Twenty Questions - Game 182

[damo666]

Previous Games

1 Henry Hill / cdngooner
2 Colonel Kurtz / VillageIdiot
3 Kieffer Moore / damo666
4 Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart / Hamish
5 Anne Frank / Trigfea63
6 Dalai Lama / Hamish
7 Woody / Ginge86
8 Queen Elizabeth II / aardvarkarmy
9 Mahatma Gandhi / Octavious
10 Trish Stratus / VillageIdiot
11 Judas / VillageIdiot
12 HG Wells / VillageIdiot
13 Pablo Escobar / Doug7878
14 Vanna White / cdngooner
15 Napoleon Bonaparte / Ferdack
16 Confucius / Doug7878
17 Olivia de Havilland / SenatorNyxen
18 Allan Calhamer / Jaguar
19 Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez / cdngooner
20 Johnny Rotten [Lydon] / Doug7878
21 Thomas Jefferson / cdngooner
22 Steven Sondheim / Doug7878
23 Milton Friedman / Jaguar
24 Muammar Gaddafi / damo666
25 Guy Fawkes / Jamiet99uk
26 Lois Lane / Saw725
27 Mewtwo / SenatorNyxen
28 Agatha Christie / damo666
29 Tim Berners-Lee / Hamish
30 Martina Navratilova / Szpoti
31 Robert Burns / damo666
32 Nicolae Ceausescu / Hamish
33 Audrey Hepburn / SenatorNyxen
34 Rosa Parks / Doug7878
35 Natalie Portman / SenatorNyxen
36 Weird Al Yankovic / VillageIdiot
37 Chiang Kai Shek / Ferdack
38 Leonard Bernstein / Tolstoy
39 Álvar Núñez Cabeza de Vaca / dargorygel
40 Neville Chamberlain / Hamish
41 Jafar / Jamiet99uk
42 Robert The Bruce / damo666
43 George Sanders / SenatorNyxen
44 Robert Bork / Jamiet99uk
45 Sally Ride / Doom427
46 Cloud / SenatorNyxen
47 Ellen Ripley / Szpoti
48 Ferdinand Porsche / Hamish
49 Roald Amundsen / Szpoti
50 Walter White / Jamiet99uk
51 Ferdinand Foch / Dargorygel
52 Faramir / Ferdack
53 Victor Frankenstein / VillageIdiot
54 Walt Disney / Doug7878
55 Zapp Brannigan / Sploack
56 Rich Sanchez / Doom427
57 Jeanne d'Arc / Hamish
58 Alan Turing / Doom427
59 Frank-N-Furter / JECE
60 The Waco Kid / damo666
61 Omar Khayyam / DougJoe
62 Robert Preston / VillageIdiot
63 Sue-Ellen Braverman / Szpoti
64 Gaia / damo666
65 Bette Davis / Jamiet99uk
66 Katy Perry / Szpoti
67 Nicolaus Copernicus / DougJoe
68 Ada Lovelace / Hamish
69 Sergey Bubka / Szpoti
70 Isabel la Católica / JECE
71 Blas de Lezo / VillageIdiot
72 Douglas Southall Freeman / Jamiet99uk
73 Ric Flair / VillageIdiot
74 The Grinch / Hamish
75 Kofi Annan / damo666
76 Gerry Adams / JECE
77 Sancho Panza / Hamish
78 Steve Redgrave / damo666
79 Sergei Diaghilev / Village Idiot
80 Harry Houdini / DougJoe
81 Bill & Ted / Hamish
82 Eric Carle / Balki Bartokomous
83 Kirk Cameron / Saw725
84 Chester Bennington / Chaqa
85 Roland Deschain / Balki Bartokomous
86 Edward Scissorhands / DougJoe
87 Steve Wozniak / supi13
88 Falkor / Balki Bartokomous
89 Nicki Minaj / han-shahanshah
90 Uesugi Kenshin / damo666
91 Peter Ustinov / damo666 [not guessed]
92 Indira Gandhi / han-shahanshah
93 Jiang Qing / Jamiet99uk
94 Judge Dredd / Octavious
95 (special):
Robert the Bruce / Jamiet99uk [lost]
Doctor Who / han-shahanshah
Secretariat / han-shahanshah
Henrietta Lacks / Kakarroto [lost]
96 Rodion Romanovich Raskolnikov / JECE
97 Dead parrot / JECE [not guessed]
98 Ian Smith / Damo
