A few weekends or so ago I hinted at a new blog series I was going to start up that was similar to Member Herding in that it involved a series of questions but different enough it wouldn't feel like Member Herding. If you've heard of the old game "20 questions" - then this will be very familiar for you.

 Twenty Questions is a spoken parlor game which encourages deductive reasoning and creativity. It originated in the United States and escalated in popularity during the late 1940s when it became the format for a successful weekly radio quiz program. In the traditional game, one player is chosen to be the answerer. That person chooses a subject but does not reveal this to the others. All other players are questioners. They each take turns asking a question which can be answered with a simple "Yes" or "No." In variants of the game multiple state answers may be included such as the answer "Maybe." The answerer answers each question in turn. If a questioner guesses the correct answer, that questioner wins and becomes the answerer for the next round. If 20 questions are asked without a correct guess, then the answerer has stumped the questioners and gets to be the answerer for another round.

Well, that was the 1940's version...this is the modern era gamer's edition. Basically, I ask a chosen person from the Game Informer Online community twenty random questions that are pop culture or video game related and you all have to try and guess (by commenting) who the person is. At the end of the day (or some other time), I'll reveal the person's identity and we'll see how well you all did; how well you know your fellow community members.

So, my plan is to do one of these a month unless of course it fails miserably, at which time I will never mention it again and hope that over time it will fade away into oblivion. My intention is for this to be a mechanism to get the community to find out more about one another and become more united, so I hope it does well. I guess we'll see how it goes though.

The questions are generic and short enough so the answers aren't glaringly obvious who the person is. I'm sure you can identify many of the bloggers and commenters here by their writing style, but with a one word answer, obviously that's not quite as revealing. So yeah, short questions = short answers. Good luck. You'll need it. And with each of the questions, I provide a comment after the fact, just to kind of throw my thoughts on the answer into the mix - for the mystery gamer and the rest of the community to ponder (my comments will be in parenthesis).

Let's roll...

20 Questions

1. Battlefield 3 or Modern Warfare 3?

Battlefield 3 (Concur)

2. Controller or Joystick?

 Trick question? (Not really. Joystick is more of a throwback term, controller is more modern.)

3. Do you prefer geek or nerd?

Nerd (Geek)

4. Droid or iPhone?

Droid (iPhone)

5. Favorite cartoon?

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (Favorite turtle?)

6. Favorite character from a video game?

James Patterson (My first thought was, "The author?" - I'll assume you meant Medal of Honor?)

7. Favorite portable gaming device?

Gameboy (Not the first, or the last...but definitely one of the best)

8. Favorite weapon from a video game?

Double Barrel Shotgun Doom II (Interesting choice. Good times using that to take out Imps)

9. Have you ever taken an arrow to the knee?

I did once, but then... (Hah Hah...brilliant!)

10. Have you ever used the Konami Code in a game of Contra?

Only every single time (I only wish I knew about it when I first started playing the game.)

11. If you could meet anyone from Game Informer, who would it be?

Tim Turi (Ah, the legendary Tim Turi...I can see that.)

12. If you could be any video game character, who would it be?

Duke Nukem (I WOULD NOT have guessed that.)

13. If you could order something from Think Geek right now, what would it be?

Stay Puft Marshmallows (Um, say what? Over the Jawa lawn gnome?)

14. List one game on your top five video game list?

Mega Man 2 (Ah, aka Rockman 2: The Mystery of Dr. Wily released December 24, 1988...interesting.)

15. Longest you've ever played video games in one day?

10 hours? (I find that hard to believe. Maybe 10 hours without getting up and using the bathroom.)

16. Mario or Donkey Kong?

Mario (Perhaps I should've asked, "Mario or Luigi?")

17. Peach or Zelda?

Peach (Yup!)

18. Were you around for the Pac Man fever pandemic?

Nope (Seriously? How were you playing Atari 2600 and not around for Pac Man Fever?)

19. What is the first video game you ever recall playing?

Spiderman on Atari 2600 (Atari 2600, eh? The Heavy Sixer or Darth Vader model, I wonder...)

20. Xbox 360 or Playstation 3?

Xbox 360 (Hopefully I don't get you in any trouble, drawing a line in the sand and picking sides.)

And there you have it...twenty questions for you to consider before trying to come up with the identity of this mystery member from the Game Informer Online community. I was curious who the person thought would be able to guess their identity, so I also asked the below question that might aid you in deciding your response.

* Who do you think the SECOND person to guess correctly is going to be?

born4this

This concludes the first (of potentially others) edition of Guess that Gamer. I hope everyone enjoyed it and I look forward to the guesses. Remember, you get out of the community what you put into it, so join in on the fun and take a guess. Who knows, maybe episode two will feature you? Cheers.