Wordles and Waffles and Connections, oh my!

I've played pretty much every word game I can find on my phone. Most have a lifespan of about two weeks before I get bored with them.

The limited accessibility of this is really smart. You can't binge and burn out. You finish a puzzle then wait 23 hours and 45 minutes for the next one.
 
Mtn.Devil.91.92.01.10.15 said:
I've played pretty much every word game I can find on my phone. Most have a lifespan of about two weeks before I get bored with them.

The limited accessibility of this is really smart. You can't binge and burn out. You finish a puzzle then wait 23 hours and 45 minutes for the next one.
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Word games are very much one of my jams, and I also like the daily limit. The one play per day makes for a really lovely morning ritual, and prevents me from becoming obsessive, which 100% would occur for me if one could play more frequently.
 
wilson said:
Word games are very much one of my jams, and I also like the daily limit. The one play per day makes for a really lovely morning ritual, and prevents me from becoming obsessive, which 100% would occur for me if one could play more frequently.
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Another confirmation that there's a parallel universe where wilson and I are best friends.

The missus and I are those dorks that bring a book of crosswords to the brewery.
 
Wordle is way too easy. Maybe that’s part of its appeal to many, but I don’t really enjoy a game where success rate is 100% with little effort.
 
freshmanjs said:
Wordle is way too easy. Maybe that’s part of its appeal to many, but I don’t really enjoy a game where success rate is 100% with little effort.
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Well, the challenge is how many tries it takes to get it. And then the fun is bragging to friends and family when you get it quickly.

The actual real challenge is when you up the difficulty. This means once you guess a letter you HAVE to use that letter. I haven't made that leap yet.
 
Mtn.Devil.91.92.01.10.15 said:
I've played pretty much every word game I can find on my phone. Most have a lifespan of about two weeks before I get bored with them.

The limited accessibility of this is really smart. You can't binge and burn out. You finish a puzzle then wait 23 hours and 45 minutes for the next one.
Click to expand...

I have been playing and enjoy it. I find the sharing feature annoying - I don't spend a lot of time on Facebook and don't need to see how everyone did on Wordle.

I also get frustrated when I see people share who obviously don't understand the strategy of the game. If you have a green square in spot 2 on your first guess, you should choose a word for your second guess with that same letter in the second spot. Similarly, if you have a yellow in the fifth spot in guess one, your second guess should incorporate that letter in one of the other four slots - there is no excuse for having your second guess have no yellows or greens.

I have a brilliant friend (PhD in Physics) who posts his results daily and always takes 5-6 guesses and doesn't get these strategies. Drives me bonkers.

Yes, I need a life.
 
CrazyNotCrazie said:
...I also get frustrated when I see people share who obviously don't understand the strategy of the game. If you have a green square in spot 2 on your first guess, you should choose a word for your second guess with that same letter in the second spot. Similarly, if you have a yellow in the fifth spot in guess one, your second guess should incorporate that letter in one of the other four slots - there is no excuse for having your second guess have no yellows or greens...Drives me bonkers...
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My mother, a very intelligent person, a crossword aficionado, and general devotee of word games, similarly claims that she "doesn't understand how anyone plays the game without clues." I attempted to explain that there indeed are clues, along the lines of what CNC outlines above, and she just doesn't get it.
I finally had to beg mercy and bow out of the conversation, because I reached the point where I don't even understand what she doesn't understand.
 
CrazyNotCrazie said:
I have been playing and enjoy it. I find the sharing feature annoying - I don't spend a lot of time on Facebook and don't need to see how everyone did on Wordle.

I also get frustrated when I see people share who obviously don't understand the strategy of the game. If you have a green square in spot 2 on your first guess, you should choose a word for your second guess with that same letter in the second spot. Similarly, if you have a yellow in the fifth spot in guess one, your second guess should incorporate that letter in one of the other four slots - there is no excuse for having your second guess have no yellows or greens.

I have a brilliant friend (PhD in Physics) who posts his results daily and always takes 5-6 guesses and doesn't get these strategies. Drives me bonkers.

Yes, I need a life.
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I don’t use that strategy at all. My goal is to get the letters as fast as I can. So my first two guesses knock out 10 letters just like that. From there, it’s about a 50% shot to get it on the third guess and 100% for the fourth for me. Sometimes, if I really nail the first guess, I’ll get it in two but that’s a lot more rare.

Note that if I turned hard mode on, I really wouldn’t be able to do this anymore
 
Mtn.Devil.91.92.01.10.15 said:
Well, the challenge is how many tries it takes to get it. And then the fun is bragging to friends and family when you get it quickly.

The actual real challenge is when you up the difficulty. This means once you guess a letter you HAVE to use that letter. I haven't made that leap yet.
Click to expand...

“Hard mode” doesn’t make it much harder. Just different.
 
CrazyNotCrazie said:
I have been playing and enjoy it. I find the sharing feature annoying - I don't spend a lot of time on Facebook and don't need to see how everyone did on Wordle.

