By Dan Murphy
For thirty years, I have enjoyed the New York Times Crossword Puzzle and its Editor Will Shortz. It is still the gold standard for Crossword puzzles, and even though I can usally only complete the Monday and Tuesday puzzle, (the crosswords get more difficult with every day of the week), I still enjoy getting a few clues and perhaps learning a new word or definition. Shortz has the uncanny ability to give us daily themed crosswords, that tie many of the answers together. Crossword puzzles are truly good food for your brain.
Now comes word that the Old Grey Lady has added Wordle, to its puzzle family. Created by Brooklyn software engineer Josh Wardle in October 2021, Wordle has exploded in popularity, with less than 100 people playing in November, to more than 300,000 at the end of last year, to millions of players today.
On Jan. 31, 2022, The New York Times announced that they had purchased Wordle, (for an undisclosed price in the low-seven figures), and that “Wordle will be free to play for new and existing players, and no changes will be made to its gameplay,” according to the Times statement after the acquisition.
So how do you play Wordle? Each player gets the same, five-letter mystery word to try and guess, and the player has five guesses to correctly identify the word.
So this is how I started with my first ever Wordle game-puzzle. I typed in the five letter word –HAPPY. Wordle told me that two of my guesses were correct and in the correct location, signified by a green box over both letters. The other three letters were wrong, and in grey.
As I continued through my next four guesses, I was only able to get one more letter correct, but it was in the wrong location. The color for that letter is yellow.
So the game ended for me with 3 of the 5 letters identified. I wanted to play again right away, but learned that there is only one puzzle per day, and every player tries to identify the same word.
You can share you guesses on Twitter. I will share one once I solve the puzzle. And the game is indeed captivating. The Tonight Show host Jimmy Fallon tweeted, “Who else is playing #Wordle? Addicted.”
In relation to time and other types of puzzles, Wordle can be over quickly, in a matter of minutes, like my first game was. Or if you wait and ponder each of your five guessed words, it could take up to 10 minutes. Unlike a Will Shortz NY Times Crossword puzzle, which takes me about a half hour to take my first pass through, and I always like to put it down and come back to it later that day, or even the next day if I am close to completing it.
So I like Wordle and will continue to play it, but right now i’m sticking with the old fashioned, daily-themed crossword in the New York Times, written by Will Shortz. There is still nothing better.
