Folding at Home Trophy idea.

[jamclaur]

So I’ve been mulling something over for a few days now. Thinking of all the bases that would need to be covered and I think I’ve finally come to the final result.

So we all know that Folding@home is a good program for science. But it’s a little boring to mess with, basically you just set it up when you remember and you’re done with it. I was thinking “how can this be made more interesting?”

Then it came to me. If F@H and Sony would release a small DLC patch that would allow the user to choose 1 of 2 choices they could make the program really fun… The choices could be:

1) A Pet
2) A Plant

They could create 2 separate DLCs and the user could choose the one they wanted. But basically what I was thinking is this. Say I choose DLC 1. I download and install then go to F@H, which now has a new interface. It’s basically the same statistics but now there’s a room in a house, the same information is located in a box on the upper left.

Then a menu comes up saying “Would you like to adopt a pet?” I click yes and it gives me some basic choices (dog, cat, fish, bird)(small, medium, large)(Color). After I choose it says “commit?”

I click “Yes” and a work-unit starts. Once the work unit completes there’s a refresh and I have my Small, Brown, Dog waiting for me in my room. Then a trophy pop-up comes up in the top right. “You have earned a silver trophy.” In the trophy menu, I read that I have a trophy for “Adopting an Animal.”

But that’s not the end of it. I now have to feed the dog, and water the dog, and teach the dog tricks, and play with the dog.

Each one of those corresponds with work-units. Once you “feed the dog 1 time” you receive a bronze trophy “Fed Your Animal.” Same for the other choices I could make. Since I get to choose which to do. Play, feed, etc.

After I feed the dog 10 times I get another bronze Trophy, “Fed Your Animal 10 Times.” Then 20, 50, 100, whatever their numerical choices were.

All the same logic could apply to the second DLC choice. You choose (tree, flower, etc)(Size)(Color) to plant in your back yard.

You have the same basic choices to water, feed, grow another flower on, de-bug, etc. And you win the same basic trophies. “Feed Your Plant 10 Times.”

The PS3 is such a smart system that this could work, could be made cheaply for them, given away free, it would provide some fun, and trophies for F@H and would get people to do it. Plus, since we’re not going to sit there and mess with it constantly we can set it to AI mode which takes care of the pet (does the tasks/work-units) while you’re away (Since that’s how F@H is done most of the time anyway). They can also make the trophies hard to get so they don’t become pointless. Such as “Fed Animal 1,000 Times.” Of course everyone can get the first few, but only those committed to helping, or trophies will go the extra mile to do all that’s required. I know this will probably fall on deaf ears… But it was fun to think about.