…whilst job hunting.
Every morning whilst eating my oatmeal and sipping on my iced latte, I am also on the New York Times (NYT) app.
No, not to read the news. It’s depressing. But to play the daily Wordle, Connections, Strands, amongst the many other games the app has to offer.
According to Axios, the NYT’s puzzles and games were played more than eight billion times last year with Wordle alone having 4.8 billion plays. How was this even possible?
Well, a major differentiating factor is that these games are designed in a way to avoid addiction. You can only play each game once a day, meaning once you solve a puzzle, there’s no playing the next one until tomorrow.
Games like Wordle and Connections are also quite challenging, so if you get stuck playing it, there’s the option to pick up right where you left off later in the day.
Additionally, they’re culturally relevant. They often include references to current events, pop culture, and other contemporary issues that make the puzzles feel relevant and timely.
Just like the NYTs, LinkedIn, best known for professional networking and sharing news, has decided to test the waters for games on its platform.
In hopes of attracting more users and to increase engagement, the site has launched three new games to ‘keep your mind sharp and compare scores with others’
Just in case posting on LinkedIn wasn’t already competitive enough, you can also share your daily scores directly on the platform. I personally love starting my day with a little bit of healthy competition.
Anyway, here’s a brief rundown of the three games:
Pinpoint
If you love the NYT’s Connections, you’ll love Pinpoint. This word-association game requires you to accurately determine the category a set of words belong to.
The goal is to guess the category in as few clues as possible. Each incorrect guess reveals the next word in the category. Out of the three games, Pinpoint is probably the easiest to play.
So, if you’re looking for a motivational boost to your day, start it by playing Pinpoint. And just in case no one has told you yet, LinkedIn will let you know that ‘You’re crushing it!’ (that is if you win).
Want to be reminded of tomorrow’s game? As LinkedIn provides you with a score card to share with your connections, you can also set a notification to play tomorrow’s game bright and early.
Crossclimb
If you haven’t had enough word-related games for the day, you can try your luck in Crossclimb. A mix of trivia and word knowledge, Crossclimb is described by LinkedIn as ‘inspired by a mini crossword – but with a twist!’.
Players are shown a series of clues to determine a series of words in a ladder. They must then rearrange the words so that each word differs from the one above it by just one letter.
Once the ladder is properly constructed, a top and bottom rung is added to the ladder to reveal two final clues. Players can then successfully unlock the daily puzzle.
This game is a little tricky to master, but after the initial few plays, it’s a little easier to get a hang of.
Queens
If you love Sudoku, you will love playing Queens. The goal of the game is to have exactly one queen (little crown emoji) in each row, column, and color region – with no queens touching each other.
Each month a different creator will design the Queens grid. For the month of May, three-time World Sudoku Champion, Thomas Snyder crafted the Queens grid. The rules are easy to grasp but this is possibly the hardest puzzle to solve out of the three.
Bottom line – I love that my morning routine now involves playing games on LinkedIn. I can update my resume, apply for new jobs, connect with professionals, read the latest trends and play games all whilst drinking my morning coffee.
If you’re feeling burnt out at work? Take a break and go on to LinkedIn. Technicalities aside, you’re still working.
As LinkedIn VP Daniel Roth puts it, the games are ‘a way (for people) to exercise their brains whilst taking a quick break…sparking banter, conversations, and even a healthy bit of competition among professionals around the world’.
Simply put, it’s no longer all work and no play on LinkedIn.