You know Wordle, the little five-letter guessing game that took over the internet back in early 2022. But did you know it has a spiritual ancestor that's nearly fifty years older? Long before Wordle grids flooded social media, there was Mastermind, a classic logic puzzle that quietly laid the groundwork for the feedback mechanics we now take for granted.

Mastermind debuted in 1971, a simple-looking board game built around deduction. One player sets a secret code made of colored pegs, and the other tries to break it within a limited number of guesses. After each attempt, the codebreaker receives minimal clues: black pegs for correct color in correct position, white pegs for correct color in wrong position. The entire challenge comes from interpreting that information and gradually zeroing in on the hidden pattern.

Sound familiar? Wordle takes that same formula (guess, receive limited feedback, refine) and wraps it in the language of five-letter words. Instead of pegs, you get green, yellow, and gray squares. Instead of a physical board, you get a tidy digital puzzle shared by millions each morning. But the underlying thrill is identical: testing hypotheses, eliminating possibilities, and feeling your brain snap the puzzle into place.

What Wordle added was personality: vocabulary, daily rhythm, and the irresistible feeling of solving the same puzzle as everyone else. Still, its bones are pure Mastermind, proof that great mechanics endure.

The success of Wordle spawned a whole generation of daily web games with similar titles, like Moviedle, Worldle, and of course, Globle. After it’s purchase by the NY Times, the hype around Wordle died down a little, but the game still boasts millions of daily players and carries with it the legacy of launching a new kind of casual gaming revolution.

Learn more: NY Times

Thank you to Arch Dux on Discord for the fun fact!

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