I love New York Times’ games. I play the Wordle, Connections, and Strands every weekday, on my Pomodoro Method-assigned five minute breaks between writing sessions. It is a part of my daily routine, something I look forward to during my work day.
But right now, the NYT tech team wants you to boycott Wordle, and all the rest of NYT’s games. The Time Tech Guild, the union that protects around 600 employees who work on the website and games, is striking after they failed to come to an agreement about work from home/office mandates, pay equality, and subcontracting limits with management after “multiple rounds of intense bargaining”. The union requested on Twitter that subscribers “not play any of the Times games or use the Cooking App because doing so would cross the digital picket line”.
I love my daily minigame time, but not enough to throw other workers under the bus. And crossing this picket line can be easily avoided. If you also want to avoid NYT’s games in solidarity as long as the strike continues, I have some alternatives that might end up replacing them in your routine entirely.
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Guild Builds
This is a page collecting the strike-themed games you can play, created by the striking workers themselves so you have even less of an incentive to cross the picket line. They’re not as polished, for obvious reasons, and won’t be updated daily, but they’re all created by the guild members, with the exception of the Wordle-like. Find them here.
Spotle
Wordle, but for music. Guess the artist by narrowing down the year they debuted, how many members are involved, their popularity on Spotify, their gender, what genre they’re considered to be in, and the country they’re from. You’ll know how close you are because it uses a Wordle-like yellow/green hint system. I always put Charli XCX as my first guess. Try it here.
Nerdle
Wordle, but math. Instead of filling in the boxes with letters, you have to guess an equation by figuring out the numbers and operators involved. Sometimes there’s more than one operation involved, but it’s not as hard as it sounds – once you start eliminating digits, it’s just a matter of rubbing your two brain cells together. It’s fun if you like math, and I like math. Try it here.
Framed
This one’s for the film buffs. You’re given a frame of a movie and asked to identify it – you get a total of six frames, so six chances to get it right. The frames get more and more obvious as you go along, letting you see more of the cast and its more iconic scenes. Even if you can’t figure it out, you’ll get to appreciate some great cinematography. I’m not very good at this one, but you might be more cultured than me. Try it here.
Plotwords
This is another movie game, by the same team behind Framed. It gives you phrases or words as clues to a movie’s plot, and you guess from there. I am also pretty bad at this one, but there’s an unlimited mode that’s pretty easy and fun. Try it here.
Puzzmo
I’ve been playing Puzzmo’s games most days of the week since it launched last year, because it’s awesome. There’s a daily crossword (I love Puzzmo’s crossword, it’s less US-centric than many online crosswords and makes references that chronically online gamers will immediately recognise), but loads of other games that you simply will not find anywhere else.
Flipart has you flipping weirdly shaped pieces so they all fit inside a box. Typeshift has you forming words by mixing and matching letters in different columns. Pile-Up Poker has you forming as many poker hands as possible by moving cards around in a four by four grid. Really Bad Chess is chess, but the pieces don’t start in the standard configuration. They’re all very good, and you can play almost every game for free, with bonus and experimental games thrown in if you subscribe. Try it here.
Good Sudoku
This one’s a little different from the rest because it’s not a webgame, but I’m suggesting it anyway. Good Sudoku is by the same person behind Puzzmo, and it’s the best Sudoku app I’ve ever used. I’ve been playing it for years, and it’s made me so good at Sudoku. It also has three challenges a day, which I complete first thing in the morning before I start doom scrolling in bed. You can get it for free on the App Store, and if you have Apple Arcade, you get the complete version at no extra cost.
