Wordle! Have you heard of it and are you, like me, already addicted?
The online game Wordle is the newest instant daily word thing to appear in the lives of scrabble and other wordgame addicts. It first appeared online in October 2021 and was created by Josh Wardle, a programmer from New York, who originally created it for his partner.
By 1st November the game had only 91 players, but within two months it had become 300,000. Now, less than four months later, the game has millions of players every day, all addicted to their daily fix. It can only be accessed, free, on a web-browser (as yet there is no app but watch this space – we all know money talks, and everyone has their price).
An algorithm randomly chooses a five letter word, from a list of 2315 different ones. Each day you are given six chances to guess the correct word, by eliminating the letters it tells you are not included after your first try. It uses a series of colours to show whether the letter is not included (grey), is included but in the wrong space (yellow), or is the right letter and in the right place (green). Sounds simple doesn’t it? Not always though, and by the time you’re on your sixth attempt, the sweat on the upper lip begins to appear, as you start to imagine today might be the first day you have to face the utter shame of not completing the challenge.
Once you’ve guessed correctly, you are then given the added option of sharing your result (answer redacted so as not to give the game away), on Twitter and other social media sites. Celebrities, highbrow know-it-alls and lesser mortals such as myself, are all eager to share with the world that, once again, we have solved the puzzle, and can walk out into the world with heads held high.
Oh, and by the way, for those addicts who aren’t already in the know, Wordle2 now also exists with a six letter word to guess AND there are two different words each day. I’m in heaven!
(P.S. Beware of the American spellings)