Friday 11 February 2022

Wordle taken over by the NYT today! (No Spoilers!)

My Wordle score today. That was a close one! 

Wordle 237 6/6*

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⬜🟨⬜🟩🟩

🟩⬜⬜🟩🟩

🟩⬜⬜🟩🟩

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Most people on social media know what Wordle is, even if they don't understand it. It is played all over the world. Here's a brief history. Wordle was created by Josh Wardle, a software engineer in Brooklyn, New York. He created it for his partner who loves word games. It was first shared with his friends and family. They were having so much fun playing it that he decided to share it with the world in October of 2021. It spread like wildfire! It's not an app to download and there are no adverts (yet). Everyone plays the same game with the same word as everyone else, once a day. It keeps your winning sprees and gives you a little grid to share your scores without giving the game away (as above). Here are my current stats:



This simple game played the world over has been a much-needed distraction from all our troubles, especially the ones over these past few years which has been tearing family and friends apart and pitting us against each other. This simple game has been a much-needed mental health therapy for many of us and a great unifier the world over. This is just my observation and personal experience.

It hasn't been all peachy though. As Mr Wardle lives in the States he uses the American spelling for words and this upsets a lot of people in the UK. Personally, I don't understand why they get so upset, by now they know the game originated in the States. When they get the word correct they should be patting themselves on the back for being so clever! Where's their sense of humour? ;-) (Image below of a recent game which caused quite a kerfuffle!)


Side note on the above game.... I probably wouldn't have gotten that on my second guess if I hadn't looked at social media before playing the game. You see, when I opened up Twitter and Facebook there were all these UK folks complaining about American spellings! They gave the game away! D'oh!

Another side note.... Everyone I saw complaining about the American spelling of that day's Wordle had gotten the answer in less than 6 guesses! I consider that quite an achievement! Shame so many decided to go American bashing instead. Seriously folks, the USA is their own country, they haven't been under British rule in nearly two and a half centuries. Can't we all just get along and be kind to one another. It's a much nicer world when we do. xx

Now the New York Times has bought Wordle from Mr Wardle and everyone has been worrying about what will happen to their fun game. Well, today is the day, the NYT has officially taken over. If you go to the usual webpage to play it redirects you to the new NYT's page for the game. There has been some panic as some have lost their scores. Everything is still intact for me though there has been a glitch. It seems I did today's Wordle just before it switched over for me, or perhaps my system hadn't updated yet. Or it might depend on which device you play it on. I play on my phone. So my morning Wordle didn't look any different. But it has changed now. Here are screen grabs from my phone showing the difference.


As you can see I haven't lost my statistics, but I do have a blank game board. I could play today's game again! But I won't as I don't want to feck up my score. Yes I know I could improve it but that would take all the fun out of the game if I cheated. It has registered the 32 games I've played and I'm happy with that. I'll play again tomorrow. :-)

The NYT say that the game will remain free for now. Keywords being 'for now'. How long? Who knows? Will adverts start popping up? Only time will tell.

Happy Wordleing!



My Wordle History:

I'm not obsessed! Honest! ;-) B-)