DAVID LEAFE: How to become famous with Wordle, the ingenious word game that got us all hooked
It has not been since the Sudoku boom hit the UK 15 years ago that there has been a craze like the new online puzzle game Wordle.
In early November, the supposedly simple game only had 90 players: it’s now two million, with celebrity fans like Pointless co-host and best-selling author Richard Osman sharing progress. their daily on Facebook and Twitter.
If you haven’t tried Wordle yet, beware. It’s frustrating and very addictive.
The game was created by British software engineer Josh Wardle, as a way of entertaining his partner, Palak Shah, during the lockdown.
Tucked away in their New York apartment, turning to crossword puzzles to mark the times and realizing how much she loves them, Wardle devised a word game just for the two of them.
When he shared it with his family on WhatsApp, they became so obsessed that he made it more widely available – but despite its incredible popularity (and as a result he earnable), he still insists the site it plays on will remain free.
Wordle doesn’t have flashing banners or pop-ups asking for extras for ‘premium’ features – just the game itself.
This gives it an atmosphere of mystery which, according to Wardle, has ‘captured people’s interest’.
But while it’s heavily influenced by the classic game Hangman, the board game Mastermind, and the TV show Lingo, it’s pleasantly interactive.
Each day, you are invited to guess a five-letter word. You type on your first try – any word into a grid consisting of six rows of five spaces – and Wordle tells you whether any letters are in the secret word.
A correct letter in the appropriate place is highlighted in green; a correct letter in the wrong place is yellow. The letters that do not belong to the secret word are highlighted in gray.
Using these clues, you have five more tries before the site reveals the word.
On my first try, I only got halfway through the grid before getting flustered. I know I’ve correctly identified ‘A’ as the second letter of the mystery word, and there’s an ‘R’ somewhere.
But, by then, I’ve eliminated the other 11 letters of the alphabet, and from the remaining 13 – including unlikely candidates like Q, X and Z – I simply can’t think of another 5 letter word to guess. .
Before going any further, I sought expert advice. David Bodycombe, a puzzle compiler for Mail, plays Wordle often and has this tip: ‘Think Greek wine Retsina. The word gives you some of the most frequently used letters,’ he said.
The game was created by British software engineer Josh Wardle, as a way of entertaining his partner, Palak Shah, during the lockdown.
‘For the opening guess, I use OPERA because it uses a lot of vowels. It’s easier to hone in when I know what vowels I’m working with. ‘
Although there are about 12,000 five-letter words in the English dictionary, Wardle considers many words too obscure and reduces the list to about 2,500.
While there have been complaints that words like ‘REBUS’ and ‘TAPIR’ aren’t familiar enough, Bodycombe says it’s still safer to choose clearer options when you’re guessing a word.
“Given a choice between RADIO and the mathematical term RADIX, I would always choose the first,” he said.
Desperate for another action, I re-entered the site, only to have it reload my previous feeble attempt, instead of allowing me to start over. And this is another part of Wordle’s appeal.
Only one new puzzle is offered daily – creating a sense of scarcity that makes people want more. And you only have one time to complete that day’s challenge.
One way around this is to try using a different device – in my case a phone and not a laptop, so I tried to start over with another common opening word with Wordle users – OUIJA (very rich in vowels, although ‘J’ is an infrequent consonant). This took me a little further, and when it came to my fourth guess, I determined that the secret word was —A – O -, with an R somewhere.
My fifth guess is BARON but that gives me no new letters, just tells me that the R is in the wrong place and again, I’m confused.
With the rest of the letters available, I can only think of VAPOR, but surely Wordle’s dictionary wouldn’t use the American spelling?
In desperation, I entered no words. It’s wrong but the correct answer is another American spelling – FAVOR.
At the time, I felt like uttering a very British four-letter word – and I wasn’t the only one.
British Wordlers turned themselves in yesterday, some demanding an investigation by the manager, others claiming Americanism was a diplomatic incident.
In a rare moment of international solidarity, The Times noted, Australians came together in horror at the missing vowel.
Still, I can’t wait to have one more – and maybe even try another popular feature of the game: the ability to share your progress with friends and opponents without missing a word. any.
Like Wordlers everywhere, I’m hooked and, who knows, tomorrow I might be LUCKER.