I also get frustrated when I see people share who obviously don't understand the strategy of the game. If you have a green square in spot 2 on your first guess, you should choose a word for your second guess with that same letter in the second spot. Similarly, if you have a yellow in the fifth spot in guess one, your second guess should incorporate that letter in one of the other four slots - there is no excuse for having your second guess have no yellows or greens.

I have a brilliant friend (PhD in Physics) who posts his results daily and always takes 5-6 guesses and doesn't get these strategies. Drives me bonkers.

Yes, I need a life.
Click to expand...

I do exactly the opposite of your very obvious strategy. I try and knock out letters. I choose words that will eliminate as many unlikely letters as possible. By the third guess, I've hopefully knocked out 13 letters.

In fact, if you change the difficulty, it REQUIRES you to leave any letter you guess correctly in subsequent guesses.
 
freshmanjs said:
“Hard mode” doesn’t make it much harder. Just different.
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I disagree. Maybe because it's the exact opposite strategy that I use.

My goal is to eliminate letters rather than collect the right letters. It's easier to look at a five letter array and make a solid guess when you know 18 letters that aren't in the word than by knowing two letters that are.

It definitely makes it more difficult to guess it in three or four turns, which is what I aspire to - though I don't often nail that particular landing.
 
Mtn.Devil.91.92.01.10.15 said:
I disagree. Maybe because it's the exact opposite strategy that I use.

My goal is to eliminate letters rather than collect the right letters. It's easier to look at a five letter array and make a solid guess when you know 18 letters that aren't in the word than by knowing two letters that are.

It definitely makes it more difficult to guess it in three or four turns, which is what I aspire to - though I don't often nail that particular landing.
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It definitely requires a different strategy but my averages are almost identical either way.
 
freshmanjs said:
Realy? I say it’s not really harder despite the name and your response is “well the name says it’s harder?” And this without you having even tried it.
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I mean, I'm not trying to start a fist fight here. It's an online word game.

I'm saying that if it doesn't bother your strategy, but it's counter to the usual strategy and is called "hard mode" then maybe you are an outlier.

Calm down, it wasn't meant as a personal attack. If anything, you are likely better at this game if the "hard mode" doesn't give you different results.

Sheesh, people are testy here after a loss. Was just trying to bring up some fun fluff for people to discuss.

Edit: to be fair, my first reply to your comment was to explain how my method was different than yours.
 
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Mtn.Devil.91.92.01.10.15 said:
I do exactly the opposite of your very obvious strategy. I try and knock out letters. I choose words that will eliminate as many unlikely letters as possible. By the third guess, I've hopefully knocked out 13 letters.

In fact, if you change the difficulty, it REQUIRES you to leave any letter you guess correctly in subsequent guesses.
Click to expand...

My goal is to get it as quickly as possible. So by keeping letters that you know, it maximizes your chances of doing so. Especially if I get lucky and guess well in round one or two, I can get it in three or four. I have never played the alternate version.

I have been in a routine lately where I watch some or all of Jeopardy and Wheel of Fortune with my second grader most nights (it is really cool to see his brain working and his clear improvement at both). The mental process of Wordle is similar to Wheel of Fortune - focusing on both what is there and what isn't there, what order letters often go in, and what more commonly used letters are.
 
CrazyNotCrazie said:
My goal is to get it as quickly as possible. So by keeping letters that you know, it maximizes your chances of doing so. Especially if I get lucky and guess well in round one or two, I can get it in three or four. I have never played the alternate version.

I have been in a routine lately where I watch some or all of Jeopardy and Wheel of Fortune with my second grader most nights (it is really cool to see his brain working and his clear improvement at both). The mental process of Wordle is similar to Wheel of Fortune - focusing on both what is there and what isn't there, what order letters often go in, and what more commonly used letters are.
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That's something that most casual viewers miss. They see people guessing letters and then guessing words and phrases, but they can't visualize the progress being made in the elimination of the letters.

I like that wordle shows you on the keyboard which letters have been confirmed or eliminated. Nice touch.
 
Mtn.Devil.91.92.01.10.15 said:
That's something that most casual viewers miss. They see people guessing letters and then guessing words and phrases, but they can't visualize the progress being made in the elimination of the letters.

I like that wordle shows you on the keyboard which letters have been confirmed or eliminated. Nice touch.
Click to expand...

Agree on both counts. Wheel of Fortune seems mindless but there is actually a lot of strategy to it. Particularly in terms of guessing, but also in terms of maximizing winnings. Unfortunately, my son has now taken up my habit of saying "you moron" when someone blatantly violates these strategies. Fortunately, as far as I know he does not do the same thing at school...

I think that on Wheel of Fortune the contestants can see a board like the one on Wordle where used letters are crossed out, which is why they get so annoyed at themselves when the guess something that has already been guessed. I agree that this makes wordle more enjoyable.

In both games, there is some control over results by the letters they use - if it is a word full of less commonly used letters, people are generally going to be slower to get it. On Wheel of Fortune I find it kind of obnoxious when the final puzzle is mainly letters that they know no one will ever choose - they are setting the person up to fail.
 
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