhere close to what is now being generated.” 

“EVE Online players are doing an exceptional job. The accuracy of their analyses is very high, which demonstrates the extraordinary attention that is paid to what is not just a game but actually a real fight against COVID. Players from all over the world are proving that collaboration with scientists is absolutely successful and that together we can do a lot, in a very difficult moment in which the uncertainties are much greater than ever,” said Dr Andrea Cossarizza, Professor of Pathology and Immunology at the University of Modena and Reggio Emilia School of Medicine in Italy.