Wordle is inspired by Mastermind, sure, but I don’t think it’s fair to call it a copy. I enjoy Mastermind; I do not enjoy Wordle¹.
Even the simplest details are different, like e.g. in Wordle you know which letters are in the right or wrong places but in Mastermind you only know some are but not which.
¹ And because this is HN, I have to point out that that is just a personal preference, it does not in any way reflect on you, the reader. You are free to enjoy or dislike whatever you want.
Specifically it is the frequency-based keyboard layout of traditional hot-metal Linotype machines. If you made a typo, the custom was to fill up the spoiled slug by running your finger down the etaoin shrdlu rows, and start fresh on the next slug. On rare occasions the layout clerk would accidentally let a shrdlu slug go to press, to the amusement of the readership.
Telegraph operators ranked the letters as etaonrish.
Wordle is inspired by Mastermind, sure, but I don’t think it’s fair to call it a copy. I enjoy Mastermind; I do not enjoy Wordle¹.
Even the simplest details are different, like e.g. in Wordle you know which letters are in the right or wrong places but in Mastermind you only know some are but not which.
¹ And because this is HN, I have to point out that that is just a personal preference, it does not in any way reflect on you, the reader. You are free to enjoy or dislike whatever you want.
Indeed, humanity proceeds largely through refinement of existing ideas, not through random leaps.
Some of these refinements are much more important than most new ideas.
And making a gerrymandering game is a relatively obvious idea that I’m sure hundreds of people have had independently.
Angry birds is just a copy of crush the castle
I consider it only "inspired by"
Mastermind has equiprobability of colors and configurations.
Wordle has etaoin shrdlcu. There is some structure close to interleaved vowels and consonants. Also an arbitrary list of real words.
>etaoin shrdlcu
TIL, this was not a typo and is the ordered sequence of most common letters appearing in English words.
Specifically it is the frequency-based keyboard layout of traditional hot-metal Linotype machines. If you made a typo, the custom was to fill up the spoiled slug by running your finger down the etaoin shrdlu rows, and start fresh on the next slug. On rare occasions the layout clerk would accidentally let a shrdlu slug go to press, to the amusement of the readership.
Telegraph operators ranked the letters as etaonrish.
I always thought it was rlstne. I might be conflating English letter distribution with Wheel of Fortune letter ordering.
if letters were colors?