I came across ZombiLingo, the forerunner of ZombiLUDik, two years ago. At that time, I had just finished my doctoral dissertation in linguistics. To relieve the stress and unwind a bit, I attended seminars close to my home, including a one-day seminar at the University of Louvain (UCLouvain) in Belgium. Among the guest speakers was Karën Fort, who presented her research on “serious games” or “games for science,” a field that was completely new to me. Despite my very limited experience with video games or other online games, I was immediately attracted to the concept, and being a naturally curious person, it wasn’t long before I started to explore the ZombiLingo platform. At first, I had to put my linguist’s instincts aside, but I quickly got into the game. Being able to rise through the levels and challenge other players to a duel appealed to me and I wanted to play as many sentences as possible. I racked up many symbolic trophies and was quite proud of my achievements as a player. Being a researcher myself, knowing I was helping other researchers by playing made me want to keep playing. I’m happy to see that ZombiLingo has now become ZombiLUDik. I look forward to exploring this new game and setting new records.

Wellington