NYT Connections players are outraged over emoji version on April Fools’ Day

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Fans of the well-known game, Connections, which is run by The New York Times, are extremely angry about a puzzle that has been created using emojis.

On April 1st, the daily game on the NYT's website had a surprising addition in celebration of April Fool's Day. For those unfamiliar with the game called Connections, players are given a grid of 16 words and must figure out how to group them into four sets of four words by understanding the connections between them.

Every set of linkages, covering various topics such as chemical elements in the periodic table and titles of books, are designated by a specific color. The simplest puzzle to unravel is under the yellow group, while those in the blue and green categories pose a moderate level of challenge. On the other hand, the connections belonging to the purple group are the toughest ones to solve.

In the game, every player has only four attempts to correctly link the items given. For each incorrect guess, a player loses one life. However, a helpful notification will pop up on the screen if your guess is almost correct, indicating that you are only one word away from finding the correct match.

On April 1st, the puzzle underwent a major transformation. Instead of the usual setup of 16 words, a grid of 16 emojis took over. The objective remained the same: matching four emojis with each other in four tries, followed by revealing their connection and significance. The puzzle featured several diverse emojis, such as a plane, a loaf of bread, an alien, and an eye.

The decision to replace words with emojis for April Fools' Day was met with negative feedback from players. Lots of individuals used the platform previously known as Twitter, known as X, to express their dissatisfaction with the game's new emoji theme. Some players even admitted that they did not find the game funny at all.

"I'm sorry, NYT Connections. This is not funny at all. I specialize in linguistics, not graphics," a person commented disapprovingly.

Someone else tweeted that the actions of NYT towards Connections on April Fools’ Day are wicked and may even warrant a prison sentence.

There are individuals who are unable to comprehend when a prank for April Fools' Day becomes excessively offensive instead of amusing. As one person commented, the founder of NYT Connections falls into this category.

Individuals on X made fun of the Connections gamers who were feeling distraught about the game played on April Fools' Day.

Some individuals may need to privately acknowledge that they are not designed for establishing connections with The New York Times, as humorously suggested by someone.

"I enjoy it when connections manage to infuriate people, particularly over a decent April Fools' prank," someone else included.

Attention: Plot details for the episode "Connections" aired on April 1st are revealed below.

Regarding the team divisions for the present match, the yellow group was identified as "verbal expressions indicating currency," the green category included "terms that sound similar," the blue team encompassed "terrifying films," and the purple team was highlighted as "expressions that share the same pronunciation as specific letters."

According to the game's responses, the emoji symbols for bread, bacon, lettuce, and cheese were used as a slang for money. On the other hand, the symbols for plane, rain, train, and brain were used to rhyme with other words. The emoji for an alien, scream, vampire, and saw belonged to the category of horror movies. Lastly, the symbols for ewe, bee, eye, and tea were examples of letter homophones.

It's not the initial occurrence that a Connections game has provoked anger. On February 7, four words in the puzzle mentioned the beloved character of SpongeBob SquarePants who lives under the ocean.

Although the phrasing seemed to allude to the well-known animation on Nickelodeon, Spongebob Squarepants, gamers didn't find the prank amusing because the combination was not an actual solution to the riddle.