How the New York Times Ruined Wordle

Peyton Parks

Popular online game Wordle was created by Josh Wardle towards the end of last year, and the game attracted loads of attention in late January as the number of players jumped from 90 to now millions. 

Due to the jump in popularity, popular newspaper publication The New York Times (NYT) bought Wordle from Wardle for $1 million.

From my personal experiences from playing Wardle’s Wordle to now the New York Times version, I and many others find the ‘new’ Wordle much more difficult.

Dr Kirestin Ferguson (@kirstinferguson) shared her thoughts via Twitter, “The words seem a little harder since the move to the NYT (or maybe I am imagining it?).” 

Along with the increasingly challenging words, some of the words have been a little questionable. On February 15, there were two possible answers, agora and aroma. This makes little to no sense, the game should have one exact answer everyday.

Ever since the NYT purchased Wordle it seems as though they are making an attempt to make the words more sophisticated in a sense. 

At this point the average player is pretty much struggling daily with the Wordle.

On the other side, other fans of the game enjoy the new found challenge of Wordle, which I can understand as some may find wordle to be too simple of a game.

To jump on the popularity of the game, and maybe take advantage of the struggle some are experiencing, other companies have come out with other versions of Wordle. 

For example,Heardle is an app  which plays a snippet of a song and you have to try and guess what it is. 

Another fun parody Wordle I have found myself playing is Swordle, which is a Star Wars Wordle. They use different names of characters and even planets within the Star Wars universe.

So, even with the new found difficulty of Wordle, there are plenty of other games similar to wordle on the internet to play opposed to it. Maybe even one centered around your favorite musicians or movie series.