99 Joseph-Ignace Guillotin / Foxcastle
100 Angela Lansbury / DougJoe
101 Pac-Man / DarthPorg36
102 Michael Collins (astronaut) / JECE
103 Juan Sebastián Elcano / Foxcastle
104 RuPaul / DougJoe
105 Otto von Bismarck / damo666
106 Judas Iscariot / [Repeat, taken over by DougJoe]
106 Guybrush Threepwood / Foxcastle
107 Nikola Tesla / Hanging Rook
108 Hermann Maier / sweetandcool
109 Louis L'Amour / sweetandcool [not guessed]
110 Vladimir Kramnik / Szpoti
111 Vitruvius / sweetandcool
112 Srinivasa Ramanujan / damo666
113 Lady Margaret Beaufort / Foxcastle
114 Mel Brooks / Jamiet99uk
115 Michael Buffer / damo666
116 Anne Bronte / dargorygel
117 Jamiet99uk / damo666
118 George Martin / Jamiet99uk
119 Kate Adie / Foxcastle
120 William of Ockham / Hanging Rook
121 Prometheus / damo666
122 Canaan Banana / JECE
123 Jimena Díaz / Hanging Rook
124 Floria Tosca / han-shahanshah
125 Abram Petrovich Gannibal / Foxcastle
126 The Bride (Kill Bill) / Jamiet99uk
127 Harriet Stowe / Octavious
128 (special):
Samuel A. Maverick, Sr. / Octavious [lost/not guessed]
Colonel Charles Lynch / JECE
Edward Aloysius Murphy, Jr. / JECE
Sweet Fanny Adams / damo666 [lost]
129 Paul von Lettow-Vorbeck / Jamiet99uk
130 Ayrton Senna / Spartaculous
131 W. G. Grace / Hominidae
132 Mia Mottley / han-shahanshah
133 Yukio Mishima / Jamiet99uk
134 Patti Smith / DarthPorg36
135 Haymitch Abernathy / JECE
136 Emmanuel Goldstein / DougJoe
137 Voltron / Jamiet99uk
138 Valentina Tereshkova / Spartaculous
139 Mahathir Mohamad / Jamiet99uk
140 Mr. Rogers / Spartaculous
141 Harambe / Jamiet99uk
142 Chef (South Park) / DougJoe
143 Count Duckula / Spartaculous
144 Gerolamo Cardano / JECE
145 David Dixon Porter / Spartaculous
146 Aishwarya Rai Bachchan / Jamiet99uk
147 Nick Offerman / cdngooner
148 Tim Rice / damo666
149 Carl Friedrich Gauss / Spartaculous
150 Colonel Mustard / cdngooner
151 Captain Henry Morgan / Spartaculous
152 William Blake / Hanging Rook
153 Leopold V / Spartaculous
154 Katalin Karikó / Hominidae
155 Septimia Zenobia / han-shahanshah
156 Félix Eboué / Spartaculous
157 John Paul Jones and John Paul Jones / cdngooner
158 Thomas Jones (astronaut) / damo666
159 Jonathan King / Jamiet99uk
160 Ronda Rousey / Spartaculous
161 Julia Child / cdngooner
162 Alexander Butterfield / Spartaculous
163 Travis Kelce / cdngooner
164 King Julien XIII / Spartaculous
165 Tank Man / Modderpoel
166 Fairuz / Spartaculous
167 Evgeniy Pregozhin / cdngooner
168 Vincent Gigante / Jamiet99uk
169 Billie Piper / cdngooner
170 Anton Chekhov / Spartaculous
171 Donald Knuth / Hominidae
172 Dmitri Mendeleev / damo666
173 D.H. Lawrence / cdngooner
174 Harold Holt / Lucasio35
175 Simón Bolívar / Modderpoel
176 Lavrentiy Beria / Hominidae
177 Ötzi / Modderpoel
178 Gilgamesh / JECE
179 Hipólito Yrigoyen / JECE (true winner, but ceded to Spartaculous)
180 Luke Littler / damo666
181 Ann Jones / damo666 (not guessed)

RULES

0. The purpose of this game is for the Question Master (QM) to select an entity to be guessed, and for the contestants to deduce the identity of this entity by asking a series of questions.

