Help me work out details of a new game

Not too far back we had a couple of threads relating to “Six Degrees” and names of people we knew. They were fun enough, and safe enough to protect the identities of those who wanted to participate. That feature ought to be preserved, I think.

But what if we try to make the game along the lines of 20 Questions and have it so that if the exactly correct questions are asked by just the right Dopers there’s a strong chance they could find someone they know in common?

If it’s true that the correct 20 questions can isolate anything in the know universe, and if it’s also true that none of us is further away than six links from every other person on the planet, the combination of the two ought to yield a neat game.

I’m not here to claim that either of these assertions is true. I’m just thinking a fun could be built off them.

Any ideas?

  • BUMP *

Okay, I see that the title, at least, drew some curious readers – enough to show some views anyway. And I can accept that the open-endedness of the request might be offputting. And maybe I didn’t explain enough to generate any real interest in such a project.

So, in my one bump before tossing this idea on the trash heap, let me suggest a few possibilities for further expansion or development.

So as not to ask Dopers to reveal too many private facts about themselves, but to permit as many non-threatening revelations about themselves such as age, general location (state, region, maybe even city if that’s not a problem), general interests, gender, hair color, and any number of attributes that could apply to a large number of people, the Questions posed would be progressively more specific (and perhaps privacy threatening) as two or more Dopers respond with positive answers.

The real life example that we could try to emulate would be a gathering of a dozen or more people who have no obvious relationship(s) with each other, such as a sales convention in a neutral place (let’s just say Des Moines), where all participants are free to ask as many questions as they want (as long as fewer than 20 questions per “round” are permitted) but the asking is limited to “fine tuning” the universe that the first question of the “round” has established. If the “round” produces no real-life match, it is jettisoned and a new “round” is started by another individual in the group.

Just as a further example, here’s an hypothetical start to a round:

Player 1: Do you know anybody in Walla Walla, Washington? (No yeses = end of the round)

New round

Player 2: Do you know anybody with a scar on their left (facial) cheek?
Player 3 responds “Yes” and follows up with "Does your person enjoy tatting as a hobby?
Player 2: No – Dead round

And so on.

Here’s where I’d like some feedback on how to develop such a game for Doper fun.

I’ll let this be my final post on the thread unless there’s some additional interest.