Certainly one of Wordle’s most requested options has nothing to do with phrases

Once I meet with Jonathan Knight, Head of Video games for the New York Instances, I’ve one huge, burning query:

“What’s your Wordle streak?”

He takes out his cellphone to test. “I am at 184 proper now,” says Knight, who earlier than becoming a member of the New York Instances labored as a producer at EA, Activision, Zynga, and Warner Bros. “Day-after-day for me, it will get increasingly more traumatic. I have been wired currently taking part in Wordle.”

I do know the stress of attempting to maintain a streak alive, and I lament that my very own Wordle streak was lately as much as 87, however I blew it—not as a result of I received a phrase incorrect however as a result of in the future I fully forgot to open the app. Miss a day, and your streak resets to zero.

“I do know the sensation,” Knight tells me. “That is why I am solely at 184 despite the fact that I have been taking part in it for 3 years.”

Seems, blowing your streak by lacking a day is a significant concern for Wordle gamers, they usually’re not shy about letting NYT Video games comprehend it.

“It is humorous, one of the crucial requested options for Wordle is a notification to remind you to play. I’ve by no means labored on a recreation in my life the place customers are asking for extra notifications,” he says, laughing. 

As for whether or not NYT Video games will grant that request, Knight is not certain. Notifications, he says, are “often a tactic that publishers use to suck individuals in and get them hooked. And that is not what we’re about. We’re not attempting to get 24/7 engagement out of individuals.

“It is a day by day puzzle. We would like our app to be time nicely spent. We would like us to suit into your day by day life,” he says. “We need not hook you, addict you.” Knight says notifications could also be added, but it surely will not be “in our speedy future.”

As for different options, Knight says the commonest request from Wordle gamers is: do not change Wordle. “Primary, do not do something,” Knight says. “Individuals don’t desire us to mess with it.” It is the identical philosophy Wordle’s Govt Producer Zoe Bell mentioned final yr, when she additionally revealed the phrase that broke essentially the most streaks in Wordle historical past.