What’s your APPtitude? Try to stump the genie
By Amanda Merriman
Know that feeling you get when you’ve witnessed a cool magic trick? Or when you observe pure joy or wonderment from a child? How about when you’ve been able to outwit or stump a worthy opponent in a game? These experiences have been bottled up for your enjoyment in an app called “Akinator the Genie.”
The Akinator app is available for free on Android devices and at a nominal cost for Apple users. Akinator is an all-knowing genie that can eerily guess what character (real or fictional) the player is thinking of through a series of questions. It plays much like the game of 20 questions and can be played alone or with a larger audience.
Because often times the characters people pick are not well known to them or they have limited knowledge of the details of the character or the character’s life, participants may answer “yes,” “no,” “probably yes,” “probably no,” or “I don’t know” to the questions. If the Akinator guesses your character correctly on his first attempt, you earn points that can be used to customize the genie and background.
Though not infallible, the Akinator is pretty accurate at guessing characters that would be considered obscure, usually within 20 questions. In the rare case that you stump the Akinator, you are invited to share the details of your character so that he/she/it can be added to the database.
There is a child filter option to prevent inappropriate content from coming up if young ones are playing, and the app has proven fun and addicting for the whole family. Watching my youngest children gape and giggle in amazement as the Akinator correctly guessed Power Puff Girl Buttercup was priceless.
Akinator will remain a staple on my iPhone, to be used when some family fun is in order.
Do you have a favorite app? We want to hear about it and perhaps share it with our readers. Email editor@castlepinesconnection.com and watch for yours to be featured in coming months. Increase your APPtitude!
