Mind ‘games’

Www.fun2play.com [1] was an addictive site that guaranteed hours of compelling, and intensely competitive word play with perfect strangers somewhere on the net. Sadly, one day the site spoke of shutting down, and soon after, my favourite ‘Word Prospector’ was gone. Years later, in a reminiscent moment, I logged on again, and found the site active and reinvented. It’s now something of a click through window to the wide world of word games events, on-line games, vocabulary enablers, suggested sites of

interest, and even games stores! Under the ‘Word Gamer’s Paradise’ legend prominently flagged on the almost painfully simply designed home page, is a poignant narrative from Dave Friedman that says it all: “January 1, 2000: One of the original purposes of this site was to promote my word games. Sales weren’t great (I liquidated), but I decided to maintain the rest of content. I hope you enjoy it.”
Scroll down to the section on Online Games. The very first on the list is ‘20 Questions’— the classic ‘Can you guess what I’m thinking within 20 questions’. The link clicks through to 20Q.net and you’re suddenly in an engrossing play environment, wise crack introductions to the game, and a world of extensions from on-line games in 19 languages, apps, egg shaped gaming devices, and a customisation offer as well!
20Q has earned tremendous reviews. It’s educational. It’s fun. And it’s spookily intuitive! The graphics around the ‘play’ icon, aggressively boast, ‘I Can Read Your Mind!’ Game categories include Disney, The Simpsons, Star Trek, and a whole lot more. I opted for movies, and being a devoted Angelina Jolie devotee, thought Mr. & Mrs. Smith. The questions are so cleverly crafted. They probed on whether the movie I had in mind is: funny; has a sequel; about a feuding family; about a divorce; whether popular in the ‘90s; relentlessly probing from all sorts of angles. It had me nailed within 20 questions.
Curious about the stated 80 per cent probability of reading my mind, I tried it again — with the same movie in mind. This time around the site hadn’t guessed my movie within 20 questions. It kept asking and guessing till 25 questions. Building its knowledge banks, I guess. 20 Questions is all about the fine art of asking the right questions. It sharpens deductive logic. And astounds me every time I give it a try!
— The author may be contacted at arup_kavan@yahoo.com [2]