Call now to find your best offers!LinkedIn Launches Free Interactive Games for Users
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With the May 1 launch of three new games for users, social media platform LinkedIn aims to expand its appeal.
As a career-oriented site, LinkedIn is known for its professional atmosphere and businesslike tone. Until now, “fun” and “play” were probably not the reasons most users would give for using the platform. Company leadership hopes the interactive nature of the new games will change that, bringing a new relational aspect to user engagement.
“We hope that these games spark banter, conversations, and even a healthy bit of competition among professionals around the world,” stated LinkedIn Editor-in-Chief Daniel Roth.
Puzzle games may spark friendly rivalry between coworkers, rival schools
The three games only last a minute or two, making them easy to play during a quick break at work.
But the real lure may be a little friendly competition.
When you finish a game, LinkedIn shows you a leaderboard based on your college and its rivals.
For example, if you went to UNC Chapel Hill, you might see a leaderboard ranking UNC, Duke, and NC State against each other based on alumni player results.
Another option is company-based leaderboards, in which players from companies in the same industries will compete for top rankings (i.e. Google, Apple, Microsoft).
Of course, for either of these leaderboards to show up, LinkedIn will have to know either the player’s alma mater or their current workplace.
You can also share your personal score with your LinkedIn connections if you want to play against colleagues or friends.
In a blog post on May 1, LinkedIn’s Director of Product Management Lakshman Somasundaram explained the goal of the game launch. “We’ve designed [the games] to build the future of how we’ll stay in touch with our colleagues, reignite relationships from past phases of our professional lives, and make the connections that will shape what’s next,” Somasundaram stated.
Three games focus on wordplay, word/letter arrangement, or spatial relations
The games provide a variety of fun brain-teasers to appeal to different players’ strengths.
Pinpoint
Pinpoint is a game that could be called wordplay or creative categorization. The game reveals a set of words one by one and asks the player to identify the correct commonality between the words. For example, players may see the words in this order:
DIAMOND
RING
The player thinks the answer is ENGAGEMENT, but that is incorrect. But then the third word is revealed as:
COURT
A clever player then guesses “PLACES WHERE SPORTS ARE PLAYED.” Correct! Game over for the day, and the leaderboard will pop up.
We hope that these games spark banter, conversations, and even a healthy bit of competition among professionals around the world.” Daniel Roth, Editor-in-Chief
Crossclimb
Crossclimb is a combination of simple trivia and word placement. Players will guess a variety of short words based on clues. Once the original words are guessed, the player then has to reorder the words so they change by only one letter each as you move up the “ladder.”
Placing the words in correct order then unlocks two final words at top and bottom for the final guess that wins the game. Crossclimb is timed, so you score higher the faster you complete the game.
Queens
Queens requires a player to place black crown icons in rows and columns of a grid.
The crowns must follow strict rules about placement: only one in each row, only one in each column, and only one in each color field. In addition, they cannot be adjacent to each other.
Queens will take slightly more time on average than the word games but will still be over in a few minutes for those gifted in spatial relations.
Famous puzzle designers to create the new LinkedIn games
Each game has one edition per day, similar to popular word games like Wordle.
LinkedIn’s Games Editor is Paolo Pasco. He also happens to be this year’s American Crossword Puzzle Tournament champion. Pasco will be in charge of the puzzle creation for both Pinpoint and Crossclimb.
Queens will draw from a pool of creators, but the first month’s puzzles come from Thomas Snyder, a three-time World Sudoku Champion.
Where to find the new LinkedIn games
On your LinkedIn homepage, there is a LinkedIn News sidebar on the right-hand side. You will now see a link to the games at the bottom of that sidebar.
Or, from anywhere on the site, click the navbar button “My Network” at the top. You’ll also see the games linked on your network page.
You can also find the games directly at linkedin.com/games
Games offer team building for hybrid and remote workers
In a work world that is increasingly spread across geographic regions, these quick games may also be a good way for remote workers to connect with colleagues.
Unlike more data-intensive games, puzzle games don’t require excessive internet speed or a separate gaming platform or fancy gaming router.
The brain-teaser games take just a few quick clicks to play, with no complex graphics and simple rules. Many mobile games have become extremely popular by relying on simplicity.