Akinator

Get used to seeing this.

Think about a real or fictional character. I will try to guess who it is.

Akinator is an online Twenty Questions game where you challenge the eponymous genie, Akinator, to guess a character or real-world person you've picked.

It is noted for having a very extensive database of characters and people from even the most niche and obscure works - this is because the database is being constructed by the players; not only they can introduce new characters to Akinator, but he also learns more about the characters as more questions about them are answered.

As a result, it is typical to see "Akinator threads" on various fora which are mostly filled with people being amazed at how ably Akinator can "read their mind".

Tropes used in Akinator include:

• Artificial Stupidity: Akinator cannot recognize identical/opposite questions, so sometimes he asks you for your character's gender two or three times.
  • Can be Fridge Brilliance at times -- some characters, particularly Featureless Protagonists, can be both female and male.
    • And the characters which are neither.
  • Of course, he'll ask if they have black hair and then ask if they have blonde hair, plus the always entertaining "Asks if they're from one universe, is told yes, guesses a different universe". This is likely the only program to think Mass Effect and Halo are the same universe.
    • In some cases this can be justified. Some characters have hair with more than one color. Some characters change form often. And others are known for body snatching/surfing.
  • Sometimes it will ask you if you've met/said hello to the character after you've confirmed it's a fictional character or dead historical figure. Apparently it believes you might be Thursday Next or a time traveler.
• Bat Deduction: Sometimes appears to exhibit this, in cases where he asks a lot of seemingly (but not genuinely) pointless questions and then jumps to the correct answer.
• Becoming the Genie: This is supposedly what will happen to you if you try to cheat by giving wrong answers.
• Excuse Plot: The "Story of Akinator."
• Genie in a Bottle: Akinator, though he doesn't grant wishes.
• Graceful Loser: Akinator is this when he failed to guess your character. ("Bravo! You have defeated me." And he applauds you too, even if it feels somewhat half-hearted.)
• Hive Mind: Akinator's "intelligence" is the result of the gazillion users' contributions.
• Just One More Level: The website was supposedly created to satisfy Akinator's perpetual addiction to 20 Questions.
• Mood Swinger: Akinator can switch from raging mad to smugly satisfied with a single question.
• Obfuscating Stupidity: Sometimes Akinator will ask a logical series of questions leading to your character, then suddenly start asking random unrelated questions, apparently having been thrown off the scent. In the end though, he gets the character right. He figured out what your character was early on, and was just using the remaining questions (and you) to learn more about the character in question.
• Rouge Angles of Satin: Some of the characters' names are poorly spelled. Thankfully they can be fixed.
• Take That: Unpopular people, such as George W. Bush or Tim Buckley, generally are associated with questions like "Is your character stupid?"
• The Dev Team Thinks of Everything: Well, not the dev team actually, but the contributors/players. Akinator can guess such "characters" as "Someone who kept clicking on No to see what happens," as well as "A smart guy who presses 'Yes' (that would be you)." Likewise, saying the 'Probably/Partially' answer will get you 'Probably Someone', Don't Know leads to 'The One About Whom Nothing Is Known', and 'Probably Not/Not Really' will lead to 'Someone who Doubts their Own Doubt'. Using all the options in order leads to similar results...
  • To the point where he can even guess what he calls "Something I Can't Talk About" -- whose accompanying picture is a man staring, fascinated, down his boxer shorts.
    • Worse yet, Akinator himself is included, to the point where he'll ask "Do you think I'm too stupid to guess who it is?"
    • For instance, Hot Mom - if you were thinking of his mother, a picture of a model in a genie suit appears
• Victory Pose: Believe me, you're going to be seeing it A LOT.
• You Gotta Have Blue Hair: If you try to make him guess an anime character, you're likely to get a chain of questions like "Does your character have blue hair? Does your character have green hair? Does your character have purple hair? Does your character have pink hair? Does your character have..."
• You Will Be Assimilated: a variant of this, where you can increase the knowledge of Akinator by submitting characters he couldn't guess.
  • You can send in questions too, so he can have more ways of narrowing down his options.