What’s With Wordle?
People love playing games. We all have at least one game application on our devices. We use it whenever we have a short time to kill. In the queue at the cashier, when we are bored, or even when we are in the restroom minding our business. Entertainment became a part of our lives, no matter how grand or small. People constantly look for something they can indulge themselves in. Hence, the creation of mini-games.
Mini-games, as the name implies, are simple and elementary games that can be played wherever we are. It has various goals and setups to choose from. Aside from amusement, some are also created for hand-eye coordination, brain exercises, and other benefits. Mini-games are no news to us.
Yet, late last year, a mini-game broke the internet and became a sensation up until today. A simple mind teaser called Wordle.
Wardle’s Wordle
Created by Welsh Software Engineer Josh Wardle in 2013, Wordle is a simple word-guessing game. Yes, Wardle humorously named the game Wordle as a pun for his surname. The goal is to guess the given word which is changing daily.
As a romantic himself, originally created the game for himself and his wife only. It was only eight years later when he publicized the game. Initially, all 13,000 possible five-letter words in the English language were used. However, he trimmed down the words to 2,000 since his partner had difficulty recognizing less-common words. Again, as a romantic person.
Gameplay
Playing Wordle is as easy as any mini-games. Players have six attempts to guess the five-letter word. Every player has the same word each day. The answer is changing daily and so far; all answers are unique from each other.
After every guess, boxes have colored either green, yellow or gray. Green suggests that the inputted letter is correct and in the right position, yellow means the letter is correct but in the wrong position, and gray indicates that the position and the letter itself are not included in the answer.
Wordle’s Interface
Wordle can be accessed on the web. It is under the ownership of The New York Times Company since last January 2022. To make it inclusive, the game has a high-contrast theme aside from its dark theme. This is for the accessibility of colorblind people. From its green and yellow color, Wordle changed it to orange and blue for the said theme.
Since the English language is complicated, Wordle decided to use the American English spelling. Although Josh Wardle is from Wales, he is also a long-time resident of New York.
Out of the developer’s expectations, Wordle became popular after incorporating the emoji-style display of the attempts into the game. Twitter users made the game viral with millions of users every day since its popularity last December 2021. It also helped in popularizing other games from the New York Times’ website such as The Mini Crossword, Spelling Bee, and Letter-Boxed. Check this link to find out!
Looking into it, Wordle is only a simple game. Yet, it became a trend that hooked people into playing every single day. However, given the limited words of approximately 2,000 after Wardle’s restrictions, the game could only last for a couple of years. After that, there is no news of the game expanding.
But that is not a discussion for today. Right now, let us enjoy the game until words run out. Happy Wordleing!
