The New York Times Game, Wordle, has been occupying everyone’s mornings. If you haven’t heard of it, you must live under a rock. Wordle is like a crossword puzzle that can only be played once a day. Every 24 hours there’s a new five letter word of the day that you have six chances to guess.
It was created by a software engineer named Josh Wardle who was living in Brooklyn at the time. With only 90 people playing on Nov. 1, the game gained a following of 300,000 players in two months, now having millions of players a day according to The New York Times. Not only is everyone and their mom obsessed with it, many teachers and students are also Wordle enthusiasts.
English teachers scattering the 1000 building are playing it with their classes.
“Anytime we are thinking about language, and being critical of what makes a word and how we can piece it together, it’s beneficial… from a class perspective it’s a really fun challenge we do together,” English teacher Lindsay Schneider said.
Students in Schneider’s first period enjoy the challenge and interactiveness of Wordle when playing with a group.
“We play Wordle in our English class and it’s always fun doing it with other people instead of alone,” senior Olivia Chappell said.
When playing Wordle the first word you pick is crucial. It determines how well your whole game is going to go. Some people swear by using the same word, while others pick a different one each day giving them more of a challenge.
“My starting word is always ‘chant,’ I feel like it’s the perfect word to find out some useful letters,” junior Rachel Hull said.
Since Wordle found its fame, other games have been trying to take it’s spotlight, Quordle, Crosswordle, Nerdle among others. These are all different variations people play trying to fill the void of only being able to play Wordle once a day. Also having a competition factor, many like to compete with others on how many tries it takes to get the final word.
“My entire in-law family sends our scores everyday, to Wordle, Quordle and even Octordle,” English teacher Brooke Stone said.
Although this game is beloved by so many, there has been some controversy surrounding it. Some avid players have said Wordle has gotten more difficult since being bought by The New York Times. Words such as “ulcer,” “ultra,” “cynic,” and “aroma,” were all winning words after being bought by the company. Players found these to be more challenging than previous, which prompted anger in “Wordlers.” Although according to The Times these words were planned to be winners before being bought.
With all that being said, if you haven’t played Wordle yet what are you waiting for? It’s a fun way to increase your spelling abilities and get your mind working. Play Wordle at https://www.nytimes.com/games/wordle/index.html .