# Defeat the Akinator! **URL:** \ **Category:** The Game Room\ **Created:** [October 5, 2011, 8:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/defeat-the-akinator/598724 "2011-10-05T20:50:01Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![paperbackwriter](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/53a042/32.png) [@paperbackwriter](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/paperbackwriter)\ **Post date:** [October 8, 2011, 12:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/defeat-the-akinator/598724/41 "2011-10-08T00:04:28Z")
Defeated with [Tokugawa Yoshinobu](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tokugawa_Yoshinobu), 15th and last shogun of Japan. Akinator does better with European and US names, I think. ---
**Author:** ![Bosda\_Di\_Chi\_of\_Tricor](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bosda_di_chi_of_tricor/32/16845_2.png) [@Bosda\_Di\_Chi\_of\_Tricor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bosda_Di_Chi_of_Tricor)\ **Post date:** [October 8, 2011, 12:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/defeat-the-akinator/598724/42 "2011-10-08T00:08:44Z")
> [@Ximenean](#): > > It seems a bit US-oriented. It has not even heard of Lloyd Mangram. I had to add Lloyd Mangram to the database, like he was some schmuck. Who is Lloyd Mangram? Some schmuck? 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Sr\_Siete](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/6de8d8/32.png) [@Sr\_Siete](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sr_Siete)\ **Post date:** [October 8, 2011, 12:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/defeat-the-akinator/598724/43 "2011-10-08T00:27:38Z")
I stumped it with Swee Pea, from Popeye? That’s crazy. I guess that a lot of guesses depend of how well the guy answering knows the character. In this case I answered “partially” to the questions about it being from a cartoon. I guess many people don’t know about Segar and just answer “yes”. Come to think about it, it took him ages to guess Wonder Woman. Maybe a lot of people just answered “yes” to “Is your character American”? ---
**Author:** ![Sr\_Siete](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/6de8d8/32.png) [@Sr\_Siete](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sr_Siete)\ **Post date:** [October 8, 2011, 12:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/defeat-the-akinator/598724/44 "2011-10-08T00:31:30Z")
Holy cow! He guessed Sam Temple from the “Gone” series at the first try! Again, probably a case of there being only one clear source for the character’s narrative. So Akinator may be better at obscure characters with limited information about them. ---
**Author:** ![Bosda\_Di\_Chi\_of\_Tricor](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bosda_di_chi_of_tricor/32/16845_2.png) [@Bosda\_Di\_Chi\_of\_Tricor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bosda_Di_Chi_of_Tricor)\ **Post date:** [October 8, 2011, 1:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/defeat-the-akinator/598724/45 "2011-10-08T01:25:54Z")
Took 2 levels, but he got Wesley Dodd, the Sandman. ---
**Author:** ![Jules\_Andre](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jules_andre/32/9334_2.png) [@Jules\_Andre](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jules_Andre)\ **Post date:** [October 8, 2011, 8:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/defeat-the-akinator/598724/46 "2011-10-08T08:51:42Z")
The best I did was 30 questions (and one failed guess) with Max from the old Mighty Max cartoon. ---
**Author:** ![Leaper](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/4bbf92/32.png) [@Leaper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Leaper)\ **Post date:** [October 8, 2011, 9:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/defeat-the-akinator/598724/47 "2011-10-08T09:08:13Z")
I stumped it four times (legit ones, not ones where name was already in the database): Jack Marshak of _Friday the 13th, the Series_, the NPC Kromede of the MMO Aion, Amos of Dragon Quest VI, and Sir Henry Merrivale, the John Dickson Carr detective. Nothing beats that sinking feeling you get when he starts asking questions pretty specific to OTHER characters in the same work you got yours from. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Electric\_Warrior](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/ee7513/32.png) [@Electric\_Warrior](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Electric_Warrior)\ **Post date:** [October 8, 2011, 9:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/defeat-the-akinator/598724/48 "2011-10-08T09:19:27Z")
It got Melisandre from _A Song of Ice and Fire_ so I went much more obscure and stumped it with Oliver from the _Chanson de Roland_, which I’m reading for a class. ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [October 8, 2011, 6:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/defeat-the-akinator/598724/49 "2011-10-08T18:24:02Z")
> [@](#): > > I guess that a lot of guesses depend of how well the guy answering knows the character. In this case I answered “partially” to the questions about it being from a cartoon. I guess many people don’t know about Segar and just answer “yes”. Or maybe they knew about Segar, and therefore answered “yes” to being from a cartoon. Specifically, the cartoons Segar drew. Unless it specifically asked about _animated_ cartoons? But yeah, I seem to draw finer distinctions on those things than other answerers do. I’ll only answer that a character is _from_ an animated cartoon, or from a TV show, or from a movie, if that was the source of the character. This is as opposed to “Did you character ever appear in a movie?”, or the like. So for instance, if I’m thinking Aragorn, I’d answer “no” to “Is your character from a movie?”, but “yes” to “Has your character ever been in a movie?”. ---
