‘We have some exciting news to share’ — Wordle will enter new era next week with ‘magical’ change that will completely shake up the game, and it’s much needed
Wordle will begin repeating the answers next week, which is sure to cause deep controversy among fans of the game – but which, in my opinion, is entirely necessary.
This decision was announced in a rather discreet manner, in the form of a brief statement at the top of the New York Times‘Gameplay email newsletter yesterday.
This is huge news for the millions of people who play the game, as it completely changes its nature. Is this a bad thing? Not in my book – and I’ll explain why below – but you might well disagree. Let me know what you think by voting in this poll or letting me know in the comments below.
The memory game
When Wordle was launched by developer Josh Wardle in June 2021, it was based on a database of 2,315 defined answers each of which had an assigned day.
This number was reduced to 2,309 by the New York Times after purchasing Wordle in January 2022, then increased by an unknown amount over the next two years, with the addition of solutions such as SNAFU (game #659) and OOMPH (#1662).
There are now 32 of these additional answers, however, there are only a limited number of valid five-letter words, and I suspect that even with the New York Times additions, Wordle’s word pool will not have exceeded 2,400. Given that we are now at game #1685 for today’s Wordle answer, there were only about two years left before all solutions were exhausted and the game was over.
The New York Times could have simply waited until then and then made a change — perhaps relaunching it as a six-letter game or something — but that wouldn’t have solved a growing problem with the way it’s played today: namely, knowledge of past answers.
Specifically, some people were looking at a list of solutions already used to solve everyday puzzles. There’s nothing inherently wrong with that, because nothing in the rules says you can’t do that, and indeed, it’s a game that you can decide how you want to play anyway. Also, full disclosure, I’m part of the problem here – because I’ve maintained a list of all past Wordle responses for several years.
The problem is that as the answers run out and the pool of leftovers shrinks every day, it fundamentally changes your chances of choosing the right word, if you look at a list of past solutions.
For example, take FREAK – the answer to Monday’s game #1682. Without any knowledge of past answers, you might well guess CREAK, BREAK or WREAK. One lucky day you’ll get the right one, another you won’t. Or you’ll have to play a word like CABLE to rule out a few options.
However, if you look at the previous answers, you’ll see that BREAK (#172), CREAK (#347), and WREAK (#1225) have all already appeared – meaning you can play FREAK right away and have an advantage over those who haven’t.
Whether this is a problem is a matter of opinion, but it has undeniably made Wordle less fair – which, after all, was part of the idea behind the game when it launched with its “everyone plays the same game daily” approach.
What the future holds
The New York Times announcement that previous answers will reappear fixes all that. Take the FREAK example above: just because BREAK came up before doesn’t mean it might not be the answer again, so you’d be forced to solve it in isolation once again.
Additionally, it extends the lifespan of the game. Theoretically, this could now last forever, with games repeating over a period of between one day and six years.
However, we’re not sure how the New York Times plans to roll this out. The statement says that “we’re going to start adding previously run words” rather than “we’re adding them all back and randomizing them” – it could well be that The New York Times is taking the same approach as its additional words, simply choosing certain words on a given day.
This could also be done via a thematic approach – for example making CAROL the answer on Christmas Day or similar. I hope that’s not the case, because it should be a puzzle solving game rather than a “what’s on the mind of the puzzler today” game, but you may disagree.
Either way, it shakes up the game to a point where it was starting to feel a little stale. And best of all, it means I could go back to my favorite starting word, STARE, and have a chance at a successful resolution in one, a feat that would have otherwise been impossible. You might have to wait a long time for that to happen…
