new york times: Why The New York Times had to issue an explainer for this Wordle answer – Times of India

Wordle took the internet by storm in the last few months. So much so that The New York Times ended up buying it from Josh Wardle, the creator of the word puzzle game. While there have been certain issues that have been highlighted ever since The New York Times took over, the answer to a recent Wordle has led to the publishing giant giving a detailed explanation.
The word in question was “fetus”, which due to the current political events in the US, may have been offensive to some. The New York Times published a note on its website explaining that it was not intentional and was just a coincidence. The publication said that the answer was actually loaded into the game sometime last year.
“At New York Times Games, we take our role seriously as a place to entertain and escape, and we want Wordle to remain distinct from the news.”
Since the word was already loaded, The New York Times said that it can be difficult to change words that have already been loaded into the game. “When we discovered last week that this particular word would be featured today, we switched it for as many solvers as possible,” read the note from The New York Times.
However, not all Wordle players would’ve seen the changed answer. If they had refreshed their browser window then they would get the outdated puzzle only.
The word was changed as in the last week or so reports about the US Supreme Court’s draft decision to overturn the abortion rights in the country stirred protests “We want to emphasise that this is a very unusual circumstance. When we acquired Wordle in January, it had been built for a relatively small group of users. We’re now busy revamping Wordle’s technology so that everyone always receives the same word,” said The New York Times.