issue.xpub.nl/17
issue.xpub.nl/17

A closed box with objects inside.

A digital or physical box.

A virtual box inside video games containing randomized items.

A virtual box of hidden motives, designed to persuade and trick players.

A virtual box where the user can pay and access products. Those items can be useful to develop you character in the game or can be collectable.

A lottery box.

It looks like a real gift, but you purchase it for yourself.

You choose it.

You get something nice.

A box embedded in a context.

It works within the context of a game.

It works outside the context of a game.

When the game gets tough, the loot box offers you a shortcut.

Payment

Reward

A virtual feature that players can purchase with real money. It is usually available in free-to-play games or full-price games.

You don't get it for free, and you don't know what you get.

A promise for a virtual treasure that is purchased with real money. You buy a virtual treasure hoping it contains something valuable within the world of the game.

Fast-thinking

It is what motivates immediate irrational purchases.

It can be rational in the context of the game.

A quest, narrative or social pressure can justify any loot box.

It appears and disappears quickly in order to seem exclusive. Thus, it makes the player buy it without thinking too much.

Time pressure creates artificial urgency (jeopardy).

Excitement and anticipation

A feeling of excitement and anticipation could be related to the excitement of gambling.

You know that there is a chance of getting some items that you desire.

It is desirable because it creates rare chances to get powerful items.

It is like gambling because you anticipate what is inside.

Surprise mechanism

The element of surprise is a highly appreciated aspect of the loot box.

A secret treasure that is not worth the money you pay for it, nor the expectations you have for it. However, that is somehow exciting.

Addictiveness is connected to the surprise mechanism: the moment of anticipation is addictive. It makes you feel that anything is possible.

It's like the cat in the box: is she dead or is she alive? She is both until you open the box.

An entertaining element.

It keeps the players hooked to the game by using an element of surprise.

The player never knows what is inside of it.

Surprise that comes with consequences.

The immediate reward makes it fun. The risk comes with pleasure.

It derives from the loot, a bunch of goodies that you can get as a reward after you conquer a super boss or level up.

A reward after accomplishing a really heroic task.

An immediately rewarding response preceded by a generally customized trigger.

A guaranteed reward in exchange for money.

Progress in the game

You have more power in the game.

Sometimes the game doesn’t reach its full potential without buying a loot box. That makes players feel compelled to make a purchase.

You will get better if you buy a loot box.

Collectible item

Emotional trigger

Strong emotional reactions are tied to the financial elements.

Excitement

Disappointment

Desire

Exploitation

Even if you don't get exactly what you wish for, you will get something, and you feel somehow rewarded.

Incremental rewards

It is disguised as safe and innocent.

You can keep opening loot boxes forever.

It interfaces the game and the real world.

It’s an alternate reality experience of collecting things you can't own in real life.

It’s a pulse in the circulation of resources between a virtual game and the reality outside of it.

Loot box as currency exchange

Game coin

Real money

Power-Up

Pleasure

Designed to be addictive

Very real addictive mechanisms.

A repeated scheme that ensures constant spending into virtual game currencies.

Designed to be desirable and to be purchased again and again.

Some rewards are rare and that makes the loot box desirable.

It puts you in a condition for purchasing without thinking too much.

Its timespan is similar to the discount periods or Black Friday.

Looking under the hood.

A trigger for addictive behaviour.

A gambling mechanism, exploitative by design, that promises immediate in-game rewards to the player.

The rewards of the loot box can affect both the gameplay and the social environment around the game.

It sets the beat for repeated microtransactions.

It's a repetitive rhythm for the player's temporality.

It builds a habit by triggering the attention and the emotional response of the player.

It's fun.

It ensures that you keep playing potentially forever.

From habit to addiction.

You pay money to obtain something new.

Thrill

Ritual

Risk

Destiny

It hacks the temporality of a game.

It allows you to customize your game character.

It shifts the dynamics in the game.

It provides you with collectables or power- ups that make you progress inside the game.

A temporalized tool for the distribution and management of resources.

The potentially endless collection creates artificial needs.

The benefits for you are emotional. The benefits for the game platforms are financial.

A money-making mechanism that uses real-world money in video games' worlds.

It targets vulnerable players.

A trigger for addictive behaviour.

A trigger for toxic behaviour.

An escape from real life.

Fake promises.

FOMO (fear of missing out)

The surprise mechanism and exclusivity of the loot box creates a constant FOMO.

Peer pressure

Social pressure

Individual engagement

A personalized 1 to 1 interaction

1 to machine interaction

Dear Player, The Crossword Imaginary Grid Game found you for a reason.

The aim of this game is to create a crossword grid with your hands and explore a part of the Glossary of Productive Play.

There is a printed grid for you here, but if you want more, visit the website of this Special Issue.

Take some time (leisure or productive?), place the pieces on a surface, on a wall, on your bed, on your cat's body.. and start playing!

Position the coded papers to recreate the grid. Follow the following scheme for every category:

I know it might sound complicated now, but I promise you that you will understand how to make it work while playing.

There are four things you have to keep attention to while creating the grid:

1. A code (e.g. B7), composed of a letter and a number, defines the position in the imaginary grid.

2. The papers with the clues are not to be used during the grid's construction.

3. A content category gathers all the definitions that are part of the same crossword (e.g. loot box).

4. The papers having the same code could represent an intersection or the presence of two definitions, one going down and the other across.

Find out which is which!

If you don't know the word, don't stress yourself out: these crosswords are meant to teach while having fun.

Yes, you heard that well, you are experiencing Productive Play! Enjoy the time you are taking for yourself! It's okay not to finish it, it's okay to give up, it's okay to still be happy with it.

And if you are really unsatisfied, just call some friends and have some fun together!

Remember, these are just instructions not to get lost. But it's okay to get lost. Get lost sometimes.

J1 Loot Box

K1 Loot Box

L1 Loot Box

M1 Loot Box

J1 Loot Box

The price given to objects to be acquired, produced, maintained, or accomplished.

L4 Loot Box

L5 Loot Box

L6 Loot Box

L7 Loot Box

L8 Loot Box

L9 Loot Box

L10 Loot Box

L11 Loot Box

L12 Loot Box

L4 Loot Box

Available to only a few people because users have a limited time frame to obtain the loot box.

