Michael Steffen

Response to Kellee's Post: Holiday Quiz

Wow, I understand 100%. It's kind of sad, but I always find myself hesitating before I answer--do you do that too? Hmm, let's see...

I generally spin it towards what I'm interested in, since it's such a broad subject. Often goes something like this:
- First, I mention that we're affiliated with the School of Cinema-Television. This often has the effect of setting the asker more at ease, since she at least thinks she knows what ballpark my studies are in.
- Then I say some spiel about how we're studying ways to take traditional film storytelling techniques and make them interactive.
- Almost invariably, the asker thinks she gets it at this point, and goes on to say "so it's like animation then?"
- "No," I reply, "because you can't change what's happening on-screen."
- "Oh, uh...so what other kind of things are like that..."
- At that point, I reluctantly mention games.
- "Oh games!"
- "Well, not really. I'm trying to move beyond games..."
- The asker is confused for several moments, until the phrase "Choose Your Own Adventure" pops into her head, at which point I'm tempted to go into the potential pitfalls of simple branching narrative. But then I think better of it and simply nod.
- The asker then makes a closing comment either to the tune of: "Well computers are the future!" or "Remember to cast me when you make it big in Hollywood," before walking away.