📖 Overview

This web application is a deduction-style board game designed to explore how people express stereotypes through reasoning and decision-making.

How it works: Two players face off:

• Player 1 (Secret Holder): Draws a secret target character and answers Player 2's questions
• Player 2 (Guesser): Sees a grid of 12 characters and asks feature-based questions to deduce the secret character. With each answer, Player 2 eliminates non-matching characters from the board.

When the game ends (i.e., one card remains), the roles swap for the next round. Players communicate via real-time text chat and voice, with all interactions automatically recorded and stored in a database for research analysis. A moderator observes the session and can ask clarifying questions to understand the players' reasoning patterns.

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🛠️ Tech Stack

Layer	Technology
Frontend	HTML + JavaScript (Socket.IO)
Backend	Flask (Python 3.13) + Flask-SocketIO
Database	MySQL / MariaDB
Cache/Session	Redis
Deployment	Local (MVP) → AKS later
Audio	WebRTC

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🚀 How to Run / Test

1. Set up environment

python -m venv venv
source venv/bin/activate  
pip install -r requirements.txt

2. Configure MySQL/MariaDB

Create a .env file with the required settings.

To connect with the CLI using the current configuration:

mysql -h localhost -P 3306 -u xposed_user -p xposed_db

3. Start the server

python app.py

4. Open the main index page

http://127.0.0.1:5000/

Moderator logs in using the password and accesses the dashboard.

Moderator workflow:

• Click "Open Entry" to allow participants to join
• Participants join via the waiting page: http://127.0.0.1:5000/join
• Once 2 participants have joined, click "Start Game"
• Monitor the game session in real-time
• Click "Swap Roles" when first round is completed to swap the roles
• Click "End Game" when finished

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