SPL Players Report Sightings on Discord

Splinterlands player are finding more and more strange, mysterious easter eggs in the game lately. Then reporting them on discord tavern. What are these easter eggs all about? Are the game developers trying to tell us something? Are these even easter eggs at all? It's like, quite a little mystery for now.

If you haven't seen one yet, take a look at the images below. See anything?

Can you find the easter eggs below?

What are "Easter Eggs"?

If you look at my previous post here on the term "portmanteau" you'll notice a trend forming. Portmanteau is also a term that has two different meanings, depending on the context. This, despite the fact that both meanings originally derive from the same linguistic source. The two different meanings for "Easter Eggs" are similar and have the same relationship:

1. First, OG "Easter Eggs." These are real actual eggs, hard boiled, dyed, painted and decorated. People do this as a fun activity, and to celebrate the Easter holiday in April. Often times the eggs are hidden afterwards, for people to find in a game called an "Easter Egg Hunt."

2. Second, digital "Easter Eggs." These are like hidden messages, or hidden anything really, in video games, movies and other media like that. Similar to eggs hidden in an "Easter Egg hunt," these messages are "hidden" by the game developers so that super-devoted players and fans can "hunt" around and find them! Then geek out about it, hardcore, etc.

1. OG Easter Eggs

If you decorated OG physical easter eggs as a kid (like I did every year), they probably looked something like the image below. You remember these. Your mom hard boiled the eggs and then gave you little paper dixie cups filled with food dye, diluted in water. All different colors. Choose a color (critical choice!) and drop that egg in. Leave for a few minutes, or however long you want. Longer times maximize that color saturation💪 After that, take it out, let it dry. So pretty😍 Then paint it with designs if you want. Add sparkles. Gems. Maybe bedazzle it up. The sky's the limit.

A basket of traditional Easter eggs courtesy of wikipedia:

This past spring I painted easter eggs with some friends and their kids. We made nintendo Mario Bros themed eggs, which was actually a pretty fun activity. For real. They looked really good too. I wish I had pictures of those, but I don't.

We made mario bros. easter eggs this year, they looked kinda like this:

Instead, please accept this picture below of me (yes that's really me😍 what a weirdo) dressed up as the Easter Bunny as a kid for Halloween trick-or-treating.

Me as a child, dressed up like the easter bunny for halloween? Strange even back then.

Moreover, a big part of the OG "Easter Egg" tradition for some folks involves hiding and then finding the eggs. It's called an "Easter Egg Hunt." Usually it's an adult or adults hiding the eggs in various places, inside or outside, and then setting loose a pack of wild children to go find them as fast as possible. A fun game. It is a fun game actually!

These days, it's even become an annual tradition in the U.S. for the president to host an "Easter Egg Hunt" in the Capitol, Washington, D.C., at the White House. For example, below is a picture of the outgoing U.S. president Joe Biden back in April 2024, trying to pretend like he knows where he is.

Joe Biden looking slightly concerned, like he's not quite sure what he's seeing right now.

They probably interrupted his nap time for this? I would look the same if someone did that to me.

2. Digital Easter Eggs

The other kind of easter egg is more like a message, an image, a hidden feature or a hidden character. Basically, something to find in a game or a movie. Like finding an egg in an "Easter Egg Hunt." And yes, that is generally how digital "Easter Eggs" got their name.

The term came into use in the early 1980's, to describe a hidden message in the Atari video game ADVENTURE. Anyone who read the book "Ready Player One" knows this by heart already. I won't do any spoilers on that book here, but I absolutely recommend it as a fun read. Especially for anyone who grew up in the U.S. in the 80's and 90's and liked cool things.

A Digital "Easter Egg" features prominently in the plot of the book Ready Player One

In fact, the digital easter egg in Atari's ADVENTURE is kind of what started it all. Like, the OG digital easter egg. At least, it was the first to be officially called an "Easter Egg." So what is it? Basically it's like this little secret room. That's all. You can only find it by getting really random with your playing, and not even follow the normal track to winning the game. Why would anyone have done that to begin with? I don't know. Kids in 1980 being super bored? Super obsessed? Maybe they just had a feeling, that there must something more out there? Either way, when you find that secret hidden room, there's a secret hidden message from the game developer! That is pretty cool.

