Scrolling 2 Death’s Post

Issue #21 of my newsletter is out: "Game Theory Begins" * Includes 7 evidence-based reasons to be bullish Check you email and spam folders. 👇 https://lnkd.in/gDKG8Bz4

New Post: NYT Connections today: See hints and answers for June 8 - https://lnkd.in/dww-zx_G - Connections is the latest New York Times word game that's captured the public's attention. The game is all about finding the "common threads between words." And just like Wordle, Connections resets after midnight and each new set of words gets trickier and trickier—so we've served up some hints and tips to get you over the hurdle.If you just want to be told today's puzzle, you can jump to the end of this article for June 8's Connections solution. But if you'd rather solve it yourself, keep reading for some clues, tips, and strategies to assist you.What is Connections?The NYT's latest daily word game has become a social media hit. The Times credits associate puzzle editor Wyna Liu with helping to create the new word game and bringing it to the publications' Games section. Connections can be played on both web browsers and mobile devices and require players to group four words that share something in common. Tweet may have been deleted Each puzzle features 16 words and each grouping of words is split into four categories. These sets could comprise of anything from book titles, software, country names, etc. Even though multiple words will seem like they fit together, there's only one correct answer. If a player gets all four words in a set correct, those words are removed from the board. Guess wrong and it counts as a mistake—players get up to four mistakes until the game ends. Tweet may have been deleted Players can also rearrange and shuffle the board to make spotting connections easier. Additionally, each group is color-coded with yellow being the easiest, followed by green, blue, and purple. Like Wordle, you can share the results with your friends on social media.Here's a hint for today's Connections categoriesWant a hit about the categories without being told the categories? Then give these a try:Yellow: Enchant one's gazeGreen: Document visuallyBlue: Letter P anagramsPurple: Kinds of pretty Featured Video For You Connections: How to play and how to win Here are today's Connections categoriesNeed a little extra help? Today's connections fall into the following categories:Yellow: Grab One's AttentionGreen: Document with VideoBlue: AnagramsPurple: Pretty___Looking for Wordle today? Here's the answer to today's Wordle.Ready for the answers? This is your last chance to turn back and solve today's puzzle before we reveal the solutions.Drumroll, please!The solution to Connections #363 is...What is the answer to Connections todayGrab One's Attention: ABSORB, ENGROSS, HOLD, RIVETDocument with Video: FILM, RECORD, SHOOT, TAPEAnagrams: PASTEL, PETALS, PLEATS, STAPLEPretty___: GOOD, PENNY, PLEASE, WOMANDon't feel down if you didn't manage to guess it this time. There will be new Connectio

Never underestimate the power of alternatives! Kids can easily get glued to screens, but the good news is that if they have alternatives they love, they will happily choose them. We are partial to reading and playing with dogs, but anything works as long as they love it (and it's safe!) What are your little data defender's favorite alternatives to being online? #digitaldefenders #digitalsafety #alternativeentertainment

Let’s talk about HELLDIVERS 2 🥇 It’s an online game where you spread freedom through cooperative bug-squashing. Why does that matter? Aside from the fact that you finally get to live out starship troopers? 🚀 After achieving immense success with the game, at times having 400,000 concurrent players (for context, in some places like the UK, this was at times the most played game, and in the US the best-selling game of the year so far), Sony forced players to link to the PlayStation Network for greater player security. Now normally when a game does this, it can be disruptive to the experience. Yes, certainly other companies have done similar too, see Microsoft, Ubisoft, OG Activision Blizzard, etc. However… some countries do not support the PlayStation Network. More than a few actually... 121 countries per Insider Gaming. Meaning this would impact loyal helldivers (customers) in Latvia, Philippines, Vietnam, Venezuela, Jamaica, Morocco, and far beyond. The problem here was that these players already bought 💰 and had been playing the game. A lot. And the real problem being that… they loved the game. Now to underline the problem, there was no solution. The creators of the game were left seemingly just as lost as the rest of us, responding "I don't know", to customers asking what they should do. Here’s the good part: The players made their voices heard, and within a couple days, had “review bombed” Helldivers 2 with 200,000 negative reviews. Enough to bring the ratings from “overwhelmingly positive” to “overwhelming negative”. Sony, to their immense credit, walked back their account linking requirement (and is reportedly even thinking of clever in-game cosmetic ways of celebrating the will of the player base)... taking it quite in stride. And again to the credit of the Helldivers 2 player base, they launched “Operation Clean-Up” to reverse their negative reviews with 74,000 negative reviews already reverted. You can pick out a lot from this journey: 🤝 How Seller and Customer listened to each other and no bridges were burnt in the process 🤝 How to take failures in stride 🤝 It's Always Day 1 🤝 The absolute camaraderie in certain communities If you’re looking for more evidence of the last one see the endless salutes for a young Helldiver who lost his best friend: https://lnkd.in/gXDyrqC8 These communities are special. They mean a lot to young people and we love to see the cross-generational support we can always use more of. As always: any views, theories, or conclusions are my own and not of my employer nor clients nor colleagues.

