LinkedIn (https://www.linkedin.com/) is a website I’ve belonged to for many years now. In internet times, eons.
Their logo with the emphasis on the word “in” is catchy. It’s great branding. A lesson in marketing, although it’s not really a site I’ve ever used much. You? Aye, that’s what this article drills down on.
Amazon recruiters, among others, have tried to get me interested in working there through LinkedIn. Amazon headquarters are located nearby, as is Microsoft, but I have done some contract work for them in the distant past. I worked on their Zune team with podcasts back when the Zune was a thing. It was a very part time gig, but it paid well and I really believed in and was a fan of Zune. I also did playtesting in Redmond for the Xbox and Xbox 360. They paid us in soda and free games. I haven’t participated in any of that in years.
These days my day job has nothing whatsoever to do with technology, gaming or anything creative. Sometimes you want to be Bruce Wayne by day and Batman at night, you know? It’s pacifying having an escape from all things internet, which I want to keep in my life, so I do something as a day job that has nothing to do with any of this.
There was a time over 10 years ago that I was mopping floors in a factory for close to minimum wage. I took that job intentionally to work in a factory because I’d never worked in a factory before. I left off a bunch of experience in my resume so I could get that job in the factory, instead of being passed over due to being overqualified. My mopped floors were clean, clean, clean! Fast forward years later and I had worked my way up into the project manager for that company.
Anyway, you might be wondering what any of this has to do with LinkedIN. Well, it’s been a social job networking site. At least that’s how I’ve viewed it. And have never used it to find a job. I’m happy in my current day job, it might very well be my last regular job, but you never know. That said, a site like LinkedIn doesn’t really do anything that screams, “You must come here daily.”
Then I saw this article: LinkedIn Employs AI and Games to Promote Daily User Visits (pymnts.com) – which encouraged me to check out what type of “games” they added. The article is weak on the details of the games, but I’m interested these days in all things gaming, so I logged in to see what was going on.
The first thing I noticed was a welcome for joining from a friend — that was sent in 2009! Yes, that 2009, 16 years ago. Oops. Guess I should have read that 16 years ago. I sent a message to two people I knew back when I was writing at my everything, but mostly tech blog and invited them over here. Some of what I do here is similar to what I did there 20 years ago. I’m not interested in re-doing everything I did or getting back into the heavy tech involvement I had then, am glad I left that behind.
But the games, yes, the games. Here’s what they added: daily puzzles. See them on the right hand side:
Not sure adding puzzle games I don’t know anything about (“Queens”? “Pinpoint” “Crossclimb”?) will drive me to engage with LinkedIn more often, but am intrigued. I mean, what about crosswords, word search or sudoku? Aren’t those more common? Give me some jigsaw puzzles.
We offer word searches, jigsaw puzzles and more here at PGM from time to time on our Sunday play day. Each Sunday, for those reading, there is a different — and to date, free — game here to play. Some of those games I’ve made myself. A few with AI.
Segue to AI. The other thing that LinkedIn added to their site to engage users of their site more often.
As for the AI .. note the top, “Start a post, try writing with AI” — this is one of the last things online I want to do. I don’t want to write anything to my 20 connections (is that all I have after all these years? lol) with AI. I know, some of you might laugh out loud at that seemingly hypocrisy because I’m actively making music with AI with my AI band AI Kills and making games with AI through Rosebud.ai in 2024. I’m far and away not anti-AI, but everything I’ve seen AI output to read is writing that is dull, generic and passionless.
This is not interesting writing to me.
I don’t want my writing quality dragged down to encyclopedia facts only by anything AI. I can see using AI to help story, character, research and outline building for creative writers — but haven’t written any new fiction for years — but feel like the actual writing that is created using AI is not anything I’m currently interested in doing. Are you?
I mean, why would somebody want to read AI-generated writing from their connections on LinkedIn? What am I missing here?
If PlayGamesMore was using Ai-generated articles it would instantly be less worthwhile to me. It would do the opposite of wanting me to engage more daily. But maybe that’s just me. Part of what makes reading attractive is a connection to the voice and personality of the writer. When AI muddies up that voice — and it instantly does from my reader perspective — that connection is lost.
So, thanks LinkedIn for adding puzzle games and AI. I am going to research a bit the games you’re offering in the sidebar, but it’s not likely to change how often I interact with your website. The games part did get me to visit your site again, something I’ve very rarely done. I even interacted with it a bit and sent some messages to old friends (not using AI).
Asking you, friendly readers, will what LinkedIn did make you visit the website more regularly? No? The comments area awaits.