Wordle: And so it Goes

Wow, that was fast.

Only a few days after I speculated the Wordle craze would change when Facebook or Google bought it out, I see that the New York Times has bought it (for seven figures). Honestly, I applaud its creator. He’s making out like a bandit, and once the Times figures out what I did (and told you about last week), they’ll see the folly of their ways.

Because, like I said, Wordle isn’t like their other games. Spelling Bee might scoop you up because it’s a challenge. The times is able to get you because once you’re deep enough into the puzzle, they cut you off and say “you want more? Subscribe.”

There’s no such hook in Wordle. Wordle is over before they can do that to you (I’ve played it for two weeks now and have solved it in three 4 times, four 6 times, and five 4 times). The Times can’t expect people to get through two rows and then say “hey, you’re pretty good at this. Subscribe!” Especially when it’s so easy.

So it’ll be interesting to see what the Times will end up doing with it. Maybe they’ll use it to draw interest to their other games (like Spelling Bee). Maybe they’ll pump it full of advertisements — like I said was only a matter of time. I don’t know.

But here’s an interesting thought for you. After playing Worlde a few times, I realized that you could actually make it into a home game for two or more. Here’s how:

• You can make a “Wordle” template — six rows of five blocks (graph paper could work). Maybe like a Yahtzee score-pad kind of thing.
• One player selects a five-letter word (they can write it down somewhere). If they needed help, maybe someone could publish a book of five-letter words. Like a scrabble dictionary.
• The other player fills in the first row.
• The player who selected the word marks the letters that are right but in the wrong place with a highlighter of whatever color they decide. Let’s say yellow for now. They mark the letters that are in the correct place in another color. Maybe green.
• Player one then continues guessing and player two continues marking until player one has guessed the word or has run out of rows.

So, if the Times does something silly with Wordle, like adding it to the games subscription, your problem is solved. Plus, you get the added bonus of maybe spending time with friends, drinking a little wine, and having some fun with real people.

As a matter of fact, I’d just skip right to that step right now. It’s not like you need to put a lot into it to work.