# Websites that can read your mind, how do they work?



## Wilk Freeman (Aug 4, 2010)

I was playing around with this site for a while

http://en.akinator.com/#

It can pretty much guess every character you can think of even logo characters like the playboy bunny, it guessed I was thinking of General Rain Silves (Sergal) in legitimately only 20 questions. It also got Renard Queenston (Dave Remmler's Fursona) it took it 3 guesses but really, how does it do it? I'm was just wondering if anyone knew and could tell me how these sites work? They must have a huge database of names, is it user created?

(Sorry if this is not the right topic to put this thread in, I thought of this as more of a question then a link. Also I meant to put read your mind in quotations, sorry.)


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## Xenke (Aug 4, 2010)

Wilk Freeman said:


> I was playing around with this site for a while
> 
> http://en.akinator.com/#
> 
> ...


 
Akinator had lots of user help. And it's been around for a while. It knows much.

Edit: Even Bayonetta


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## Jashwa (Aug 4, 2010)

That's not reading your mind. That's making a logical series of eliminations based on your answers.

It totally got "Your fursona" when I answered for my fursona, though.


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## Wilk Freeman (Aug 4, 2010)

Yeah I meant to put read your mind in quotations because that's what most of them advertise as. It just seems to me it can make very acurate/exact guesses with limited information.


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## Nyedyr (Aug 4, 2010)

I played that game five times. It got one right (thought a second was pretty close). Silly genie, thinking he can travel through my mind... He probably got all sorts of lost.


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## Xenke (Aug 4, 2010)

FUCK.

It knew Frollo.

I gotta beat this now.

EDIT: It knew Jaye Tyler.

EDIT EDIT: It didn't know the Smooshed-Face Lion. I can sleep now.


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## Stargazer Bleu (Aug 4, 2010)

Wilk Freeman said:


> I was playing around with this site for a while
> 
> http://en.akinator.com/#
> 
> ...


 
This  reminds me of that Q20 electronic game that used to be out.


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## Asswings (Aug 4, 2010)

Stargazer Bleu said:


> This  reminds me of that Q20 electronic game that used to be out.



I was just thinking about that. I still have mine, and love it.


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## Jashwa (Aug 4, 2010)

Ticon said:


> I was just thinking about that. I still have mine, and love it.


 I lost mine, somewhere. I have no idea where.


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## Stargazer Bleu (Aug 4, 2010)

I just tried it.
Couldn't guess what I was thinking of.
It did give 2 guess that was related but not the actual answer.


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## Stargazer Bleu (Aug 4, 2010)

Ticon said:


> I was just thinking about that. I still have mine, and love it.


 I have the old one and the v2 of it.

It is fun to mess with. It right a lot of times too.


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## Icky (Aug 4, 2010)

fucking website nailed me 7/7.


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## Xenke (Aug 4, 2010)

Icky said:


> fucking website nailed me 7/7.


 
Think of an obscure subject. Then an obscure character in that obscure subject. Worked for me, yay cancelled Fox shows. :V


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## Jashwa (Aug 4, 2010)

Xenke said:


> Think of an obscure subject. Then an obscure character in that obscure subject. Worked for me, yay cancelled Fox shows. :V


 That's pretty much cheating.


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## Xenke (Aug 4, 2010)

Jashwa said:


> That's pretty much cheating.


 
Nah, many cancelled Fox shows have secret cult followings. I'm surprised it didn't get what I stumped it with. It was already in the database though.


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## Evandeskunk (Aug 4, 2010)

It new Tom Kalnoky and I was like "oh shi-"


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## Wilk Freeman (Aug 4, 2010)

4th question was: Is your character European? 5th was: Is your character Swedish 6th was: Does your character have any tattoos... how does it get it so quickly?


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## Icky (Aug 4, 2010)

What. The. Fuck.


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## Zenia (Aug 4, 2010)

I beat him the other night with 'Ty Pennington'.


