Every few weeks, a new online game appears out of the blue, luring a growing number of students to be unproductive in class. The current craze that has burst onto the scene is the game Contexto, which is conveniently accessible on a Chromebook. This word game consists of guessing a secret word by guessing other words, which is then analyzed by Artificial Intelligence (AI) to compare how similar the words are. It is similar to other word games, such as those on the New York Times website.
The words are organized by an AI algorithm, which orders them from closest to furthest in relation to the word of the day. The website states that the words are ordered by the frequency with which they are seen together on the internet. This can be as simple as connecting “flora” to “fauna” or as difficult as relating the word “think” to “insight.”
Why has this game taken over classrooms? The main answer to this question relies on the fact that this game is accessible through the school-provided Chromebooks. The ability to play this game both inside and outside of school makes its addictiveness even more prominent.
Here is how the game works: the player begins by picking a word and entering it into the game. It can be almost anything, although a few select words, such as “the” or “there,” are not allowed as they are considered too common. With each word guessed, a number will appear next to the word. This number dictates how close or far away your guess is to the hidden word. When feeling stuck on what to guess, players are allotted a hint word, which gives them a word that is closer to their closest guess thus far. If nearly all the words in the English dictionary have been guessed, and the answer still has not been found, the give up button will show the daily word, although this will not give the same satisfaction as discovering the hidden word themselves.
The ability to play past rounds makes this game especially addictive and keeps the competitive streak with friends flowing. Picking a date to challenge each other can keep the game running endlessly.
