Just the FAQs: Acrophobia(TM)

AIA = Acro Is Addictive. This short document will introduce you to the basics of Acrophobia, especially on StarLink and DALnet, where your local games administrator is Eingang.

A Brief Description of the Game

Acrophobia(TM) is a Mach and Eingang game invented by Anthony "Ace" Shubert where players are presented with an acronym between 3 to 7 letters long. Their job then is to form the funniest/most original phrase for that acronym. Like all of our other games, Acrophobia(TM) can be played day or night on #acro with people from all around the world through the magic of the Internet Relay Chat. If you do not know about the IRC and how to use it, you can consult the primer which will explain how to connect, obtain clients, and navigate around the IRC.

Acrophobia(TM) as a name and a concept is used on the WWW pages and on the various IRC networks under a licensing agreement with Berkeley Systems (1997).

Acrophobia(TM) is simple in concept and simple in play. AcroBot randomly generates an acronym from 3-7 letters long. With acronyms of 5 or fewer letters, players then have 90 seconds to create an expansion for that acronym and /msg their answer to AcroBot using /msg AcroBot <Answer>. With acronyms of 6 or 7 letters, players will have 2 minutes to submit an answer. On systems other than GalaxyNet, StarLink, or StarChat, you must preface your answer with "acro" so that AcroBot knows you are not issuing an AcroBot command. AcroBot will acknowledge having received your answer.

Before the voting round takes place, AcroBot issues a 10-second warning to tell everyone that time is almost up for answer submission. At the conclusion of the answer submission period, AcroBot will randomise the answers and display them for voting. Each player is allowed to choose one acronym expansion submitted by another player. This is done by messaging AcroBot with the number of your choice using /msg AcroBot <Number>.

At the end of the voting period, AcroBot will tally the votes and display the answers and the votes for each answer. Scoring is variable and calculated by adding the number of votes an answer received. If the answer was the first answer to be received and the player submitting the answer has a score less than 25 points, the player is awarded an additional 2 speed points. The players with the highest tally of votes for that round receive bonus points equal to the number of letters in the round's acronym.

The following abbreviated example demonstrates a typical Acrophobia(TM) round.

 <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.

The game is over when a player is able to score 30 or more points total. Players can start any time simply by submitting an acronym expansion. Players will lose points for submitting an acronym but not voting. Players using multiple accounts or signons to cheat are not appreciated. /msging your friends to vote for you is also discouraged.

Additional Acro Features

Answers may now contain non-alphabetical characters inside words as well as the beginning character of each word. That is, "Creation:" G*d's Gift! is a valid answer if the acronym was CGG. This also enables answers like "Moonies:" Proctor &Gamble, if you so desire.
Answers are case-insensitive. So, if you submit !Acro rULeS big time, the answer will be displayed as !Acro rULeS big time.
You can change your nickname on the fly without any adverse effects. AcroBot will follow your nickname changes. In theory this means you can come back and resume your score if you get cut off. (If your nickname is still on the channel, this won't work!)
Duplicate answers are rejected by the 'bot, but only if the spelling of alphabetical characters in the answer is the same. So, "Eingang! Loves Acro!" would be rejected if "Eingang LoVeS AcRO" had already been accepted as a valid answer. The check for duplicate answers is also case- insensitive.
If you don't vote, you can't receive the bonus points (1 per letter in the acronym) for having the received the most votes.
Variable time allowed for submitting answers. When the length of the acronym is 4 or fewer letters, you have 60 seconds to submit an answer. 5 or 6 letters give you 90 seconds. Finally, if the acronym is 7 letters, you have 2 minutes.
Prefacing your answer with 'acro' is no longer required. However, in order to maintain compatability with IGM, answers can still be submitted with 'acro' in front of them. This does lead to a problem: If the first word of your answer is 'acro' then you could lose a point because then the 'bot thinks you're using the IGM method of submitting. To get around this, use /msg acrobot acro answer when the first word of your answer is, in fact, the word 'acro'.
If all the players who submitted answers have voted, the voting period will be cut short.

Where Can I Play?

Eingang runs the games on StarLink and on DALnet. The following table gives you the channel names and server names for the various trivia games.

