Wordle is the game that has been depopulating in the last few days, especially on Twitter where users are lately sharing screens with green and yellow squares, generating curiosity in the rest of the community. But what exactly is Wordle and why did he become so famous all of a sudden?
Wordle, the online word game
In recent years, several online games have suddenly depopulated: many of you will remember 2048, in which you had to be able to combine the tiles containing the same number to get to 2048; or Ruzzle, a game that for months has been on everyone’s lips, starting a real craze. Now it’s the turn of Wordle, an online word game created by Josh Wardle, a computer engineer from Brooklyn.
Wordle is played tramite browser web, is for free It is ad-free and requires no registration. There is no smartphone app and the ones on the App Store – which Apple is trying to remove – are just copies. But how is it played? You have six attempts to guess a five-letter word, or the “wordle” and only real words are allowed, obviously in English. You don’t need to be a native speaker to play, but you definitely need a good knowledge of English.
Our match – incredibly won – in Wordle.
At each attempt there will be feedback: if in the word entered there are letters also present in the word to be guessed, the squares of two different colors will light up. In fact, if the letter has been inserted in the right place, the square will light up green; if instead it is present in the word to be guessed but it has been written in the wrong position, will light up yellow. If you have entered letters that are not in the word to guess, they will turn gray. This helps you in the process of eliminating the missing letters, and it will be easier to guess the word.
You have it available only one game a day and the website keeps track of your winnings, stakes and winning streaks. And once you have finished a puzzle, a timer will appear that counts the hours to the next time you are allowed to play. This avoids creating an addiction and keeps the hype of guessing the next word high.
The game became famous because people started it to share the results on Twitter using the appropriate button that appears at the end of each game. The site, in fact, reproduces a grid of emojis in the shape of colored cubes reproducing the attempts of the game, ready to be shared. The word is not shared plainly on Twitter and this has increased the game’s curiosity and popularity. As reported by Il Post, 300,000 people had played Wordle on January 2, last weekend instead 2 millions.
I don’t know what this means but I was very impressed with myself: Wordle 203 3/6
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🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩– James Doubek (@JamesDoubek) January 8, 2022
How was the game born?
Wardle, a Brooklyn-based software engineer, created Wordle for his pun-loving companion Palak Shah. What started out as a pastime during the lockdown of the couple eventually became one of the favorite games in their family’s WhatsApp group. Wardle later decided to launch his online game in October. Over Thanksgiving, editor Melissa Kirsch mentioned the game in the New York Times “At Home” newsletter, and Wordle quickly caught on.
The creator said he decided to use a website as a platform to create an always ready-to-play game that didn’t need to install new apps. “I’m a little suspicious of mobile apps that require your attention and push notifications to you all the time,” Wardle told BBC4. “Wordle is very simple and you can play it in 3 minutes”.
The game has become polar thanks to word of mouth, the curiosity of the people and the ease with which you can play a game. It’s fun, you don’t need any special knowledge – apart from English – and it allows you to test your vocabulary. In fact, in Wordle there are 2500 parole, chosen at random from a program, and it will be really difficult to have to guess the same word several times. You can try the game by visiting the official website.