After the New Years, a new online word puzzle called ‘Wordle’ showed up on Twitter and Facebook. Those who play the game, must guess a 5-letter word and they have 6 tries to get it right. If a letter is correct and it is in the right position, the letter will be green, if a letter is correct but it is in the wrong position, the letter will show up in yellow and if the letter is incorrect, the letter will show up in black and players will know not to use that letter again when they attempt to guess the word again.
Firstly, people were confused as to why a bunch of yellow, green and black boxes were popping up on their timeline but when they looked up what this ‘Wordle’ was they immediately became obsessed.
Twitter users have been attempting to get the word in one or two goes as getting it in the fifth or sixth try is known as a failure. Some words are very easy such as ‘Sugar’ or ‘Flame’, but there was a word that baffled everyone and ruined everyone’s ‘Wordle’ streak, this word was ‘Knoll’, which means a small hill or mound.
Wordle immediately became an overnight sensation, nearly everyone I follow has played it at some stage, it is now a competition among friends to see who can guess the word first. Wordle is not only available in English, but it is also available in other languages, such as Irish (as Gaeilge), Dutch, French and German.
I would say that Wordle is on the way to replace long-time favourite, word boardgame, ‘Scrabble’, as it has managed to attract millions of users worldwide. Many political parties and organisations have seen how popular the game is and have jumped on the trend to communicate their messages, for example, the Irish Fire Brigade used the Wordle template to talk about smoke alarms saving lives and Fianna Fáil used the Wordle template to talk about their ‘Housing for All’ scheme.
Everyone looks forward to midnight to be able to play a new game of Wordle, it is the perfect game if you just want to relax but still want to test your brain.
By Christine O’Mahony
Image credit: Today