Website / Akinator

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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. In 2020, the game was updated to include the ability to also guess objects, animals, and movies / TV shows (the latter being a mobile exclusive mode).

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

I think of... these tropes:

• Abridged for Children: There's a French exclusive version of the game known as Akinator Kids, complete in 3D and having a new "inverted mode" where the player is now the one guessing the characters.
• Allegedly Free Game: If you visit Akinator's website from a mobile OS or are playing the game from an Akinator mobile app, there is a limit on how many characters you can play for free before all but the most popular characters get flagged as "VIP characters" that you must unlock by paying real money. No such restrictions apply if you are playing Akinator from a desktop PC.
• Artificial Stupidity: Akinator doesn't take into account the similarities between questions, so you may be asked the same question with different wording multiple times, or you may be asked contradictory questions (such as about a character's age, hair color, clothing...). He can even ask the same question again with no changes. His face also reflects poorly on how close he actually is to the answer, sometimes suddenly getting the "close to the answer" look and asking something utterly irrelevant.
• The Assimilator: 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.
• 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. One reason he might do this is that he's actually already figured out your character, and is using the extra questions to learn more about them.
• "Blind Idiot" Translation: If you get caught for cheating in the mobile version, Akinator says "You have been caught for irregular games. You do not have joker anymore". It's likely meant to be interpreted like "your actions are no longer a joke".
• Bread, Eggs, Milk, Squick: Can occasionally be invoked with a combination of questions; for example, "Is your character a My Little Pony?" "Does your character have wings?" "Is your character a serial killer?"
• Cosmetic Award: If you get top three on the leaderboard in the mobile version, all you get is a either a gold, silver, or bronze star, with the number on it increasing depending on how many times you've had that same placement, though it never goes away unless you get a higher rank, if there even is one you haven't gotten yet.
• Curb-Stomp Battle: Sometimes, he may end up guessing your character in a few questions.
• Developer's Foresight: Has its own page.
• Department of Redundancy Department:
  • Sometimes, he may ask questions like this. Examples are asking "Does your character wear a mask?" after you answer yes to "Does your character always wear a mask".
  • Expect lots of different questions all pertaining to hair color.
• Evil Twin: A possible answer is "Akinator's evil brother," who looks the same as Akinator only with dark clothing.
• Excuse Plot: In the old version of the website, there was the "Story of Akinator". It's simply there to explain how the titular genie came to be and does not tie into the gameplay at all.
• Expressive Accessory: The feather in Akinator's turban curls like a question mark when Akinator is curious and becomes jagged when Akinator is angry.
• Fission Mailed: Sometimes he only guesses the wrong character because he tries to guess too quickly. Click "Yes" to continue, and the second time he guesses, he'll usually be right. (For example, answering questions in a certain way may cause him to guess "Urdnot Wrex" from the Mass Effect series. If you were thinking of "Urdnot Grunt" instead, who superficially has a lot of similar characteristics but isn't as famous and therefore wouldn't spring to mind as quickly, rest assured that he'll answer "Grunt" the second time he tries to venture a guess after you've given him more information.) There's always a 90% chance he'll guess correctly after four or five tries.
• Genie in a Bottle: Akinator, though he doesn't grant wishes.
• Gold–Silver–Copper Standard: The ranking system in the mobile version uses, from least to most valuable, bronze, silver, and gold Aki Awards, alongside the platinum and "black" award above them, and "standard" under all of them.
• Graceful Loser: Akinator applauds you while saying, "Bravo! You have defeated me." when he failed to guess your character.
• High-Pressure Emotion: Akinator's forehead turns slightly red when really struggling to figure out the answer in the old version of the game. His sprite sheet was overhauled in 2018 so this no longer happens in the sprite.
• Hive Mind: Akinator's "intelligence" is the result of thousands of users' contributions.
• The Computer Is a Cheating Bastard: A literal example of Akinator cheating; one of the possible poses for Akinator is him (seemingly) looking up whatever you're trying to guess on his phone.
• The Internet Is for Porn:
  • If the character is female and real, expect "is it a porn actor?" to come up.
  • "Is it related to sex?" or some variation appears almost every time in the objects game mode.
• It Only Works Once: The goal is to think of a character Akinator can't guess, but if you succeed at this, you're asked to specify who you were thinking of so Akinator will be able to answer correctly if someone else gives the same answers while thinking of the same character.
• Just One More Level!: The website was supposedly created to satisfy Akinator's perpetual addiction to 20 Questions. From the other side of the screen, people can spend quite a bit of time finding a character obscure enough to stump him.
• Know-Nothing Know-It-All: One of the few ways of throwing him off is... by not knowing enough or knowing wrong facts about the character you're thinking of. Sometimes not even that is enough to fool him.
• Meta Multiplayer: The mobile version features a daily leaderboard, with players earning points from awards based on how long ago a character was played, with 6 months ago landing the coveted black award and the most points.
• Mood-Swinger: Akinator can switch from raging mad (usually after a string of "no"s) to smugly satisfied with a single question (if you answer yes after said string). He can also become confused if you give him an answer he did not expect, especially if he was very sure that he knew who it was.
• No Fair Cheating: The mobile version features one where after a game is completed, sometimes Akinator will bring up a character who's irrelevant to what you're trying to guess. If you say no to it, he'll either give you another fake answer (up to three times) or his real one, and if you press yes to one of the fake answers, he'll scold you and remove a varying amount of leaderboard points from you.
• Non Sequitur: The questions can be extremely vague (Is your character real?) or very detailed (Is your character a Defender for Chelsea FC?), especially jarring when they follow each other.
• 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.
• Oh, Crap!: If Akinator asks a very specific question, it (usually) means he knows the answer. However, there are times where he actually doesn't know, but nonetheless was very sure that he had it; see Mood-Swinger above.
• Pop-Cultural Osmosis: Akinator is more likely to correctly guess a Villain of the Week from an obscure anime than, say, an important historical figure.
• Pstandard Psychic Pstance: Some of Akinator's poses when he tries to guess the player's character involve him placing his palms on his head, indicating he's trying to read their mind.
• Rouge Angles of Satin: Some of the characters' names are poorly spelled (e.x. "Centerpedle" instead of Centipeetle). They can thankfully be fixed, however.
• Small Name, Big Ego: He'll often start to get a little narcissistic ("Is your character handsome?") if you're using him.
• Self-Deprecation: "The maker of this site" is represented by a literal jackass.
• Take That!: Unpopular people, such as George W. Bush or Tim Buckley, generally are associated with questions like "Is your character stupid?"
• Victory Pose: Whenever he correctly guesses a character, Akinator will pump his arms up and smile with glee. Considering how many characters are in his database, you'll be seeing this pose a lot.
• Virtual Paper Doll: You can buy costumes and hats for Akinator in the mobile app version.