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Guess these words: how Wordle has become the most popular game among students and teachers

Art: Will Blaisdell

Fortnite. Among Us. Retro bowl. Many video games have dominated the attention of St. Louis U. High students in recent years. But none have required as much intellectual skill and critical thinking as Wordle, which has flooded into the halls of SLUH over the last few months.

Wordle is relatively simple. You get six tries to guess a five-letter word; if you guess a letter in the correct position, it turns green, if you guess a letter in the wrong position, it turns yellow, and if you guess a letter that isn’t in the word, it turns grey. And the best part: you get one word per day.

“It's intellectually stimulating. It brings out my competitive nature,” said math teacher Craig Hannick. “I do play once a day, which is a godsend for me because I would play it all day long, it's just really fun.”

Wordle was created by a software engineer in Brooklyn to play with his family members. When he decided to release it to the world last October, it quickly became a hit across the country. It has become tradition for people to share their Wordle grids on text chains and social media every day.

“Every morning, my brother, my mom, and I send our Wordle pictures to each other,” said math teacher Tracy Lyons.

“I'm actually in a “competition”—you have to see my air quotes here—with my daughter so that every morning we each send each other the fraction and then we share our results and we talk about strategy and those kinds of things,” said Hannick.

Wordle has also opened up many discussions about strategies to guess the word in the fewest number of tries. Some start with a favorite word while others try words with commonly-used letters. Everyone seems to have a unique strategy for solving the daily puzzle.

“I have kept track of every word from the beginning looking for letter frequencies and stuff,” said Hannick. “I update that every time and look at the statistics and just see what certain letters and words are there. I default to using the same first word every time. The problem with my strategy is that I then default to using the most common letters as often in the next couple of times. Sometimes it can lead me a little bit astray, especially if there’s a W or or a P or something like that. Lately, those have been ones that I probably could have gotten in three, but it took me four because I went the statistical route as opposed to the common sense route.”

The game has particularly created a buzz in the Math Department because, while it appeals to word lovers, it appeals to statistics and logistics whizes as well. 

“There is a math component to it,” said Lyons. “Obviously the words aren't math, but there's very much  this logic component  to it. A lot of people are explaining that it's a lot like (the game) Mastermind.”

Different games like Mastermind, a color guessing game, employ a guessing technique similar to Wordle. People are drawn to them for the ability to strategize but also for it to be a relatively simple game.

““It makes you think. Sometimes it’s challenging, sometimes it’s really easy, and it’s also good to brag to friends,” said junior Caiden Zeitler.

Lyons has used Wordle as a way to bring her students together. She plays every morning in homeroom on the smart board.

“It's fun to watch them chat about it and kind of correct each other,” said Lyons. “When I’m doing Wordle on my own, I will sometimes make a bad guess because I will use a letter I know doesn't belong or I won't move it when I know it needs to get moved, but I'm trying to do it pretty quickly. In homeroom, a kid will shout out a word and the other kids will be like, well, we don't have an R, or we know it can't end in T and then they'll come up with a better word because there is no time limit.”

Wordle is truly a game that brings people together. Whether it’s Hannick texting his scores to his daughter in Washington, D.C. or Lyons’ homeroom debating over the daily word, the game has found a unique way to make people connect and bond.

““It’s a really fun game. I like how you develop strategies to get it. My parents and I do it every day and we try to see who can get it in the least amount of rows,” said sophomore John Posey.

Most importantly, Wordle is a ritual. People can return to it every morning and escape their busy lives, even for just a moment. From adieu to zebra, the small satisfaction of guessing a random word on only the second or third try is just what someone needs to get through the day.

 

 


 

 

 

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