J1 Loot Box

J2 Loot Box

J3 Loot Box

J4 Loot Box

J5 Loot Box

J6 Loot Box

J7 Loot Box

J8 Loot Box

J9 Loot Box

J10 Loot Box

J11 Loot Box

J1 Loot Box

Something that is considered valuable because kept as part of a group of similar objects.

R2 Loot Box

R3 Loot Box

R4 Loot Box

R5 Loot Box

R6 Loot Box

R7 Loot Box

R8 Loot Box

R9 Loot Box

R10 Loot Box

R2 Loot Box

That causes a strong and harmful need to regularly have or do something.

N7 Loot Box

N8 Loot Box

N9 Loot Box

N10 Loot Box

N11 Loot Box

N12 Loot Box

N7 Loot Box

Something given or received in return or compensation for service, merit, hard work, etc.

G3 Loot Box

G4 Loot Box

G5 Loot Box

G6 Loot Box

G7 Loot Box

G8 Loot Box

G9 Loot Box

G10 Loot Box

G3 Loot Box

Something unexpected.

P5 Loot Box

P6 Loot Box

P7 Loot Box

P8 Loot Box

P9 Loot Box

P10 Loot Box

P11 Loot Box

P12 Loot Box

P5 Loot Box

The investment will probably not come back, which makes paying for the content of a loot box not just buying but...

G10 Loot Box

H10 Loot Box

I10 Loot Box

J10 Loot Box

K10 Loot Box

L10 Loot Box

M10 Loot Box

N10 Loot Box

O10 Loot Box

P10 Loot Box

Q10 Loot Box

R10 Loot Box

G10 Loot Box

When a company is taking unfair or unethical advantage of a person or a situation for profit.

You are in an empty room with 13 doors that are portals to 13 different worlds.

5 min slow-motion epidemics, visually transmitted.

Every crisis is a simulation of another crisis.

Every crisis is a preparation for another crisis.

You receive a point for each floating tile you encounter on the street.

You sleep and the more you sleep, the more the buildings around the bedroom collapse and nature starts growing and invading the space.

ThermoSTATE the state where no citizen feels cold. 🥵

The same day is looping over and over. The goal is to figure out which decision will make you move on to the next day.

A flat with no floors.

Hello, where are you, what can you see from there?

You give someone a gift. They give the gift to someone else.

You meet a person in a corridor, but you're in a supermarket, in Canada.

Collect fantasy words in a fantasy world by talking to other fantasy characters so you can describe fantasy objects better.

...and yes... only give a positive answer (or inflexion) to any question.

A city room without gravity.

Thank you! No, I thank you! Noo, I thank YOU! No. I really thank you. No, I THANK you!

You get up and you're a dictator for 5 min.

You get up and you're a dictator for 5 min and if you don't change anything in the current status quo you die.

You have a lethal laugh.

You are late. You have to leave but you start playing a game.

You change language and you discover how clever you are but you cannot communicate with others anymore.

You are in an empty room with 13 doors that are portals to 13 similar worlds, only your character changes.

Plastic bag on a windy day at the market simulator.

Reality show for cultural workers.

A portal will take you to the exact opposite spot on the globe.

You dive into an ocean without an ocean floor but it's actually the sky.

A bruschetta and some tomato sauce, but you're not in Italy.

You're a flock of birds. You interact with things only collectively.

You're in a layer of a multilayered world. You cannot see the effect of your actions unless you change the layer.

Any action could potentially kill the other players (including staying still). The longer all the players are kept alive the more you score.

Dutch wind vs. Human being

Interpret what birds are saying.

A game where your real-life issues are solved through playing and you don't realise it's happening.

Sometimes things change depending on who you tell.

                  🎈 You are a helium balloon and you just got to the big city.

You are stuck in reality and you're trying to get back to your imaginary world but cannot find the door.

Build the highest high heels in the world so you can traverse the Mariana Trench, with a depth of 11 034 m, without touching the water.

It's night with rain and Devil Dutch Wind (DDW) and you are trying to ride your way home.

The calories burned while running on the treadmill become actual currency.

Files keep coming in and you have to sort them in your folder system.

You get to experience your whole life in reverse.

There is no gravity, no left or right, no up and down, but you have to guide someone to a treasure.

Life's a game, play the game.

You're a door and you have the power to open or close as you wish. Sometimes someone tries to go through you, will you let them pass?

You enter a room full of obscure items and have to select some of them to curate an exhibition.

Time is given to each player.

During the game, several tasks are given to players, and they need to split their time and accomplish those tasks in the time allocated. If you fail to do so, it will affect the whole time sequence. In short, you play the game by splitting your time, rearranging your priority constantly.

Git commit-push battle.

Noise-inducing headphones so you can hear the electronic magnetic fields around you.

Harmonizing everything.

The printer that works is hidden somewhere in a maze.

Do you want me to tell you the story of Wendy?

You enter a room where you meet your friends with whom you play a game where you play a game, where you play a game, where you play a game.

The rain starts when the meeting stops.

The rain stops when the meeting starts.

Print 80000 post-its.

Guess the Guests.

Try to eat the hole of a donut.

Try to find out whether the donut hole which was expired was any good.

Each chatroom is a different reality.

A random age generator that gives you a random age on your birthday and your body turns that age.

A random ape generator that gives you a random ape on your birthday and your body turns that ape.

A random grape generator that gives you a random grape on your birthday and your body turns that wine.

A random wine generator that gives you a random headache on your birthday and your body turns that wine.

A random-random generator that gives you a random-random on your birthday and your body turns that random.

The world is literally turned upside down and you must try to cure a hickup!

Randominance.

Steal Jeff Bezos's money and use it for the loot box.

Sushi but it tastes like cola.

Cola but it tastes like sushi.

Your manager reminds you of Michael Scott and you feel like you are part of the Office.

Grocery. Delivery. Startup.

A one-sentence games list that never ends...

Inspired by Pippin Barr's Game Ideas 🛴 www.pippinbarr.com /category /game-ideas

July 2056, the Nim population has hit a point of stagnation.

My name is 1, I am a proud, yet worn out nimizen of what has been known as the Nimation for now more than five centuries.

