by Chloe Pieper–The New York Times Online not only writes news stories but features minigames such as Wordle.
Wordle is a free and daily game through the web on your smartphone, tablet, or computer. You have to guess a mystery word that has five letters in six attempts. The aim of the game is to figure out the secret word in the fewest guesses. Wordle refreshes a new word at midnight.
Robin Reynders said, “The best attempt I had was in the first try where the word was robin.”
A grid of six rows comes up when a player logs into the game. In order to play, you must put in a five letter word and press enter. The tiles in green show that the letter is in the word and in the right place. The tiles in yellow show that the letter is in the word but in the wrong place. The letters in gray do not appear in the word at all. All of these colors show up on the keyboard as well for their respective spots.
Natalie Hunt said, “I don’t play it but I have seen my friends play it and it seems like fun. It kind of works your brain.”
Choosing your first word is obviously the most difficult part of the game. To be able to pick the best word to start with, you might want to pick a word that has multiple vowels and five different letters. Examples of this would be radio, token, irate. The “perfect” word to kick it off is “roate” according to Tyler Glaiel who is a programmer and game designer.
Freja Kjeldseth said, “I am on a 50–day streak playing Wordle. Today’s guess I got in three attempts and I did it the second it came out. I am a big fan of the game. I mostly started playing for the meme but now I’m addicted.”
The best thing you could do is avoid using your gray letters. By doing this, it saves you time and effort to think of five-letter-words that you have not already used. However, letters can appear twice which adds some frustration. These words can be wryly, chill, sissy.
Emma Hannasch said, “I don’t do it much anymore. I get so frustrated with it because I don’t like to lose. I am the most competitive person you’ll ever meet.”
If you are ever frustrated with the game, there are websites that help give you hints. These hints show how many vowels are in the word, if there are any repeated letters, and if the word is common. Otherwise you can scroll a little bit more and it will give a bigger hint.
Wordle is not just a word game. It is a chance to gloat and show off to other people about your skills. It is a conversation starter because it is blowing up on social media everywhere.
If you would like to check your performance against others, the New York Times also provides that information at WordleBot.
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