NY Times Games at SHS by Benjamin Schoonmaker
Computer games have been a way to wind down, take a break, or pass the time for many users. Recently, a number of word activities have been the go-to for much of Saugatuck’s student body, along with some of the teachers at the school.
The New York Times continues to be one of the most reputable and widely used online news sources. In the last decade, the newspaper has expanded past journalism, developing a games extension on their website. Established in 2014, NYT Games started out with one game: its own crossword puzzle. Then, the Mini was added, a miniature version of the original NYT Crossword. The addition of the Mini started the cascade of NYT Games expansions over the recent years. Users could complete a new puzzle every day as they would be published daily.
After the Mini, the Spelling Bee was established in the NYT Games section. The Crossword and the Mini are pretty self-explanatory, but the Spelling Bee isn’t necessarily a quiz on random words to spell. Instead, the goal is to spell the most words you can with 7 given letters. The words must be longer than three letters, and every one must use the “middle letter,” which the other six letters surround. The more words you make, the higher you rank up. The longer the word, the more points you earn, and the needed amount of points increases with each rank.
Letterboxes came after Spelling Bee, a game with the goal of using all letters provided within six words. It has added difficulties, such as not being able to use certain letters consecutively and having to start the next word with the last letter of your previous word. The next games added to NYT were Tiles and Vertex, the first activities on the extension having nothing to do with words. Instead, Tiles and Vertex involve morphing shapes, and their minimalist and abstract styles are pleasing to look at.
During the COVID years, a popular online game called Wordle became very popular. It became so popular that the New York Times bought it off of the creators and established it on NYT Games. The goal of Wordle is to find out which five letter word is for the day within six tries. When you type in a word that has a letter which is in the word of the day, it turns a different color. If it's yellow, that means it’s in the word but in the wrong position, and green means that it's both in the word and in the right position.
The latest addition to NYT Games is Connections. In Connections, you are given 16 words in a 4x4 grid. There are four relationships with four words in each, and the goal is to find the four relationships with less than four mistakes. Many students play the daily puzzles, and teachers will even play them with their students occasionally. Although the Crossword requires a Games subscription, all the other puzzles can be enjoyed by Saugatuck’s school body.
The New York Times continues to be one of the most reputable and widely used online news sources. In the last decade, the newspaper has expanded past journalism, developing a games extension on their website. Established in 2014, NYT Games started out with one game: its own crossword puzzle. Then, the Mini was added, a miniature version of the original NYT Crossword. The addition of the Mini started the cascade of NYT Games expansions over the recent years. Users could complete a new puzzle every day as they would be published daily.
After the Mini, the Spelling Bee was established in the NYT Games section. The Crossword and the Mini are pretty self-explanatory, but the Spelling Bee isn’t necessarily a quiz on random words to spell. Instead, the goal is to spell the most words you can with 7 given letters. The words must be longer than three letters, and every one must use the “middle letter,” which the other six letters surround. The more words you make, the higher you rank up. The longer the word, the more points you earn, and the needed amount of points increases with each rank.
Letterboxes came after Spelling Bee, a game with the goal of using all letters provided within six words. It has added difficulties, such as not being able to use certain letters consecutively and having to start the next word with the last letter of your previous word. The next games added to NYT were Tiles and Vertex, the first activities on the extension having nothing to do with words. Instead, Tiles and Vertex involve morphing shapes, and their minimalist and abstract styles are pleasing to look at.
During the COVID years, a popular online game called Wordle became very popular. It became so popular that the New York Times bought it off of the creators and established it on NYT Games. The goal of Wordle is to find out which five letter word is for the day within six tries. When you type in a word that has a letter which is in the word of the day, it turns a different color. If it's yellow, that means it’s in the word but in the wrong position, and green means that it's both in the word and in the right position.
The latest addition to NYT Games is Connections. In Connections, you are given 16 words in a 4x4 grid. There are four relationships with four words in each, and the goal is to find the four relationships with less than four mistakes. Many students play the daily puzzles, and teachers will even play them with their students occasionally. Although the Crossword requires a Games subscription, all the other puzzles can be enjoyed by Saugatuck’s school body.