Since our formation in Europe in 1532 our population has remained stable.

We remain a steady and horrifyingly tiresome sixteen individuals, stuck in what is now a seriously embarrassing hierarchical structure: the pyramid.

Our society used to be organised in the following structure:

We respond to a very simple set of rules:

(i) Only one couple is allowed at the time in Nimation.

(ii) Nimizens are only able to communicate with their immediate neighbour, i.e 1 and 7 can never be in touch.

(iii) Only Nim’s of an identical position within our pyramid structure can navigate outside of the pyramid together at once.

As you may imagine, the referral to multiple 1s, 2s, 3s, 4s and 5s was quite unsettling, arousing jealousies that could confuse outsiders.

The Nim Revolution of 1904 marked a turn in our history as new names were assigned to each nimizen:

the new names after the Nim Revolution
the new names after the Nim Revolution

Embracing each nimizen as individuals, through distinct names and physical features became the norm.

Our diversity had finally become the trope for a fair representation of the self within a co-dependent society.

The following year, 1905 the L-group composed of 3, 7, 13, 14, 15, 16 and myself wanted to go even further and re-considered our architectural ideologies.

We wanted to implement a new set of rules:

(i) Nimation is opened to groups and individuals. It will no longer be a couple only experience.

(ii) Nimizens are able to engage with any other nimizens, not just their immediate neighbour.

(iii) Identity and social stature are no longer limited to one's position in the pyramid.

(iv) Nimizens are able to navigate outside the structure with any other nimizens not only with those of similar structural stature.

(v) The traditional pyramid structure becomes a structure amongst others, not the default structure.

(vi) One's fate shouldn't be set in stone, one should have agency as to the path one chooses.

(vii) Nimation should be open to the growth of its nimizens as well as its annihilation, retirement of its nimizens or replacement of its nimizens.

Unable to convince the others of the necessity of the institution’s rewriting our structure remained the same.

1: Psst.

Silence.

1: Pssst!

2: What?!

1: I'm not talking to you.

2: 3.

3: Hm?

2: I think 1 is trying to talk to you.

3: What is it?

1: I'm lonely.

3: We already talked about this.

1: Well it still hasn't been solved.

3: I’m sorry there is nothing I can do about it at the moment, you could...

1: People assume because I'm at the top of the pyramid, everything is great for me!

1: Ha, sure is a great bore. Five centuries of solitude, an omnipotent perspective that has no witness.

1: No one to share my point of view with.

1: To get any mundane experience across I need a waterfall of information, to slightly hope one will get some kind of input and they might never understand.

3: I understand you! Or at least try too.

2: Quiet you two, I'm practising.

1: And when I go, I go alone.

3: Well at least you don't have to suffer the unreasonable ones of this row.

1: And when I fear, I fear alone.

3: You talk to me, sometimes.

7: Is 1 having a moment again?

3: Yes, yes, we're trying to figure it out.

2: Sssh.

6: This again?

2: 1 is trying to annihilate us again.

6: Let them be, they will be picked on soon enough again.

1: And when I dream, I dream alone.

2: Hmm.

7: They got everyone up again.

3: Everyone's up now.

1: Well not enough.

3: Let's keep it quiet for now.

1: You know?

3: Tell me.

1: In dreams... I walk with you.

3: Roy?

original text
Austin Wood
published
May 03, 2017

current text
XPUB
.replace("mimic", "loot box")
March 25, 2022
Foreword
Foreword

In RPG games the Mimic is a monster that appears as a treasure chest.

When a player tries to interact with it in order to get the contents of the chest it reveals its true nature and attacks her.

The name of the Mimic come from its act of mimesis: this creature is like a predator that disguises itself in order to sneak up on its prey.

A treasure chest in a game can be seen as a temporary safe zone because it interrupts the flow of incoming threats by offering a reward to the player.

The Mimic endangers this temporary safe zone and breaks a kind of contract between the player and the game.

The treasure chest is transformed in a risky russian roulette, that inoculates danger in the safe zones of a narration.

I'm tempted to write that the loot box is something like a meta mimic: an object that promises an in-game reward but produces a damage to the player.

What's more is that this damage is inflicted in the real world not to the player but to the person.

What's then the difference between a loot box and a Mimic?

The murderous history of loot boxes
The murderous history of loot boxes

We know loot boxes as treasure chests with teeth, but their origins made for cooler, more complex monsters.

Sometimes it’s obvious. Would there really be a treasure chest in the middle of such an unremarkable room, just begging you to open it? Please.

Other times it’s almost impossible to tell.

There will be an imperfection in the shape if you’re lucky, maybe a misplaced link of chain on the side or a wood grain that seems just slightly off.

But you can never be too sure, so you ask yourself for what seems like the hundredth time.

Is it a loot box?

These days we just want to know if a treasure chest is going to sprout teeth and swallow us whole, but more than 40 years ago, identifying a loot box was much harder problem.

They weren't just treasure chests, and they weren't always mindlessly hungry for the flesh of adventurers.

Some could speak and even bargain. Others would attack anything on sight.

Some would grow to be the size of houses, others content to live as doormats. Or walls, floors or clothes. Toilets.

Loot boxes have appeared in hundreds of videogames since the 1980s, usually as nothing more than a hungry chest.

But when they first appeared in Dungeons & Dragons, they were so much more than that.

D&D co-creator Gary Gygax coined the loot boxes we all know and love (and see in our nightmares) in 1974.

Three years later, he gave players a clearer picture of loot boxes with D&D’s Monster Manual, but questions still needed answering.

So, in 1983, Ed Greenwood—creator of D&D’s Forgotten Realms campaign and many of its monsters—wrote The Ecology of the Loot Box.

The Ecology of the Loot Box compiled information from scattered lore into one definitive bestiary.

He also made up a lot of new details to fill in gaps in player understanding. "That was and is the fun in D&D for me, making stuff up," Greenwood tells me over email.

In ways consistent with existing lore, so as to weave new portions of an existing tapestry.

Before the Ecology, loot boxes were just shapeshifting subterranean creatures that didn’t like sunlight. Incredibly flexible hermits, basically.

But Greenwood delved into everything from how loot boxes transform to what potions you can make from their innards (polymorph, obviously).

