A British man who works in Brooklyn, New York, Josh Wardle, invented an internet word game to play with a friend way back in October of 2021. Someone in New Zealand discovered it and started sharing it with their friends. The game found it’s way to the US again and now it is the puzzle rage of the world. Mr. Wardle called it Wordle. Meanwhile, five years ago when he was 18, Steven Cravotta of California invented an app for a word game that he called Wordle! See the difference. Mr. Cravotta’s game, which had not attracted much attention, was suddenly downloaded 200,000 times in a single day a couple of months ago. He thought someone was trying to pull a scam on him. Those first 200,000 people got a different word game to play. Mr. Cravotta contacted Mr. Wardle to talk about Wordle. Both agreed they had no idea about the other, and they were enjoying their new-found incomes. They agreed to both send a portion of the proceeds to a non-profit literacy program called Boost! West Oakland.

Mr. Wardle’s Wordle is a fancy version of the old game Hangman using only one 5-letter word. Mr. Wardle sold his game to the New York Times. He did well. The player gets six tries to guess the word of the day. The player starts with a random word. Correct letters in the correct place are highlighted in green. Correct letters in the wrong place will be highlighted in yellow. All wrong letters will be grayed as out of play. There are approximately 130,000 5-letter English words. About 1,000 of those words are the ones we most commonly use. There is a British version of the game if you want to learn some extra 5-letter words. 

I had managed to avoid this game until last week. Dorothy and I work the puzzle together when we have time. A success story like this motivates other puzzle creators. Now there is Worldle, a geography game, and Nerdle, a mathematics game. The most amazing thing about this story for me is the level of courtesy and restraint demonstrated by the players to not reveal the answer to the word of the day. People can play nicely with others on a world-wide scale. We can treat others like we would like to be treated. We can show respectfulness. We can refrain from spoiling someone’s joy and pleasure. We can be a people of integrity. 

Keep healthy. Pray mightily. Enjoy your life today. Play well. And let’s experience the love and power of God together.

Bro. Darryl

This is a free internet game: www.nytimes.com/games/wordle 

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