Subscription friction and frustration is real! I recently subscribed to ESPN+ (thanks FantasyFootball season!) but couldn’t access the premium articles, even after subscribing. Instead I just kept going in a loop and hitting the paywall even though I had already paid (see video). I found a 3-year-old Reddit thread (https://lnkd.in/e5_H3hHC) describing the exact same issue—still unresolved after all this time! The only fix? Chat support has to step in and manually fix the account. If customers are blocked from accessing what they’ve paid for, they'll cancel because they never manage to fix it or they are so frustrated by the manual process. Subscription experiences need to be as smooth as possible. If customers hit roadblocks like this, it’s not just a one-time frustration—it can lead to lost trust and lost revenue (and in my case lost fantasy football points).

I'm a big fan of the independent streaming platform, Dropout. In particular, I really enjoy the game show, Um, Actually, in which contestants earn points by finding the incorrect portion of nerdy pop-culture trivia statements read by the host. Someone put together a dataset of questions answered by each contestant in each episode, which I used to try to figure out who is the most skilled contestant on the show. This has led to one of the most complex, interesting, and absolutely unhinged statistical models I've ever written. The model (and player rankings) can be found here:

An enormous challenge for companies, industries and organizations. To stay ahead it requires a strategic approach, diligence and consistency. #Communications #yeg #yyc #marketing #digital #misinformation

Tired of dealing with the algorithms? Here are four places that don’t play the algorithm game. Episode 609: Tired of dealing with the algorithms? Tired of posting something and only 2% of all your followers ever see the post? Here are four places that don’t play the algorithm game. Put your time and attention into growing your followers on Spotify, YouTube, Bandsintown and a email list. Everyone who follows you on Spotify will be informed of a new release, everyone who subscribes to your YouTube channel will be alerted to new videos and posts, everyone who follows you on Bandsintown will be alerted to your new posts and of course your email list is your direct connection to your fans. https://lnkd.in/gCpthEUE #musicmarketing #albumpromotion #tourpromotion #michaelbrandvoldmarketing #contentstrategy #digitalstrategy #musicbizweeklypodcast #musicbiz

Check out this interview I did with the Pop Insider, where we discuss the inspiration for Neopets Batttledome Trading Card Game, the game design process, and more about bringing Neopets to life on your tabletop! https://lnkd.in/gMfmax4B

Tired of dealing with the algorithms? Here are four places that don’t play the algorithm game. Episode 609: Tired of dealing with the algorithms? Tired of posting something and only 2% of all your followers ever see the post? Here are four places that don’t play the algorithm game. Put your time and attention into growing your followers on Spotify, YouTube, Bandsintown and a email list. Everyone who follows you on Spotify will be informed of a new release, everyone who subscribes to your YouTube channel will be alerted to new videos and posts, everyone who follows you on Bandsintown will be alerted to your new posts and of course your email list is your direct connection to your fans. https://lnkd.in/gUUQe_w4 #musicmarketing #albumpromotion #tourpromotion #michaelbrandvoldmarketing #contentstrategy #digitalstrategy #musicbizweeklypodcast #musicbiz