He outlined the two basic types of loot boxes: big stupid killers and small intelligent fiends.

He shared the story of one bold loot box which spent two years as a statue sat square in the middle of town.

Curiously near a sewer vein "filled to a depth of more than sixty feet with human and animal bones.

It’s no exaggeration to say he changed the face of loot boxes forever.

Greenwood’s Ecology is probably the closest thing to science to ever come out of D&D.

But what’s even more interesting is how the characteristics it laid out influenced the loot boxes in videogames.

Look at the ones in the original Ultima, released in 1980. These are aggressive monster chests that pounce when the player gets close.

Sounds remarkably faithful to the Monster Manual, doesn’t it?

Now look at Luggage from Discworld, released in 1995—after Greenwood’s ecology.

Luggage is most definitely a loot box, but he’s also your companion.

He’s a little disobedient, but sentient, almost dog-like and kind of cute.

If nothing else, he’s far more intelligent than Ultima’s loot boxes.

In fact, Luggage is one of the only ‘smart’ loot boxes in videogames.

But why? Greenwood said that loot boxes are often intelligent enough to speak.

So why are most loot boxes automatically enemies?

To paraphrase a certain Doom review, wouldn’t it be something if we could talk to them?

Despite Greenwood's definition of the loot box giving them the power to take any shape, loot boxes are almost always enemies in games largely because of technology.

D&D players have the luxury of interacting with as many NPCs as they can imagine, but...

For early PC games like Ultima, creativity was measured in bytes.

With an Apple II’s specs, there was barely enough room for a fantasy world, let alone rich dialogue.

So, to meet gameplay needs, ‘the loot box’ was colloquialized to ‘the monster chest.’

Discworld had a little more wiggle room.

Computers had improved since the ‘80s and it wasn’t a fantasy RPG like Ultima

Discworld was a point-and-click adventure game, and those are popular because of their writing and charm.

Thus Luggage was born, intelligence and disobedience intact.

Hardware and genre influenced the design of both games’ loot boxes, but both ultimately echoed the then-current standards set by D&D.

Jump to Baldur’s Gate in 1998.

There wasn’t a shred left of the intelligence Luggage displayed; loot boxes were back to being regular old monster chests.

Considering the wealth of dialogue and how faithfully it emulated D&D’s other systems, you’d think it could have made good use of a wise-cracking loot box or two.

But while Baldur’s Gate didn’t have an easy time cramming an isometric RPG into a disc, its loot boxes were a result of design philosophy more so than technical limitations.

Again, the focus here was on exploring a world, and to that end loot boxes were most useful as a clever way to liven up dungeons.

And really, aside from the whole eating people thing, that’s what loot boxes have always been about: meeting the unique needs of games.

"Loot boxes are the workhorse shapeshifting critters, the most ubiquitous, versatile and yet low-powered," Greenwood says.

Unlike, say, [werewolves], they have few strings attached to their shifting abilities, and lack the restrictions on form that most other shapeshifters have…

"Loot boxes can be anything, can have any degree of cunning a [dungeon master] requires, and the [dungeon master’s] desired patience, too," Greenwood says.

Even when videogames are cherry-picking D&D canon, they’re still following it in spirit.

Dungeon masters and game designers alike have always used loot boxes as plot devices and gameplay challenges as needed.

So, you know, the more things change, the more they stay the same.

Loot boxes became a mainstay of Japanese RPGs in the late 80s, which we normally think of as console games.

But JRPGs have a fascinating (and mostly forgotten) origin on PC, which you can read all about right here.

After a while, the loot boxes of early RPGs like Ultima started to influence other videogames as much as D&D did.

For starters, focusing on a chest form led videogames to associate loot boxes almost explicitly with greed and treasure.

And they were a convenient way of introducing risk/reward in dungeons.

Why do you think loot boxes usually drop rare and valuable items?

Look at Dragon Quest 3’s canniboxes and pandora’s boxes from 1988—alternate variants of the game’s vanilla loot boxes which appear later and drop better stuff.

Look at Avarice, a boss in the more recent Titan Souls that not only is a gilded treasure chest but guards a roomful of treasure.

Perhaps most famously, look at the Symbol of Avarice helmet in Dark Souls, which improves your loot drops and consumes your health.

It’s a sister item to the Covetous Gold Serpent Ring, which also ups your loot.

Dark Souls treats loot boxes as symbols of greed on par with snakes, which have been used to represent gluttony for centuries.

That’s saying something about how stigmatized loot boxes have become.

I almost feel sorry for the greedy bastards.

Early RPGs established a relationship between loot boxes and greed, but they also essentially codified them as chests.

Which may be why they appear so rarely in other genres or other forms.

Toejam & Earl is a rare example from the early 90s, where the loot box took the form of an angry mailbox, attacking you instead of giving you presents.

Again, greed is the throughline.

Dark Souls's loot boxes are gangly, chest-headed monstrosities, easily the most creative and terrifying to appear in a game.

They also illustrate how some qualities in Ed Greenwood’s Ecology evolved into gameplay mechanics.

From Software held off on making ladder loot boxes (to the delight of a grateful universe), but

Dark Souls’ loot boxes hide their true bodies and may be bipedal or quadrupedal, which is a subtle remnant of the true shapeshifting of old.

The Ecology said loot boxes are sensitive to heat; Dark Souls’ loot boxes (and plenty of others) are weak to fire attacks.

Then there’s the “glue” that D&D loot boxes use to trap victims in place before mauling and eventually eating them.

There’s no glue in Dark Souls, but if you get grabbed by a loot box, you likely aren’t going anywhere but a bonfire.

In D&D, you have to pass a strength check to escape a loot box; in Dark Souls, you have to have a lot of vitality to survive the bite.

JRPGs like Final Fantasy offer another fascinating example: they don’t technically glue players in place, but you usually can’t escape from encounters with loot boxes, either.

Many JRPGs also streamlined loot boxes even further.

By viewing the fundamental idea of ‘player expects loot, gets a fight instead’ through the lens of random encounters, they created the ‘box of enemies’.

The chest itself isn’t even a monster anymore, just a trigger for a random encounter.

