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Wordle is pretty damn smart in many subtle ways

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Re: Wordle is pretty damn smart in many subtle ways

#31

Post by function_seven »

ghaff wrote: post #17

I 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…

>4. It lends itself to what I'll casual cheating, i.e. there are easy ways to get some hints without giving the answers away while focusing on a strategy.

I like this part. I’m in a 5-person group text where we’re posting our scores every day. Sometimes I’m the first, oftentimes not. When I happen to see a couple of others’ results in the thread, I’ll start to think about what they would have guessed with whatever pattern they posted. Like if I see ⬛ ⬛ ⬛ _ ⬛ , and I’m struggling between guessing "CHART" or "CHANT", I’ll go with CHANT because I assume they went with CHART first.

Re: Wordle is pretty damn smart in many subtle ways

#32

Post by ghaff »

thekiptxt wrote: post #26
ghaff wrote: post #17

I 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 th…

I'm more talking that if you're stuck, it's extremely easy to go to a generic online dictionary and enter some parameters and get to see some options. So you can still be playing a strategy but just not come up with a potential word yourself. It's not about going on social media with your hole in one.

Re: Wordle is pretty damn smart in many subtle ways

#33

Post by modeless »

skinnymuch wrote: post #27
alanbernstein wrote: post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

You can easily block Wordle scores on Twitter at least. Just add Wordle to your blocked words.

Re: Wordle is pretty damn smart in many subtle ways

#35

Post by bobthepanda »

mcenedella wrote: post #7

The 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…

Stardew Valley doesn‘t have nearly as short of a timeframe but is another labor of love success.

Re: Wordle is pretty damn smart in many subtle ways

#36

Post by bobthepanda »

moskie wrote: post #13

I've also begun to thing of Wordle as a meme. I know virtually anything could be framed as a meme, but there's specific aspects of Wordle and its rise in popularity that make it a particularly apt description. Its viral spread was fast and resonant. It's super easy to consume. Think pieces dissecting it end up in mainstream publications. The story about its origin gets mythologized. And, most importantly: unending ri…

Flappy bird? Temple run?

Re: Wordle is pretty damn smart in many subtle ways

#38

Post by sings »

paulcole wrote: post #28
ghaff wrote: post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

My dream version of Scrabble would have a score system somehow based on word infrequency, so more interesting words would gain higher scores, exactly to mitigate the phenomenon you describe here.

Re: Wordle is pretty damn smart in many subtle ways

#39

Post by moskie »

bobthepanda wrote: post #36
moskie wrote: post #13

I've also begun to thing of Wordle as a meme. I know virtually anything could be framed as a meme, but there's specific aspects of Wordle and its rise in popularity that make it a particularly apt description. Its viral spread was fast and resonant. It's super easy to consume. Think pieces dissecting it end up in mainstream publications. The story about its origin gets mythologized. And, most importantly: unending ri…

Flappy bird? Temple run?

Yup, totally right. Don't have much experience with Temple Run and its clones, but Flappy Bird fits the bill. The fact that there's only a couple games that come to mind reinforces the novelty of it happening again with Wordle though.

Re: Wordle is pretty damn smart in many subtle ways

#40

Post by sam1r »

mcenedella wrote: post #7

The 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…

>> Does any other story come close?

What about Mailbox [2013] being shut-down after Dropbox acquisition? [0]

I feel like many of gmail's archive and swipe-shortcuts are heavily inspired by Mailbox.

[0] https://www.inc.com/justin-bariso/dropbox-just-killed-mailbo...

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