Wordle is being punished by app stores for choosing the open web | Hacker News Reader

Wordle is being punished by app stores for choosing the open web

techcrunch.com

57 pointspseudolus30 comments

> Apple has a longstanding history of intentionally ignoring or degrading open web technologies that could compete with its incredibly successful, lucrative, closed app store. Progressive web apps (PWA), a set of standards that allow websites to function similarly to native apps, are only half-heartedly supported, broken, or plain ignored on iOS and iPadOS.

Web push, webRTC - why does Apple actively undermine the open web, where browsers offer far greater privacy than apps from an app store?

Because privacy, after all, is just another PR word. What Apple is really after is that app store money and an even more closed up ecosystem.

If somebody must be blamed for this “outrage”, shouldn’t we blame the author for “punishing” websites by admittedly searching for Wordle on the App Store instead of Google (which finds both websites and apps)?

> A side effect of that choice, however, is that Wordle is suddenly being ripped off in app stores by other developers who smell a quick way to make money off of unsuspecting users that either don’t care or don’t know any better.

Might I interest you in the 100s of shameless clones of apps IN the app stores.

Aside: Isn't Wordle just an adaptation of the game Lingo? [1] Fun, most definitely, but hardly the novel idea the internet seems to be making it out to be.

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lingo_(American_game_show)

My first thought was "master mind with letters instead of colors".

My girlfriend was 10 seconds into explaining Wordle to me before I asked "so it's the same as Mastermind but letters instead of colors". She had never heard of Mastermind before.

I described it as mastermind crossed with hangman.

Known to French people as Motus [1] since the 1990s, I was also surprised that people just discovered that game.

[1] https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Motus_(jeu_t%C3%A9l%C3%A9vis%C...

Sure but the real genius of Wordle is the simple things they did to promote virality..

1) Everyone in the world gets the same puzzle every day

2) The "share to Twitter" message just shows the green/yellow squares, so it shares your journey and teases the puzzle, without spoiling the answer.

Almost no one had heard of Lingo/Wordle before this, now they have, so that counts for something.

> Almost no one had heard of Lingo/Wordle before this, now they have, so that counts for something.

Per Wikipedia it aired in 17 countries over 35 years and counting, so it seems relatively widespread to me.

(You’d be hard pressed to find a Dutch person who hasn’t heard of it!)

Something I've learned is that if people like the copycat enough, they will always defend it. That's what happened to Threes/2048, and that's what will happen here. The wiggle room between Lingo <-> Wordle is narrow compared to Threes <-> 2048, but people will find a way.

Interestingly, this means that copying stuff will not come back to bite you, even when you get popular - as long as you copy ideas and not assets/characters/etc.

Interesting note; the original game is the third result on DuckDuckGo. An app store result is the first one, followed by a polygon article, then the game

> > Apple has a longstanding history of intentionally ignoring or degrading open web technologies that could compete with its incredibly successful, lucrative, closed app store.

Actually, iPhones initially ONLY supported these open web technologies, but users insisted on native apps and and App Store, so now it is what it is.

Apple removed a bunch of clones yesterday.

How is it being punished by app stores if it's not the app stores themselves creating said clones? More clickbait trash...

Because web apps are treated like second class citizens on mobile systems, but not on the basis of any merit, just platform holder control. Hence, blatant copies emerged on app stores.

But it isn't really correct to say Wardle is being 'punished.' He hasn't really lost anything. He made it as a n amusement for himself, and others are using it. He hasn't made Wordle a business, so he has no business to lose. It may be unethical for others to copy him for a quick buck. But he can ignore that if he wants to.

It isn't even unethical. You could make the case that you shouldn't take the name because it misrepresents the identity of the game, but the gameplay itself?

Business potential

Apparently we can no longer conceive of a website being made just for fun and not money?

I’m on board with that, but what feels gross about this is the author does it for fun and gets ripped off by hucksters piggybacking off it for money. And, presumably, much of that stuff is trashy shovelware.

This isn’t an honorable way to make a living.

I agree it's not honorable. But if he wanted to protect what he made he should have at least registered the trademark. By not registering the trademark you're saying that you don't care.

That's more of a grey area. Just because someone doesn't formally file copyright or trademark it doesn't necessarily mean it isn't valid. Same can even go for patents if an invention serves as prior art.

> He hasn't made Wordle a business, so he has no business to lose.

Harm is not limited to business and finance. It's just as harmful when good, charitable works are subverted by companies looking for profit. If nothing else, consumers are harmed by having the superior free version hidden away, crowded out by the ad- and spyware-infested apps.

What those developers are doing is like charging an entrance fee to a public park, knowing many won't realize the park is free. But the park isn't a business, so there's no harm...

According to the article, there's no way to reserve the name or prevent others from creating an app with the same exact name, unless you actually pay the necessary fees and create an app in the app store. Meanwhile, now that others have created an app, he is now excluded from creating the same game.

It wasn't the 1st game called Wordle.

What other one existed first?

https://apps.apple.com/us/app/wordle/id1095569891

https://store.steampowered.com/app/1334000/Wordle/

I'm pretty sure this article was a result of someone playing Mad Libs.

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