Everything is going in the wrong direction
June 30, 2025 11:30 AM Subscribe
Connections is a puzzle built around the novel ‘misleads’. A “mislead” in the game refers to the specific way words are presented or combined within a particular puzzle that might tempt a player to form an incorrect group. An example is the word “ARCHER”, which might mislead you to group it with “BOW”, “ARROW”, and “TARGET” (for “archery terms”), when its intended category is actually “TV SHOWS” with words like “LOST” and “FRASIER.” While words and categories can be repeated over time, the misleads ideally should not. from Developing an Internal Tool for Our Puzzle Editor [New York Times Open]
Each game is constructed in Google Sheets! How about that.
posted by borborygmi at 11:55 AM on June 30 [1 favorite]
posted by borborygmi at 11:55 AM on June 30 [1 favorite]
Connections is great. Watching Hank Green play Connections is also great.
posted by tzikeh at 11:56 AM on June 30 [2 favorites]
posted by tzikeh at 11:56 AM on June 30 [2 favorites]
Its arguably a facsimile of the connecting wall from Only Connect.
This keeps coming up but it should be pointed out that Only Connect was not doing this first either.
Arguably the puzzle wall comes from the hugely popular Flemish game show De Slimste Mens ter Wereld which started in 2003.
As this British blog devoted to British game shows says "Also De Slimste existed many years before Only Connect and had Pointless friends years before Pointless so don’t bother writing to OFCOM. I know what you’re like."
posted by vacapinta at 12:13 PM on June 30 [1 favorite]
This keeps coming up but it should be pointed out that Only Connect was not doing this first either.
Arguably the puzzle wall comes from the hugely popular Flemish game show De Slimste Mens ter Wereld which started in 2003.
As this British blog devoted to British game shows says "Also De Slimste existed many years before Only Connect and had Pointless friends years before Pointless so don’t bother writing to OFCOM. I know what you’re like."
posted by vacapinta at 12:13 PM on June 30 [1 favorite]
Connections becomes a bit easier to solve when you realize there is always a "word/______" group in the grid. Solve that first and the rest is a lot smoother to finish.
posted by JoeZydeco at 12:32 PM on June 30 [4 favorites]
posted by JoeZydeco at 12:32 PM on June 30 [4 favorites]
Connections
Puzzle #750
🟨🟨🟨🟨
🟪🟪🟪🟪
🟩🟩🟩🟩
🟦🟦🟦🟦
I had forgotten about this game. Thank you for the nudge.
(And how cute is that, even if we don't have a professional white background.)
posted by bcd at 12:38 PM on June 30 [1 favorite]
Puzzle #750
🟨🟨🟨🟨
🟪🟪🟪🟪
🟩🟩🟩🟩
🟦🟦🟦🟦
I had forgotten about this game. Thank you for the nudge.
(And how cute is that, even if we don't have a professional white background.)
posted by bcd at 12:38 PM on June 30 [1 favorite]
Connections is so unabashedly a shameless rip-off of Only Connect's game that Victoria Coren-Mitchell herself confronted Wyna Liu about it almost two years ago.
(And for those saying the 2008 Only Connect puzzle is the same as the 2003 De Slimste Mens... puzzle, they're similar, but certainly not the same at all. De Slimste Mens' "Puzzel' requires finding a single connection among four items in a group of 12, then repeating that same game with two separate groupings of 12 items. Only Connect's is orders of magnitude more complex, with all items in the same puzzle at the same time, plus red-herrings that work across one (and sometimes two) different clue groupings.)
posted by yellowcandy at 12:42 PM on June 30 [3 favorites]
(And for those saying the 2008 Only Connect puzzle is the same as the 2003 De Slimste Mens... puzzle, they're similar, but certainly not the same at all. De Slimste Mens' "Puzzel' requires finding a single connection among four items in a group of 12, then repeating that same game with two separate groupings of 12 items. Only Connect's is orders of magnitude more complex, with all items in the same puzzle at the same time, plus red-herrings that work across one (and sometimes two) different clue groupings.)
posted by yellowcandy at 12:42 PM on June 30 [3 favorites]
sending a reply tweet hardly seems like “confronting her,” but also … who … cares? one is a british TV show not really available in the US played by a limited number of contestants. one is a mobile game. it’s not hurting the show’s popularity or competing with an attempt to expand it.
posted by sickos haha yes dot jpg at 12:56 PM on June 30 [2 favorites]
posted by sickos haha yes dot jpg at 12:56 PM on June 30 [2 favorites]
I appreciate the added wrinkle of trying to solve the categories in descending order of difficulty, which is revealed by color codes for each group after you’ve solved them. Since you get the most points for solving in ‘reverse rainbow order, the game is a little more engaging when you try to make that assessment before submitting any guesses.
But it often feels like the NYT gets the order wrong, and this seems to be borne out when you look at the percentage of players who’ve solved each category. So I’d like to know what their process is for assigning those difficulty levels in the first place.
posted by theory at 1:09 PM on June 30 [4 favorites]
But it often feels like the NYT gets the order wrong, and this seems to be borne out when you look at the percentage of players who’ve solved each category. So I’d like to know what their process is for assigning those difficulty levels in the first place.
posted by theory at 1:09 PM on June 30 [4 favorites]
Connections becomes a bit easier to solve when you realize there is always a "word/______" group in the grid. Solve that first and the rest is a lot smoother to finish.
