"The solver encountered a path when solving the problem, like they were having a conversation with me," said Snyder, the puzzle creator. “I left a bunch of bread crumbs in the forest and now they followed it to find the cabin location.”

For some LinkedIn users, the platform is not very dedicated to the game.

Mitchell Tan, who runs a messaging service, said it was born out of LinkedIn inbox hatred, found the existence of LinkedIn games frustrating. He said he used the platform to find and secure business contacts and would then continue to purchase services from him. However, connecting and talking directly on LinkedIn is more difficult than it should feel, and for Tan, LinkedIn puts resources into games, such as games ignore people who use the platform to make a living.

"LinkedIn is where you make money," Tan said. "There are a lot of leverage here. These guys are not random teenagers on Tiktok, they are the VP of sales who make millions of dollars a year, and if good enough, they actually read your stuff. You do have a full day of CEO and VCS releases, so you have access to business influence. We're here. We're here."

For example, he takes games like Zip as an example, where users can use the arrow keys on the keyboard to play in a desktop browser. However, the arrow keys cannot browse LinkedIn's inbox, which he believes is an abuse of resources, taking precedence over some of the more rash features that LinkedIn Power users use.

“What is this $30 billion company doing?” Tan said: “We are actually making this platform valuable. It’s a bit strange to come to LinkedIn for entertainment in a world where people are busy trying to build their businesses.”

Despite several inquiries, LinkedIn did not share any specific figures about how many people on the platform are engaged in games, except that 830,000 people have subscribed to its daily gaming newsletter, “84% of players return the next day after playing the game.” Does that mean that games are a net boon to LinkedIn’s broader service? perhaps.

“Many real life is solving problems that may or may not have answers,” Snyder said. “A puzzle is a very organized thing, and if you just do that, there should be an answer. A puzzle is a small way to think about life.”

"LinkedIn is one of the few social media that won't be tainted by unusable capabilities," Rubin said. "The game doesn't use many other things, pop-ups or trying to take you to this part of the website. It's a very simple thing, and it's a very easy thing to go out in five minutes."

"Working days are hard. Hunting is harder," said photographer Thomas. "So, being able to take a break, but also doing something that can be done quickly and done is a great reward."

Richard Liverman, a British consultant, has built a follower in his cheeky blog posts and curated the Spotify playlist based on the category guessing game Pinpoint that tries to solve LinkedIn. Liverman, a "King of Pinpoint" of self-hit, said that based on LinkedIn's game, engaged in the bit of tongue, which brought him into contact with 200 people on the site.

"LinkedIn is getting better and better, but it can be a bit boring," Liverman said. "You know what it feels like when you do the web, you can tell people who are really trying, and it's almost uncomfortable. So point out and all the games, I think it can make people communicate and communicate in a more interesting way."