The New York Times tech staff asks players in solidarity to boycott Wordle, and Connections.

Wordle fans, bad news: the people who maintain your favorite puzzle game don't wish you to play it. Wordle was the internet's hottest puzzle game in 2021, and it hasn't stopped since then, as you can see by the weekly hints we post. It was a rare occasion when we reviewed a browser-based game. We called it "the hottest game in the entire world" at the time.

The New York Times's tech staff does not want you to play the game. This puts me in a slightly awkward position as someone who writes for a website which posts routine guides about the thing. The staff mentions the election (and it is certainly used as a leverage) and the New York Times has been in hot water before for its controversial coverage. However, the real reasons (via Eurogamer) are much more typical.

After "rounds" of intense bargaining, the Times Tech Guild, which is composed of 600 union staff, has now officially gone on strike. The guild shared a statement on X alleging that "Times Management has engaged in numerous labor law violations, including implementing mandates to return to the office without bargaining and attempting intimidation of members through interrogations regarding their strike intentions."

Kathy Zhang, Senior Analytics Member of the Times, says that "our union members have done everything to avoid this ULP strikes... management would rather risk our coverage in the election than agree to a fair agreement with its workers." They have left us with no choice but to demonstrate our power on the picket lines."

The statement states that this would be the 1st strike to coincide with an election since 1964. Susan DeCavara is the president of NewsGuild of New York. She adds, "We have been sounding an alarm for weeks, and cleared our schedules in order to get this contract completed before the deadline of election week... we are disheartened by the Times' willingness to gamble on its election coverage, to avoid agreeing to fair and just contracts."

The guild is asking Times readers to respect the digital picket lines and refrain from playing popular NYT games like Wordle and Connections, or even "use the NYT cooking app". It's not that boycotts don't work, but I doubt Wordle fans will rally behind the striking members, no matter what they ask.

Review bombs are one thing, but I have yet to see any real gaming boycotts. And the audience of Wordle is probably not that interested in the strike action by certain (if vital) members from the press. Let's hope it's all sorted out before the already messy election gets even messier.