The Popular Wordle Game Gets Its Own Editor, And Receives A Huge Update

Wordle, The New York Times

Lots of people are addicted to the internet, despite not realizing it.

Every single day, a few times every hour, most people will have their senses glued to their phones. Through apps and through web browsers, and the many things people can do with their gadgets, the economy involves having them as users, and make money from their interactions and/or engagements.

Wordle is an online word game developed by Josh Wardle, and it takes a totally different approach.

Rather than making people to play the game as often as possible, Wordle can only be played once a day.

Soon after Wardle launched the game for himself, his partner, and his friends to play, many people on the web also started playing it.

It was only after it became the internet's addiction, that The New York Times acquired the simple and straightforward game

Then, a little less than a year later, the American daily newspaper that has become one of the biggest publishers of the internet, is giving Wordle the biggest update ever.

Wordle, the simplistic word-based puzzle game is still a thing.

Initially, the game was developed with 2,315 words in total, meaning that players have to spend about 6 years to complete all the words. But The New York Times wants to ramp things up, by making it even more challenging.

In this case, the agency starts allowing Wordle players to input naughty words and have the game accept them as actual guesses.

Then, The New York Times has also made an overhaul to Wordle's library of words from which the game pulls from.

This change marks a move away from the curated list Josh Wardle meant it to have.

With Wordle no longer depending on its library of words, The New York Times essentially extends potential 5-letter words to also include words like fucks or shite.

The New York Times has also removed most plurals, but they can still be used as guesses to help players hone in on the day's solution.

For example, the word clocks cannot be a Wordle answer, but it is accepted as a guess. Also, plurals that don't end with the letter 'S', like geese, can still be answers.

"The answer list will consist of five-letter words that fit those criteria, with the exception of plural forms of three- or four-letter words that end in 'ES' or 'S,'" the agency said.

"That is, the answer will never be FOXES or SPOTS, but it might be GEESE or FUNGI. As the game is currently designed, FOXES or SPOTS can be used as a guess word to help narrow down the answer, but FOXES or SPOTS will not be the answer."

And on top of that, The New York Times is also giving Wordle its first ever editor.

According to reports, Tracy Bennet is taking the role, in which she is tasked with providing a list curated by The New York Times, that shall be both programmed and tested, similar to the crosswords and The New York Times' Spelling Bee game.

While the update is huge, Wordle is not changing.

Things only happen in the background, meaning that the design of the game, as well as the Wordle gameplay aren't affected in any ways.

The change here, is mostly to ensure that The New York Times can line up its own solutions for the popular word puzzle, instead of relying on a list of answers that users can find online.

According to Everdeen Mason, who works as The New York Times' editorial director of games, the Wordle's "answers will be drawn from the same basic dictionary of answer words, with some editorial adjustments to ensure that the game stays focused on vocabulary that’s fun, accessible, lively and varied."

Published: 
14/11/2022