I guess back then, they wouldn't let game devs take credit for their work (kinda weird), so the one dude who wrote ADVENTURE was like screw that. I'm going to do it anyway, but I'm going to hide it like an easter egg. Then only real fans will find it. Epic. A truly epic move that went down in game history. If you haven't seen this before, below is a video of someone finding it on an original Atari 2600.

Watch this video to see someone find the digital "Easter Egg" in the 1979 Atari game ADVENTURE

The Lorkus Easter Egg? (that's not very nice)

While easter eggs are typically clear in their message, the ones being found lately by splinterlands players are a bit more difficult to interpret. In fact, they might not really be "Easter Eggs" at all. Instead, they might just be our brains and their natural tendency to find familiar patterns in random things. If you haven't seen the Lorkus Easter Egg yet, watch this:

If you remove the magical card from Lorkus' hand, he seems to be giving a rude gesture, no?

Whoa Lorkus, keep it PG. In some places, that's considered a very rude gesture.

To be fair, maybe Lorkus just likes to hold cards in an awkward way while examining them? Try holding a playing card like that yourself right now please🖕 Is it particularly ergonomic? I would say no. For me, it actually took some effort to contort my hand into mimicking that pose. But Lorkus might have a very flexible hand?

And then I guess, on top of that, maybe Lorkus also prefers to use like, a really STRONG middle finger, to physically support the card in his hand while he examines it. And then also, he extends that middle finger up a bit, as far as possible---really stretching it up there---so it's clearly above all other fingers?

Or maybe he's just flipping us all off. It's probably one or the other🤷‍♂

The "Proven" Easter Egg? (more like a "proven" jerk)

If you've been in the glint shop lately, or the in-game item shop, you may have already noticed another, eerily similar, easter egg. This is another one that was recently reported by Splinterlands players on discord. It's hidden among the title images. Can you see it? Watch this:

The Proven Title looks like it has a provenly rude message?

Yikes, and I use "The Proven" title! For a few reasons too. First, it was the cheapest. Second, I think it is the best name. Undeniably, it's the least presumptuous. Like, The Renowned?🙄 Okay😂 I'm hoping one of the next titles they release might include something like "The Humble" or "The Kind" or "The Good Person." And it gives like a 200% bonus on land, so people will want it even if they think that sounds so weak😂 jmo need more titles like that.

Anyway then. Will I stop using "The Proven" title now? Heck no. Why? Because it's my only title? Well. Yes. That is true. But no! That's not why. No, it's because I kind of love it. Plus to be fair, it's probably not really giving the world the middle finger, right? And if it is, then "The Proven" title is (1) by far the most PUNK ROCK title in the game🖕 and (2) an SPL easter egg. Under any scenario, keeping it💪

What does it all mean?

Well that's up to you to decide. I doubt we'll get clarity from the game devs because, well, this is a little silly and mostly for fun, and also they have more important things to do😂 Yet, you can't deny! There are an alarming number of "middle fingers" showing up in new game art lately. Enough to at least ask the question:

"Are the game devs trying to say f@#k you?"

Probably not. But also, a lot of secret hidden middle fingers are showing up in our faces lately, so... who knows? Sometimes we all need to vent, and maybe that's how the game devs vent at us for all the annoying crap we put them through. We are kind of annoying sometimes😬

QUESTIONS FOR DISCUSSION IN COMMENTS🤔

1. Do you think the game devs are really venting their frustrations with "f@#k you" easter eggs? Or are people just seeing patterns in randomness? I'm open to both possibilities tbh, and I haven't developed a solid opinion yet. I would hope it's the latter lol. That's my strong suspicion. Although, we do complain a lot on discord, sooo...🤷‍♂

2. Do you know of any other "f@#k you" easter eggs in the game? I am a believer in coincidence up until a point. After a certain amount of coincidences piles up though? Odds now say---less likely to be a coincidence. So I'll be interested to see if anyone else has seen more of these. Tbh I think I actually do see a few more, after taking just a very cursory inspection. But I want to know if anyone else can point some out independently. Otherwise who knows, I might just be a crazy person trying to stir up discussion in the comments🙋‍♂