Oh My Wordle!
Are you hooked on popular word game Wordle or do you think the game is ‘meh’?
Wordle is a web-based word game developed by Josh Wardle in October 2021 and is now acquired by The New York Times. Each player has six attempts to guess a five-letter word, with feedback given for each guess in the form of colored tiles indicating when letters are matched (yellow), letters are unmatched (gray) or occupy the correct position (green). Wordle has a single daily solution, with all players attempting to guess the same word. The player then has the ability to share their results without revealing the word.
There are many word games out there, but I find Wordle a rarity and unique. It reminds of the Tetris game which came out in the 1980s. It’s a simple game where you may have asked yourself — it’s so simple why didn’t I come up with that game?
It is the simple games that are probably one of the hardest games to come up with. Thus, my appreciation of the game and its design. It is basic, yet it ticks all the boxes for user experience.
Aesthetically, it’s clean and easy to navigate around. For a word game, the target audience (like those who enjoy crosswords) is not interested in the bells and whistles unlike high tech video games.
It is a game that does not require much explanation and is quite intuitive to play. It took me one try to figure it out.
You can only play Wordle once a day. A good daily dose to keep you coming back for more but not allowing you to play until you drop. I tend to find if I overplay a game, I lose interest.
Wordle allows you to share your results without ruining the game for others. It strokes our ego and competitiveness which in return we share the game with others. The results only include the mysterious blocks of gray, yellow and green (without the letters) which lures other players to try it out.
You do not need to go through any sign-up process or download any apps. Thus, you can play straight away.
With 6 guesses for a 5-letter word, it leaves you with a pretty good chance of guessing the word. As one of the The Guardian Wordle articles says
“To complete the puzzle in four guesses seems to be the par score for Wordle. Doing it in three is a jolt of satisfaction, in two is smugly pleasurable, and in one is pure luck. But failing to do it within the allotted six is a wretched study in self-recrimination.”
For now, no ads or fancy record keeping. It’s a plain and simple game to stretch those brain muscles.
In a world where designs are super slick, it is refreshing to see a game going back to basics. Simple. Straightforward. No fuss.
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