Fun game but becomes fairly automatic when you know the best words to start with.
There are probably a dozen or two starting words that are probably good choices depending on your strategy but not sure I'd call it automatic at that point.
Wordle is pretty damn smart in many subtle ways
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Re: Wordle is pretty damn smart in many subtle ways
#22I actually think the OP and the comments are too focused on the programmer-related aspects of this. I'll add a few things. 1. It's not trivial but it's not that hard if you have a decent vocabulary and some intuitive sense for word frequencies (and word pair frequencies) for different locations in a word. The answer list does not seem to include really hard words as naively picking all the words in the MW dictionary…
#1 is why it's so successful. It's just challenging enough to make you think, but still solvable by most people. So we all get that nice dopamine rush of solving a puzzle with a reasonable perceived effort. How many people don't play the NYT Sunday Crossword b/c they never get more than a few words? There is a very devoted fan base for crossword, but it's not as universal as Wordl's adoption. To me, that's the genius…
I'm actually sort of a "word" person. I've written books for publishers and do a fair bit of writing for my job. But crosswords have always fallen into the too much work category for me and I've never really connected to word games in general (including Scrabble).
But, yeah, I like Wordle and it hits a sweet spot for me.
Re: Wordle is pretty damn smart in many subtle ways
#23Having implemented my own 5-letter word game, I can agree that much finesse lies under the covers. Wordii is for the impatient, letting you play more often if you choose: https://frequal.com/wordii/ The many subtleties of this genre make it a great programming challenge. I encourage developers to try making their own version. I think you'll come away with a healthy respect for Mr. Wardle.
Nice work! Dark mode?
Re: Wordle is pretty damn smart in many subtle ways
#24the only design flaw i see is that the color blind mode colors are not intuitive choices.
I'm not color blind but I play with some friends who are, I have to switch color pallets to share results.
in color blind mode its light blue for right letter wrong spot and orange for right letter right spot. mentally, to me this is the wrong war around.. and it drives me nuts and forces mistakes on my end.
Re: Wordle is pretty damn smart in many subtle ways
#25Re: Wordle is pretty damn smart in many subtle ways
#26I actually think the OP and the comments are too focused on the programmer-related aspects of this. I'll add a few things. 1. It's not trivial but it's not that hard if you have a decent vocabulary and some intuitive sense for word frequencies (and word pair frequencies) for different locations in a word. The answer list does not seem to include really hard words as naively picking all the words in the MW dictionary…
The relationship of wordle to cheating is underrated. The fact that it’s so astoundingly easy to cheat (the daily word is global), and falsify your game board (just text) makes dishonesty completely undesirable. If you post 1/1, people will assume you hit the once-a-year lucky first guess, or that you’re cheating. There are no high scores, no leaderboards, no reason other than personal satisfaction to work through the puzzle.
Re: Wordle is pretty damn smart in many subtle ways
#27> It also brings players back into the game, but not in an annoying way like Farmville Facebook notifications. As someone who doesn't play, it's getting more and more annoying. Especially now that there's stuff like Wordle Except It's Four Games At Once demanding space on my social timelines.
Sounds like it's actually the social timelines that annoy you.
Couldn’t FB notifications be blocked before? Which is similar then to saying social timeline vs the game. Not the same, I agree.
Re: Wordle is pretty damn smart in many subtle ways
#28Earlier quoted context omitted.
#1 is why it's so successful. It's just challenging enough to make you think, but still solvable by most people. So we all get that nice dopamine rush of solving a puzzle with a reasonable perceived effort. How many people don't play the NYT Sunday Crossword b/c they never get more than a few words? There is a very devoted fan base for crossword, but it's not as universal as Wordl's adoption. To me, that's the genius…
I'm actually sort of a "word" person. I've written books for publishers and do a fair bit of writing for my job. But crosswords have always fallen into the too much work category for me and I've never really connected to word games in general (including Scrabble). But, yeah, I like Wordle and it hits a sweet spot for me.
I played pretty high level Scrabble for a few years and most people who connect deeply with Scrabble are programmers, mathematicians, musicians, scientists, accountants, etc. Hardly anybody at the medium-to-high levels of play are word people.
At its core, Scrabble is just a game of probability, memory, spatial awareness, and pattern recognition. The words could be random collections of symbols.
Re: Wordle is pretty damn smart in many subtle ways
#29Having implemented my own 5-letter word game, I can agree that much finesse lies under the covers. Wordii is for the impatient, letting you play more often if you choose: https://frequal.com/wordii/ The many subtleties of this genre make it a great programming challenge. I encourage developers to try making their own version. I think you'll come away with a healthy respect for Mr. Wardle.
I have a reasonable vocabulary but I just got the word “copra”. I did get it on the sixth try but only after guessing cobra and realizing there were no letters left that produced words I knew. According to Wikipedia “Copra is the dried coconut kernels of which coconut oil is expelled.” It might be a blind spot in my vocabulary but I haven’t had this happen with wordle. The accessible word list could be considered another genius element of its design.
Re: Wordle is pretty damn smart in many subtle ways
#30The OP does a terrific job detailing the simple beauty of Wordle. Is it OK if we like it more because it was born out of love?: ‘Wordle is a love story’ https://www.nytimes.com/2022/01/03/technology/wordle-word-ga... And in the space of a month went from ‘introduced in NY Times’ to ‘bought by NY Times’? ‘The New York Times Buys Wordle’ https://www.nytimes.com/2022/01/31/business/media/new-york-t... In many ways, I th…