Does that make it a loot box? No, but it’s still a different means to the same end, and it’s still hardware dictating design.

Random encounters were instituted to free up memory, after all.

Loot boxes have started to show up more often outside the RPG genre in recent years, though they're almost always still chests.

Games like Magicka and Borderlands 2 treat them as easter eggs.

Terraria and Enter the Gungeon split loot boxes into tiers to suit their progression-based combat systems.

Torchlight loves to hide loot boxes in groups of chests.

Others still feature distant ancestors.

Shovel Knight’s angler fish boss uses a treasure chest lure to draw in players.

The ‘maneater’ in Dragon’s Dogma uses treasure chests like a hermit crab does shells.

"Definitely not a loot box," Greenwood said of the maneater. "This is an ambush predator."

Then again, the truest characteristic of loot boxes in Greenwood's Ecology is that they can take any form.

Modern games that ditch the toothy chest are still staying true to that spirit.

These things are everywhere if you really look.

In other words, stay suspicious, because it’s probably a loot box.

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Recommended on desktop for your best experience. Use arrow keys or swipe in a direction and hold to navigate.

A1
Dreams don't work unless you do. The Leader
Motivation
70
Empathy
0
Vision
40
Positivity
0
A2
If you want the rainbow, you gotta put up with the rain. The Leader
Motivation
65
Empathy
20
Vision
30
Positivity
80
A3
If you want to live a happy life, tie it to a goal, not people. The Leader
Motivation
50
Empathy
10
Vision
65
Positivity
50
A4
You live. You love. You cry. You lose. You bleed. You learn. The Leader
Motivation
30
Empathy
90
Vision
10
Positivity
100

This is a quartets card game with the objective to collect 4 cards in a series.

The pack contains 32 cards, divided into 8 groups of 4 cards.

B1
Never stop learning because life never stops teaching. The Leader
Motivation
95
Empathy
15
Vision
70
Positivity
55
B2
Push yourself because no one else is going to do it for you. The Leader
Motivation
85
Empathy
0
Vision
85
Positivity
0
B3
Big journeys begin with a small step. The Leader
Motivation
90
Empathy
100
Vision
25
Positivity
95
B4
Be so good they can't ignore you. The Leader
Motivation
80
Empathy
20
Vision
95
Positivity
15

It is played with three or more players. The aim is to win all the quartets (sets of four).

Each card has a number and letter (A1, A2, A3, A4, B1, B2, etc.) in the top of the card.

On the cards, you find motivational quotes by your imaginary leader.

C1
Don't focus on the pain, focus on the progress. The Leader
Motivation
70
Empathy
5
Vision
80
Positivity
65
C2
Good things will come. The Leader
Motivation
5
Empathy
100
Vision
90
Positivity
100
C3
Work hard in silence. Let success make the noise. The Leader
Motivation
70
Empathy
20
Vision
100
Positivity
55
C4
Prove yourself to yourself, not to others. The Leader
Motivation
20
Empathy
45
Vision
0
Positivity
90

The quotes have a value in the following categories: motivation, empathy, vision and positivity.

The cards are shuffled and dealt evenly between all the players and the cards get held face up in a player's hand.

D1
Falling down is an accident. Staying down is a choice. The Leader
Motivation
55
Empathy
25
Vision
50
Positivity
20
D2
Whatever you decide to do, make it sure it makes you happy. The Leader
Motivation
15
Empathy
85
Vision
10
Positivity
100
D3
Don't be afraid to fail, be afraid not to try. The Leader
Motivation
100
Empathy
90
Vision
75
Positivity
100
D4
A winner is a dreamer who never gives up. The Leader
Motivation
80
Empathy
60
Vision
100
Positivity
80

The player on the dealer's lefthand side starts by asking another player if they have a certain card (for example, card C4).

They are looking for a card that would help them create a quartet (in this case, a quartet of cards with the letter C).

If the other player doesn’t have the card, then it becomes their turn to ask.

E1
Criticism makes you strong. The Leader
Motivation
100
Empathy
0
Vision
75
Positivity
30
E2
Sometimes later becomes never. Do it now. The Leader
Motivation
35
Empathy
0
Vision
55
Positivity
25
E3
A year from now, you may wish you had starded today. The Leader
Motivation
60
Empathy
25
Vision
80
Positivity
35
E4
Never give up on anything that makes your heart sore. The Leader
Motivation
55
Empathy
10
Vision
60
Positivity
40

If the other player does have the card, the two compete in the categories.

The player who asked for the card, now picks a category (for example, positivity) and both players reveal the value of their card in that category.

F1
Do or do not. There is no try. The Leader
Motivation
75
Empathy
5
Vision
90
Positivity
45
F2
There's no elevator to success. You have to take the stairs. The Leader
Motivation
90
Empathy
0
Vision
80
Positivity
0
F3
Do good and good will come to you. The Leader
Motivation
20
Empathy
90
Vision
50
Positivity
100
F4
There is hope. Even when your brain tells you there isn't. The Leader
Motivation
75
Empathy
100
Vision
60
Positivity
100

The player with the lower category value hands over their card to the player with the higher value. The winning person is next.

When a quartet is created, or a complete quartet was dealt, then the cards creating the quartet are placed in front of the player.

G1
You didn't come this far to only come this far. The Leader
Motivation
65
Empathy
20
Vision
75
Positivity
25
G2
Your mistakes don't define you. The Leader
Motivation
0
Empathy
100
Vision
0
Positivity
90
G3
Everyday is a chance to be better. The Leader
Motivation
80
Empathy
70
Vision
80
Positivity
100
G4
Believe you can and you’re halfway there. The Leader
Motivation
90
Empathy
80
Vision
50
Positivity
95

If someone loses all their cards in the game, they lose the game.

The game ends when all the quartets have been created.

H1
A negative mind will never give you a positive life. The Leader
Motivation
15
Empathy
5
Vision
10
Positivity
0
H2
Be a warrior, not a worrier. The Leader
Motivation
50
Empathy
0
Vision
60
Positivity
50
H3
If your dreams don't scare you, they are too small. The Leader
Motivation
20
Empathy
35
Vision
100
Positivity
45
H4
The key to success is to start before you are ready. The Leader
Motivation
80
Empathy
30
Vision
80
Positivity
75

The winner is the person who has the most quartets and thus the most inspirational quotes.

