Wordle is pretty damn smart in many subtle ways

Post by dave5104 » Wed, Feb 23, 2022, 5:37 AM UTC

function_seven wrote: post #31

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 p…

Post by gnopgnip » Wed, Feb 23, 2022, 5:43 AM UTC

rrrrrrrrrrrryan wrote: post #88

hombre_fatal wrote: post #78

Earlier quoted context omitted.

When I first discovered Wordle, I immediately looked for a way to keep playing with new random words, something that most clones have implemented. After a few rounds, it just wasn't as fun. What makes it fun to spend 10 minutes on the game is that it's the only round of the day so there's a pay-off to giving it some thought. When you can keep playing new rounds, it's just not rewarding and I would just close the tab…

The daily bit is clearly modeled off the New York Times daily word puzzles, and it's obvious why the NYT bought it to add it to their collection of daily word games.

Post by chrischen » Wed, Feb 23, 2022, 5:52 AM UTC

hombre_fatal wrote: post #78

dvirsky wrote: post #19

The code design is also very elegant in its simplicity. You have two static lists of words in the JS code - known words, and a smaller, random pre-shuffled list of words the game will select from. The selection is done on the client, by date, from the second list - every day at midnight (your local time!) the next word in the pre-shuffled list is selected - no hashing or randomizing or anything. No cookies are involv…

When I first discovered Wordle, I immediately looked for a way to keep playing with new random words, something that most clones have implemented. After a few rounds, it just wasn't as fun. What makes it fun to spend 10 minutes on the game is that it's the only round of the day so there's a pay-off to giving it some thought. When you can keep playing new rounds, it's just not rewarding and I would just close the tab…

Post by Mogzol » Wed, Feb 23, 2022, 6:06 AM UTC

ehsankia wrote: post #100

sedatk wrote: post #65

I'd mentioned how Wordle clones failed to copy its success because they didn't understand what made it unique before, the article does a decent job too: https://twitter.com/esesci/status/1481734261434507268

I don't think it's entirely true. Many have managed to create alternatives that have gotten serious traction. There's a few I've been consistently playing for a week and honestly enjoying more than Wordle itself. I've been playing Quordle, and sometimes it's more insane alternatives [1] [2]. I've also really been enjoying Semantle [3], it's probably one of my favorite and most unique ones. There's other ones that are…

Post by GCA10 » Wed, Feb 23, 2022, 6:14 AM UTC

hddqsb wrote: post #126

alskdjflaskjdhf wrote: post #108

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>One more factor in Wordle's popularity that I haven't yet seen commentators identify much. The game's word roster tilts heavily toward words with neutral or cheerful connotations. >So your brain conjures up something happy at the end. You don't slog through the puzzle solving to end up with VIRUS, ENNUI, GRIEF, SLAVE, INANE or other such morose words. Ironically, SLAVE was actually one of the future solution words i…

In fact VIRUS, ENNUI, GRIEF, SLAVE, INANE are all in the (original) solution list.