Players of the NYT Connections game were left fuming over a “stupid” category in Tuesday’s puzzle.
The game has gained popularity in recent months and every day, thousands of people around the world log on to test their skills and solve the difficult word puzzle.
Watch people try to divide 16 words into four groups that share some kind of connection.
But many times, creators deliberately use terms that have other connections in an attempt to throw off players.
And on Tuesday, numerous people online admitted that they had struggled to find the answers because they had fallen victim to the hacks.
Players of the NTY Connections game were left fuming over a “stupid” category in Tuesday’s puzzle.
Outraged players took to Reddit to fiercely shut down the puzzle afterwards, with one calling the creators “totally devious” and another calling one of the categories a “silly insult to the game.”
Tuesday’s four word categories were: football positions, cable channels, fictional clowns and what the ‘D’ could mean.
The first group contained several positions in the sport, including center, guard, quarterback, and safety.
The second was made up of different cable channels, such as Discovery, History, Nickelodeon and Oxygen.
The third category of Tuesday’s puzzle had four famous clowns, including Homey, Joker, Pennywise and Ronald, while the final group was made up of words sometimes abbreviated to just the letter D, such as defense, democrat, dimensional and unity.
But some players noticed that among the 16 words, four of them contained names of coins: quarterback, Nickelodeon, Pennywise and dimensional.
Many thought it was an answer, and when they sent it and realized it was wrong, they weren’t amused.
“I understand it was a red herring, but I’ve never been so angry that a category wasn’t a category,” one user wrote.
In the game, people try to divide 16 words into four groups that share some kind of connection.
Tuesday’s four word categories were: football positions, cable channels, fictional clowns and what the ‘D’ could mean
Many times, creators intentionally use terms that have other connections to trick players, and on Tuesday, numerous people admitted that they had fallen victim to the tricks.
‘Damn NYT mothers,’ another person irritated.
‘Oh, this was very torturous. That most unpleasant job. “What a twisted little puzzle this was,” someone else commented. “Traps galore.”
Others criticized the fourth category as being “too obvious.”
‘What does “D” mean? What a stupid category,’ said a fourth comment.
A fifth said: “I thought it was too stupid and ignored it.”
Another user agreed: “It seemed too obvious to be a category and yet…”
“I really hate how Connections makes the obvious answer wrong and makes a more arbitrary category right, but then when you think you found the arbitrary category, it’s like, ‘LMAO wrong,'” another player criticized.
“(The last category) was an insult to the game,” someone else added.
Outraged players also criticized the fourth category, with some calling it “stupid” and a “silly insult to the game.”
Also, many players who don’t live in the United States were angry because most of the categories were related to American things.
Also, many players who don’t live in the United States were angry because most of the categories were related to American things.
‘I hated the puzzle today. “I know some US-specific connections will appear in these puzzles, but these were three out of four,” one user outraged.
“Fellow non-Americans here and that was difficult,” another added.
“Once again, a little harder for us non-Americans,” someone else said.
‘Basically four American categories today. “Very hard for non-Americans,” read another comment.
Connections, which launched last year, is the New York Times’ second most popular game behind Wordle.
Everdeen Mason, editorial director of the Times’s Games section, said voice earlier this year He doesn’t mind “grumpy” players who get frustrated by how difficult it is.
“My job here is to deceive you,” he confessed at the time.