Guess Who?

Template:Short description Template:About Template:Italic title {{#invoke:Infobox|infobox}}Template:Template other{{#invoke:Check for unknown parameters|check|unknown=Template:Main other|preview=Page using Template:Infobox game with unknown parameter "_VALUE_"|ignoreblank=y| actor | ages | AKA | alt | blank_data | blank_label | caption | date | designer | director | footnotes | genre | illustrator | image | image_alt | image_caption | image_link | image_size | isbn | isbn_note | italic title | label_width | language | logo | logo_alt | logo_caption | logo_link | logo_size | manufacturer | materials | media_type | movement | name | other_names | parent_game | players | playing_time | publisher | random_chance | related |series | setup_time | skills | subject_name | subtitle | system | title | voice_over | web | website | width | writer | years }} Guess Who? is a two-player board game in which players each guess the identity of the other's chosen character. The game was developed by Israeli game inventors Ora and Theo Coster, the founders of Theora Design. It was first released in Dutch in 1979 under the name Wie is het? Milton Bradley then produced the game in the United Kingdom, and it was brought to the United States in 1982.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> It is now owned by Hasbro.

Gameplay

File:Dover AFB Youth Center Camps 140627-F-BO262-106 (cropped).jpg

A group of children playing the game

Each player starts the game with a board that includes cartoon images of 24 people and their first names with all the images standing up. Each player selects a card of their choice from a separate pile of cards containing the same 24 images. The objective of the game is to be the first to determine which card one's opponent has selected. Players alternate asking various yes or no questions to eliminate some of the candidates, such as:

• "Does your person wear a hat?"
• "Does your person wear glasses?"
• "Is your person a man?"

The player will then eliminate candidates (based on the opponent's response) by flipping those images down until only one is left. Well-crafted questions allow players to eliminate one or more possible cards.

Editions

Special editions which have different faces have been released, including Star Wars (released 2008 with 24 characters, and 2014 with 15 characters), Batman (released 2019), Animal Crossing (2019), Marvel Comics (released 2022, 24 characters), Super Mario (2022), Disney, Mr. Men, Peppa Pig and The Simpsons. There are smaller, "travel" editions that have only 20 different faces. In 2008 and 2010, extra and mix and match games were released.Template:Citation needed A computer game based on the series was released in 1999 by Hasbro Interactive/Infogrames.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> Also in 1999, a Scratchcard version of the game was released.

Advertising

In the United States, advertisements for the board game often showed the characters on the cards coming to life and making witty comments to each other. This caused later editions of such ads to carry the spoken disclaimer line "game cards do not actually talk" to meet Federal Trade Commission advertising guidelines requiring full disclosure of toy features unable to be replicated with the actual product.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>

Strategy

Popular belief is that a binary search is the most efficient approach to the game, with which each question halves the number of possible identities.<ref name="nica"/> This can be applied by asking complex questions - such as "Does your character have red hair, or glasses, or a big nose?" - where a yes or a no eliminates exactly half of the remaining characters.<ref name="lh">Template:Cite news</ref> Such a strategy takes only four questions to reduce the field to three people, giving the fifth question a 50/50 chance of identifying the opponent's character.

The game was strongly solved by Mihai Nica in 2016.<ref name="nica">Optimal Strategy in "Guess Who?": Beyond Binary Search by Mihai Nica.</ref> Nica's research found that while a player was ahead their optimal strategy was a binary search, and when behind they should instead make "bold plays" that had a chance of narrowing things down significantly, in order to pull ahead of the other player. Using this method, the first player has a 63% chance of winning under optimal play by both sides.

