I just checked some youtube videos of the Fold It game for the first time and I must say that it looks MUCH better than I expected.

Excellent graphics, powerful interface, even good sound effects!

I encourage everybody to check out these two videos to get an idea:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lGYJyur4FUA&fmt=18

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=va92d9Ei1QM&fmt=18

And to go check out the game at:

http://fold.it/portal/adobe_main/

Congrats to the Rosetta team for creating it. Colour me impressed :)

I think you'll need to get better servers for it, because there's going to be lots of traffic...

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I registered, downloaded the game and started playing.. At first, after watching the video, I kinda expected it to be fairly hard. But there's a step by step tutorial in the game, with progressively harder puzzles.

They show you how to use the interface and tools, very intuitive. Those who aren't trying it because they think it's going to be too hard, please give it a try!

Edit: To help spread the word, I wrote this post on my blog:

http://michaelgr.com/2008/05/11/fold-it-the-protein-folding-game/

If you have a website, I encourage you to do the same :)

edit 2: Another thing: If the Rosetta@home screensaver ever gets graphics as good as the Fold It game, I bet it'll become a lot more popular. They're so very nice.

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I tried to register with Foldit today but when I click the register button all I get is "You are not authorized to access this page". Does anyone know what I can do?

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I think they are still having some growing pains today. Try it again later.

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Rosetta Moderator: Mod.Sense

This "game" doesn't look like it would be of much interest to anyone other than a molecular biology major. I think it has limited potential in the area of "mass" appeal.

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This "game" doesn't look like it would be of much interest to anyone other than a molecular biology major. I think it has limited potential in the area of "mass" appeal.

The game seems to already have been receiving a lot more attention, and to be played by a lot more people than the developers ever expected.

They don't need to reach everybody. There's a niche of people that will be interested by this out there, and that could be enough to do quite a bit of science.

Most of the top ranked players are not biologists, or even scientists at all.

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Is this game cross-platform?

Stephen

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Is this game cross-platform?

Stephen

Windows and OSX (intel), iirc.

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Until the fix the "sharing" & "special tools" (cheating) problems, I wouldn't bother.

They have implemented a group thing that lets a group work on a puzzle. People can join the group, grab the best solutoin the group has, and take it back with them to the individual competition and leap-frog over all those that are trying to compete as pure individuals. Groups also close membership so only the individuals on that team can have access to the shared solution and use it to increase their own individual ranking.

There evidently are also special folding tools available only to a chosen few that lets them have a hugely unfair advantage over the general population of folders. These chosen few are allowed to compete with those that don't have the access. I would consider that cheating.

It might be of some limited scientific interest, but as a competitive game, until those problems are fixed it isn't worth the cycles.

Oh, and the profiles don't work either. And there are numerous unaddressed software problems like 404 errors every time you try to connect.

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Proudly Banned from Predictator@Home and now Cosmology@home as well. Added SETI to the list today. Temporary ban only - so need to work harder :)



"You can't fix stupid" (Ron White)

There evidently are also special folding tools available only to a chosen few that lets them have a hugely unfair advantage over the general population of folders. These chosen few are allowed to compete with those that don't have the access. I would consider that cheating.

Ironic, isn't it? That those "chosen few" are ALL of the folks that started via the Rosetta@home early release... which you evidentally chose not to participant in.

And you evidentally don't have the new tool in question and so are making a huge presumption that it provides some "hugely unfair advantage". Any advantage has been hugely minimized by releasing the tool to everyone before the end of the one and only puzzle where it provided any noticible advantage by pointing you to a solution that scores well, but isn't correct.

It might be of some limited scientific interest, but as a competitive game, until those problems are fixed it isn't worth the cycles.

Scoring, ranking, and teaming aside, the reason the project was undertaken was the scientific interest. Scoring, ranking and teaming have no scientific interest and so, understandably are still being developed. And you don't need scoring, ranking and teaming to learn to how to reach higher scores with the available tools. Indeed, if you do not play now, you score no points towards player ranking and it will take you longer to catch up to others that have given it a try.

Oh, and the profiles don't work either. And there are numerous unaddressed software problems like 404 errors every time you try to connect.

I haven't seen a 404 error since about day 3 of the public announcement when the site was being pounded by 20,000 new folders. If there are specific problems, they should be posted on the Fold.it forums.

We're all entitled to our first impressions of the game, but I hope you don't let the impressions posted by Angus jade you. Indeed, there's nothing in his comments that imply he's done anything more then read comments posted to the chat box that is incorporated into the game, or can be attached to with an IRC client.

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Add this signature to your EMail:
Running Microsoft's "System Idle Process" will never help cure cancer, AIDS nor Alzheimer's. But running Rosetta@home just might!
https://boinc.bakerlab.org/rosetta/

[quote]There evidently are also special folding tools available only to a chosen few that lets them have a hugely unfair advantage over the general population of folders. These chosen few are allowed to compete with those that don't have the access. I would consider that cheating.

Ironic, isn't it? That those "chosen few" are ALL of the folks that started via the Rosetta@home early release... which you evidentally chose not to participant in.

And you evidentally don't have the new tool in question and so are making a huge presumption that it provides some "hugely unfair advantage". Any advantage has been hugely minimized by releasing the tool to everyone before the end of the one and only puzzle where it provided any noticible advantage by pointing you to a solution that scores well, but isn't correct.

The tool in question - something called "rebuild" - is not and was not available when I joined the game on June 03. So - who has this tool? Not anyone joining recently, I would guess. Why isn't the same software made available to everyone who joins? Only reason I can think of is to give the "chosen few" an unfair advantage, and of course THEY wouldn't want it to be released. I can't imagine why feet1st thinks everyone has it.

