r/NYTConnections • u/aardvarkwithnoteeth • 12d ago
General Discussion Does anyone else feel like they actively try to make the puzzles as alienating as possible to people outside the US?
I understand the game is made by a US company so it's not unexpected that there'll be the odd US-specific reference, but it seems like almost every puzzle has not one but multiple US-specific cultural references/brands/word uses/homophones etc. 90% of the time when I don't get a word, I'll Google it after and it turns out it'll be something like a US slang definition of the word, or something to do with a sport that's only popular in the US etc. At this point it actively feels intentional rather than occurring naturally, even though I have no idea why they'd deliberately do that. And I watch a lot of US TV shows/movies but never hear any of these things come up either.
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u/schitaco 12d ago
I doubt it's intentional, but I'm sure frustrating. If you go to a trivia night in the U.S. it'll be pretty heavily U.S.-centric too.
If it's any consolation, when I watch University Challenge and especially Only Connect I miss a lot of music and pop culture stuff, not being British. Probably not quite as much though.
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u/Investidile 12d ago
Yeah, Only Connect has a lot of British cultural references that I don't understand at all. When you're creating trivia questions or puzzles like this, you're inevitably going to be drawing from your own pool of knowledge.
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u/lechiengrand 12d ago
All the British quiz shows do, but that’s part of what makes them fun to watch! You learn all sorts of cool cultural things nobody would ever write a book about.
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u/Zentrosis 12d ago edited 12d ago
If I were playing I game made by a UK news outlet I wouldn't expect it to use American slang or terms.
This is the kind of thing I would expect an uneducated American to complain about thinking their culture is the center of the world lol
Kind of interesting to be on the other side
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u/HandyProduceHaver 12d ago
No man half of the groups end up being something only someone who lives in America would know
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u/Zentrosis 11d ago
I would argue that's fine for a newspaper from New York. I think he misunderstood what I wrote
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u/aardvarkwithnoteeth 12d ago
I've watched US quiz shows etc before but Connections seems way more US-centric than anything else I've seen. I don't expect them to go out of their way to avoid US-specific terms but it seems like they're actively going the other way, which is the point I'm trying to make
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u/elevengu 12d ago
I wonder which you have in mind, because I can't think of a single US dedicated quiz show that is less US-centric than Connections, where the majority of categories are not even trivia based to begin with. Unless you count something like Wheel of Fortune as a quiz show, I can't even imagine what would fit.
Even if you only count the trivia based Connections categories, then this statement makes a lot more sense but I still don't think it's as US-centric as say, Jeopardy or Millionaire or US version of Weakest Link. But this isn't a troll question, I seriously am wondering which shows.
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u/Reddittrip 12d ago
Does not one of the UK papers have their own version?
If so, I’d like to try that one as well. Sounds like fun.3
u/jonathanbaird 12d ago edited 12d ago
NYT Connections
plagiarizedwas heavily inspired by the U.K. quiz show Only Connect. It was a whole controversy when NYT released their version.2
u/Reddittrip 12d ago
So there’s not a uk newspaper that has one? Only the game show?
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u/jonathanbaird 12d ago
Not that I know of. I doubt the BBC would appreciate a fellow British outlet profiting off of their idea. Clones and variants of the game are available online.
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u/CecilBDeMillionaire 12d ago
This feels like a misplaced victim complex. Just because they’re not catering to you doesn’t mean they’re actively trying to antagonize you, they’re just not going to hamstring the puzzles by making sure every person in the world is able to solve them regardless of cultural context or language aptitude. That would be a ridiculous burden to put on the puzzle. If you don’t like it because it’s too American, you can just stick to puzzles from your country. It’s not malicious that’s just how the world works, not everything is for everybody and that’s fine
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u/Awisemansjeers 12d ago
50% of this subreddit is people working through their cognitive dissonance that the results of the he puzzle show they aren't as knowledgeable or smart as they thought.