Use in education

Guess Who? has been used in educational contexts,<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref><ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref><ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> including the development of deductive reasoning skills. In addition, the game can be used for a wide range of speech and language development goals, including:

• Articulation
• Comprehension
• Question formation
• Describing salient features
• Vocabulary in foreign languages

Criticism of lack of diversity

Some have noted a bias toward white and male characters in Guess Who?.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref><ref name="indep" /><ref name="ns">Template:Cite news</ref> In 2012, a freelance journalist wrote to Hasbro on behalf of her six-year-old daughter, asking why there were only five female characters to choose from, as opposed to nineteen male characters. Hasbro's response was that the game was intended to "draw attention away from using gender or ethnicity as the focal point, and to concentrate on those things that we all have in common, rather than focus on our differences."<ref name="ns" />

In response to Hasbro's statement, the journalist said that she thought identifying physical differences was "the whole point" of the game, and asked: "Why is female gender regarded as a 'characteristic', while male gender is not?"<ref name="indep">Template:Cite news</ref> New Statesman criticized the "tone-deafness" of Hasbro's remarks.<ref name="ns"/><ref name="huffingtonpost.com">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>

Some editions of the game since the early 2000s have included more women.<ref name="indep" />

The original version of Guess Who? featured only one non-white character Template:Ndash Anne, a black woman who was redrawn in a subsequent edition as white. More recently, Hasbro has redesigned the board to feature a more racially diverse set of people.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>

Television adaptation

On April 19, 2021, Deadline Hollywood announced that a planned unscripted television adaptation of the board game was in early development at NBC and will be produced by Endemol Shine North America and Entertainment One (Hasbro's subsidiary).<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>

Characters

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A giant-sized game of Guess Who? at the Spiel festival, 2008