It might be of some limited scientific interest, but as a competitive game, until those problems are fixed it isn't worth the cycles.

Scoring, ranking, and teaming aside, the reason the project was undertaken was the scientific interest. Scoring, ranking and teaming have no scientific interest and so, understandably are still being developed. And you don't need scoring, ranking and teaming to learn to how to reach higher scores with the available tools. Indeed, if you do not play now, you score no points towards player ranking and it will take you longer to catch up to others that have given it a try.

What good is a "game" without scores? Useless!

Oh, and the profiles don't work either. And there are numerous unaddressed software problems like 404 errors every time you try to connect.

I haven't seen a 404 error since about day 3 of the public announcement when the site was being pounded by 20,000 new folders. If there are specific problems, they should be posted on the Fold.it forums.

The game presents a 404 error every time I log in, as well as some message about a missing .csv file. This is with pretty vanilla equipment and standard MS W2KSP4.
The "My Page" (profile I would guess) is completely blank. There is no documentation to tell what is supposed to be there, but I assume it's on the menu for a reason.

We're all entitled to our first impressions of the game, but I hope you don't let the impressions posted by Angus jade you. Indeed, there's nothing in his comments that imply he's done anything more then read comments posted to the chat box that is incorporated into the game, or can be attached to with an IRC client.

All of my comments come from joining the game and attempting to play it and understand the web site.

Let's not even get into the CRAZILY UNFAIR practice of allowing teams to work on puzzles, and then the members get to take the team solution back to the personal competition and dominate the top ranks. Totally NUTZ. There is NO HOPE of a single user ever competing against that. Don't waste your time.

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Proudly Banned from Predictator@Home and now Cosmology@home as well. Added SETI to the list today. Temporary ban only - so need to work harder :)



"You can't fix stupid" (Ron White)

Why isn't the same software made available to everyone who joins? Only reason I can think of is to give the "chosen few" an unfair advantage, and of course THEY wouldn't want it to be released. I can't imagine why feet1st thinks everyone has it.

If attempting to slip favors to friends is the ONLY reason you can think of, your mind is pretty twisted. Indeed they used the feedback from the early users and made some enhancements to the tools before they were released to everyone.

I didn't say everyone has it, although NOW, everyone does. What I had said was that everyone would have a chance to use the new tools before the competition for specific puzzles was closed.

Let's not even get into the CRAZILY UNFAIR practice of allowing teams to work on puzzles, and then the members get to take the team solution back to the personal competition and dominate the top ranks. Totally NUTZ. There is NO HOPE of a single user ever competing against that. Don't waste your time.

...agreed. They need to work on how team play is handled and scored. But it shouldn't detour anyone from getting started on playing and learning and trying out the game.

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Add this signature to your EMail:
Running Microsoft's "System Idle Process" will never help cure cancer, AIDS nor Alzheimer's. But running Rosetta@home just might!
https://boinc.bakerlab.org/rosetta/

Any advantage has been hugely minimized by releasing the tool to everyone before the end of the one and only puzzle where it provided any noticible advantage by pointing you to a solution that scores well, but isn't correct.

Is there a second definition of "everyone" that I don't know about?
Since you used the past tense - "...has been minimized..." - that would imply that everyone (inclusive of ALL registered users) already had the special tool. I will grant that you didn't specify the particular puzzle, so perhaps that puzzle is still running, and you were expecting it to be released before it ended. Which puzzle was this?

There is no point in anyone trying to compete on the personal level if the team members are still allowed to migrate the team solutions for personal gain.

The organizers should reverse all the bogus scores gained this way, and reassign points based on personally developed solutions.

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Proudly Banned from Predictator@Home and now Cosmology@home as well. Added SETI to the list today. Temporary ban only - so need to work harder :)



"You can't fix stupid" (Ron White)

Yesterday was the first release of CASP8 proteins on Fold.It! The structure of these proteins is unknown to anyone, but will be solved in the coming weeks by the expensive and time consuming conventional techniques. Already over 150 people has worked on the puzzle. And now a second CASP8 protein has been released as well.

This marks the first time anyone at home can participate and participate in the biannual CASP event which demonstraits the current state-of-the-art in protein structure prediction.

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Rosetta Moderator: Mod.Sense

What good is a "game" without scores? Useless!

this game is not about scores, it's about science... at least for me... i never been in any puzzle higher than 4 place and i was very happy when i did a good prediction not when i was among the high ranked scores...

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It is not surprising that a scientific online game at the avant-garde of the genre won't be entirely stable and optimal right from the start. They are learning as they go just like we are. It you are bothered by the fact that the game isn't feature stable yet, I suggest you put it on the backburner and come back in a few months. It should have crystalized more by then.

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What good is a "game" without scores? Useless!

this game is not about scores, it's about science... at least for me... i never been in any puzzle higher than 4 place and i was very happy when i did a good prediction not when i was among the high ranked scores...

I'll make the same challenge I have repeatedly made for BOINC:

Take away the points/scoring/credits and prove how many people are really in it for the science, and how many are in it for the competition.

But no one will do that, because they KNOW that it's the scores/points/credits that drive the participation. Take away the stats sites from BOINC, and watch it wither away to almost nothing.

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Proudly Banned from Predictator@Home and now Cosmology@home as well. Added SETI to the list today. Temporary ban only - so need to work harder :)



"You can't fix stupid" (Ron White)

I don't think that anyone from the projects have said that points don't matter. Just that they aren't the only thing, and that if there's a choice to be made between points and science, science should win.

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