This week’s game-changing announcement that The New York Times Company has purchased Wordle — the hit online game in which once a day players get six chances to guess a five-letter word — has re-ignited the annoyance of word game fans who were already I-R-A-T-E over the fact that Wordle is essentially the same game played on TV’s “Lingo” for more than 30 years.
The New York Times purchase of Wordle for low seven figures from its creator, software engineer Josh Wardle, seems to have added an edge to the debate. But both social media and game-related blogs have been at it for weeks noting the similarity of the games as Wordle has taken off as a widespread phenomenon.