Why Wordle has massive staying power
Word game is still a daily part of the lives of many Atlantic Canadians
Most of us will never meet Josh Wardle, the inventor of Wordle.
Many people probably didn’t even know the name of Wordle’s inventor. And yet, for however long it takes to guess a five-letter word in six tries, we’re living in this small, quiet part of Wardle’s world.
The story of the game’s invention has been part of its appeal. Wardle created it for, and in, collaboration with his partner Palak Shah, and never expected it to explode into the worldwide phenomenon it became in December 2021.
“It was just like this kind of nice thing that this guy made for his wife and it turned out to be something that a lot of other people really liked,” says Memorial University doctoral resident Emma Schmelefske. Ongoing massive appeal One of the reasons it’s still popular is because it’s different from other mobile apps. One puzzle per day.
“You can’t really splurge on it and sit down and Wordle for six hours and I think that’s what keeps it fresh and new for people,” says Nova Scotia writer Josh Healey, a relative latecomer to the game.
DON’T SPOIL THE FUN
Wordle seems to bring out a non-toxic element of the social internet. The game allows users to share a blank tile version of their path to the correct word that doesn’t spoil the answer.
And despite the answer being the same each day for all users, I’ve never seen someone intentionally spoil it.
Some days, the ability to share those tiles makes it feel like you’re not playing Wordle individually, but rather like we’re all trying to take down that word together. For Schmelefske, whose family is mostly in Ontario, a Wordle group chat is a daily point of connection.
“It’s partly competitive, but … I think it’s also just like a way to stay connected like an excuse to text each other,” she says.
FIVE-LETTER WORD FOR …
In January 2022, Wardle sold Wordle to the New York
Times for an undisclosed seven-figure sum, with the intention that the game would remain free to play.
Schmelefske appreciates the Times has honoured its commitment.
“I think if the New York
Times had bought it and it was covered in banner ads and pop-up windows, I think I would probably be more upset about it,” Schmelefske said.
The fact that there was a backlash at all says something about how much, rightly or wrongly, people had come to feel that Wordle was “ours.”
The sale was a reminder that it was not. It’s the difference between being in a bookstore and being in a library.
IT’S FOR FUN
Wordle is five minutes of fun (more if you’re having a particularly rough game). Like most games, it only has the meanings we decide to attach to it.
Now that the fervor has died down a little, Wordle seems to be taking an appropriate space in people’s lives as a fun thing to do when we remember.
“Before I started my residency in September, I was playing every day. I don’t know what my streak was but it was pretty long,” says Schmelefske.
Healey, already a crossword and wordplay aficionado, continues to enjoy Wordle for what it is.
“It’s a very simple word game that kicks off my day … it’s very simple, it doesn’t take that much time and you know it feels quite rewarding when you get this five-letter word.”