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## Xenke (Aug 4, 2010)

Icky said:


> What. The. Fuck.


 
lol

Also, knows Koji Kondo

EDIT: Failed to get Mabel Able, it guess Sable Able. :I


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## Wilk Freeman (Aug 4, 2010)

Weird how it got Renard Queenston but not Dave Remmler...

Lol, I just realized the thread's name is an unintentional ICP meme reference...


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## Zenia (Aug 4, 2010)

Just beat him again with "Flotsam/Jetsam".


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## Icky (Aug 4, 2010)

It got the Twitter mascot bird thing.

Fuck this, I'm going to bed.


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## Fiesta_Jack (Aug 4, 2010)

It didn't get Tumbles the Stairdragon or Ferris Bueller, but to be fair, I didn't know a lot about Bueller.


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## Evandeskunk (Aug 4, 2010)

I fucking love this guy so far.


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## Xenke (Aug 4, 2010)

THE FUCK


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## Icky (Aug 4, 2010)

Fiesta_Jack said:


> It didn't get Tumbles the Stairdragon or Ferris Bueller, but to be fair, I didn't know a lot about Bueller.


 
It got Ferris for me.

Goddammit.


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## Querk (Aug 4, 2010)

Fucker got Parakarry :C

But it didn't get Griffin Spade. I guess he's not popular enough.


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## Icky (Aug 4, 2010)

Xenke said:


> THE FUCK


 
It actually has a lot of furries that it can guess.


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## Stargazer Bleu (Aug 4, 2010)

Icky said:


> It actually has a lot of furries that it can guess.


 
Can it single out Fender?


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## Xenke (Aug 4, 2010)

Xenke said:


> THE FUCK


 


Stargazer Bleu said:


> Can it single out Fender?


 
Yes.


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## Alstor (Aug 4, 2010)

Xenke said:


> THE FUCK


 It also has Rednef, 2 the ranting gryphon, Dragoneer, Alkora, and one of Zen's characters.


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## Xenke (Aug 4, 2010)

Alstor said:


> It also has Rednef, 2 the ranting gryphon, Dragoneer, Alkora, and one of *Zen's characters*.


 
Probably Joshua.


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## Alstor (Aug 4, 2010)

Xenke said:


> Probably Joshua.


 Yeah. That's the one. With lid licking and everything.


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## Fenrari (Aug 4, 2010)

;p I sense a /b/tard... Not saying anymore.


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## Xenke (Aug 4, 2010)

Alstor said:


> Yeah. That's the one. With lid licking and everything.


 
I'm sad I knew this.


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## Telnac (Aug 4, 2010)

It's not very complicated.  I wrote a similar app for my AI class in college nearly 20 years ago, though its database wasn't nearly this extensive!  With every yes/no question, it cuts down the pool of potential answers by roughly half.  Doing that, it takes surprisingly few questions to whittle it down to a likely answer, even if the pool of possible answers is in the millions.  Binary search algorithms are quite fast, even ones like this that employ fuzzy logic.


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## Stargazer Bleu (Aug 4, 2010)

Telnac said:


> It's not very complicated.  I wrote a similar app for my AI class in college nearly 20 years ago, though its database wasn't nearly this extensive!  With every yes/no question, it cuts down the pool of potential answers by roughly half.  Doing that, it takes surprisingly few questions to whittle it down to a likely answer, even if the pool of possible answers is in the millions.  Binary search algorithms are quite fast, even ones like this that employ fuzzy logic.


 
I though about this with the Q20 thing I have.
Even if it had a million answers after 10 questions if it keeps cutting it in half I think that narrows it down to like 1000 or so.
20 answers just narrows it down that much more.
This one has asked me the same question twice tho.  Even before it tried a 2nd or 3rd try.

Some of the questions really narrow things down by a lot.


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## Xenke (Aug 4, 2010)

Telnac said:


> Binary search algorithms are quite fast, even ones like this that employ fuzzy logic.