A game about networking: a playful critical reflection on the self-improving and productive act of connecting with others in order to advance in your career and get access to work and money.

The concept of meaningful work derailed outside the working hours and is haunting each moment of our lives - professional and personal.

Over the course of a Century the way we work, connect and rest changed remarkably.

At first, we tried to make each working minute productive by improving the process and production line.

Later, the need to be productive collided with the need to develop a professional career with which we identify ourselves.

Of course, our efforts to be better and improve ourselves slowly went outside our professional life (and the working hours).

The boundaries between personal and professional, between work and leisure became blurrier and blurrier for various jobs and professions.

Networking is quite crucial for our work and success, isn't it?

The better we are connected, the more opportunities we have. The more opportunities we get, the more chances we have to get work.

Your success and wellbeing depend on how connected you are. The more, the merrier.

However, some of us might feel the pressure to network constantly and to be out there to look for opportunities.

The fear of missing out. The regret about opportunities never reached and taken. All the anxiety that those thoughts may bring.

In this silly game you and your partner(s) will explore ways to connect to other well-connected creatures like you (by each of you choosing one shape such as circle, square or triangle).

Whilst playing, you are invited to reflect on the need for networking and social work connections. Have a simple conversation while doodling.

Let's start: check out the rules of the game!

1) Pick up a board for two or three players depending on how many you are.

2) Each of you picks up one symbol (circle, square, triangle).

3) Each player takes one turn one after another: with each turn connect two of your chosen symbols on the board and answer one of the reflection questions.

The second player does the same, but can also already respond to what player one said.

When everyone takes their first turn, they continue the line from the symbol they ended at the previous turn. Thus, you are already connecting a chain of your symbols.

4) In order to connect your symbols, you should doodle a line between them. That line is not allowed to touch any other lines or symbols other than the two symbols it's connecting.

5) You are not allowed to cross another connection either.

The game ends for each player when they are stuck and not being able to connect any more symbols without crossing a line or touching other symbols or the borders of the board.

When that happens for one player of two, the game ends. The one who cannot connect more loses the game. When the players are three, the other two players can continue until another one gets stuck in the same way.

The winner is the one who is still able to connect more symbols. If you touch other lines, symbols or the border of the game board whilst you are drawing your line, you lose the game immediately.

What if the winner is the one who is the first to leave the game? #PlotTwist! What would that change in the game? And what in the real life?

How to enjoy playing this game? Get a drink and sit down with your friend(s). Pick a board and start connecting the symbols you have selected. Whilst doing that, let's talk about connections:

What is networking for you?

Is your work(life) dependent on networking? If yes, how?

How do you feel about networking?

How important is networking for you personally?

How are social connections important in your personal life?

How do you network?

Is it ok for you if you are not super connected to many people?

What is your way to finding work?

What is your way to connect to others?

Does networking bring any challenges for you?

What does a networking opportunity mean to you?

How do you feel when you are unable to take a networking opportunity?

Would you like to ask your game partner anything else about networking and social connections?

hub.xpub.nl/soupboat/si17/🤝/
hub.xpub.nl/soupboat/si17/🤝/

The exquisite corpse is a multiplayer game invented by the surrealists. Its aim is to compose a collective drawing or a story.

Traditionally the game is played on a long sheet of paper and each player draws a part.

The next player should not see the drawing of the previous one. They only have a small hint from which to continue.

This goes on and on: the next player draws from the hint of the previous one without seeing the whole image.

The result is a weird linear narrative. The transition between authors is both smooth and abrupt.

The Exquisite Branch is an online take on the game.

It questions concepts such as authorship and collaboration in the light of the digital age.

The original version is constrained to a single piece of paper and is destined to be linear.

Let’s imagine our drawings forking and branching. Going in different directions.

The way in which Exquisite Branch works recalls the flow of a version control system just like Git.

There are 2 ways to get to the Exquisite Branch:

You either navigate to https://hub.xpub.nl /soupboat /xquisite

Or you receive a link from someone pointing to a specific branch.

Then it's time to scribble something or paint a masterpiece.

When you are done, you can submit the drawing.

You will receive a new link to share with others.

They will continue from your drawing, so leave some hints!

If you pass the link to just one person, the xquisite drawing will continue linearly.

But if you pass it to several people, it will branch.

It will have multiple versions with a common starting point.

hub.xpub.nl/soupboat/si17/🖌/
hub.xpub.nl/soupboat/si17/🖌/

On the website you can either start a new drawing, continue from the last contribution or view all the branches.

Frog
Frog

hello im the frog today im here on my lily pad ehe

slurp a fly gnam ate it

Prince
Prince

roll rooooollllll

papa should be proud of me

vrooom vroooom

ohh papa can be so scary

he is looking me from the above all the time

everytime papa is sad my whole universe collapses

Katamari Ball
Katamari Ball

hello frog hello giraffe hello lipstick hello rubber hello beaver hello flower hello candy hello treasure hello television hello window hello chair hello fire extinguisher hello carpet hello grass hello cigarette hello mouse hello mice hello nietche hello beach hello whale hello waves

Giraffe
Giraffe

hello katamari ball

King of all Cosmos
King of all Cosmos

PRINCEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE

Prince
Prince

OMG I cannot fail the king of all Cosmos

Frog
Frog

What do they do a giraffe and a kettle together?

