Talk to Inverted With This Facebook Messaging Bot
Whether you want to get into the Stranger Things spirit without sacrificing a security deposit for your apartment, or just miss the trivia with SmarterChild (RIP AIM), there’s a chatbot for that.
Tangent, a London-based digital creativity agency, has created El bot , a Facebook messenger bot that communicates primarily through interactive text fields and GIF light images.
The main menu gives you interactive options to get to know the characters, listen to the soundtrack, talk to the wall, or read the news. If you choose the first option, it asks you a few questions that seem to aim to establish where you are and how much you know about the show, before presenting you with a series of GIFs and trivia about the chosen character. Others let you find a playlist, read the breaking news, or have a very short click-to-choose conversation with a GIF of the infamous wall.
Most of the interaction with El should be done through button parameters, not text input; Entering questions or even character names outside of the main D&D group is puzzling. She doesn’t answer “Benny”, which seems very ungrateful, albeit somewhat appropriate. I also somehow managed to break the plugin after I asked too many unrecognized words, which seems to be causing the GIF nosebleed.
He clearly lacks attitude, unlike his namesake, but that’s enough for a fun 15 minutes at your table, and I found at least one funny little Easter egg (we won’t spoil it here). Elbot is also only about a week old, so she still has to learn. And who doesn’t want to dance Hopper some more a day.