 
I tried coding one once...

I broke.


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## Taren Fox (Aug 4, 2010)

Holy shit, it worked. It guessed Danger Mouse. I'm in awe.


EDIT: Damn, it got Darkwing Duck too. And Antoine D'Coolette from the Sonic the Hedgehog series.


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## moon-drummer (Aug 4, 2010)

Lol. I was thinking of the main character of my novel, and it came up with Drizzit Do'Urden.


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## CynicalCirno (Aug 4, 2010)

Actually it doesn't know everything.
It gathers information from users by forms to know details about characters, and each round it confirms a set of them, until one is left. In the end all the characters are shown.

I tried searching "Masami Hisamoto", the famous voice actor of the cult Sokka Gakkai International.
Didn't find.

Shuzo didn't work as well.

I am going for Bill Clinton.


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## Taren Fox (Aug 4, 2010)

Pretty sure that site is for fictional characters, not people.


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## Xenke (Aug 4, 2010)

Taren Fox said:


> Pretty sure that site is for fictional characters, not people.


 
It's for people too, I often get the "did they really exist" question.

Also, finding more stuff to add to it. Needs more knowledge.


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## CynicalCirno (Aug 4, 2010)

Most american mastcots are known by their names, and their activities. People like RWJ and Edward Khil. Also Vince, Heavy Weapons Guy, Louis. Well, they are pretty famous. Let's go to the other famous side of the globe.

He didn't find leanidios from 300.

He found Private Pyle.
Found private joker.
Not found private snowball.
I will use very hard names from now on.

Also knows most touhou charcters.

Taokaka is found.

Guess my special reserve has to be used. Moot, Hissu Amoto, Chris - Chan, Anonymous, Daisaku Ikeda, Rie Shibata, Fusako, Masaharu Mori and other random names I sprout from the air.
Masami is found.
Chris Chan is found.
Daisaku is found. I guess cultists also tried this site.
Anonymous of course, doesn't stay anonymous.
Mori is unknown.
Rie is silent.
Fusako Saito is found in the chart, but the cultist didn't find her.
Moot is found.

Let's move to urban names.
Didn't find Wazgul.
Didn't find the greatest youtube MADder Romys Hustensaft.
No soaring dance.

You enter information after your all character base entry with the questions. That's how the character is made, adn you put a name after it.

Most famous things _I_ know about are known as well, but some others are not found at all. "Wazgul is gay" internet fad is known. Soaring dance is found all over NND.


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## Arcum (Aug 4, 2010)

Ok after looking at the site a while back I eventually came to the conclusion that the database, though not originally obviously, is user created. It "learns" from how people answer constantly and updates its own database. If it doesn't know something it pretty much asks you to add it to the database but only by name. It takes the answers you gave it and from there will be able to pinpoint it by those questions asked previously. If it still doesn't get it it may still be in the database and it can be selected, and constantly updates by other peoples responses to the questions that conclude to that answer. 

Remember this site has been up for a long time and being used constantly so if it is a popular character people ask, it will get it. Because of its process, however, if it gets a brand new entry it will take a few people to look for it to be accurate enough to actually come up with that character (I suspect around 6 people or so assuming it asks a few different questions between the 6 people). Its a very interesting site though and it does show how crazy computers can get with a "learning" process if it was put there and was able to still do its thing.


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## Willow (Aug 4, 2010)

Akinator is like 20 questions, not only that but people put in the names and I guess the questions that would lead to that. 

I beat it though. I thought of my OC and it never guessed that.


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## Lemoncholic (Aug 4, 2010)

It couldn't guess the main character of the poorly written novel I just finished trudging through (Scott Faraday). Other than that it's got everyone, lead singer of Ok Go, Brent Hartinger the author, Michelle Rodriguez you name it.


