Wordle | Plaid Line + PRIZM + Scottie News

By: Charlotte Aver

Wordle has been around since COVID when Josh Wardle created it as a gift to his partner. He was inspired by the Spelling Bee and Crossword by the New York Times. The game grew in popularity throughout the pandemic leading Josh Wardle to sell the game to the New York Times where it could join its inspiration to be played everyday. Wordle is a five letter word guessing game where you have six chances to get the word right, and as you play the game gives you hints as to whether or not you are close. I would rate this game a solid 9/10 because I play it most days and it is a fun way to wake up my brain.

Connections is probably my favorite New York Times game. It was developed for about a year before being released to the public in June of 2023, as time went on it rapidly gained popularity, and in 2025 it had 3 million daily players. It is where you have 16 words and 4 groups of 4 that you have to find. It varies in difficulty level but typically is not too hard if you think through it thoroughly. I would rate this game 10/10.

Spelling Bee is a game where you are given 7 letters to arrange into words all using the center letter. This game takes a long time and a lot of critical thinking to complete. I often start this game and continue going back to it throughout the day. I would rate this game a 7/10.

Sudoku is a previously existing game and needs no introduction, it is just digitized. I personally don’t like sudoku and this game doesn’t show the same creativity as the others so I will give this game a 5/10.

Strands is a very fun game that can be incredibly difficult and is probably only possible to work in the digital form. Strands is a game where you have a bunch of letters laid out in a grid and a theme. You need to find all of the words but the twist is that the words are not in straight lines and they wind around the grid making it harder than a plain word search. I would give this one a 7/10.

Pips is the newest addition to the New York Times’ games and is very fun. Pips is a game where there are dominos and certain spots for the dominos to go, but they have numbers on them to indicate where each domino goes. It takes a bit to understand but once you do it’s incredibly fun. I would rate this game a 8/10.

There are a few more games but you have to subscribe to have access to them so I will not be rating them.

By: Maya Song

Wordle was invented in 2013 by Josh Wardle. ‘Wordle’ was originally named ‘Mr. Bugs’ Wordy Nugz’. The game was inspired by the game ‘Mastermind’s’ color matching mechanics.

Another reason the game was made was because Josh Wardle’s partner was a word game enthusiast. ‘Wordle’ was bought from Josh Wardle, the software engineer, in January of 2022 for a price “in the low seven figures”, the New York Times said.

In the game ‘Wordle’ you have six tries to guess a five letter word. Throughout the game you will be able to see what letters are correct and incorrect notated by a colored background of the letter. When you put a letter in the right spot the letter’s background turns green. If the letter’s background is yellow it means that the letter is in the word but in an incorrect spot. The grey background means that the letter is not in the word at all.

Science Foundation Ireland says that the best word to start with in ‘Wordle’ is “Tales.” It is said that using this word has a 95% success rate and the game ends with an average of 3.66 rounds. A recommended two word strategy is using the word “Cones” and following it with the word “Trial.” This combination leads to 96% of the target words in ‘Wordle’.

When’ Wordle’s’ public release occurred in October 2021 the daily users went from 90 to approximately 300,000 within two months.

‘Wordle’ will eventually run out of 5 letter words as there are slightly more than 2,300 5 letter words. Tracy from the New York Times says that when this time occurs ‘Wordle’ could recycle words, or start using plural, and past tense words.

Once ‘Wordle’ became popular many other games similar to ‘Wordle’ were made. Games like ‘Absurdle,’ where after each guess the word changes while the hints still work for the new answer. Other games like ‘Sweardle’ for swear words and ‘Weddle’ based oﬀ of NFL players.