I have been tasked with creating a series of Star Wars trivia questions to fill about 15-20 minutes with some youngsters. Now, I have enough experience to know what kinds of general trivia questions do and don't work well with the younglings, but Star Wars trivia? That's a bantha of a different color.
Why, when I was still barely taller than an Ewok, I could've named a half-dozen classes of Star Trek starships, told you exactly how many bars of health Mega Man started out with, and quoted half of Michael Winslow's lines (and sound effects) in Police Academy. Never underestimate the geek capacity of a child.
At the same time, never overestimate the geek capacity of a child.
It's difficult to tell what, exactly, this generation of Star Wars fans knows. From the diehard who built her own lightsaber, right down to the newcomer who thinks a Star Destroyer is a scathing news report on TMZ, the difference between what passes for general and esoteric Star Wars knowledge has shifted from when I was a kid, and it's all because of the prequels and The Clone Wars spinoff movie and TV show.
I say this without conducting any kind of formal research, mind you. However, the kids for whom I'm writing these trivia questions grew up when Darth Maul action figures were all over the shelves, Samuel L. Jackson was known primarily as the guy who played Mace Windu, and "wesa no liken" passed for acceptable English. Now they're watching a computer-generated Anakin Skywalker be the hero every week, and reading about Kit Fisto and Plo Koon in their comic books. Of course their knowledge of Star Wars is going to be different from mine at that age.
So, I'm playing it safe: I've got the dork-heavy questions like "What do Nute Gunray, Lott Dod, and Rune Haako have in common?" as well as the questions that every fan should know, like "True/False: Han shot first." (Obviously, it depends on which version you're watching. Obviously.)
May the Force be with me.
No comments:
Post a Comment