**Author:** ![Little\_Nemo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/little_nemo/32/3120_2.png) [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)\ **Post date:** [October 8, 2011, 6:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/defeat-the-akinator/598724/50 "2011-10-08T18:58:37Z")
It got Jed Bartlett with ease. I knew it was going to guess right when one of the questions was “Has your character been President of the United States?” ---
**Author:** ![KatieGeorge\_TW](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/df788c/32.png) [@KatieGeorge\_TW](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/KatieGeorge_TW)\ **Post date:** [November 23, 2013, 6:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/defeat-the-akinator/598724/51 "2013-11-23T18:14:35Z")
I managed to beat the akinator with Ryan Tomlin ([www.youtube.com/itsryanhere](http://www.youtube.com/itsryanhere)) and it kept suggesting ksi. I also just beat it with Ty Pennington from extreme makeover home edition I’m pretty chuffed with that lol twice in one evening 😛 ---
**Author:** ![DeptfordX](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e68b1a/32.png) [@DeptfordX](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DeptfordX)\ **Post date:** [November 24, 2013, 11:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/defeat-the-akinator/598724/52 "2013-11-24T23:09:35Z")
I just beat it with Anomander Rake from the Mazalan Books, came pretty close, suggested Trull Sengar but it had to admit defeat. ---
**Author:** ![Revtim](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/revtim/32/1042_2.png) [@Revtim](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Revtim)\ **Post date:** [November 25, 2013, 12:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/defeat-the-akinator/598724/53 "2013-11-25T00:04:00Z")
I beat it with Dr. Simon Finch-Royce, the marriage expert played by John Cleese on Cheers. Is it cheating to use a character that only appeared once? ---
**Author:** ![EmilyG](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/emilyg/32/364_2.png) [@EmilyG](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/EmilyG)\ **Post date:** [November 25, 2013, 12:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/defeat-the-akinator/598724/54 "2013-11-25T00:11:38Z")
I tried “a zombie,” but Akinator guessed it pretty quickly. 😉 ---
**Author:** ![Dave\_Hartwick](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/7feea3/32.png) [@Dave\_Hartwick](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dave_Hartwick)\ **Post date:** [November 25, 2013, 3:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/defeat-the-akinator/598724/55 "2013-11-25T03:28:43Z")
I tried Robert Sheckley. It guessed Hunter S. Thompson, Ray Bradbury, and Michael Crichton. Sheckley was at least in the data this time. It repeated questions several times, making for tedium. I didn’t bother trying again. ---
**Author:** ![Zyanthia](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/d6d6ee/32.png) [@Zyanthia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zyanthia)\ **Post date:** [November 25, 2013, 5:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/defeat-the-akinator/598724/56 "2013-11-25T17:01:59Z")
It took it two tries to get Morgan of Hed. ---
**Author:** ![Raza](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/raza/32/213_2.png) [@Raza](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Raza)\ **Post date:** [November 25, 2013, 10:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/defeat-the-akinator/598724/57 "2013-11-25T22:04:36Z")
It took two tries to get Billy Ray Valentine (Trading Places). I beat it with Archie Leach (A Fish Called Wanda, John Cleese’s character). ---
**Author:** ![Andy\_L](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/c67d28/32.png) [@Andy\_L](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Andy_L)\ **Post date:** [November 25, 2013, 10:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/defeat-the-akinator/598724/58 "2013-11-25T22:13:25Z")
I saw this kind of thing when it was called “Dictator or Sitcom character” (quite a long time ago in Internet terms), but it’s still pretty addictive. It got Ted Mosby quite quickly ---
**Author:** ![LawMonkey](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/d6d6ee/32.png) [@LawMonkey](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LawMonkey)\ **Post date:** [November 25, 2013, 10:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/defeat-the-akinator/598724/59 "2013-11-25T22:52:37Z")
Well, so far it’s gotten Mrs. Brisby from The Secret of NIMH, Oliver Cromwell, and Nero Wolfe from me… ---
**Author:** ![Skywatcher](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/skywatcher/32/254_2.png) [@Skywatcher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skywatcher)\ **Post date:** [November 25, 2013, 11:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/defeat-the-akinator/598724/60 "2013-11-25T23:12:22Z")
> [@Andy\_L](#): > > “Dictator or Sitcom character” [Enjoy!](http://www.smalltime.com/Dictator) [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/defeat-the-akinator/598724.md?page=2) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/defeat-the-akinator/598724.md?page=4)