Yeah making things for free is a way to make a living huh ?
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Popular Browser Game 'Wordle' Sold to The New York Times, Will Remain Free 'Initially'
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Yeah making things for free is a way to make a living huh ?
Well I guess the question is would NYT make more ad revenue from the massive amount of people that play the game, or a much smaller group that are willing to pay? I'm sure NYT will take that into consideration.
You can't even navigate simple New York Times items like basic food recipes without their annoying subscription pop-ups. I have no problem paying for a service, if I'm really going to really use it. Sure, the recipes are curated, it takes time, I get that -- but the bait-and-switch tactic gets really old.
There pretty much nothing on nytimes for free again, everything is a paywall. In fact, most websites are heading this path. Wouldn’t be surprised if in a couple years Macrumors goes the same route. ‘This Mark Gurman Rehash is only available to paid subscribers’
TheYayAreaLiving 🎗️
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Wouldn’t be surprised if in a couple years Macrumors goes the same route?
Wait, what? Don't we pay $25.00 contributor fee's every year?
I think you missed the point, which is that it’s not a unique game and someone will just make a free version
I love Wordle but I have been bitten by the free aspect twice. My cookies were erased twice, and my streak data thus lost. That might sound small but I wanted to play every single day's puzzle and see how that data played out long term. So I'd much prefer Wordle to have proper support and expectations of quality and reliability like any other paid product.
With a new corporate owner... will Wordle maintain its momentum and popularity?
Or will it be the next Draw Something or HQ Trivia? You know... hot for about 10 minutes then ultimately forgotten?
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Or will it be the next Draw Something or HQ Trivia? You know... hot for about 10 minutes then ultimately forgotten?
?
I read stories on The NY Times website all the time and I don’t pay them a cent. I did have to sign up with my email but I never get emails from them either.
Fantastic move on NYT’s part. As a software publisher, I’m thrilled that Mr. Wardle gets to profit from his creation. For those that are angry, please understand that it COSTS REAL MONEY to host a site that can handle the traffic that WORDLE is receiving. Since Josh wasn’t charging for Wordle, nor were there any advertisements on the game page, it costs HIM money to make the game available for free. For a couple years, I also resisted paying for the NYT games, but I enjoyed the free, limited version of Spelling Bee so much that it was worth paying the $30+ per YEAR. So I’m thrilled WORDLE will now be in good hands. It’s kind of like Disney buying LucasFilm — I’m very happy for having The Mandalorian and The Book of Boba Fett (even if Star Wars 7, 8, and 9 were just OK).
It's usually not the complexity of the code but the idea behind a game that makes it popular. You could code it in a day maybe, but you couldn't come up with this idea.
I'm sure NYT can recoup the cost just by running ads next to it even before selling it on the App Store.
Personally I'm stoked he got paid, and also stoked that this will effectively kill it because the NYT isn't "cool". So even if they don't change it, they just killed the street cred, and I don't love seeing my twitter timeline filled with those boxes. I don't care how quickly you guessed it. What's even funnier is I'm a professional writer by trade lol, but I never play it.
I'm glad he's getting paid. No one said he didn't invent "mastermind" or "lingo". He invented a daily web word puzzle. Emphasis on "daily" and "web".
The ad tracking will eliminate those in the know from playing this much less subscribing to The NY Times, which is but a shadow of itself having been caught up in Trump mania as an attacker. Like him or not ever NY Times writer (same for other newspapers and TV personalties) worked the word Trump into their columns thinking it might trigger clicks. Now there is nothing interest to write about since they wasted 4 years writing hate articles. His presidency was about as polarizing as one could be and no one was going to flipped based on attack articles. It's a lesson in not getting pigeon-holed into a topic and losing sight of writing quality and diverse columns.
And they won't let you go when you do leave. Subscribe through the App Store so your exit requires no contact with The NY Times and their retention team. The Wall Street Journal is as bad at letting customers go.
If y'all think about it.... it's a clever move by Apple. The Wordle thing now belongs to and is a property of the powerful NY Times. So Apple no longer has to "police" this dumpster fire IP. The NY Times now inherited the job of sicking its own lawyers on copycats and IP violators.
so the most recent few games are those that I’ll ever play. no chance I’ll subscribe to NYT. And subscribing to play that game? its just a dumb move.
no they wont. They just shovel the game into a terrible state and quietly kills it. Countless examples of the same behaviour.