Whenever I find that midnight has come and gone and I’m still awake, I immediately carry out a daily ritual:
- I’m kidding Wordsi New York Times‘s figure-out-the-five-word puzzle;
- Then I play another one Times word game, Communication.
I wouldn’t be surprised if I’m one of the millions who plan their waking hours around these Times games and the like Spelling Bee. More media outlets than I can count have published stories about the media company’s booming gaming business, usually with less aggressiveness (“[T]heTimeshas quietly become a video game company that happens to have a newspaper subscription, too”).
But it is nothing new than old that has shifted to the digital age. Crossword puzzles have helped sell newspapers for over a century; JumbleIt’s a complex word game that takes a long time to play Wordshe’ll be 70 this year and (I just read) it’s available in an online version at The Chicago Tribune location and other locations.
However, The Times he deserves credit for being smart enough to win Words from its creator, engineer Josh Wardle. He has created a well-polished and playable version of a word game like few out there. The Times he has continued without defiling it; everything retains the beauty it had when the game first invaded our mass consciousness three years ago, in a way I wouldn’t expect a major company to pull off.
A sure sign that i Timesthe game campaign works the impact it has on other online news explorers and related content methods. Last December, media titan Hearst bought a startup called Puzzmo, which offers paper sites like San Francisco Chronicle internal source of games. The Boston Globe the site received a gaming hub in April. The following month, LinkedIn launched three games, and Apple News, which already had two different names (standard and small), added a word game called Quartiles.
Most of the brainteasers on these sites and others seem to be trying to recreate a formula that makes similar games Words again Communication they feel like everyday necessities, without giving away anything specific about their gameplay. Often, they thrive on being small challenges that can be completed in a few minutes, and feel intellectually stimulating (or at least not like wasting time altogether).
But the lesson of WordsSuccess is not that making compulsively played word games is easy but rather that it is hard. Although it seems straightforward, that game offers surprisingly deep knowledge: Guess the word in two or three tries (yes!) beats in a completely different way than doing five or six (ehhh). That it’s even possible to beat the options in just a few tries—for every five-letter word in the English language, or at least the ones in this article. Words‘s dictionary!—makes playing the game like performing magic.
Part of the fun of playing Words that it’s comfort food—exactly the same as regular everyday food, except for a different five-letter name. On the contrary, play Communication it feels like a suspicious duel, going on between me and me New York Times staff member who wrote them all, Wyna Liu. Some days, I solve it as quickly as I can click; others, involve associations so vague that they boggle my mind. About 15% of the time I quit the game without finishing it, I raise the white flag like Liu, I can only imagine, the ear goes out. Also, not a simple connection between the player and the game that should be renewed.
I haven’t found it yet Words-come-lately on other sites all compelling, although there is a brilliant light from time to time, usually when one goes to a distant place Times games. LinkedIn Games appear in the service’s iPad app but aren’t really playable on my iPad in its keyboard mode (it pops out sideways), suggesting that the company wanted to get into the puzzle campaign but didn’t invest unlimited resources in the effort. But they have an interesting twist in that they show you who among their contacts is playing, which makes them one of a kind FarmVille in your professional network—in a good way, I mean. If possible I could see my friends who were playing Words or CommunicationI might be more involved in sports.
I was taken too The Boston Globe the site’s jigsaw puzzle of Boston scenes, selected by the paper’s photo staff—a rare example of a game with a tangible link back to the larger goals of the media asset from which it originates.
The Internet has always been a circle of fashion that comes and goes, so if media companies except it The Times eventually lose their interest in playing, it will not come as a painful shock. I hope they stick around long enough to see if something sticks, though. Classic blockbuster games—like Scopely’s Monopoly Go-they are so focused on keeping us playing and working on in-app purchases that they feel like close relatives of gambling, with no chance of winning any real world money.
The best thing about Words that it is not a rabbit hole, a money pit, or a guilty pleasure. Just an honest moment of low-key fun that really is is something about fun. The Internet needs all who can find it.
You were reading Plugged In,Fast companyA weekly tech newsletter from me, global tech editor Harry McCracken. If a friend or colleague forwarded this issue to you—or if you read it on FastCompany.com—you can check out past issues and sign up to receive it every Wednesday morning. I love hearing from you: Email me at hmccracken@fastcompany.com with your feedback and ideas for future newsletters.
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