Boredled of Wordle, Dordle, Quordle?
Wordle is the simple word game invented by Josh Wardle from Abergavenny in Wales. You have 6 goes to deduce the daily 5 letter word and you are rewarded with 6 green squares if you get it right. Snapped up by the New York Times, with over 3 million players per day, the game now has many spin-offs with fans inventing Dordle, a duo version of wordle – 7 goes to guess 2 x 5 letter words, and Quordle, a mindboggling quadruple version, where you have 4 x 5 x 9 letter combinations. The daily conversations around the -ordle games attest to their popularity – a guessing game which requires scrabble-like skills and can be done as soon as you wake up and reach for your mobile.
In theory, the ethical slant is you can’t get addicted, as Wordle only allows one game per day so a new word is reset each night. You can see the hardened players by those who post their scores soon after midnight. Sharing scores on social media still feels an acceptable pastime not frowned upon yet. However, you could still get addicted because quordle allows a “practice version” so you can practice day and night until the official daily word is reset for each of the single, duo, quadruple versions.
Neurologists say there’s a protective effect on your brain from doing cognitive puzzles like wordle. Similar to jigsaws and crosswords. And there must be some dopamine spark seeing the little squares light up yellow and green to indicate correct letters and correct letters in correct spaces.
Wordle appears to be just the right amount of difficult. Many reach average scores of 3 and 4 out of 6 aiming to get 2s or the elusive 1s guessing a 5 letter word with no clues. Even 6 out of 6 is satisfying if the word is particularly tricky. Quordle is hard to beat – wordle times 4 means you need a particular strategy to spin those word guessing plates. Plus the words appear to be slightly harder with archaic and scientific words popping up like quoth and lumen.
Wordle is part of the new onine word gaming landscape. Sally a committed Scrabble player remarks on how “the nature of online Scrabble has completely changed the game. Want a game? You don’t play a complete game – just take your turns when you can til you reach the often bitter end.”
The last words go to Andrew Kay – a scrabble maestro who got me hooked on wordle:
Word games are my go to relaxation technique, from my early start playing Scrabble with family aged six to this very day. I know that some people will find my use of the word “relaxation”strange but playing with words does it for me, and I think that fiddling with letter games, puns and anagrams have made me a better wordsmith for sure. Luck plays a part in Wordle as it does in Scrabble, but there are techniques that make it easier. I always start with the same word that has the three most used vowels in it, that really helps. Don’t assume that a letter will only appear once, and don’t make the mistake of thinking that the answer, as it would in Scrabble, will not be a proper noun, Wordle does not discriminate!
Wordle has become a recent addiction, one a day is good for me too as it doesn’t eat up the hours. Millions do it and we all enjoy sharing on social media. That said there are many who hate the fact that we share… well tough luck, ignore us, we’re having fun!
A Drawn Key
Aria Mangini
