It now feels impossible to go a day without hearing about Wordle — the five-letter word guessing game has taken over the internet, players have recently begun to complain about the New York Times takeover.
The NYT recently bought Wordle for seven figures and since January 31, when they officially took over, users are claiming that Wordle has become harder.
Is it just me or has #Wordle become harder since NYT acquired it? #Wordle241 pic.twitter.com/iW4n6gh2TF
— Austin Heller (@HellerMemes) February 15, 2022
I don’t know guys…#Wordle just feels different since @nytimes took over. These words are just so randomly random. Two days in a row of me like, “THAT word?! REALLY?!”
— yvette nicole brown (@YNB) February 12, 2022
This “win” isn’t even joyous.#Wordle 238 5/6
🟨🟨⬛⬛⬛
⬛🟨🟨⬛⬛
🟨⬛🟨⬛⬛
⬛🟨⬛🟨🟨
🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩
NYT have been in charge of #Wordle what? 3 days? And we've had 2 days back to back with words with repeating letters.
— Couch French Fries (@LiaThePotato) February 15, 2022
This is malicious. pic.twitter.com/AeEgxy9Kux
Wordle Isn’t Really More Challenging
However, despite objections to the contrary, Wordle is not getting more challenging due to the NYT involvement. According to the Times’ communications director, Jordan Cohen, “Nothing has changed about the game play.”
In fact, creator Josh Wardle has already set up the words for the next five years.
Medium.com states that the 2,315 words are already in the coding for the game, and your computer automatically downloads the script. (Here Lies Wordle: 2021–2027 warning — link contains the Wordle answers until the end of the game.)
The NYT has not in fact changed the code for the game. The word list leaked from the beginning of Wordle has not been changed, but it does pose a problem. The NYT may need to change the future words to avoid cheating/keep the game interesting.
So far, Wordle has reminded the same: free, simple, and entertaining. We can only hope that future changes will keep it this way.
