The World of Wordle

Have you been seeing and hearing the word Wordle everywhere but not knowing what it means? Well, you're not alone. In this article, I will discuss what Wordle is and the story of how it was developed.

How Was Wordle Created?

Wordle isn't like traditional games you play; it has more depth and profundity. This game was created and released in October of 2020 by Josh Wardle, a software engineer for Reddit. He developed the idea of Wordle off the love his partner, Palak Shah, has for word games.

Originally Mr. Wardle and Ms. Shah played this game as something fun to do together, but it was later introduced to their family members and became a regular game for them to all play. After religiously playing Wordle as a family, Mr. Wardle and Ms. Shah thought that the public would also enjoy this game!

After a month of Wordle being public, it started to pick up in popularity, and by January, there had been over 300,000 players engaging with the game. Mr. Wardle wanted to make this game enjoyable and momentary; he did this by giving out one word a day that takes at least three minutes to attempt.

What is Wordle?

Wordle is an online guessing game that provides a daily word to solve. It only gives you six attempts to guess the word and resets at midnight. When opening the game, you will see a box with six rows that allow five letter words each.

To play Wordle correctly, you must guess what letters go in each slot vertically and horizontally. For example, let's say the word of the day is an "apple," and you type the word "eaten." The letters E and A would be correct, but in the wrong spot, so they would turn yellow, and the letters T and N don't exist within the word so they will turn grey. The color system works like this,

• Green – the letter is correct and in the right spot

• Yellow – the letter is correct, but it's in the wrong spot

• Grey – the letter doesn't exist in the daily word

Initially, Wordle was created to be 12,000 words, but they were vague and hard to guess. To fix the issue of having too many obscure words, Ms. Shah played Wordle twelve-thousand times and boiled it down to 2,500 words. Mr. Wardle had said that Ms. Shah was the leading role in getting this game ready for the public.

What will Wordle look like in the future?

In January 2022, The New York Times Company purchased the word game from Mr. Wardle and Ms. Shah at a low seven-digit price. The Times purchased Wordle to persuade individuals to subscribe to their digital newspaper and stay engaged with the world. They will be keeping the game free for new and existing players, but this may change down the road.

Currently, Mr. Wardle, Ms. Shah, and The New York Times Company are working together to figure out how to transfer Wordle from its present website to the New York Times website without deleting existing players' statistics.

The statistics on Wordle allow a player to see how many times they have played and won, their current and maximum streak, and their guessing distribution.

What makes Wordle so enchanting?

Wordle isn't like your traditional game; it allows you to look forward to the next day and creates excitement while you play it. This game provides a daily five-letter word that only allows six attempts to guess it. After you have played Wordle, you can share your results without spoiling the daily word.

🟨🟩🟨⬛⬛ Here is an example of my Wordle results; it shows what letters 🟩🟩🟨⬛🟩 I got right that is in the correct spot, the letters I got right 🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩 but in are in the wrong spot and the letters that don't exist in ⬛⬛⬛⬛⬛ the daily word. Having the ability to share your results ⬛⬛⬛⬛⬛ without spoiling the daily word is a great feature and makes the game more appealing to play! If you are interested in playing Wordle look up in your search engine, "Wordle – A daily word game," the URL will say "power language," and that's how you'll know it's the right website.

Have fun guessing!

Daniel Victor (2022, January 3). Wordle is a Love story. The New York Times. https://www.nytimes.com/2022/01/03/technology/wordle-word-game-creator.html?campaignId=7JFJX

Korie Dean (2022, January 2). Want to ‘go back in time’ and play all the Wordles? Duke student’s archive lets you. The News & Observer. https://www.newsobserver.com/news/local/article257964133.html