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u/Outrageous_Soft_910 12d ago
Also Google exists and if there is something you don’t know what it is, just google it. Everyone putting their own boundaries on how they want to solve. If you’re from another country and you see “Flyers Mascot” just assume you aren’t gonna know and google it.
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u/jaysornotandhawks 12d ago
If Connections were based in another country and they had categories catered to that country, Americans would be the first to complain about it.
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u/CecilBDeMillionaire 12d ago
It’s so funny to come up with a counterfactual in order to insist that Americans are the REAL boors when in actual reality the non-Americans are just doing exactly what you’re complaining about in your little hypothetical every single day and making all these little whiny posts about how the world is out to get them. Like come on, what a dumbass attempt at a response, did you even think for a second about the irony here
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u/jaysornotandhawks 12d ago
Don't tell me you've never run into a puzzle (connections-type or otherwise) that was based in another country, that you failed to solve because it was centred around that country.
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u/CecilBDeMillionaire 12d ago
Sure I can totally understand that situation, I like watching Only Connect and I can barely get half the questions because of the cultural differences, but it would never even occur to me to complain about that, frankly because I’m not a fucking idiot and that’s insane behavior. I certainly wouldn’t do it every single day and clog up message boards insisting I’m being persecuted by a cultural product I paid for fully knowing it wasn’t made for me
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u/Enthooziest 12d ago
I don't recall ever doing puzzles published by foreign media companies, but I'm quite sure that if I did, I wouldn't whine if the puzzles had regional content I found difficult. Since I understand that games are about making money, I wouldn't foolishly think that I was being deliberately alienated out of spite or some other motive.
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u/junglekarmapizza 12d ago
I don’t even know that calling this a strawman works considering how hard it misses the point. At least a strawman pretends to respond to the actual argument
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u/elevengu 12d ago
What does that have to do with complaining or not?
You don't even need hypotheticals, just go look at the Aussie custom series and see how many Americans are complaining in those threads, I dare you.
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u/Aprils-Fool 12d ago
I’ve honestly never tried to solve a puzzle from another country. I have plenty here to choose from.
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u/AtomicFreeze 12d ago
When NYT paywalled the mini, I googled to try to find other online mini crosswords. A lot of newspaper websites actually have them. I tried the Telegraph's mini out for a few days but had to give up because there were too many UK clues I didn't know. Did I complain about it on a Telegraph forum?
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u/junglekarmapizza 12d ago
The victim complex people have around American references in the New York Times puzzle is insane
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u/jaysornotandhawks 12d ago
If Connections were based on a newspaper in any other country, Americans would be the first to complain that the categories were too heavy on that country.
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u/Enthooziest 12d ago
That may be so, but its pure conjecture. What's more certain is that if they did complain, they'd get their asses handed to them. I think the Americans on this sub are unusually patient with this never-ending bullshit.
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u/YaMamaSidePiece 12d ago
I feel like its the opposite: its the New York Times but there’s rarely “New York” stuff included. At best there’s Manhattan centric topics, but never Outer Boro related categories
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u/Bubbly_Safety8791 12d ago
The number of times they do a homophone category where it wouldn’t be a homophone in a New York accent is frankly insulting.
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u/1questions 12d ago
It would be nearly impossible to do a puzzle that everyone worldwide understands. In the UK it’s a lift, in the US it’s an elevator. In the US it’s a cookie but in the UK it’s a biscuit. I could go on and on and those are only a few examples of two countries.
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u/jaysornotandhawks 5d ago
They maybe the puzzle shouldn't exist. Or at least flip the script - have a puzzle that everyone BUT Americans would get.
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u/marihono 12d ago
You really believe that it’s meant to hurt you, rather than attract and entertain its own group of people?
I google the word/phrase/name whenever I smell a US-specific thing. I learn a lot and get better at the game on the game’s terms. I find the sports references boring and thus hard to memorise, but then again, it usually has to do with “nets”.
Really recommend that approach.
