Popular word-guessing gameWordlehas inspired a host of clones and competitors, so much so that there’s actuallya website dedicated entirely to keeping track of everyWordlespin-off game. Addictive and challenging, theNew York Times-owned browser-based game serves as a daily brain-teaser that’s had players brushing up on their vocabularies since it rose to popularity in January 2022. However,Yeardle, a new variant of the game, does away with words entirely, instead asking players to think back to their high school history courses.
Yeardleprovides players with three historical events and tasks them with deciphering the exact year in which they occurred. Players have eight chances to come up with the right answer, and, as is the case withWordle, their incorrect responses are repurposed as color-coded hints. Guesses more than 200 years off appear as gray, while guesses between 40 and 200 years off appear as brown. More accurate guesses show up as red, orange, and yellow, with green used to indicate a correct answer.
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Everything from ancient Mesopotamia to the twentieth century seems to be fair game, though fans will need to be veritable experts on world history in order to decipher some of the hints. For instance, the March 24 puzzle required players to be savvy with Asuka Period Japan, English architecture, and the Siege of Constantinople. It’s perhaps not quite as difficult asthe befuddlingOctordlewhich asks players to come up with eight words at once, but it certainly seems to be geared toward those with more than a casual understanding of the subject.
Gaming and history, while not necessarily joined at the hip, do intersect every now and again. While popular series such asWolfensteinandFalloutare known for re-writing the past, franchises such asAssassin’s CreedandCall of Duty—though by no means bound to a pact of authenticity—often draw from real events to add a certain amount of verisimilitude.Assassin’s Creedmay be known for its many marked historical changes in particular, but it likely inspired in more than a few players an interest in history they hadn’t previously discovered.
Unfortunately, recent data suggests thatinterest inWordlehas declined in the months since theNew York Timesacquisition, but it has left an indelible mark on gaming in 2022. Once-a-day games which challenge a player’s lingual skills, understanding of history, brand recognition, and much more remain incredibly trendy at the moment.
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