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## Telnac (Aug 4, 2010)

Yeah, it seems to have fewer entries for real people than fictional ones.  It did get Queen Elizabeth I, Mary Stuart and Catherine the Great, though.  I'm really surprised it didn't find Leonidas!

[Edit]Leonidas was in there, even with a pic, and was played 2886 times!  Are you sure you didn't try intentionally deceiving it?


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## Jw (Aug 4, 2010)

Crap, this thing is good. I've gotten the right guess on a ton of stuff so far.
Right now, it's 7/7. That's pretty damned good.

Tom Servo
Ramirez (Skies of Arcadia game I played as a kid)
Vyse (SOA again)
Kessler (inFamous)
Zeke (inFamous)
The Plumber (Ratchet and Clank series)
Dr. Zoidberg


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## Riley (Aug 4, 2010)

A couple of weeks back I was playing around with that and it got Speaker-To-Animals from Ringworld (secondary/main character, but I thought the name would be obscure enough) and Chef Excellence. It even got Bob Arctor from A Scanner Darkly.  I was betting on the fact that he was actually 2 different characters to trip the thing up; no such luck.  I can never get it to guess Finbarr Galedeep though; I've tried him a bunch of times and he never shows up.


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## Mayonnaise (Aug 4, 2010)

The only thing it got right so far is Doraemon and Rio Freed.


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## Lobar (Aug 4, 2010)

fucking hell it guessed Greedo from Star Wars in 16 questions

and Victor Steiner-Davion from the Battletech universe in 20


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## Gavrill (Aug 4, 2010)

Haha, it didn't know Gavrill from Fraken Fran |3


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## CynicalCirno (Aug 4, 2010)

Akinator will know every character others know and put it's details in.


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## Tycho (Aug 4, 2010)

Well-designed program.  To be fair I threw easy ones at it (Beavis and Butthead, Mario) and it was plain to see it had them nailed less than 10 questions in, it was just doing due diligence after 10 or so.


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## Lobar (Aug 4, 2010)

Finally got him!  He lost to Todd the squirrel from Achewood, and gave up after 37 questions.  It was already in his database too.


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## BasementRaptor42 (Aug 4, 2010)

It got Captain Falcon, Meta Knight, Sarah Palin, My Fursona, and Me, but I managed to stump it with Master Hand and Master Roshi.

Okay, it got Crazy Hand. And Master Hand the second time.


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## CynicalCirno (Aug 4, 2010)

Lobar said:


> Finally got him!  He lost to Todd the squirrel from Achewood, and gave up after 37 questions.  It was already in his database too.


 
Sometimes you put the wrong details and sometimes he is doing it wrong.

He lost to Masami Hisamoto the first and the second time even though it was in his entry.


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## Silver Dragon (Aug 4, 2010)

AKINATOR: Question No.8: Am I too stupid to guess who your character is?


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## Tewin Follow (Aug 4, 2010)

It got Sheik. Goddamn.

EDIT: And Makoto. FFFFFF

EDIT II: And Stephen Fry, though he's an easier one.


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## Silver Dragon (Aug 4, 2010)

Fuck yeah, I stumped it with my favorite videogame character, Mr. Champloo.


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## LizardKing (Aug 4, 2010)

So is this just a contest to think up an obscure character and see if anyone else has given sufficient information about said character to a computer program to enable the algorithms to identify it a second time round?

Yeah thought so.


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## CanineSalavu (Aug 4, 2010)

It got Chris Martin AND Marmaduke omfg!


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## Xenke (Aug 4, 2010)

fuck.

It got Agatha Christie.

Not that surprised though.


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## RayO_ElGatubelo (Aug 4, 2010)

I decided to really screw around with this guy, and tried to make him guess "Edmond", the cat from _Rock-a-Doodle_. He never guessed it.

Nobody has watched that movie recently except for Nostalgia Critic...


