Opinion | Why Wordle is a diversion from our socially distanced lives

The socially distanced drudgery of life during the pandemic has left us all looking for a little diversion. We need to escape, just for a while, from thoughts of mandatory testing, lockdowns and quarantine.

Our options in Hong Kong this Lunar New Year are limited. Traditional fairs are closed, restaurant dining banned and gatherings discouraged. We are working and holidaying at home amid the fifth wave of Covid-19.

For many, one little ray of light has come in the form of a simple online word game. The popularity of Wordle has spread exponentially in recent months, rather like the Omicron variant.

For those not already gripped by the craze, the game involves guessing a five-letter word. You get six attempts. If your guess includes letters which are in the target word, but in the wrong place, they turn yellow. Letters in the right position turn green.

The game was invented by former Reddit software designer Josh Wardle as a bit of fun for his partner. At first, it was only available to his family and friends. Wordle was opened up to the public last October. The New York Times reported only 90 people played on November 1. Two months later, 300,000 took part. Now, the figure is around three million. It is gaining popularity in Hong Kong.

This is an old-fashioned game, harking back to the early days of the internet. There is no app. It costs nothing to play. There is no need to register, no ads, no pop-ups, no email sign up or notifications. You just go to the website and play.

Crucially, Wordle can only be played once a day. This is the secret of its success. There are no levels to ascend and no option of paying to play more. You cannot binge. It makes a welcome change from most online games today that seek to suck you in, get you addicted and strap you for cash.

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Each day there is one target word. It is the same for all players. This creates a competitive element and a talking point. People connect through Wordle, so important in these times of isolation.

The game is only supposed to take three minutes. It often absorbs me for longer than that. I don’t want to be beaten by my wife or son. Sometimes I have a break after two quick guesses and return to it later. I am clearly taking it too seriously!

The game took off when Wardle developed a widget allowing players to easily share their results on social media. Many cannot resist the opportunity to brag about their successes.

There has been a little good-natured controversy. Some players have complained when the answer is obscure (anyone know what a Tapir is?) Wordle even strained Anglo-US ties when, to the shock and horror of British players, the answer had American spelling.

This free, popular game has predictably spawned a flood of imitators. Apps with identical or similar names quickly appeared, allowing fans to play to their heart’s content – for a fee. Apple recently removed impostors from its app store. Twitter also blocked a mean bot that was revealing the next day’s answer to people who posted their results.

Fans of the game have quickly developed forms of it in other languages. It is not an easy one to convert to Chinese. But a version using pinyin and inviting players to guess Chinese idioms has recently appeared.

Wordle has prompted mathematicians to create algorithms said to increase the chances of success. There have also been attempts to apply linguistic theory in a bid to win.

The game may prove to be a short-lived fad. It remains to be seen whether Wardle will develop it or even be tempted to monetise it. Maybe not. He says it is just a bit of fun. We certainly need more of that, especially over the holiday. In that spirit, I wish the Post’s readers a happy Year of the _ _ _ _ _

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