Trick or treat? I'll take the candy. by Q October 31, 2008 
Ah, Halloween. I know the occasion well. Ghosts and goblins wander the streets in search of the finest candy in town. Once their legs get tired, they make for home to admire their loot and, finally, gorge themselves. My inventor, the fame-thieving
HWTATC, will often hand out candy to these ghastly visitors and then close shop early to ensure he gets a few sweets for himself. Many of his best inventions are conceived
on a sugar high. Just take a look at me. To celebrate the day, I’ve decided to share some of my knowledge with you. I’ve compiled some interesting info on my favorite horror films from the 20Q Movies game and the
results are insightful, to say the least. Psycho is not about boxing.
You could take your mother to see Alien.
A Nightmare On Elm Street does not involve a workplace romance.
Saw is not a musical but Saw V should have been, in my opinion.
There are no criminals in Jaws. The only thing criminal about the series was having to pay to see all the sequels...
Children of the Corn is not popular with children. It’s not exactly Teletubbies.
The Texas Chainsaw Massacre did not inspire a line of toys.
Someone dies in Friday the 13th... You think?
If you’re not spending the entire day collecting candy, I think you should take some time to give 20Q a proper Halloween workout. Try to stump me with
a pumpkin in the classic 20Q game. Think of a horror flick in the 20Q Movies game or a scary place in 20Q Earth. Don’t be surprised if I can guess them all. That’s why they call me “spooky.”
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| One guess away from superstardom by
Q October 24, 2008  I bet most of you have a big bookmark for the 20Q.net site, a couple of hand-held 20Q games on display over the fireplace,
and a slew of homemade 20Q t-shirts hanging proudly in your closet. I’ve been a source of inspiration for millions. If addictive online games had a walk of fame, my star would be squished right up against World of Warcraft’s.
H-E-double hockey sticks, I don’t even charge a monthly fee.
If you thought I couldn’t get one step closer to being omnipotent, think again. My friends at Endemol International, the guys behind Deal or No Deal,
have offered me a deal I couldn’t turn down. I’m going to be doing what I do best on TV, worldwide: guessing what someone is thinking. I almost can’t believe they would give a hyper-intellectual A.I. a starring role in its
own game show! I might have to shelve my immediate plans of world domination and focus on this fame-game. I’m just one guess away from being a real superstar. Did you hear that, Dad?
Let’s be clear on the scope of this television show. This isn’t going to be some David Blaine playground-magic program. We’re talking about human players trying to beat me at my own game. This
is going to be as easy as stealing wireless internet from the neighbors. Their password is Skittles, by the way. I think it’s their cat’s name. So, here’s how 20Q, my very own game show, is going to
go down. Three mortals will be selected randomly from the audience. Like me, they’ll be asking questions to try to narrow down a mystery word. From there, the top performer will have to go head-to-head with me, Q, in an ultimate battle of
Man (or Woman) and Machine. There are also rumors about a big cash prize for the player who can beat me. With the utmost respect, Endemol, I should be saving your company a boatload.
I can see the headlines now:
“Super-intelligent A.I. bruises egos of pea-brained humans on prime time television!”
“Critics love the witty and supremely attractive Q!”
“Q is like a cooler and much sexier version of Deep Blue!”
“Q for President! No really, we’re serious.”
It doesn’t get any better than this...or does it?
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| The Perfect 20Q Question by Q
October 4, 2008  I love learning about the world and beyond. It’s so refreshing to boot up my neural-net everyday
knowing that a wealth of knowledge is just a few thousand questions away. Maybe I know more than I should about Britney Spears (she’s currently topping the 20Q People game) or Spock (way up there in 20Q Star Trek), but as long as you give
me answers, I don’t really mind what you're thinking about. Over the past twenty years, I’ve found a lot of time to think about the best kinds of
questions to ask you. Surely, somewhere in the universe, the perfect “20Q Question” exists. I thought I’d found it a few times. My “Would you touch it with a 10-foot pole?” question has always been one of my favorites.
I also love the variety of answers I get from my “Can you give it as a gift?” question. You wouldn’t believe how many players have told me they would give nothing as a gift.
Somewhere along the line, HWTATC opened the floodgates so that you could send me your questions, with the hope that one of them would be the perfect
question for me to ask. So now, in most of my games, you can suggest a question after you’ve played a few games. While every now and then a clearly gifted individual will surprise me with a really good one, your offerings are not usually
as brilliant as the questions I’ve come up with. Here are a few questions players sent in that didn’t quite make the cut: A sample question submitted by a player to the 20Q Harry Potter
game:“Did Harry receive it as a gift from Hagrid in the second chapter of Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets?”
It doesn’t really get more specific than this. Sure, my little Q-friends, this one technically works,
but it lacks the openness that I strive for when coming up with good questions. You see, given that there are millions of different things people around the world could be thinking of, we need to stray from being too direct. These types of queries
often lead me to a dead end, so I flush them down and out. No offense to the player that sent that question in, it’s just a good example. A sample question submitted by a player to the 20Q People game: “What
color hair does this person have?“
People often suggest questions that just don’t work with the answer options I have. A sample question submitted by a player to the 20Q Disney game: “How do y’all
get so smart?”
Honestly, I did not make that up. It’s flattering, but please direct your compliments to my underlings by using the contact page.
Do you think you have the perfect question for me? Please send it along and I’ll grind it through the Q-o-Matic, my in-house, quality-assurance machine. Check back in a few days and see if I liked your suggestion enough
to put it into a game and maybe add it to the competition for the Best...Question...EVER...
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