💾 Archived View for rawtext.club › ~winter › gemlog › 2023 › 5-27.gmi captured on 2023-06-14 at 14:08:50. Gemini links have been rewritten to link to archived content
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Like a lot of people, I started playing Wordle shortly after it blew up on social media. It was a fun, daily thing when it felt like there wasn't a lot of fun going on in the days. I don't play daily, but I do, mostly. I think my best streak is 147 days. My current streak is 23.
The last week or two, after hitting the URL in the morning, I'm no longer launched into the game. Instead, I hit a splash screen. Wordle, it informs me, is edited by Tracy Bennett. How To Play? Login? Play?
The hell is this.
It's tired at this point to point out that capital ruins everything, but, well. When the NYT bought Wordle (and reportedly made its creator, Josh Wardle, a millionaire), it was only a matter of time before they started to tinker, tweak, and poke. And really, any change ruins the charm of the game. It's a randomized word list: you don't need an editor. Sure, log in to keep stats durable across devices, but that doesn't need to be on a splash screen, nor do the rules. Hide that elsewhere. Literally, people just want to load the game, guess till they get the word (or not), and get on with their day.
I'm a little sad at the professionalization of Wordle (once again: why on earth does it need an editor?). It was, and is, something my partner and I do every day, albeit at different times. She starts each day with STARE. No exceptions. I pick a different word every day, and work my way outward.
At some point I'm going to bounce off this. I guess the question will be whether it'll be my choice, or due to something the NYT has done. Maybe one day they'll make Wordle subscribers-only. I've kind of been expecting this for a while. Or, inevitable tie-in: advertising. Today's word brought to you by Penguin Random House, a tasteful ad promoting some hack politician's memoirs, or the latest Sally Rooney novel, or -
At that point, I'm done. I still like Wordle, but having to click through an extra, dumb screen every morning as I'm having my coffee is stretching a tenuous thing. All good things must end, particularly, it seems, when they get sold to media conglomorates like the NYT.