Name	Also known as	Gender	Eyes	Hair	Beard	Moustache	Big nose	Glasses	Hat	Introduced	Retired	Notes
Al	Alfred, Stephen	Male	Blue	Light brown	Template:No	Template:Yes	Template:No	Template:No	Template:No	1980	Template:Sdash
Alex	Template:Sdash	Male	Brown	Black	Template:No	Template:Yes	Template:No	Template:No	Template:No	1980	2018
Amy	Template:Sdash	Female	Brown	Highlights	Template:No	Template:No	Template:No	Template:Yes	Template:No	2018	Template:Sdash
Anita	Template:Sdash	Female	Blue	Blonde	Template:No	Template:No	Template:No	Template:No	Template:No	1980	2018
Anne	Template:Sdash	Female	Brown	Black	Template:No	Template:No	Template:Yes	Template:No	Template:No	1980	2018	Absent from 1998–2002
Ben	Template:Sdash	Male	Brown	Dark brown	Template:No	Template:No	Template:Yes	Template:Yes	Template:No	2018	Template:Sdash
Bernard	Template:Sdash	Male	Brown	Dark brown	Template:No	Template:No	Template:Yes	Template:No	Template:Yes	1980	2018
Betty	Template:Sdash	Female	Blue	White	Template:No	Template:No	Template:No	Template:Yes	Template:No	1999	2001
Bill	Phillipe	Male	Brown	Light brown	Template:Yes	Template:No	Template:No	Template:No	Template:No	1980	2018
Carmen	Template:Sdash	Female	Brown	White	Template:No	Template:No	Template:No	Template:No	Template:No	2002	Template:Sdash
Charles	Hans	Male	Brown	Blonde	Template:No	Template:Yes	Template:No	Template:No	Template:No	1980	2018
Claire	Sarah	Female	Brown	Light brown	Template:No	Template:No	Template:No	Template:Yes	Template:Yes	1980	2018
Daniel	Template:Sdash	Male	Green	Light brown	Template:Yes	Template:Yes	Template:Yes	Template:No	Template:No	2018	Template:Sdash
David	Luke, Lucas	Male	Brown	Blonde	Template:Yes	Template:No	Template:No	Template:No	Template:Yes	1980	Template:Sdash
Emma	Template:Sdash	Female	Brown	Light brown	Template:No	Template:No	Template:No	Template:No	Template:No	2018	Template:Sdash
Eric	Template:Sdash	Male	Brown	Blonde	Template:No	Template:No	Template:No	Template:No	Template:Yes	1980	Template:Sdash
Farah	Template:Sdash	Male	Blue	Black	Template:No	Template:No	Template:No	Template:No	Template:No	2018	Template:Sdash
Frans	Frank	Male	Brown	Light brown	Template:No	Template:No	Template:No	Template:No	Template:No	1980	1998
Gabe	Template:Sdash	Male	Brown	Black	Template:No	Template:No	Template:No	Template:No	Template:No	2018	Template:Sdash
George	Joe	Male	Brown	White	Template:No	Template:No	Template:No	Template:No	Template:Yes	1980	2001
Herman	Template:Sdash	Male	Brown	Light brown	Template:No	Template:No	Template:Yes	Template:No	Template:No	1980	2018
Holly	Katrin	Female	Brown	Dark brown	Template:No	Template:No	Template:No	Template:No	Template:No	1999	2018
Joe	Template:Sdash	Male	Brown	Blonde	Template:No	Template:No	Template:No	Template:Yes	Template:No	1980	Template:Sdash	Absent from 1998–2002
Jordan	Template:Sdash	Male	Brown	Highlights	Template:Yes	Template:Yes	Template:No	Template:No	Template:No	2018	Template:Sdash
Katie	Template:Sdash	Female	Blue	Blonde	Template:No	Template:No	Template:No	Template:No	Template:Yes	2018	Template:Sdash
Laura	Template:Sdash	Female	Green	Black	Template:No	Template:No	Template:No	Template:No	Template:No	2018	Template:Sdash
Leo	Template:Sdash	Male	Brown	White	Template:No	Template:Yes	Template:No	Template:No	Template:No	2018	Template:Sdash
Lily	Template:Sdash	Female	Green	Dark brown	Template:No	Template:No	Template:No	Template:No	Template:Yes	2018	Template:Sdash
Liz	Template:Sdash	Female	Blue	White	Template:No	Template:No	Template:No	Template:Yes	Template:No	2018	Template:Sdash
Maria	Template:Sdash	Female	Brown	Dark brown	Template:No	Template:No	Template:No	Template:No	Template:Yes	1980	2018
Max	Theo	Male	Brown	Dark brown	Template:No	Template:Yes	Template:Yes	Template:No	Template:No	1980	2018
Mia	Template:Sdash	Female	Brown	Black	Template:No	Template:No	Template:No	Template:No	Template:No	2018	Template:Sdash
Mike	Template:Sdash	Male	Brown	Black	Template:No	Template:No	Template:No	Template:No	Template:Yes	2018	Template:Sdash
Nick	Template:Sdash	Male	Brown	Blonde	Template:No	Template:No	Template:Yes	Template:No	Template:No	2018	Template:Sdash
Olivia	Template:Sdash	Female	Brown	Highlights	Template:No	Template:No	Template:No	Template:No	Template:No	2018	Template:Sdash
Paul	Template:Sdash	Male	Brown	White	Template:No	Template:No	Template:No	Template:Yes	Template:No	1980	2018
Peter	Template:Sdash	Male	Blue	White	Template:No	Template:No	Template:Yes	Template:No	Template:No	1980	2018	Absent from 1998–2002
Philip	Max, Mario	Male	Brown	Black	Template:Yes	Template:No	Template:No	Template:No	Template:No	1980	2018
Rachel	Template:Sdash	Female	Blue	Dark brown	Template:No	Template:No	Template:No	Template:Yes	Template:No	2018	Template:Sdash
Richard	Roger	Male	Brown	Dark brown	Template:Yes	Template:Yes	Template:No	Template:No	Template:No	1980	2018
Robert	Template:Sdash	Male	Blue	Dark brown	Template:No	Template:No	Template:Yes	Template:No	Template:No	1980	1999
Sally	Sophie	Female	Brown	Black	Template:No	Template:No	Template:No	Template:No	Template:No	1999	2018
Sam	Charles	Male	Brown	White	Template:No	Template:No	Template:No	Template:Yes	Template:No	1980	Template:Sdash
Sofia	Template:Sdash	Female	Green	Dark brown	Template:No	Template:No	Template:No	Template:No	Template:No	2018	Template:Sdash
Susan	Template:Sdash	Female	Brown	White	Template:No	Template:No	Template:No	Template:No	Template:No	1980	1998
Tom	Albert, Daniel	Male	Blue	Black	Template:No	Template:No	Template:No	Template:Yes	Template:No	1980	2018
Victor	Template:Sdash	Male	Brown	White	Template:No	Template:No	Template:No	Template:No	Template:No	1999	2018

External links

• Template:Bgg
• Theora Design – the designers.
• Template:Cite conference