THURSDAY 2/10: Ludic Liberation Lab ~ WORD GAMES

Is Guessing Words Liberating?

Can you find all 21 words from Ludic Liberation Lab rules in this Word Search? Hint: They go backwards and forwards and diagonally! You can play the interactive version here.

Have you (like everyone else apparently) been playing WORDLE — the new word-guessing game that has rapidly become a viral sensation and was just acquired by The New York Times for a “low seven figure” price? (The creator, Josh Wardle, a software engineer from Brooklyn, is apparently having some trouble integrating all the success and attention).

As a Gamemaker, watching the WORDLE phenomenon has been fascinating and envy-inducing. Of course I too want to make a game that’s so simple it appeals to everyone and sets me up with a trust fund for life! And so, I’ve decided to dedicate this month’s lab to that very dream. Together, we will study the rules and mechanics of various word-based games, and spend time designing and testing our own inventions – perhaps creating something so brilliant it’ll be our ticket to FIRE, or just fun enough that we’ll want to play it again with friends.

Here’s the twist, though: can we make a liberating language game? Is guessing words liberating because it stimulates the brain — or does it privilege a particular kind of knowledge and only traps us into the inherent violence of language? Could we invent a game that helps free us from oppressive concepts or teach us a new language that is queer and radically inclusive? Can we make a game that helps us cut through everyday doublethink? Or are all word games doomed to just re-affirm the dictionary? We’ll have to play to find out…

JOIN US to play + design WORD GAMES!

🗓 THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 10, 2022

⏰ 6-7:30pm Eastern Standard Time (use a timezone converter to figure out the start time in your location)

📍Zoom

🎟 Drop-in lab participation for this lab is only $5, but free for paid subscribers of the Lab Report and members of Incite Seminars (use your email address as promo code).

🤡 Ludic Liberation Lab lasts for 1.5 hours, which includes fun warm-ups, collaborative gameplay and design activities, and a debrief that helps us build collective wisdom about play & liberation.