Guess Who?
Two-player deduction game first released in 1979.
Last updated
In the two-player board game Guess Who?, participants try to determine which character their opponent has selected.[1] Ora and Theo Coster, who founded Theora Design, created the game; both are Israeli.[1]
Making and release
Hasbro now owns the game.[1] Marvel Comics (2022, 24 characters), Super Mario (2022), Disney, Mr. Men, Peppa Pig, and The Simpsons editions also exist.[2] The initial Dutch version, titled Wie is het?, came out in 1979.[1] Among the themed editions with alternate faces are Star Wars (2008, 2014), Batman (2019), and Animal Crossing (2019).[2]
Travel-sized versions contain twenty faces, fewer than the standard set.[2] Extra games and mix-and-match sets appeared in 2008 and again in 2010.[2] Hasbro Interactive/Infogrames put out a computer adaptation of the game in 1999.[2] A Scratchcard variant also launched in 1999.[2]
What the cited sources add
A speech-language development website states that Guess Who? can be used to develop deductive reasoning and a wide range of receptive and expressive language skills.[3] The same source notes that Guess Who? is one of its author's favorite speech therapy games.[3] Mihai Nica's 2016 paper strongly solved the game, finding that the optimal strategy for a trailing player is to make bold plays to catch up.[4][5] A 2012 Independent article reported that a six-year-old girl asked Hasbro why her edition contained 19 male characters but only five females.[6]
Hasbro's response stated that the game was based on a "numerical equation".[6] The Independent article also noted that the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology used a version of Guess Who? to test prejudice among undergraduates.[6]
References
- Wikipedia, "Guess Who?" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Coster, "We All Wore Stars: Memories of Anne Frank from Her Classmates", St. Martin's Publishing Group, March 12, 2013, p. 3 (we also read that source) en.wikipedia.org
- Wikipedia, "Guess Who?" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: "Guess Who?", Metacritic (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
- "Using the Guess Who? Board game to encourage speech-language development", speech-language-development.com. facts only, no text reused. speech-language-development.com
- Optimal Strategy in "Guess Who?": Beyond Binary Search by Mihai Nica.. facts only, no text reused. arxiv.org
- Wikipedia, "Guess Who?" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Optimal Strategy in "Guess Who?": Beyond Binary Search by Mihai Nica. (we also read that source) en.wikipedia.org
- Sherwin, "Guess Who's sexist? Classic board game's gender bias leaves six-year-old fuming", The Independent, 17 November 2012. facts only, no text reused. independent.co.uk
Each numbered sentence above was checked against the source it cites before publication. Sentences citing Wikipedia adapt text from the English Wikipedia article Guess Who? (contributors), used under CC BY-SA 4.0; this entry is available under the same licence. Other sources were used for facts only; no text or images are copied from them.
More in Children's board games
Sources
Compiled from Wikipedia and the sources listed below. Text from Wikipedia is available under CC BY-SA 4.0; this entry is adapted from it.
- Wikipedia: Guess Who? (CC BY-SA 4.0).
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