There is not always one of those. It’s one of the common formulas for the purple (nominally hardest) category, though. I don’t recall it appearing for other colors, but I could be wrong. I feel like it used to be the most common type of purple by far, but there’s at least one other “special” (purple-only) type in pretty heavy rotation at this point. And sometimes purple is just another category.
posted by atoxyl at 1:10 PM on June 30 [1 favorite]
There is not always one of those. It’s one of the common formulas for the purple (nominally hardest) category, though. I don’t recall it appearing for other colors, but I could be wrong. I feel like it used to be the most common type of purple by far, but there’s at least one other “special” (purple-only) type in pretty heavy rotation at this point. And sometimes purple is just another category.
posted by atoxyl at 1:10 PM on June 30 [1 favorite]
but also … who … cares?
Well, the host of the show it was stolen from, to name one.
one is a british TV show not really available in the US played by a limited number of contestants.
Yes, this is how television game shows work: They have a limited number of contestants. Sort of a necessity.
But I think you're trying to imply that it's not popular. Far from it. The show has literal millions of viewers in the UK alone.
it’s not hurting the show’s popularity or competing with an attempt to expand it.
Not only does this ignore the international footprint of the New York Times, the easy availability of Only Connect through syndication as well as VPN, and the appetite of viewers for two doses of the same puzzle (one through NYT, one through BBC), but you have literally zero evidence for this assertion.
posted by yellowcandy at 1:18 PM on June 30 [3 favorites]
Well, the host of the show it was stolen from, to name one.
one is a british TV show not really available in the US played by a limited number of contestants.
Yes, this is how television game shows work: They have a limited number of contestants. Sort of a necessity.
But I think you're trying to imply that it's not popular. Far from it. The show has literal millions of viewers in the UK alone.
it’s not hurting the show’s popularity or competing with an attempt to expand it.
Not only does this ignore the international footprint of the New York Times, the easy availability of Only Connect through syndication as well as VPN, and the appetite of viewers for two doses of the same puzzle (one through NYT, one through BBC), but you have literally zero evidence for this assertion.
posted by yellowcandy at 1:18 PM on June 30 [3 favorites]
(If you've already done the day's Connections, there's the free clone Conexo , which also lets you play its games from previous days.)
posted by a faded photo of their beloved at 1:31 PM on June 30 [2 favorites]
posted by a faded photo of their beloved at 1:31 PM on June 30 [2 favorites]
A-and here's a partial Only Connect clone: puzzgrid
posted by chavenet at 1:37 PM on June 30 [1 favorite]
posted by chavenet at 1:37 PM on June 30 [1 favorite]
Since learning that the NYT is a gaming company, I don't want to give them any clicks or money. But I like Connections Unlimited. It's a mirror of the NYT puzzles. It even has an archive so you can play previous days' puzzles. I think it's actually better.
posted by ftrtts at 2:06 PM on June 30 [3 favorites]
posted by ftrtts at 2:06 PM on June 30 [3 favorites]
but also … who … cares?
Puzzle designers care. The people who devise these formats for a living and sell the rights to them. Once or twice in a lifetime a designer hits a vein of gold, a format or a revision of an existing format that makes them a fortune. Deal or No Deal, for example, was devised by Dick de Rijk and John de Mol Jr. for the Dutch company Endemol, first aired there in 2002 with the title Miljoenenjacht, and the format has been sold to 84 other countries.
wordle, to take a more recent format, was invented by Josh Wardle in October 2021. Three months later Wardle sold it for "a low seven-figure sum" to, in an extraordinary coincidence, the New York Times. By then it had already been ripped off and revised into countless new versions. The NYT was just buying the official original.
What do you think the commercial value of Connections is to the New York Times? Because, to answer your question a second time, the NYT cares, probably more than a low seven-figure number of times.
posted by Hogshead at 3:01 PM on June 30 [3 favorites]
Puzzle designers care. The people who devise these formats for a living and sell the rights to them. Once or twice in a lifetime a designer hits a vein of gold, a format or a revision of an existing format that makes them a fortune. Deal or No Deal, for example, was devised by Dick de Rijk and John de Mol Jr. for the Dutch company Endemol, first aired there in 2002 with the title Miljoenenjacht, and the format has been sold to 84 other countries.
wordle, to take a more recent format, was invented by Josh Wardle in October 2021. Three months later Wardle sold it for "a low seven-figure sum" to, in an extraordinary coincidence, the New York Times. By then it had already been ripped off and revised into countless new versions. The NYT was just buying the official original.
What do you think the commercial value of Connections is to the New York Times? Because, to answer your question a second time, the NYT cares, probably more than a low seven-figure number of times.
posted by Hogshead at 3:01 PM on June 30 [3 favorites]
Puzzle designers care. The people who devise these formats for a living and sell the rights to them.
Does anyone actually own the rights to a puzzle “format?” I’m under the impression that while specific presentation elements are protected by IP law, game rules technically are not.
posted by atoxyl at 3:37 PM on June 30 [2 favorites]
Does anyone actually own the rights to a puzzle “format?” I’m under the impression that while specific presentation elements are protected by IP law, game rules technically are not.
posted by atoxyl at 3:37 PM on June 30 [2 favorites]
Maybe it’s just superstition but I always shuffle before I start.
posted by simra at 4:02 PM on June 30 [2 favorites]
posted by simra at 4:02 PM on June 30 [2 favorites]
Here just to say I appreciate the Stones reference in the title.
posted by stevil at 4:52 PM on June 30 [1 favorite]
posted by stevil at 4:52 PM on June 30 [1 favorite]
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The puzzles are designed to include red herrings and to suggest more connections than actually exist, as some clues appear to fit into more than one category, but there is only one perfect solution for each wall.
posted by Virtblue at 11:49 AM on June 30 [4 favorites]