Millions of people play Wordle to forget, however briefly, about the bitch of living. (Spring Awakening is very in right now.) But after the original answer for Monday’s puzzle was deemed too close to a “major recent news event,” it was quickly withdrawn.
“The New York Times has removed the word ‘fetus’ from its Wordle answers to keep the game ‘distinct from the news,’ a move apparently related to last week’s leaked Roe v Wade supreme court draft ruling,” the Guardian reports. “The change caused confusion as it was only implemented for some of the game’s players.” The Times, which purchased the popular five-letter-word puzzle game last year for low-seven figures, also released a statement about the Wordle Drama (#WordleDrama):
At New York Times Games, we take our role seriously as a place to entertain and escape, and we want Wordle to remain distinct from the news. But because of the current Wordle technology, it can be difficult to change words that have already been loaded into the game. When we discovered last week that this word would be featured today, we switched it for as many solvers as possible.
“Fetus” was apparently loaded into Wordle last year. If only the Times had… pulled out sooner. (The jokes practically write themselves.)
So what I’m getting is that Wordle aborted the original solution to today’s puzzle.
— Louis Peitzman (@LouisPeitzman) May 9, 2022
Did they update it to ABORT?
— jenn lindeman (@icandyart) May 9, 2022
One might say they aborted the word “fetus” https://t.co/RSUfY5OKWO
— Marina Gomberg (@marina_gomberg) May 9, 2022
(Via Guardian and New York Times)