David Eide – Opinion Columnist

Over break I found myself being swept up in the popular online word game, Wordle. I rarely get invested in this kind of ephemeral internet activity but something about Wordle spoke to me. I think exploring why would be an interesting exercise and hopefully others to give it a shot.
Firstly, it’s important to explain how Wordle works. Wordle is a very simple word game where you have six attempts to try and guess a five-letter word. When you enter a guess, you receive feedback in the form of differently colored tiles. Gray tiles indicating that the letter is not present in the word at all, yellow tiles indicating the letter is present in the word but placed incorrectly, and green tiles indicating both correct letter choice and placement. Furthermore, only one word is available per day. The simplicity of these rules is one of the major appeals of Wordle- you don’t need to have quick reflexes or a deep sense of strategy to play Wordle, you just need to be able to enter letters. You don’t even need to have a massive vocabulary to play Wordle, you simply need guesswork and creative thinking.
Going deeper than just the rules, there are several subtle features of Wordle that I find very appealing. The presentation of Wordle is very clean and stylish which gives the whole game a professional feeling that I always appreciate. It somewhat reminds me of 2048 which has always been one of my go-to mobile games. The choice of six guesses is also a key aspect of Wordle that makes it enjoyable. If there were less than six guesses available, then the game would become too challenging to appeal to such a wide audience and if there were more than six guesses available, it would become trivially easy and any sense of accomplishment for completing the puzzle would be lost. Six guesses leave some wiggle room available while also maintaining the challenge of guessing the word.
One of the key factors that makes Wordle appealing to me is the social aspect of the game. Now this might seem to be a strange claim considering that there is no cooperative aspect to the game. However, Wordle also includes an option to share your game results to basically any messaging platform or social media site imaginable in the form of emojis. This essentially allows for Wordle to seamlessly integrate into whatever your preferred form of online communication is. I personally like to compare scores with some of my friends and relatives over DMs but that’s just the tip of the iceberg for how Wordle can exist in a social context. Since everyone is trying to guess the same word there’s a concrete sense of community that forms among those playing Wordle, regardless of whether or not there’s a preexisting relationship. I have had great conversations with people I have never met before regarding Wordle and that’s not very common online these days.
However, the biggest explanation for Wordle’s current popularity explosion is the one word a day limit. This creates a sense of scarcity that encourages the user to keep coming back each day for a new word puzzle. Unlike with other mobile games, there are no constant demands to keep checking in constantly in order to perform some meaningless tasks. Once you’ve solved the puzzle you’re done for the day. In this sense, Wordle harkens back to older forms of word puzzles like crosswords or word searches and it becomes easier to appreciate why these games were so popular to begin with. The one word a day limit provides a breath of fresh air every day, which I believe to be the biggest factor in Wordle’s continuing appeal.
There is, of course, an elephant in the room. Recently, Wordle was acquired by the New York Times for an undisclosed large sum of money. While the Times has given assurances that Wordle will remain free for all players in the short term, it seems likely that the game will eventually become exclusive to New York Times subscribers. While it is sad to know that the game will lose its universality and to see an independent project once again be absorbed into a massive media conglomeration, there are some positive sides to the acquisition.
Firstly, the New York Times is well known for its high-quality word games such as its Daily Crossword or Spelling Bee, so Wordle is in good hands in that sense. Furthermore, it is likely that an acquisition of some kind was the only way to maintain Wordle long term. It was probably never going to become profitable and eventually the creator, Josh Wardle, would have gotten busy and moved on. This would leave Wordle effectively dead like so many other trendy games that explode in popularity. In the end, while its sad that Wordle will likely move behind a NYT paywall, this was probably the best thing that could have happened for the longevity of Wordle as a game.
It’s somewhat ironic that I spent hundreds of words talking about a game based around five letters, but I suppose I just had a lot to say. In short, Wordle is a very enjoyable game that is intellectually stimulating and has a great community surrounding it. I think it really is a game anyone can enjoy and I hope you try it out before it goes behind a NYT paywall.