The Basics

The ESP Game is a two-player game. Each time you play you are randomly paired with another player whose identity you don't know. You can't communicate with your partner, and the only thing you have in common with them is that you can both see the same image. The goal is to guess what your partner is typing on each image. Once you both type the same word(s), you get a new image. Each time you type a word or phrase, you must press enter on your keyboard to submit it to the game. You can type as many guesses as you want, and as soon as a single guess of yours is equal to a guess that your partner has made, you get a new image. You have two and a half minutes to agree on 15 images.

Some images have taboo words, which you can't use; nor can you use any plural, singular, or word related to a taboo word. If one of the taboos for an image is the name of a color, you cannot use any other color as a guess. If you feel that an image is too hard, you can ask to pass by clicking the yellow pass button on the lower right corner. Clicking the button will generate a message on your partner's screen, letting them know that you want to pass. You cannot pass on an image until both you and your partner have hit the pass button.

Spelling

In order to agree on an word, both players have to spell it exactly the same. For instance, if one player types "grey" and the other player types "gray", there is no agreement. Similarly, there is no agreement if one player types "man" and the other types "men". To help with spelling mistakes or typos, the game is equipped with an American English dictionary. Every word that you enter that is in the dictionary will be displayed in white, and every word that is not in the dictionary (including numbers) will be displayed in orange.

Scoring

You get points each time you agree on an image with your partner. The exact number of points depends on how many taboo words the image has: the more taboos, the more points the image is worth. If you agree on 5 images you get a bonus of 350 points, if you agree on 10 images you get a bonus of 850 points, and if you agree on the 15 images you get a bonus of 2000 points. You can check how many images you have agreed on by looking at the progress meter at the bottom of the screen.

Strategy

The best strategy is to type as many words as you can related to the image, hoping that your partner types one of them.

The Flag Button

The flag button should be pressed if an image is inappropriate for the game. Inappropriate images are ones that are not "safe" for a general audience because they contain nudity or otherwise objectionable material. We put a huge effort into ensuring that no objectionable material is included in the game. If you encounter any images that are offensive, please report them to us by using the flag button.

After the Game

At the end of the game you can see a slide show of the images that you played with. For every image that you did not agree on, you can also see one of your partner's guesses.

Here is a web site address where you can play it.

http://www.espgame.org/cgi-bin/register