App of the Month

I'm going out on a limb here. 

Most of my readers are probably of a certain age - give or take 20 years. I mean, that's less than a generation, right?

It is not a criticism but you always seem to get my cultural references I throw out now and again. 

And since you're of that cohort, I'm guessing many of you play Wordle. Like me and my peeps, you might even share your scores with those special someones. At least with ours, it's never really a brag. Just informational.  1. We are alive. 2. We are awake. 3. Our cognitive skills are semi-intact. 

But Don't Wordle is a new game - not NYT sanctioned.  

If you go by the title alone, you just wouldn't play - right? But of course there is more to it. 

I'm just pulling their verbiage from their own site. Why recreate the wheel?

Don't Wordle is just like Wordle but the opposite. 

In Wordle, the goal is to guess a particular 5 letter word in 6 or fewer tries. In Don't Wordle, the goal is to NOT guess the word. 

The catch is that your word attempts must respect the information you have learned in previous guesses.

1. 🟩 - Once you place a letter correctly, then future guesses must contain that same letter in the same position 

2. 🟨 - Once you place a correct letter in an incorrect location, then future guesses must contain that letter in a different location 

3. ⬜ - Once letters have been guessed and eliminated, then you can no longer use them 

The number of valid words remaining appears at the top, and it will shrink with each guess. If the number gets too low, you can use one of your "UNDOs" to reverse course. 

Be careful! If you accidentally enter the Wordle word, the game is over even if you have some UNDOs remaining.

Or in laymen's terms:  to must lose to win. 

This is harder than it looks. 

Part is the challenge of wanting to get it wrong. Your brain is hardwired to solve the problem, not confound it. 

Wordle has a 'hard mode' which limits you from ignoring letters you've used to get to a word more quickly. I'm always in hard mode.........and yes, that's what she said. 

In Don't Wordle you don't have that choice. You can only use the letters that haven't been eliminated, and if they are in the correct place they have to stay there. 

There is a 'cheat' - and that is to eliminate a word you've used that might crush your progress. For this demonstration, I have used it, but I do think it's a cheat. I don't think it should exist.  ....but that's me. 

So I'll show you my game. 

You start like Wordle. But here it tells you how many word choices are possible. 

One word done and my remaining words are almost cut in half. 

The trick is not to use a good start word, I guess. If you choose letters / words that have say a lot of vowels, you might be shooting yourself in the foot in the word elimination sense. 

Again, I tried letters that might not work. I did make the mistake of using two vowels While none of them took, quite easily both could have - again, bring me closer to finding the word. 

Here I tried two of the same vowel. Figuring, what are the chances both would be used. And the placement was wrong, so I think I'm still alive. 

Ok. Ok. Yeah, I have four letters, but do I want that? Most are out of place, but....I have two more tries and only two more possible words. No way to not lose (or win?).   ....so I utilized the "Undo Prior Word' feature and try a different word. 

 

Better odds at 19 remaining words. 

Crud. Not good. One more chance. One more available word. 

It's like chess. You see the checkmate coming and nothing you can do. 

Though technically I could have used the 'undo' thing again.  ...but....cheating.

Blobby loses.....because he guessed the word. 

I don't know it will be a mainstay, but it's something slightly different. And it takes (me) way longer to do than Wordle. If it staves off dementia even a little bit, maybe I'll continue.