Think of all the brands with 5 letter names!

I was wondering the insidious way they would monetize but I think you nailed it.

Drink Your Ovaltine

OREOS will be the answer once a week.

Hah, I've seen that so many times now... are you a regular NYT crossword solver, too?

Are you serious? They sneak brand names into crosswords?

I'm actually not sure if you're serious or not, but yes there are brand names in NYT crossword puzzles. No, they don't get paid for it.

OREO is a famous one because it's a short vowel heavy word, and can more easily fit into puzzles. Because of that, it shows up quite often in puzzles.

Eliminating brand names, or any significant category of words, would probably hurt the quality of the crosswords. What's next? No movie references in the clues if the answer is an actor?

> No movie references in the clues if the answer is an actor?

I would welcome that. Let's leave the actors and athletes out of the crosswords.

So no pop culture references at all?

Jeez that sounds like an extremely boring crossword.

There's some people who want that. I hate names when there's too many since I'll end up getting Naticked, but I certainly wouldn't want them gone!

> The company said the game would initially remain free to new and existing players

> initially

Can't wait to phone them up to try and unsubscribe from my Wordle account some day.

I'm guessing it'll be bundled with their Spelling Bee and Crossword games, which is a separate subscription (and also easily cancelled).

The unsubscribe process has become easier. Last time I unsubscribed–a few months ago–I didn't have to talk to anyone, not on phone and not via online chat.

Set your address to California when you buy your Wordle subscription

"Free" does not mean free from advertising and upsell.

It also won't work in private/incognito mode.

Yes, that is the day I stop playing wordle even though I’m a NYT crossword subscriber.

Isn't the site entirely static, including the word list and daily answer? You should be able to download a local copy for yourself and play that from now on.

or build your own! The whole thing seems like a great "learn to program" type problem.

Out of genuine curiosity - would you mind sharing your thinking?

You clearly don't mind paying the NYT for game content historically, and enjoy the game you're playing to this point - and even more than that, you're already paying and will presumably continue to get Wordle even if it eventually gets locked behind the subscription you hold. Why the line in the sand?

In a similar boat. Wordle is a social game for my little friend group, if the whole group isn’t doing it there’s really no point.