Adversarial Wordle IRL

22 Jan 2022

I love pen and paper games and I’ve discovered a new one. Wordle is everywhere at the moment. Even Google have added a little Easter Egg if you search for it. Thank you to Hamish at work who introduced me to its daily, self-contained, mentally invigorating joys.

First thing to say - Wordle makes a good pen and paper game. Dull parent tip: it’s a good way to get children to practise spelling without them realising, and for a real challenge, play in your head(s).

Within days, maybe hours of hearing about Wordle, I was hearing about Adverserial Wordle aka Absurdle. I guess it’s the company I keep! Like a child playing “Eye Spy”, the computer in Absurdle invisibly changes the answer word, keeping consistent with all the guesses you’ve made so far, and the yellows and greens it’s given you. Infuriating, and challenging.

So onto the second thing I have to say - which is that Adverserial Wordle makes an even better pen and paper game. The setter’s role is transformed into one requiring just as much ingenuity as the guesser and towards the end of the game, you’re both sort of playing the same hand.

My final thing - I’m a bit envious that Sarah has shelled out for a new gadget and got a Remarkable 2. Although there’s no colour - necessitating a colourblind-friendly notation system - they make a great device for playing Wordle because you can draw the boxes on one layer and then play over and over on a layer above. The game depicted contains an F-related mistake by yours truly (I was the setter) although I would argue this is offset by me allowing an unconventional spelling of “Heeby”, as in heebie-geebies or maybe the Hee Bee Gee Bees.

Tags: personal

|