Many people see video games as simply a form of recreation, and for most people, it is. But, as a source of digital entertainment, it stands unique. Things like listening to music, watching TV, and reading books are all passive activities, whereas video games are active. The player has to do stuff and be good at it to progress, whether it’s reflexes, tactics, critical thinking or teamwork.

Video games also have some of the most dedicated fans, with people willing to throw themselves at problems over and over till they conquer them. By tapping into that energy and endurance, it’s possible to do great things. It’s led to speedrunners conquering games in record times, the creation of eSports filled with professional video game athletes, and gamers solving real world issues.

Gamers Unraveling Proteins

Back in 2011, scientists were stumped by a protein located in a virus that causes AIDS in monkeys. Any research revolving around AIDS is worthwhile, but scientists were at a loss. They needed to unravel this protein to better understand the virus to find a cure, but had been stuck for several years.

Rather than admit defeat, they turned it open to the public, especially to gamers. The online game Foldit is based on popular protein models and players win by creating the most stable proteins. Players are armed with tools to build proteins but have little technical knowledge of the actual science. More than anything, if feels like an elaborate puzzle to build the right protein. The result?

Within ten days, a community of players had solved the protein, something that plagued scientists for almost a decade.

The Power of Crowdsourcing to Gamers

With the above example, it’s clear that crowdsourcing can be a powerful tool. Sometimes, you need more people working on a problem to solve it, or it could require different thought processes.

Additionally, crowdsourcing can lead to innovative solutions, especially when working with gamers. They are a community of people who find shortcuts and unique ways to overcome problems. As technology improves, there will be more opportunities to incorporate crowdsourcing gamers in different industries.

Law Enforcement

While you can’t crowdfund police work to gamers, there is potential to including them in the data aspect of it. Activities like crime mapping or crime analysis could be done by creating a game focused on letting gamers help. While gamers can’t help with the actual solving of crimes because of legal reasons, they can help prevent crimes by identifying areas and trends that can contribute to crimes.

Having more and more people working together on preventative measures could help lower crime and assist law enforcement on where they need to focus. It can also identify the types of crime prevalent in specific areas. By releasing this data, it can also help citizens in those areas know what to watch for and take the necessary steps to better protect themselves.

Making Better Maps

Mapping data is incredibly valuable, but not a lot of businesses are working on improving it. We know Google is working on having a current map of the whole world, but it quickly becomes out of date. A game that could help update these maps is possible if done well and was a lot of fun.

We know that people are willing to go outside and walk around for a mobile game. Pokemon Go has proved this with its wild success. If a game was developed that encouraged mapping local areas that made the process rewarding and fun, this data could be sent mapping sources to improve the world’s maps. This could result in even more accurate maps and up to date changes, something that could be very useful with new housing developments and businesses going up every day.

Improving The World’s Knowledge

The internet can be a wonderful source of everything anybody would want to learn. Yet, people need incentive to learn, so games is a wonderful way to do this. Universities are using games to teach specific skills, but there should be more easily available to everybody.

There are tons of games that revolve around trivia or improving your mental abilities, but not as many that teach specific skills or knowledge. Many businesses and professionals look for effective ways to give employees the information they need but also provide practice to implement said information. Video games meant to teach can do just that.

As technology continues to improve, video games can do some very great things for the world. As we find more ways video games can help the world, maybe we’ll have entire jobs and careers where people play a game to provide a solution to a problem.