As trends of online games ebb and flow around BSM, one new game has become widely played by both students and teachers: Wordle. A once-a-day, five-letter word game, Wordle has become the game to play at BSM.

Wordle is a word game similar to that of crossword puzzles or sudoku. Players are given a grid with five tiles going across and six rows down; with six tries to guess any five-letter word. If the letter in the tile turns green, that letter is in its correct location. If it turns yellow, that letter is in the word but not in its designated spot. And if the letter remains gray, it’s not in the word at all. The objective is simple: guess the five-letter word.

One of the main draws of Wordle is that it is only able to be played once a day. Every 24 hours, the game resets, and the player has to guess a new five-letter word. Players have expressed that this allows them to not get addicted to it, and to avoid eventual burnout. Math teacher Max Johnson plays Wordle and is a fan of this once-a-day feature. “It’s not like this infinite thing that you can keep playing. You just do it once for the day and you wait for the next day,” Johnson said.

Wordle is also a uniting game, since every player, regardless of location, device, or time of day, has the same word for that day. This ups the competitive element of the game, since everyone is aiming to uncover the same word. Wordle’s sharing feature, a mini recreation of green, yellow, and gray tiles, can be sent over text messages to other players. “The Math Department will send the text with the little blocks with the little colors, and so does my whole family,” Johnson said.

Because all players have the same word, Wordle often becomes a topic of conversation among players. “Yeah, it’s a discussion really, that’s why I started doing it was because of the Math Department and…we talk about it at lunch, because we have the same lunch. So it’s all the Math Department’s fault that I’m doing it,” math teacher Joanie Sauer said.

The ease of Wordle also makes other players continue to engage in it. Simply guess any five-letter word just by typing it in. “[Wordle’s] a very, like, easy and fun game for anyone. I feel like I’ve always liked it because it’s just, it’s quick. And it’s not super complicated,” freshman Amelia Lynch said.

Of a survey conducted by the Knight Errant, over 67% of the 140 students and teachers surveyed responded that they play Wordle. The simplicity of the game is a factor when it comes to these high numbers in the BSM community. “It’s not going to become a total time drain, you know? It’s just quick. You’re done in a couple minutes and you’re moving on with your day and you can’t do it again,” Sauer said.

All in all, people at BSM play Wordle because the repetitive challenge of a new word each day forces their brains to think in new ways. “I like the way it makes me think. I like the challenge of it,” English teacher Katie Belanger said.