Congrats to Nseraf with 50 Million Eyewire points!

Amazing job by Eyewirer @Nseraf, who is our first player to crack 50 million points in Eyewire.  That’s a whole lot of contribution to science!

Big thanks from the Eyewire team for your contribution 🙂

And here’s a special poster made by fellow Eyewirer @susi to celebrate your accomplishment!  Way to go!

Here are some snippets from an interview player @r3 did with Nseraf about his accomplishment:

Nseraf, first of all, congratulations to incredible 50 million points in Eyewire! Did you expect ever to reach this number, when you started to play back in November 2013?

Thank you, thank you. Well when I started…no I didn’t have a specific number in mind but the moment I had passed the tutorials I knew I was going to do it for a while and that I wanted to be 1st.

Your cube count is over 250 000 played cubes. After having played so many cubes do the traces look all the same or do you still get sometimes a trace that is still unique and worth appreciating its beauty?

Except for very small, corner nothing-to-add cubes all traces are unique and beautiful. It is part of what drives me onwards, the need, the desire to see what shapes, what intricacies the next cube will hold.

Let’s talk about the community. It is an essential part of Eyewire – what role did it play in achieving your 50 million points?

It is, in my humble opinion one of 3 foundation pillars of Eyewire. Without I believe I’d have gone away soon after the tutorial and first few cubes. The community, the chat and chat colours along with the gamification (points, badges, competitions etc) are what make Eyewire a game to enjoy playing vs grad work I’d have left after maybe days if not hours of registering. They are all beyond essential.

Imagine there is someone who is interested in Eyewire but doesn’t really know if and how to start and what it is all about. Of course you can read up all the information in the FAQ section, but what would you tell a newbie what the game is about and why it’s worth it to give it a go?

Hmmm, I’d say it’s a very fun game to play if one likes brain games/puzzles, it can help with relaxing after a tough/stressful day, the interaction with all sorts of different people from all over the world is almost always interesting. And to boot you help with scientific research.

What is it that makes Eyewire so special for you being part of it every day?

I think this is mostly answered by the combination of all of the above questions and answers. I don’ think it’s one isolated thing, I think it’s all of the above and more. Like what will the new cells in this (or future datasets) be like? What new shapes and in-cube “obstacles” (black spills, misalignments and so on) will they have, will we discover cell types previously unknown to science? I think it’s a never-ending journey of exploration which has me completely absorbed and maybe even obsessed.