Acrophobia (game)

A screenshot example, as players try to make a sentence from the provided words

Acrophobia is a multi-round, multiplayer online Internet Relay Chat game. The game was originally conceived by Anthony Shubert and programmed by Kenrick Mock (aka Mach) and Michelle Hoyle (aka Eingang) in 1995. Many other implementations have been created since then by a number of different developers.

Players enter a channel hosted by a bot which runs the game. In each round, the bot generates a random acronym. Players compete by racing to create the most coherent or humorous sentence that fits the acronym - in essence, a backronym. After a set amount of time expires, each player then votes anonymously via the bot for their favorite answer (aside from their own).

Points are awarded to the most popular backronym. Bonus points may be also be given based on the fastest response and for voting for the winning option. Some implementations give the speed bonus to the player with the first answer that received at least one vote; this is to discourage players from quickly entering gibberish just to be the first. Bonus points for voting for the winner helps discourage players from intentionally voting for poor answers to avoid giving votes to answers that might beat their own.

Usually, nonsense backronyms will score low and the most humorous sounding backronym which effectively makes a sentence from the initials will win. Some rounds may have a specific topic that the answers should fit, although enforcement of the topic depends on solely on the other players' willingness to vote for off-topic answers.

Acrophobia has similarities to the board game "Acronymble," which came on the market in 1991 and is produced by Acronymwits Inc. Acronymble works almost exactly like Acrophobia, but with the added twist of sometimes giving players all same letters to work with (e.g. 6 G's) and at other times allowing players to use their own words (e.g. using a 5 letter word that begins with "P") as the basis for their acronym.

Example round

This is an example of a typical round of Acrophobia as played on IRC:

<AcroBot> The current acronym for this round is: CIC 
-> *AcroBot* Chiron is Cool!
*AcroBot* Your answer of "Chiron is Cool!" has been registered.
<AcroBot> Ten seconds left.
<AcroBot> Voting Round:  Choose one of the following.  (Use /msg AcroBot <Number>)
<AcroBot> 1. Crazies induce Chaos
<AcroBot> 2. Coronary imminent, Candice!
<AcroBot> 3. Chiron is Cool!
-> *AcroBot* 2
*AcroBot* Your vote has been registered.
<AcroBot> Eingang's answer of "Coronary imminent, Candice!" received 1 vote.
<AcroBot> Eingang gets 2 speed points.
<AcroBot> Mach's answer of "Chiron is Cool!" received 2 votes.
<AcroBot> Loser's answer of "Crazies induce Chaos" receive 0 votes.
<AcroBot> Mach receives 3 bonus points.

External links

• Newest AcroPhobia remake - available on Facebook.
• Wired article about Acrophobia
• Acrophobia FAQ
• Alphabet Soup
• AcroWars, a Flash-based Acrophobia clone
• Video of gameplay
• Verbaphobic, a Twitter based Acrophobia Clone