Under NYT Ownership, Wordle Is Less Communal, Less Sweary

Last month, improbably named Wordle creator Josh Wardle sold his magical game to the New York Times. “We could not be more thrilled to become the new home and proud stewards of this magical game,” Times general manager of games Jonathan Knight in a statement at the time of acquisition. Well, this week we are seeing what the Times stewardship of Wordle looks like. Gone is (some of) the more vulgar potential guesses, and along with them, the shared sense of community that came with everyone getting the same puzzle every day. According to the Washington Post, Wordlers now may get one of two different puzzles each day depending on what site they use. “Luckily for Wordle fans,” they wrote, “the mismatch with fellow players is reversible. Refreshing the website where they’re playing the game should sync the puzzle with the updated version.”

Irreversible, however, is the censoring of certain guesses within the game. Polygon is reporting that the NYT has banned certain vulgar guesses, along with certain gendered slurs. “Whore,” “bitch,” and “sluts” are gone — a devastating blow to all self-professed whordles (Wordle whores). “Fucks,” however, is still in play.