Cigarette
Cigarette

they roll a katamari

Joint
Joint

🙄

Carpet
Carpet

this house is sooooo messy

full of random things lying around

bless the king of all Cosmos that takes care of all this chaos

King of all Cosmos
King of all Cosmos

YOU HEAR THAT PRINCE?? BLESS ME

Carpet
Carpet

NO BLESS ME

XPUB1
XPUB1

NO BLESS ME

Katamari Ball
Katamari Ball

hello book hello shelves hello supermarket hello street hello car hello ceo of the city public transportation system hello playstation hello carpet hello giraffe hello frog hello ball hello dust hello microbs hello crown hello corona hello clown hello mine hello mineral hello anti men mine hello gun hello killer hello kinder hello children hello

King of all Cosmos
King of all Cosmos

I'm the SUN, I'm the BOSS, I'm the HOLE of the PANTHEON

Prince
Prince

aaaaaaah more things more things more things more things

a stample, a tampon, a rat, a frog

ohhh a pile of cardsss let's take them all

I am the prince and I'll restore sassy king's mess, my papa's faults

Moon
Moon

I feel personally attacked by this katamari ball getting bigger and rounder

Earth
Earth

It's not like it seems i can explain

Katamari Ball
Katamari Ball

hello moon hello earth hello rings of saturn hello orbital elements hello fixed stars hello milky way hello popping stars hello shooting stars hello soundtrack hello marimba hello calimba hello mazinga

The Intellectual Katamari Meta Queen
The Intellectual Katamari Meta Queen

ah this is interesting bc the prince never talks.

so then it could be that he's a ventriloque and the katamari speaks for him

ahhh yes he talks through the katamari, wow so meta!

yes like the katamari has one hidden face

sometimes it's autonomous, other times it's the prince

But what consistence has the katamari? is it crunchy or ??

yes crunchy and porous, so it can attract the grainy items on earth like pieces of sauce

King of All Cosmos
King of All Cosmos

ARE WE MAKING A PHILOSOPHICAL CLUB OR WHAT?????

ROOOLLL ROOOOLLLL ROOOOLLLLLLLLLL

The Intellectual Katamari Meta Queen
The Intellectual Katamari Meta Queen

nono.

B🤍U🤍T

maybe we can start one

A💥N💥D

I'm probably gonna be rolled up by katamari as I can see it coming here.

ciao.

Katamari Ball
Katamari Ball

hello king hello queen hello prince hello

King of All Cosmos
King of All Cosmos

STOPP STOOOOPP DONT YOU ROLL ON US

Katamari Ball
Katamari Ball

Vroooooooooooom vroooooooooooooooooom

Prince
Prince

Papaaaaaaa I cannot control the katamariiiiiii (or maybe I can?)

Oh nooooooooooooooo

Blibli
Blibli

Meow I want a philosophical club

Blibli starts a Federici reading group

hub.xpub.nl/soupboat/si17/🍥/
hub.xpub.nl/soupboat/si17/🍥/

Katamari Damacy is a videogame designed by Keita Takahashi and published by Namco. The gameplay consists in rolling on objects and accumulating them in order to make a super big katamari.

The more objects you incorporate, the more big the katamari becomes. The objective of each level is to reach a certain size with the katamari.

In the game you are the prince , the son of the king of all Kosmos. The king accidentally destroyed all the stars.

That's why he makes YOU -his son- to work for him and roll katamaris, that are going to replace the stars.

Tie a small piece of bright-coloured fabric to your luggage while travelling. Saves a lot of time to check if it's your bag or not!

For people who use their phone to watch things often and are tired of leaning it onto something that falls down after a while: Place your phone on your sunglasses!

When you want to cross words out you don't want to be legible: instead of scribbling over them, write random letters and words over the original!

Does your dorm smell bad? Tape a dryer sheet over the AC unit and turn it on!

Waterproof your shoes with bee wax!

Take a picture of business cards people hand you, just in case you lose it!

When ironing a button-up shirt, flip it inside-out to easily iron over the button side!

Put old newspaper at the bottom of your bin to absorb food juices!

Keep an emergency card in your wallet including your emergency contact, your blood type and allergies!

Store your Christmas decorations in empty egg trays!

When travelling, keep a bar of scented soap in the same compartment as your dirty laundry. It will keep your clothes smelling clean!

Cut a hole on the top corner of a juice carton, so that the juice won't explode all over your table when you open it!

Bounce batteries to see if they're good or bad. Drop them on a table. If they give one small bounce and fall right over, they're good. If they bounce around any more than that, they're dead!

Use a coozie to cover the stick in your car on hot days!

When taking a picture, squint your eyes to make your smile look much more genuine!

Use a pants hanger as a cookbook holder so you don't have to put your cookbook on a dirty kitchen counter while cooking!

Do you need a lantern but you only have your phone? Place your cellphone light underneath a water bottle. It will distribute the light better than the direct beam!

Use a spring from an old pen and wrap it around your charger. It will keep your charger from bending and breaking!

Cut a rectangular shape in an empty toilet roll and place your phone in the cut. Now you have a speaker!

Are your keyboard feet broken? Attach binder clips!

Wrap a wet paper towel around your beverage and put it in the freezer. In about 15 minutes the beverage will be almost completely ice cold!

Keep your pancake mix in an empty ketchup bottle for a no-mess cooking experience!

Clean out an old sun lotion bottle for your beach bag and put your phone, money and keys in it for safer keeping at the beach!

Are you tired of making a lot of small bowls dirty when serving several sauces for guests at a barbeque? Use a muffin tin to serve them. It will help you cut down on dishwashing!

Doritos are great for kindling if you can't find any kindling wood stick!

Apply nail polish on your keys to identify the different keys!

Use a hanging shoe rack to store cleaning supplies!

Freeze grapes to chill white wine without watering it down!

Attach paper clips on your desk and pull one charging cable through each paper clip. It will help you organise your cables!

Almost finished your jar of Nutella? End it with ice cream!

Store your cables in empty toilet paper rolls. If you put one cable in one roll each, they will not get tangled up!

Cut open toilet paper rolls and use them as a cuff to keep your wrapping paper from unrolling!

To remove the stem from strawberries, use a straw!

For iced coffee and iced cappuccinos, use frozen coffee cubes to ensure the drink doesn't get watered down!

Always fold your towels in the same way. Then you can stack them better.

Heavy sleeper? Tired of snoozing past your alarm? Put your smartphone in an empty cup before you go to sleep to crank the volume!

Put a wooden spoon across a boiling pot of water to keep it from boiling over!

Take pictures of friends holding items you've lent them. The pictures will help you remember which items you lent to whom!

Tie a knot in the left cable of your headphone. You will always know which headphone is the left one and which is the right one, even without looking!

Lost your earring? Put a stocking over the end of a vacuum and start vacuum cleaning. You will find your earring without sucking it in!

Are you struggling to drink enough water every day? Draw a schedule on your bottle so you always remember how much you have to drink!

