Getting Humans to do Quantum Optimization - User Acquisition, Engagement and Early Results from the Citizen Cyberscience Game Quantum Moves

摘要

The game Quantum Moves was designed to pit human players against computeralgorithms, combining their solutions into hybrid optimization to control ascalable quantum computer. In this midstream report, we open our design processand describe the series of constitutive building stages going into a quantumphysics citizen science game. We present our approach from designing a coregameplay around quantum simulations, to putting extra game elements in place inorder to frame, structure, and motivate players' difficult path from curiousvisitors to competent science contributors. The player base is extremelydiverse - for instance, two top players are a 40 year old female accountant anda male taxi driver. Among statistical predictors for retention and in-game highscores, the data from our first year suggest that people recruited based onreal-world physics interest and via real-world events, but only with anintermediate science education, are more likely to become engaged and skilledcontributors. Interestingly, female players tended to perform better than maleplayers, even though men played more games per day. To understand thisrelationship, we explore the profiles of our top players in more depth. Wediscuss in-world and in-game performance factors departing in psychologicaltheories of intrinsic and extrinsic motivation, and the implications for usingreal live humans to do hybrid optimization via initially simple, but ultimatelyvery cognitively complex games.