Why Wordle?

For the next five minutes or so, Wordle will remain the hottest thing on the web.  Wharton Professor of Marketing Cait Lamberton explains why this is a perfect game for this moment in our culture.

It works because it is so different:

• You can’t “binge-play” Wordle. There is one game a day, and that’s it. It gives you a sense of completion that we often don’t encounter in games or, frankly, life itself.

• There are no badges or rankings or pressure to play tomorrow. It’s a non-gamified game which makes it simple and more like pure play than an actual game.

• It provides a sense of online community that is completely non-controversial. There is nothing political about it, and it doesn’t invite any kind of debate or heated opinions. It’s just fun.

Dr. Lamberton also suggests that, alas, Wordle is probably doomed to be a short-lived fad.  People get bored pretty quickly with games like this, and if you make it more exciting and inviting, then the game likely will lose its simplicity – which is central to its popularity in the first place.  So, it’s a catch-22.

She goes on to elaborate upon the importance of pure play – and how such play helps us work better. It’s a really fascinating Q&A.