Some Wordle users say game got harder after New York Times took over

CHICAGO - The Wordle of the day may be "anger," as users of the viral game complain it has changed since new owners took over.

If you want to talk about games, head to Chicagoland Games Dice Dojo.

"We are a paradise built for game players. We have anything you can imagine, and we are a space to play and get," said store owner Lex Dunning.

Even though Dunning sells board games, card games and more in Edgewater, he also knows online games.

And right now none is growing like Wordle.

"It is a phenomenon, but it is a phenomenon that taps into something that already existed. Word games are the most accessible, most universal thing on the market because anybody can play them," said Dunning.

You get six guesses to figure out a five-letter word of the day. But many complain Wordle got harder when the New York Times bought it two weeks ago.

The Times says game play didn’t change, and tech experts say Wordle words were already programmed on a very long list.

"When the game was created back in June every word for every single day was put into a script all the way up until October 2027," said Abrar Al-Heeti, CNET Entertainment Trends Reporter.

Another gripe is the latest game had two possible answers depending on whether you play the Times version or the original.

DOWNLOAD THE FOX 32 NEWS APP FOR BREAKING NEWS ALERTS

"It spoiled that whole chunk of the fun where I could see how my play for this game compared to your play for this game," said Betty Birner, Ph.D, Northern Illinois University Linguistics Professor.

Professor Birner plays Wordle daily and loves that millions see the charm.

"Maybe I'm biased because I'm a linguist, but I think language is inherently interesting because it's something we all share as human beings," said Birner.

In a world of complex games with lots of rules, one big selling point of Wordle is it is just so simple.

"It went viral because of how analog it is, because of how simple that is. In this world, that's pretty refreshing," said Dunning.

For Dunning, any game that gets us to play is a champ.