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## foxmusk (Aug 4, 2010)

RayO_ElGatubelo said:


> I decided to really screw around with this guy, and tried to make him guess "Edmond", the cat from _Rock-a-Doodle_. He never guessed it.
> 
> Nobody has watched that movie recently except for Nostalgia Critic...


 
loved that movie <3

also, he won't play with me :C


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## Kipper30 (Aug 4, 2010)

Just tried it out five times; it got it right every time.  This should be be the new 20 Questions game.


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## Scotty1700 (Aug 4, 2010)

Let's get this straight, you're not trying to outsmart "him", you're trying to outsmart him PLUS the millions and millions of people that use it.


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## Hottigress (Aug 4, 2010)

Holy fucking shit. I was thinking of "Travis Bickle" played by Robert DiNiro in "Taxi Driver" from 1976, and it guessed it right the second time. wtf...

HOLY CRAP. I just tryed for "Patrick Bateman" played by Christian Bale in American Psycho, and it got it the first time. Scary shit.


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## Aetius (Aug 4, 2010)

I managed to beat Akinator with Former Alabama Gov. George Wallace.


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## Calemeyr (Aug 6, 2010)

I beat him with Boos Miller from the PC game Return to Zork. He got ERROR from the Legend of Zelda II, though. Then I beat him with Karl Gambolputty...of Ulm from Monty Python's Flying Circus. I'm 2-1 right now.


EDIT: It actually answered this: Your own character (Your Original Character)
and it used this picture
http://i878.photobucket.com/albums/ab342/dynamofox/lol.jpg

And then when I tried to get it to guess me, it displayed a monkey with "YOU!!!" under it.


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## Citrakayah (Aug 6, 2010)

HA Bastard got Rocky wrong, though he did get Bullwinkle.... As well as Fat Mike...


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## Scruffaluffagus (Aug 6, 2010)

I beat Akinator with Bill Malone, lol.

EDIT: But somehow it got The Amazing Jonathan...hmmm.


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## Telnac (Aug 6, 2010)

It actually got "your fursona?"

*LOL*  *It's in there!*  Awesome.  

I tested that with a "typical" fursona.  Telnac confused the hell out of him.  A dragon that's NOT associated with fire?! (Telnac has no breath weapon.)


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## CynicalCirno (Aug 6, 2010)

I think I will ask him on cheetormen, zero, chargemen ken and robotnig.
Cheetormen is down
Zero was taken down fast
Chargemen was taken down after
So did robitnik

Dr.Volga, Ikzo, Kitsune^2, Renard, FIAB, Biz, Murasa(Probably will be found, tuhu), Egghead, Ochomoto.
Dr Vorga (Borga) is in his database but has not been found.
Yoshi Ikuzo found in database but not in questions. Time to furries.
Kitsune^2 not found, for now.
Renard Queenston found only in database.
FIAB found in database as well.
Murasa was not found, probably because lack of true answers, as she had a question for her last time.
Again loads of taohuo characters and Captain Murasa and her big ass-anchor only in database.
Egghead not found, time to rack up O chos


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## Tally (Aug 6, 2010)

He kept beating me, so I did "Andrew" from "The Bicentennial Man" by Isaac Asimov. I would have been shocked if he had guessed that. But he didn't.


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## Mattqat (Aug 6, 2010)

It actually gave me Fender as a wrong guess once, while I was trying to get Bagels, of the webcomic "Also, Bagels".  Didn't get it in the end, but he was second on the list.


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## Usukari (Aug 7, 2010)

The cast of Firefly AND Serenity, even got Jubal Early and the Operative. It gets me every time.


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## Kirbizard (Aug 7, 2010)

Fiesta_Jack said:


> It didn't get Tumbles the Stairdragon or Ferris Bueller, but to be fair, I didn't know a lot about Bueller.


 
I tried Tumbles, didn't get him again, even though he is in the database. :v

Many months back it got Accelo. Only one or two people have tried him since.
I tried it again now and it couldn't have been farther from the answer, Akinator has gotten worse. I am disappoint. :v


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