1. Only binary (yes/no) questions may be asked.

2. If the QM cannot determine with reasonable certainty whether the answer to a particular question is "Yes." or "No." or he considers the answer will be misleading, he will simply reply with "Pass.". Questions that are answered in this way will not count towards the twenty-question limit, but all other binary questions will count towards the limit, regardless of whether they were designated as "conditional".

3. If the QM passes on a particular question, the question may be re-asked (either by the original contestant or by someone else). The QM will then give his best guess at the answer. This will count as one of the twenty questions.

4. Before the twentieth question is answered, one guess per contestant does not count against the total twenty questions, but additional guesses by the same contestant do.

5. After all twenty questions are answered, there are no more free guesses, and five total guesses (combined among the contestants) shall be allowed.

6. No player shall ask more than two consecutive questions or guesses (or combination thereof). EG: If Player A asks a question; and Player B makes a guess; Player A may go next with up to two questions or guesses. It is not allowed for a single contestant to ask two consecutive questions and then make a free guess (without other contestants asking or guessing any intervening questions).

7. The question master may choose entities real or fictional that are not horribly obscure, so long as they are not repeats.

8. Whoever guesses correctly takes over from the previous question master; if they do not want to do it, they may choose someone else provided they are willing.

9. In the unlikely event the question master remains undefeated three times in a row they must choose someone else to be the next QM provided they are willing.

10. If terminology in a question is undefined, the QM defines it however they think is most reasonable. Questions regarding the methodology used do not count towards the 20 question and best come with an example figure.

I have added a bit to rule 2 [see emboldened].

GO!

[cdngooner]

Recent subjects like Donald Knuth, Otzi, Hipólito Yrigoyen, Luke Littler and Ann Jones, combined, are known by fewer people than work in my office building. Perhaps we can put this game back where it belongs as a quiz of general knowledge, not Wikipedia research skills. One can dream for a game that might be fun again.

[cdngooner]

So I'll bite one more time:

Real human male, currently alive ("alive" in the sense that he is, you know, living in the world at this moment)?

[DarthPorg36]

Recent subjects like Donald Knuth, Otzi, Hipólito Yrigoyen, Luke Littler and Ann Jones, combined, are known by fewer people than work in my office building. Perhaps we can put this game back where it belongs as a quiz of general knowledge, not Wikipedia research skills. One can dream for a game that might be fun again.

I second this

Political leader, military leader, or prominent scientific figure?

[damo666]

So I'll bite one more time:

Real human male, currently alive ("alive" in the sense that he is, you know, living in the world at this moment)?

No

[damo666]

Recent subjects like Donald Knuth, Otzi, Hipólito Yrigoyen, Luke Littler and Ann Jones, combined, are known by fewer people than work in my office building. Perhaps we can put this game back where it belongs as a quiz of general knowledge, not Wikipedia research skills. One can dream for a game that might be fun again.

I second this

Political leader, military leader, or prominent scientific figure?

No

[Jamiet99uk]

Real human male, currently deceased?

[damo666]

Recent subjects like Donald Knuth, Otzi, Hipólito Yrigoyen, Luke Littler and Ann Jones, combined, are known by fewer people than work in my office building. Perhaps we can put this game back where it belongs as a quiz of general knowledge, not Wikipedia research skills. One can dream for a game that might be fun again.

Have you heard of Billie Jean King?

[damo666]

Real human male, currently deceased?

Yes. Hasn't always been deceased.