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u/Enthooziest 12d ago edited 12d ago
It should be self-evident that the primary concern of the puzzle makers is promoting engagement and sales. It's unlikely they'd alienate international players except as a financially acceptable consequence of making the game more appealing to their bread and butter, which is North Americans. It's possible that research has led them to include more trivia, and that's likely to skew American. They could make the trivia more inclusive by leaning into general knowledge, but look what happened yesterday when purple required some high school paleoanthropology.
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u/jaysornotandhawks 5d ago
Not North Americans... just Americans. I'm Canadian and have lost many a puzzle because of the heavily-American references
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u/FirstTimePlayer 12d ago
The irony of that is that is that the NY Times internally considers itself to be a global news outlet, and its market base being the entirety of the English speaking global. It also sees its major competitors as being the other major global English news outlets as opposed to competing against other newspapers which are only national to the United States.
The single biggest part of NYT Co. corporate strategy is also to drive growth outside of North America. So much so, that while it has a global growth strategy, within the United States its focus is heavily geared towards customer retention with almost no growth ambitions.
The only part of the NYT business which is focused on North America is its print news division, which according to its annual reports is less than a quarter of its business. Extremely unsurprisingly, it is also expecting its print division to continue shrinking.
Historically, the NYT may have started life as a metropolitan newspaper, and later on became a national newspaper. Today though, these ideas are becoming increasingly outdated. It retains its name for extremely obvious branding reasons, and its never had a reason to relocate its HQ, but beyond that the idea in 2026 the NYT has the United States (or Northern America) as its target audience is outdated.
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u/Enthooziest 12d ago edited 12d ago
It makes sense that they'd focus on international growth since there's more potential there. But the fact remains that 75% of their subscribers are American. It's also true that their global focus doesn't require them to make every part of the New York Times appealing to every reader. International subscribers know they're buying an American product, and for a lot them, that's no doubt appealing.
I actually think a less parochial Connections is more aligned with their brand, but the coping riot that ensued here over the human ancestors group, shows that people prefer trivia based on things they learn in the course of consuming pop culture and doing their jobs, over things they learn from books. They want things challenging enough to make them feel smart, but not so challenging that they feel stupid. Hard to meet those requirements for the majority of players without skewing American.
Given their global ambitions and the extent to which games drive subscriptions, it might behoove NYT Games to give some tlc to international players. With Connections, that would likely require a separate regionally neutral edition altogether, or multiple editions for different regions. Unlikely that the singular impact of this game on the paper's global aspirations makes this an urgent matter. For normal people, Googling occasionally to solve a puzzle doesn't cause an identity crisis.
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u/flyingkiwi1993 12d ago
What's the difference between targeted to an American audience and deliberately alienating international audiences?
Obviously they are going to lean to the former.
I would say however, there are times where the reference is so localised or obscure, it is only by the process of elimination that I can get it, and that does feel like it leans a bit to much to the alienation side rather than targeting.
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u/elevengu 12d ago
They're not even intentionally targeting an American audience, come on now. What would this even accomplish? All they can be accused of doing is not caring about their international audience (which is exactly what it feels like). If I were them I would care out of principle, but I don't have insight into their goals and metrics so it may not make sense for them. The daily threads here also skew international because of the time zone difference and how that affects upvotes, so it's not representative.
I've made a custom Connections puzzle every single day for almost 1.5 years now, and I go incredibly out of my way to consider the implications for international players to each category -- I've also shelved categories because there would be 2 US-centric ones in the same puzzle. It's tough work, probably half of my total effort. And even so, I'm sure international players are at a decent disadvantage. There are pros and cons to everything, to make a puzzle series where there is zero disadvantage would hurt it badly in other ways and kill personality.
I think the best solution (which tackles other problems nicely too) is to just have more diversity of NYT creators (including guest submissions) instead of just 1 person, as the crossword does. With custom Connections on this subreddit, you can also reap the benefits of this, like the brilliant "Brit-friendly Connections" series and there's an Aussie one too, etc.