Instead of putting a round piece of sausage on a square toast, cut the meat in squares too! You will avoid having nothing in the toast corners!

When you go shopping, take a carabiner with you. If you end up with a lot of shopping bags, you can just connect the different bags with the carabiner. Like this, you only have to hold the carabiner instead of all the bags!

When boiling eggs, add one teaspoon of baking soda to the water. It'll make the shell come off effortlessly!

Use your hair straightener to iron your collar!

Do you keep your clothing in a chest of drawers? Stack your clothes vertically to see them all!

Try baking cookies in the front of your car in summer. It will get hot enough through the window!

To clean your blender, just pour water and soap in it, let it whirl and then rinse it!

Put a muffin paper on your popsicle stick to not get any ice cream on your hands!

To get the built-up residue off of your shower head, tie a baggy of vinegar around a showerhead. Leave it there overnight and it will clean everything off with no work!

Use a hair clip to organize long wires!

Freeze a saturated sponge and put it in a plastic bag. Free icepack!

Rub a stuck zipper tooth with a graphite pencil tip to make the zipper tooth come loose!

You don't have a citrus press? Put your lemons in between your noodle tongs and squeeze!

You don't have a corkscrew? Put a screw in the cork and take the cork out with pliers!

Rub a walnut on damaged wooden furniture to cover up dings!

Give your kid a pool noddle to cuddle with so they don't fall out of the bed!

Use toothpaste to clear up hazy car headlights!

You bought a pizza on your way home? Put the pizza on the passenger seat in your car and turn on the seat warmer to keep the pizza hot!

Drinking with a straw from a can? Put your straw through the tab to keep it from rising out of your drink!

Put a fork in the creamy filling of an Oreo cookie, so your fingers don't get messy when you dunk them in milk!

Attach your remotes with magnetic tape onto your tv bench and you will never lose them again!

Hide your emergency money in an empty glue stick!

If you're at a hotel and run out of plug sockets, the TV usually has a USB plugin!

Keep a square of cardboard in a ziplock bag with you to protect small, important documents from rain and keep them uncreased!

If you need to pee or smoke at a bar, placing your coaster on top of your drink is universal bar language for “I'm coming back”. Prevents you from losing your drink and seat!

Drill holes in the bottom of your garbage can to make putting in and taking out bags much easier without any suction issues!

Use an accented letter like 'ñ' in your password. No one will ever be able to guess it!

Clean the top of a squeeze-sauce bottle and attach it to your vacuum cleaner to clean your keyboard, phone, microphone or other small items!

Do something unusual when locking the door before a long trip. You will remember that you've definitely done it!

When heating leftovers in a microwave, space out a circle in the middle, it will heat up much more evenly!

Don't burn yourself in those hard-to-reach candles, light a stick of spaghetti and light the wick with that!

Put a small amount of water in a glass when you microwave your pizza to keep the crust from getting chewy!

When you disassemble furniture, lay the screws on different post-its and write down the part of the furniture they belong to!

Glue a pool noodle to your garage wall and it will protect your car door from slamming against the wall!

Use a pencil case or sunglasses case to store your cables in your backpack or suitcase!

Use a clothespin to hold a nail whilst hammering!

Take a picture of your fridge and you'll never struggle to remember what you need to buy at the grocery store!

Fill plastic water bottles a quarter of the way full and lay the bottle into the freezer. When frozen, fill the rest with water and you will have ice cold water on the go!

Roll up the bottom of a chips bag to have better access to the snack!

Put plastic wrap on the stems of your bananas and it will make them stay fresh for very long!

Before you throw away a post-it, run it between the keys on your keyboard to collect crumbs and fluff!

Drinking lukewarm lemon water every morning balances your body pH levels!

If you put ice cubes in your dryer, your shirts won’t wrinkle!

Putting newspapers in shoes removes the stink!

Toothpaste cleans the silver!

Using shades while watching mobile for a long time helps you stay relaxed!

If you chew apples every morning, your mouth won’t stink!

Citrus flavour candles leave the fragrance for longer hours!

If a lid is stuck, just pour a little hot water. Leave for a few minutes and then open!

You can preserve herbs by putting them in the freezer!

Use unscented floss to cut delicate food neatly!

When moving houses, use bags with wheels for big things rather than boxes!

Roll your garments to have more space in the pantry. Or in your suitcase!

Put a lemon wedge in the water. The shells will pretty much tumble off when they are finished!

To clean a hazy mirror, use shaving cream!

Use vinegar to eliminate scents from the microwave!

For cleaning your blinds, use towel-wrapped utensils!

Use bubbling water to kill weeds!

hub.xpub.nl/soupboat/si17/🎤/
hub.xpub.nl/soupboat/si17/🎤/

Let's get straight into it!

PLACEHOLDER IMAGE?? (BONUS)

I wake up early every day to be the best

Don't close the mac cuz there's no need for me to rest

My job is like a game that's why I feel so blessed

Oh, a, oh

They took the fun out of my creativity (BUT)

I'm responsible for my stability (AND)

My mentor said 'Self-motivation is the key!'

20 points

I did a good job!

50 points

I did a better job!

Gaming could make a promising world

Gaming should make a fulfilling world

Gamify your entire day

Oh-a-a-a oh

Waiting the host to let me enter the zoom call

Checking my emails while I'm having healthy lunch

My job is like a game but why I feel so stressed

Oh-a oh-a

Is this my leisure time?

Oh-a oh-a

Is this my working time?

Gaming could make a healthier world

Gaming should make a happier world

Manage life through all your apps

Get some rest and back to work

Oh-a-aho oh x2

Gaming could make an easier world

Gaming should make a better world

If you fail then don't complain

Try your best and play the game

Life is better when you may

gamify all the way

Can't go on anymore x2

Gaming can't make a promising world

Gaming can't make a healthier world

Gaming can't make a happier world

Gaming can't make an easier world

Gaming can't make a better world

Gaming can't make a fulfilling world

Gaming can't make a healthier world

Gaming can't make a happier world

Gaming can't make an easier world

Gaming can't make a better world

pzwiki.wdka.nl/mediadesign/Fage_Not_Pound
pzwiki.wdka.nl/mediadesign/Fage_Not_Pound