[damo666]

1 & 3 Real dead human male
2 Not a military or political leader nor a prominent scientific figure

[Spartaculous]

Recent subjects like Donald Knuth, Otzi, Hipólito Yrigoyen, Luke Littler and Ann Jones, combined, are known by fewer people than work in my office building. Perhaps we can put this game back where it belongs as a quiz of general knowledge, not Wikipedia research skills. One can dream for a game that might be fun again.

Two of the targets I selected were mentioned here, and so I feel compelled to respond.

I'm an American who frequently checks the BBC News website. I hope you believe me when I tell you that Luke Littler has been all over BBC News for the last month or so. I've also seen multiple front-page posts on Reddit about Littler. (A magazine I subscribe to* just had an article about the growing popularity of darts.) Perhaps I am mistaken, but I really got the sense that Littler has become rather a cultural phenomenon, at least in Britain.

Littler was a fun pick - both as a way to lean into the "dart test" discussion in a silly way, but more so because he is the best/most famous at some rather niche field. Compare him to someone like, say, Billie Piper. I have obviously heard of Doctor Who, but have never seen it, and have certainly never heard of her before. Would she rank among the fifty or so greatest living British actresses? I don't know. I think that both Littler and Piper were fine picks.

Donald Ervin** Knuth is, arguably, the greatest living theoretical computer scientist. I think that makes him special enough to be included. han-shahanshah reported having heard of Knuth (despite not being into computers). He's someone I wish more people knew about. The first round of 20Qs I followed (despite not actually participating in the thread) was the Abram Petrovich Gannibal round. Getting to learn about a fascinating historical figure who I had never had heard of before helped "hook" me on this game.

No matter who you pick, some players are going to have advantages over others, based on their backgrounds, and I think that's fine. I had no chance at the Jonathan King round, as an American. I could probably pick Americans with similar levels of notoriety that our friends across the pond would equally struggle with. I honestly believe, cdngooner, that I may very well have been the only contestant playing who had heard of Alexander Butterfield. I just happened to have listened to a podcast about his role in Watergate a year or two ago.

To summarize my argument: I think that there is room in this game for both pop-culture references and really important figures in more niche fields. The game would be less rich if either of those categories went away, and it is fun because, at the start of the game, you never know which direction the game is going to go in.

I have one more defense to make. Hominidae's pick of Ötzi is quite possibly my favorite target of all of the rounds since I started playing this game. To be clear, Ötzi was not in my working memory, but I had certainly heard of him before. This was a wonderful out-of-the-box pick - I like it when the QM asks the question, "How can I go in a direction no one else has ever gone?".

Okay, that's all I have to say on this matter. I don't plan on making any more comments about this.

* If you figure out which one, you are welcome to make fun of me for it.
** Note his proper middle name.

[damo666]

Recent subjects like Donald Knuth, Otzi, Hipólito Yrigoyen, Luke Littler and Ann Jones, combined, are known by fewer people than work in my office building. Perhaps we can put this game back where it belongs as a quiz of general knowledge, not Wikipedia research skills. One can dream for a game that might be fun again.

Two of the targets I selected were mentioned here, and so I feel compelled to respond.

I'm an American who frequently checks the BBC News website. I hope you believe me when I tell you that Luke Littler has been all over BBC News for the last month or so. I've also seen multiple front-page posts on Reddit about Littler. (A magazine I subscribe to* just had an article about the growing popularity of darts.) Perhaps I am mistaken, but I really got the sense that Littler has become rather a cultural phenomenon, at least in Britain.

Littler was a fun pick - both as a way to lean into the "dart test" discussion in a silly way, but more so because he is the best/most famous at some rather niche field. Compare him to someone like, say, Billie Piper. I have obviously heard of Doctor Who, but have never seen it, and have certainly never heard of her before. Would she rank among the fifty or so greatest living British actresses? I don't know. I think that both Littler and Piper were fine picks.