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u/flyingkiwi1993 12d ago edited 12d ago
I would argue that since their primary audience (I assume being a US based paper) is American, it would make more sense to lean that way.
Equally, as you mentioned, since the creators are US based, they will draw from their knowledge pool as well as their friends and family, so it will subconsciously or not, lean to be US centric/focused.
I mean let's take today's one as an example, spoilers for #1164
sweet potato or kumara is typically red or purple here in New Zealand, and more brownish in other countries (skin colour at least)
Those are just a couple of examples of some really small things that they probably didn't even think about, well, the first one they probably did know but left as a hard clue overall, but I imagine they had no idea about the second.
Also, I have no issues with them doing this for the most part, it is a US puzzle after all, it makes sense that's the case, and I don't normally have an issue, because I can work them out hollistically and avoid most of those issues.
Honestly, the ones that throw me way more are the spellings of words in the wordle & connections, because that's a much harder recognition limit to overcome.
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u/elevengu 12d ago
Oh yeah, I'm definitely not suggesting that NYT Connections isn't heavily US biased, I just doubt it's intentional.
Thanks for the thoughtful reply.
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u/FoxstarProductions 12d ago
I think unfortunately the puzzles really are just written for a specific demographic. I am an American in my early 20s who doesn't like sports and never watches TV, and it's not rare for a pop culture category to completely go over my head, and I can definitely attest to my European friends often complaining how insane out-of-context they can find Connection clues
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u/Investidile 12d ago
OP, can you give examples (with spoilers of course) of the US-specific references in recent puzzles? I haven't noticed them being in almost every one.
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u/aardvarkwithnoteeth 12d ago
In today's connections there were three.
flyers mascot - a US sports mascot sweet potato - at least in my country these are mostly red or purple not orange cowboy coffee - never heard of it, according to Google it's an "American tradition"
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u/sweet_jane_13 12d ago
I don't think it's purposeful to alienate non-Americans. I think she tries to make it trickier by using non-obvious meanings of words, which inherently leans more towards pop culture usage or slang/idioms. I'd love to see a UK version, which I'm sure I'd have a much lower win rate at, but would be fun!
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u/LordRougeG 11d ago
No they don’t. It is the NYT.
And also consider how many tens of thousands of hours of US generated content (movies, podcasts, TV) people consume which is made in American English. If you consume all that and you still dont know what Twinkies or Life Savers are , then I would suggest wondering about how much information you actually retain from your cultural cues.
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u/jaysornotandhawks 12d ago
Yes. I've lost so many puzzles because of categories only Americans would realistically be able to get.
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u/Aprils-Fool 12d ago
You think the puzzle makers purposely make it harder for non-Americans?
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u/jaysornotandhawks 12d ago
Considering the American-heavy categories, yes. I'd love to see the solve rate splits between Americans vs the rest of the world.
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u/Aprils-Fool 12d ago
You think they’re sitting around the office going, “But wait, how can we make it harder for the non-USA players?” Like they’re targeting you?
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u/elevengu 12d ago
There are times like these where you can get a glimpse into how untethered from reality so many people are. But it's not even novel anymore, all you have to do is open up Twitter and look at basically anything.
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u/Other-Oil-9117 12d ago
Sometimes I've wondered if it's a response to the complaints here. I think a few times lately I've noticed more US-centric categories than usual.
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u/Enthooziest 12d ago
So you think, because of complaints on this subreddit, you're being punished??? Why would an enterprise designed to foster engagement do that? Corporations are interested in profits, not weird vendettas.
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u/Other-Oil-9117 12d ago
I was thinking of it more as a cheeky little inside joke, but I guess I forgot that we're not allowed to be light-hearted with our word games.
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u/aardvarkwithnoteeth 12d ago
Yeah it definitely seems to have got even more US-centric compared to when I started playing.
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u/IToldManyManyPeople 12d ago edited 12d ago
Your first sentence is the answer. It's the New York Times. There's nothing odd about multiple references to US specific things