A Crisis comes to Wordle: Reusing old words(forkingmad.blog)
22 pointsby cyanbane4 hours ago9 comments
  • trothamelan hour ago
    If I remember correctly, the original version of wordle used a word list that was run past the creator's wife, who had learned English later in life. The result was a really accessible game - none of the words felt like ones you wouldn't know. It probably makes sense to reuse words than risk losing that accessibility.

    (I kept a copy of original wordle, and it seems to have 2,315 words that are possible answers.)

    • jonwinstanleyan hour ago
      Yes there’s no point using technically correct words if hardly anyone know them.
      • sobkas44 minutes ago
        Language or the way we use it is often used to exclude "undesired", so there is a point in using them. Not a very nice point, but a point nevertheless.
  • furyofantares40 minutes ago
    "Crisis" is a massively overblown word for this. And the "wordle community" is a drop in the bucket of regular players, and not remotely representative.

    I did have a similar reaction personally to the "exciting news" framing but I'm not actually sure it's wrong. The original list of words was an excellent list, and it's been over 4 years.

  • sowbugan hour ago
    It seems about right. They reshuffled the deck about three-quarters of the way through (1689 ÷ 2315 = 72.9%). Blackjack shoes are typically shuffled around the same point. Different games, but similar considerations in this respect.
  • hombre_fatalan hour ago
    1. Wordle's word list is going to be a lot more curated than TFA's word list because people want to guess words they use or have heard of, not "aahed".

    2. Only a tiny group of people care to "card count" Wordle to rule out words that have already been played because they think that sort of min/maxing is fun. Most people don't even think about that, so whether Wordle reuses words every few years is trivial to them.

    • deanputney37 minutes ago
      I will say that having used the same starter word the whole time that has not come up yet, it's a little disappointing that it may now take even longer to appear.
  • brikyman hour ago
    For my game redactle.net, I blacklist the Wikipedia article for 2 years. I figure there is a tradeoff between novelty and allowing the pool of articles to shrink. The Wikipedia vital level 4 category has 10k articles and probably half of them actually meet the criteria (length, number of languages etc) for making the cut.
  • geophile15 minutes ago
    The analysis misses a point. Wordle uses two lists of five letter words: words that are in the dictionary, and can be used in a guess; and those that can be used as the daily secret word. The latter list is smaller, and sticks to more common words. Wordle has been around for 1550 days, so they have used 67% of the possible words. In another couple of years, they have to either start using uncommon words, or recycle. There's no rush, so it's unclear why this is happening now.
    • lkbm10 minutes ago
      > Wordle has been around for 1550 days

      I'm confused. Today's Wordle is #1,688.

  • tuwtuwtuwtuw2 hours ago
    I am guessing a high percentage of wordle players prefer a wordle version which uses common words, and New York Times would prefer cater to those, rather than a smaller group of enthusiasts.
    • f_allweinan hour ago
      Maybe it should be „forked“
  • Aardwolfan hour ago
    Every now and then I play quordle, octordle, and once a thousand-word variation (which breaks down gameplaywise to just getting every letter at every spot).

    A bit of reuse of the same word in the one-word version can't hurt I think

  • znkynzan hour ago
    Connections is better anyway.
    • Lerca few seconds ago
      Connections is infuriating.

      Not only are they using regional specific knowledge, but they use regional relative concepts.

      Many people do not agree that ant rhymes with aunt.

      The recent Homophones of words meaning brutal.

      Gorey, Grimm, Grizzly, Scarry.

      I am guessin that Grimm is a eponym which makes it nebulous at best, eponyms take a lot of use to be regarded in objective terms rather than as invoking an arbartrary property of the name holder. Kafkaesque rises to that use. I don't think Grimm does.

      I have no idea if Scarry is supposed to be a homonym for scary. Which it neither sounds like nor means brutal.

      Perhaps there is another word that means brutal that sounds like however the person who makes connections thinks Scarry is pronounced.

      In which case it works be a homonym of a synonym of brutal.

      I also do not live in the same country as only connect, yet do not have such issues with their walls.

      The real problem is that while you might be wrong about an answer, once you lose faith that the puzzle setter is right, you can never be sure if your guess is wrong or they are wrong. It is no longer a puzzle and you are playing 'what have I got in my pocket?'.

    • dobladov28 minutes ago
      My favorite right now is https://tiledwords.com/, not affiliated to it in any way, I just enjoy it.
      • paulhebert4 minutes ago
        Hey, thanks! I’m glad you’re enjoying it! (I’m the creator)
    • AndrewDuckeran hour ago
      It's a very different kind of game. I don't think it's at all comparable.
    • AnotherGoodNamean hour ago
      I recommend anything at https://www.merriam-webster.com/games for these sorts of games. Lots of wordle variations and all add free.