Donald Ervin** Knuth is, arguably, the greatest living theoretical computer scientist. I think that makes him special enough to be included. han-shahanshah reported having heard of Knuth (despite not being into computers). He's someone I wish more people knew about. The first round of 20Qs I followed (despite not actually participating in the thread) was the Abram Petrovich Gannibal round. Getting to learn about a fascinating historical figure who I had never had heard of before helped "hook" me on this game.

No matter who you pick, some players are going to have advantages over others, based on their backgrounds, and I think that's fine. I had no chance at the Jonathan King round, as an American. I could probably pick Americans with similar levels of notoriety that our friends across the pond would equally struggle with. I honestly believe, cdngooner, that I may very well have been the only contestant playing who had heard of Alexander Butterfield. I just happened to have listened to a podcast about his role in Watergate a year or two ago.

To summarize my argument: I think that there is room in this game for both pop-culture references and really important figures in more niche fields. The game would be less rich if either of those categories went away, and it is fun because, at the start of the game, you never know which direction the game is going to go in.

I have one more defense to make. Hominidae's pick of Ötzi is quite possibly my favorite target of all of the rounds since I started playing this game. To be clear, Ötzi was not in my working memory, but I had certainly heard of him before. This was a wonderful out-of-the-box pick - I like it when the QM asks the question, "How can I go in a direction no one else has ever gone?".

Okay, that's all I have to say on this matter. I don't plan on making any more comments about this.

* If you figure out which one, you are welcome to make fun of me for it.
** Note his proper middle name.

and there was I thinking you picked Luke Littler because it was game ONE HUNDRED AND EIGHTY!!!!!!

[cdngooner]

OK, I'll give you Otzi. That one was kind of fun. But not the computer scientist. This is a board for Diplomacy players, not coders. Let's make the games fun for everyone and rely on general knowledge.

[cdngooner]

Alive at any time from Jan 1, 1900 to Dec 31, 1999?

[han-shahanshah]

Primarily known for literary work?

[Hominidae]

I generally agree with Spartaculous. It's always going to be subjective which individuals are famous. I think ideally, the answer should either be familiar to everyone, or make everyone go "Oh right, that person I forgot the name of" (my reaction to Harold Holt), or make everyone go "Ah, someone I should probably know about" (my reaction to Donald Knuth). If it's always extremely famous people that everyone on the street knows about (on the level of Queen Elizabeth II or Mr. Rogers, who were both good choices to be clear), there is a narrow pool of possibilities and therefore the game will be too easy. The variety we've gotten is good.

[Hominidae]

Anyway, my actual question: Born in the Americas or Africa?

[Jamiet99uk]

I'm an American who frequently checks the BBC News website. I hope you believe me when I tell you that Luke Littler has been all over BBC News for the last month or so. I've also seen multiple front-page posts on Reddit about Littler. (A magazine I subscribe to* just had an article about the growing popularity of darts.) Perhaps I am mistaken, but I really got the sense that Littler has become rather a cultural phenomenon, at least in Britain.

...and there was I thinking you picked Luke Littler because it was game ONE HUNDRED AND EIGHTY!!!!!!

I also assumed that!

For the record, I had definitely heard of Luke Littler; his performances in the darts have been a big news story, because of his major tournament performances at such a young age (he has just turned 17 this month).

[DarthPorg36]

I generally agree with Spartaculous. It's always going to be subjective which individuals are famous. I think ideally, the answer should either be familiar to everyone, or make everyone go "Oh right, that person I forgot the name of" (my reaction to Harold Holt), or make everyone go "Ah, someone I should probably know about" (my reaction to Donald Knuth). If it's always extremely famous people that everyone on the street knows about (on the level of Queen Elizabeth II or Mr. Rogers, who were both good choices to be clear), there is a narrow pool of possibilities and therefore the game will be too easy. The variety we've gotten is good.

Yeah you know that's fair. I like learning about new people, it's fun, and I like the variety of people. I just wish I didn't have to look into the depths of wikipedia all the time, it's nice to have a breather now and then. To be fair though, all the recent picks have been relatively good.

[damo666]

Alive at any time from Jan 1, 1900 to Dec 31, 1999?

No