Borderlands 3 is best known as a looter-shooter game, but recently Gearbox added a mini-game that could help the medical industry, something not everyone would associate with such a game.
Here's Why You Should Play Borderlands Science
The mini-game in question is known as Borderlands Science, a tile puzzler wherein Borderlands 3 players need to match colored tiles, which have the most iconic faces of the Borderlands franchise, by their color and shape.
So, how does this help science and the medical field?
According to a report by Destructoid, these in-game tiles represent DNA samples from human poop that include microbes that are present in the human body and responsible for several health issues like Alzheimer's, cancer, Parkinson's, and diabetes.
By matching and linking the colored tiles in Borderlands Science, players create new A.I. algorithms, helping save experts from thousands of hours of A.I. coding.
Merely playing the Borderlands 3 mini-game could help experts in teaching computers to identify different microbes and link them to each other.
The information that will be gathered from the mini-game, which is actually made by scientists, as per RPS, will be made available to scientists, researchers, and doctors around the world.
Created by Scientists
Borderlands Science is part of the research being conducted by the McGill University, The Microsetta Initiative, and Massively Multiplayer Online Science. You can find out all about what they will be doing with the data from the mini-game by visiting Borderlands' official website.
"The human gut is linked to numerous diseases and conditions, including diabetes, depression, autism, anxiety, obesity, and more. By mapping these microbes, the hope is that scientists will be able to better understand these ecosystems, which may help guide future research into novel treatments and interventions," said The Microsetta Initiative.
But helping alone in medical research is not enough incentive for many Borderlands 3 players, but the creators might have anticipated this problem.
Therefore, the developers added some good incentives: players could get some loot by playing Borderlands Science and reaching a target score for a level.
Rewarded with Skins
Players will be rewarded with new skins for four classes, according to Forbes.
The skins are for FL4K, Moze, and Amara's, although the latter's skin hasn't been announced yet, but both FL4K and Moze's skins have already been guaranteed and are used as promo art for the mini-game.
Gearbox has also released a trailer.
To play the mini-game, players can go to Sanctuary 3 and check out the arcade cabinet, which should be available now.
Check the arcade, and then they can play the game to help science and get some cool new skins.
Borderlands Science is not the first time a video game and science went hand in hand to help with real-life medical research.
A few years ago, Eve Online released Project Discovery, which is an in-game image analysis mini-game that the developers rolled out to help experts in examining and classifying images of cells.
Borderlands 3 is available on PC via Steam, Google Stadia, Xbox One, and PlayStation 4.
