The Button was pretty cool. I really love the UX on Wordle. Can't really explain why but it's just so pleasant to use.
1. The letter flipping, as another commenter mentioned.
2. How the keyboard colors the keys after your guesses.
3. The social sharing, with the simple (text only!) sharing of your scores.
4. The "once-per-day" nature of it.
5. It's all basically in a single static JS file! I don't have to wait for anything to load, don't need to sign up or login, yada yada (of course, I pretty much expect the NYT to fuck that up, but oh well, that always happens over time).
I could basically see a ton of different iterations of this that wouldn't have been any where nearly as successful.
They have a number of free games that don't require any kind of account or registration. I am optimistic that they won't introduce any unsavory elements to it and turn off the playerbase it's amassed.
Take a look: https://www.nytimes.com/crosswords
If Wordle were already in that games list it wouldn’t stick out at all. Especially the aspect of having a daily puzzle that’s the same for everyone is a great fit. Even the whole design aesthetic is similar (it’s a pleasantly useable experience all around).
The biggest differences are the ads and the registration requirement. Which are, I guess, in a sense both ways to fuck it up.
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With a subscribe button.
I don't blame NYT for doing this, at all. If you pay millions of dollars for something, you expect a return. But this kind of "stop what you were interested in doing right when it starts becoming fun so you can subscribe" is exactly the type of annoying shit I was talking about.