  Network     Server                       Game                 Channel
  DALnet      viking.dal.net               Acrophobia           Not running

  EFnet                                    Acrophobia           #acro

  StarLink    denver.co.us.starlink.org    Acrophobia           Not running

  Undernet    us.undernet.org              Acrophobia           #acro

AcroBot Commands/Game Commands

A number of commands can be issued by players to AcroBot. The following list of commands should be sent via a private message to AcroBot. This can be done by typing /msg AcroBot cmd, where cmd is one of the following:

* show acro Messages you the current acronym in play.

* show scores Displays the current points accumulated by the players for the current game.

* show hall of fame (or show hof) Shows the top ten all-time Acro winners, compiled from monthly winners.

* show top wins Will send you the list of the 10 players with the greatest number of wins during the current month.

* show top scores Will send you the list of the 10 players with the greatest number of points in a single game during the current month.

Channel Operators

Channel operators are users entrusted to maintain order on the channel as well as correct errors and notify the administration in the event of errors or mishaps. If you are not on the bot op list and think that you qualify, contact the appropriate game administrator.

We cannot stress the importance of operators behaving appropriately. With so many games running, it is impossible for the game administrators to monitor all the channels all the time. As such, we rely on the operators to enforce the rules, particularly the rules regarding language and conduct on the channel. The games are designed to be family-friendly. If you are an operator or would like to be an operator, please be sure that you are also committed to this.

If you think someone is abusing their operator privileges or perhaps using them to cheat, please feel free to contact the appropriate game administrator with details of the problem.

For more information on becoming an operator, consult the How To Become a Channel Operator guide.

Channel Rules (For Everyone)

Thousands of people have played our games, from countries all around the world, at many different times of the day and the night. In order to make sure that everyone has a good time, we have formulated the following rules which lay out guidelines for proper behaviour from all the users of our game channels. With so many games running, it is impossible to monitor all the channels all the time. Therefore, we rely on the operators to enforce the rules, particularly the rules regarding language and conduct on the channel. The games are designed to be family-friendly, which means we do have restrictions on language and content, for the comfort and enjoyment of all.

Channel operators are users entrusted to maintain order on the channel as well as to correct errors and notify the administration in the event of errors or mishaps. If you think someone is abusing their operator privileges or perhaps using them to cheat, please feel free to contact Eingang with details of the problem.

Treat everyone, including the bot, with respect. Be polite, obey the rules and contribute in a positive way to the atmosphere of the channel.
No profanity/no vulgarity. We recognize that, at times, the game can be extremely frustrating. We would like to suggest that you make use of the following fun and clean expletives to express your displeasure: Krunk! Aaaargh! Ack! Wok?! Eep! Krunkola!
The official language of all the game channels is English. Unless the game category calls for something in a foreign language (in trivia or Chaos), all conversation on the channel and answers submitted to the bot should be English.
The game bots are programs, albeit programs with some degree of sophistication. The game bots have no idea of what is really right and what is really wrong. All they can go by is what was programmed into them by the category writer. Therefore, when the bot claims that the answer is "Aplpe" instead of "Apple," there is not much point in abusing the bot about it. Use the /note command to report the error instead of complaining.
Do not idle for more than a half hour or so on the game channels.
Use of scripts with answers in them and/or using multiple logons or accounts to play the games is considered cheating. Players caught cheating will be permently banned from the games.
Nuking, spamming, or auto-dccing files to players upon join is strictly prohibited. Users engaging in these activities will be banned.

For a complete list of rules, please check our Acceptable Use Policy

About the Authors

Acrophobia(TM) was developed by the team of Mach and Eingang, based on an idea by Anthony Shubert, in 1995. Mach was a Ph.D. student in computer science at the University of California at Davis. He is now working for Intel in Portland, Oregon. Eingang is a Ph.D. student in computer science at the University of Sussex, in Brighton, England. She works with her husband at their Web design firm.

Mach's e-mail address is kenrick@acm.org . Eingang's e-mail address is eingang@eingang.org.

Michelle A. Hoyle
Just the FAQs: Acro, Last modified: November 25, 2002