An ultra-cynic will say Wordle is getting tougher. Ever since The New York Times purchased the puzzle from its creator, Josh Wardle, the target words have taken a turn for the gnarly, enlisting answers like ULTRA and CYNIC, giving the solver an ULCER (another doozy).
If you’re late to the party, be warned. Those carefree days of late spring have vanished. Back in October, the debut puzzle was a mental birdbath to start the day. The ritual felt innocent. Fun. Refreshing. Until something changed.
To nutshell the saga, Wordle is a sexier hangman, a touch-screen box granting you six guesses to identify a mystery five-letter word. Colour coding rates each stab, where green denotes the right letter in the right spot, yellow a valid letter in the wrong place, while grey says the letter isn’t used. Adapt to that feedback, and you’ll nail the answer with lives to spare.
Wordle was once a refreshing mental bird bath.
That rhythm held good throughout November’s honeymoon, then December, when a few hundred solvers swelled to 300,000, most of us peeling ACUTE and CRAZE like so many grapes. Each answer felt familiar. Sure, we had the FERRY kerfuffle, the REBUS ruckus, but Wordle seemed a mate in our corner.
Come late January, things changed, going by the squawks on social media. American TV host Trevor Noah spoke for many, tweeting: “It really feels like Wordle isn’t fun since the New York Times took over. Is it just me?” Clearly not, judging by the comments, including: “Hundred per cent agree. I know this sounds crazy, but the energy is different. It used to feel pure. Now it feels antagonistic, like facing an opponent. It’s so, so strange.”
Strange is one word. Yet when it came to CAULK, another recent torment, actor Rhys Muldoon grumbled: “Oh c’mon. That is a very odd word.” Not if you’re plumber, or tiler, or Nantucket whaler, but that verb – meaning to seal gaps with any putty-like substance – threw thousands.
Wordle offshoots
- Quordle: a quadruple knockoff, presenting twin grids, where you have nine guesses to get all four words right.
- Faux-wordle: a multiplay clone to get you match-fit for the real McCoy’s daily drop.
- Panga: a reo Maori version, created by Auckland programmer Wayne McDougall. (Wordle clones also exist in 50 other languages, from Esperanto to Klingon.)
- Globle: a geographical game, where each guess registers on a globe, denoting how “warm” you are to the mystery nation.
- Lewdle: a ribald offshoot where five-letter words all suggest notorious four-letter words. Parental guidance recommended.
- Nerdle: a daily equation puzzle for “mathletes”
- Still on maths, check out YouTube channel 3Blue1Brown for Wordle tips using information theory. This stellar geek-dive proposes the optimal opening guess to be CRATE.
Double letters have also bred, claim diehards, where CYNIC joins the ranks with SKILL and AROMA, DODGE and ELDER. Reasonable words on paper, true, but double letters are nasty. Take SKILL, say. If your first guess is ALIVE, then a yellow square for L will tell you to relocate the letter, but not duplicate it.
While AGORA, the Greek forum to ruin most mornings last week, is merciless: an obscurity with matching earrings. Add FAVOR and HUMOR, the American gotchas to spark their own flame wars, and you appreciate the bellyachers may have a point.
So quit it, you say. Go hard or go home. CHEAP FIRST WORLD WHINE – which are all better answers for a kinder Wordle. Murmurs of manipulation circulated, the early adopters accusing the New York Times of finagling the database, usurping PEACH and SUGAR for smoke bombs like CAULK and USURP. Posher fodder. Typical media elitism!
Even the simpler answers – like SHAKE on February 18 – locked us into a death-grip. Imagine the anguish, on securing four green letters, as people tried guessing the mystery consonant at fourth position. SHAVE? SHARE? SHALE? SHADE? Shame, Wordle, shame.
But the PANIC (January 15) is baseless, dear addicts. Jordan Cohen, a communications director with the Times, felt the need to quell the negative chorus, tweeting: “Nothing has changed about the game play.” Code-freaks later confirmed this claim, peeking at Wordle’s roll-call of answers, pre-loaded up to October 2027, and no tweaks have been registered. None.
Call it confirmation bias, but Wordle remains Wordle, despite its new commercial umbrella. Our sexy hangman is still a pal, so long as we can forgive his occasional ROBOT TROLL. (And don’t forget, we did cop WRUNG and PROXY a month ago.) Ignoring the fuss, the snipes, the pitchforks, I’ll be there first light tomorrow, tap-tap-tapping. I have no choice. I can’t afford to break my 50-game streak.
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