A quick remembrance of my first brush with Interactive
I was spending some good quality time with a new friend in Second Life, one of my favorite places to just unwind and be socially active, after all the whole point of virtual worlds like SL is to be an experiment in social media, when I was struck by an old memory.
The year was 1966, and I was five years old. One of the most fun & my favorite TV shows of the time was a program called Winky Dink and you http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Winky_Dink_and_You which is credited by many including Bill Gates as the first Interactive TV show. The premise of the show was that Winky Dink would come to a point in the show where he needed the help of the children at home doing something like drawing a bridge that Winky Dink would then walk over and finish his story. This was accomplished via the use of a sheet of acetate and special crayons, and like many kids of that time I didn’t have one but wanted to play anyway. Like many children I drew directly on the television, only in my case with indelible magic marker.
I remember 3 things about that night. One my father bought our first color TV on the way home from work. Two I got a Winky Dink Set. And 3 I drew a different kind of bridge than Winky wanted and he walked right through mine, leaving me both angry, frustrated and fascinated by the power of interactive.
Just think, from that day forward, even though the experience was an epic fail, I was fascinated by the power of interactive. All that I have done, my entire career in one way or another, springs forward from that experience.
Do you have a similar story about the magic of interactive, the day you discovered the potential of interactive media and interactive story telling? Please feel free to dialog with me share your story by leaving a comment below, I am looking forward to reading your stories !
