Massively Multiplayer Online Birdwatching Game

Posted by Zonk on Saturday April 21, 2007 @07:28PM from the more-learning-is-fun dept.

eldavojohn writes "The shots you take in CONE Sutro Forest don't come from shotguns or sniper rifles. In the game, players manipulate remote control cameras, taking pictures of birds and classifying them. It starts next week with the premise being that the more birds you take pictures of and classify correctly, the more points you get. It's more of an experiment in collaborative technology than a game ... but if you can get your users to do work for you and have fun at the same time, you might have something big."

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Collaborative cheating? by 6Yankee · 2007-04-21 21:35 · Score: 3, Insightful

From TFA: Players can see who else is logged on and try to beat them to the best pictures. The system waits until the photo is classified consistently by at least two players, and assigns points according to how rare the bird is. Players with higher scores get more influence over where the video camera is positioned.

So if a friend and I both classify a common sparrow as a bald eagle or something, we both get a too-high score and increased priority on the camera? Lather, rinse, repeat.

Hmmmm.