Everyone and their mother have been guessing the daily five-letter conundrums created by Wordle, a web-based word game that has taken the world by storm.
Each day people share their wins and losses via social media by using coloured square emojis (it's getting harder and harder to avoid at this point).
Such is the immense popularity of the game, The New York Timesbought Wordle from Software engineer Josh Wardle for an undisclosed seven-figure amount at the end of January.
In Wordle, players have just six chances to try and guess the five-letter word (there is a new one each day).
A green square indicates that you have discovered a correct letter in the right location while getting a yellow square means you have guessed a correct letter, but it's not in the right location.
If you get a grey square in your guess, it means that the letter isn't in the word at all.
Sign up to our free Indy100 weekly newsletter
Since The New York Times have taken over Wordle, with reports of glitches such as lost streaks, some words being removed as guesses or solutions due to the fact they were “obscure” or “insensitive."
new NYT wordle:\n\u2022 the last letter glitches out and doesn\u2019t load for ages\n\u2022 only after it loads can i type my guess\n\u2022 the keyboard freezes for some reason???\n\u2022 the tiles spin fast. not a glitch, just annoying\n\u2022 i wouldn\u2019t say it\u2019s ruined but it\u2019s not as fun now\n\u2022 me playing:pic.twitter.com/D2yft4tpRB— brittany (@brittany) 1644567813
Well, so far this is a disappointing transition to NYTimes. Doesn\u2019t seem like they\u2019re changing much, but several glitches that I hope they can fix quickly. \n\nWordle 239 4/6— Patrick McSweeney (@Patrick McSweeney) 1644730221
Refreshed to the NYT wordle page and lost my streakpic.twitter.com/1VKdn1Iz5C— Will Kellogg (@Will Kellogg) 1645075449
Sooooo....I lost my wordle streak acknowledgment because it officially changed to the @nytimes ? Bummer. But I'm 1 for 1.— Kim Bettcher (@Kim Bettcher) 1645061785
It also appears that there is more than one solution each day, which players have criticised for taking away the "communal" aspect of the game.
Meanwhile, many also people think that since the newspaper took over the game, the words have also gotten a lot harder - so much so that it's become a meme on the internet.
NYT: No, we did not make Wordle harder. We promise. \n\nAlso NYT: Today\u2019s Wordle is KHYBX \u2014 which everyone knows is a popular 11th century Latin delicacy derived from quicksand extract. Duh.— John Kapetaneas (@John Kapetaneas) 1644860936
Original Wordle\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nNYT Wordle— Joel Wilson (@Joel Wilson) 1644948501
nyt wordle has fundamentally worse vibes than original wordle— delaney (@delaney) 1644894187
Dear Lord, what a sad little life, NYT. You ruined wordle, completely.pic.twitter.com/I0VJCr6pHB— Euan (@Euan) 1644971348
nyt wordle got me screaming and crying. i didn\u2019t even know these words existedpic.twitter.com/SJ8r1NIlLf— simu (@simu) 1645034378
NYT Wordle list:pic.twitter.com/on6KHFHfVk— Autry De Bluford (@Autry De Bluford) 1644970048
life has never been the same since the NYT bought wordlepic.twitter.com/GxRHOnnnYZ— delaney (@delaney) 1645029899
the NYT Wordle team every day:pic.twitter.com/opOSrSCltI— lady of leisure (@lady of leisure) 1645029361
The NYT wordle feels like when your parents got on Facebook.— Kevin Froleiks has a new album out now! (@Kevin Froleiks has a new album out now!) 1644763183
wordle just doesn\u2019t hit the same since nyt took overpic.twitter.com/EnxsQt136S— livi (@livi) 1645024811
Though others aren't so convinced and believe that the game was just as difficult as when Wordle was owned by creator Wardle.
Original Wordle: C H A I R\n\nPeople: fun, I got it!\n\nNYT Wordle: C L O C K\n\nPeople: what the fuck is a "clock"??— Reuven Perlman (@Reuven Perlman) 1644944215
I see everyone who is complaining about NYT Wordle has already forgotten about KNOLL.— Justin A. Rick (@Justin A. Rick) 1644947394
HOW'S THE NEW NYT WORDLE GIVING PPL DIFFERENT WORDS THAT DEFEATS THE WHOLE?? PURPOSE??pic.twitter.com/14Y7LTA5CQ— \ud83d\ude37\ud83d\ude37\ud83d\ude37 (@\ud83d\ude37\ud83d\ude37\ud83d\ude37) 1644950057
Everyone complaining about nyt Wordle should simply just get better at knowing words— Alfie (@Alfie) 1645020566
i\u2019m so sorry to break it to y\u2019all. but NYT wordle is not actually harder. there is no difference between the word \u201cultra\u201d and the word \u201ctiger\u201d. it\u2019s okay to fail sometimes. i have not failed a wordle once because i\u2019m a big brain genius king but it\u2019s okay for you guys to— relax guys, its just ken (@relax guys, its just ken) 1645033324
everyone is insisting the NYT made Wordle harder like we didn\u2019t have \u201cknoll\u201d back before it was acquired— jaclyn (@jaclyn) 1644905208
Seeing a lot of anger for the NYT Wordle, but not sure it's that much harder than the OG version.\n\nBut check back with me if my streak is broken and I'll probably have a pitchfork ready.\n\nWordle 241 4/6— BrooklynDad_Defiant! (@BrooklynDad_Defiant!) 1644954486
So, the question remains - is Wordle actually more difficult since the New York Times takeover?
Short answer: no, it's not.
Basically, the word of the day is predetermined in advance by the original developer so even if the Wordle wasn't sold, players would still be struggling with the more challenging answers.
Though NYT has made changes in terms of removing offensive words from the original solution set of valid guesses, as well as getting rid of difficult words that would leave most of us scratching our heads such as “AGORA” and “PUPAL” from the original list, according to The Verge.
This tweet also perfectly sums up how the words are pre-determined.
For people saying Wordle has gotten harder since NYT bought it: The original developer coded the site so that the word of the day was pre-determined years in advance in the JS source. I looked (squinting to avoid spoilers), and NYT is still using the exact same order.— Kevin Slane (@Kevin Slane) 1644858607
Guess we'll all just have to up our Wordle game.
Have your say in our news democracy. Click the upvote icon at the top of the page to help raise this article through the indy100 rankings.