With the new addition of the ‘Midi,’ a mix of the ‘Crossword’ and the ‘Mini,’ I’ve realized just how many New York Times (NYT) games are locked behind a subscription. As of now, five out of the twelve games require a NYT Games subscription. Two and a half out of the five games, the ‘Mini,’ ‘Letter Boxed,’ ‘Tiles,’ and the ‘Spelling Bee’ were once games you could play entirely for free. An all access NYT subscription: $7.50 every four weeks with a family plan of $8.75 every four weeks while a NYT Games subscription: $6 every four weeks or $50 per year. But why have a paywall at all? With the decline of physical printed news, monetizing the games through a subscription allows for the NYT to continue paying their reporters, writers, designers, editors. While I understand why the NYT paywalls their games, it’s especially frustrating watching games that were once free be locked behind a subscription.
In spite of that, I’ve slowly started to migrate to the Los Angeles (LA) Times games. While all the games are locked behind a 10 second advertisement, I prefer it over the NYT. After watching the advertisement, you have the option of choosing the current daily puzzle or an archived puzzle. While this feature isn’t new, the NYT locks their archive feature to the subscription.
A few of my favorite LA Times games are the crossword, word search, ‘Putt Putt Problems,’ ‘AnnieGram,’ ‘Wordflower,’ and sudoku.
‘Putt Putt Problems’ is a trivia game themed around mini-golf where the player must putt the ball into the right answer holes while avoiding hazards. Each day follows a new theme for the player to play. Common themes are nature, catchphrases, dances, art, and so much more.
‘AnnieGram’ is a game similar to the ‘Spelling Bee’ as the player must find words in a set of letters before the time runs out. The more words found, the more the player progresses through the medal system until all words are found.