Wordle was recently acquired by American publication giant New York Times earlier this month. The viral word game was to remain the same even after the acquisition but several people have reported changes they have encountered while playing Wordle. While changes to the font and URL are not something that has affected the game, however, changes to Wordle’s solution list have irked the fans.
As of February 15 (Wordle #241), the two versions of Wordle hosted by NYT and the original website have diverged as the two versions had different answers for the day. Additionally, there have been revisions to the word list by NYT as reported by BoingBoing. The words removed are racist slurs and some rather innocuous words which were perceived to be very hard, further future solutions of the game have been changed.
Wordle sees changes, becomes harder
Adding fuel to the fire, many die-hard fans have voiced their opinion that ever since the acquisition, the game has gotten harder while people who converse in British English have been finding it hard since the discrepancies between the American and British English are creeping into the game. Trending on Twitter after the word ‘caulk’ appeared as Wordle #242, people united to show their displeasure as they found the word to be rather obscure. Compared to the previous answers it was very challenging to decode the correct solution.
The effect on gameplay
The change to the future solutions and the diverging answers mean that players who are playing the cached version of the game or have downloaded the game will have different solutions to those playing on the New York Times website. Since the popularity of the game is based on the social aspect of sharing and building streaks a difference between versions will surely negatively affect the game. Another point of contention is the change in the list of words means that players will have to tweak their strategy a bit
Fan Reaction
The move to have separated cached, unofficial versions of the game can be attributed to New York Times wanting players to migrate to its platform. It is to be seen if NYT will further make any changes to the mechanics or let it remain as close to its original form.
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