Sometimes narrow expertise is all you need

With all the Star Wars anniversary reminiscences of late, my love for the original movies has been rekindled despite those odious prequels. Now that the price of Lego Star Wars II: The Original Trilogy has been reduced by half (the game has been out for a year), it seemed an opportune time to pick it up. With the games I received with my PS2 for xmas, that would bring my total video game collection to 3.

As I walked up to peruse the video game case at Walmart, I overheard a woman and her tween daughter asking an employee for "the dance game."

"This one?" the salesman asked, pointing to a large box with the Dance Factory game and a dance mat.

"We already have a dance pad," the mother said.

"Just the game," the daughter interjected pointing at Dance Dance Revolution Supernova.

Noticing the Dance Factory kit was the same price as the DDR game, the mother asked what the difference was. There was a pause as the salesman crouched down to reach for the box. He started reading from it aloud; clearly, he didn't know anything about the game.

Having researched the various dance games pretty extensively, I pointed out some of Dance Factory's quirks: the game will generate dance steps for any CD you own, but from what I've read it works best with songs with strong beats, and even then it works better with some songs than others.

"We don't have a lot of CDs," the mother commented. "Does it come with any songs?"

The salesman consulted the box again and was able to answer, "It comes with five songs."

"We'll take that one," the mother said, pointing to Dance Dance Revolution Supernova.

I smiled and said, "I play DDR all the time."

The salesman got up and retrieved the game. "OK. Are you done with your shopping?"

"Can I pay for that now and keep shopping?"

"Certainly." The salesman lead them around to a register. The mother paused, turned back to me and said, "Thank you for your help."

"You're welcome."

Had they asked about any other game save one, I would've had nothing to offer. Sometimes narrow expertise is enough. Being able to use it to help: goodza.

One year ago at TTaT: I've had it
Technorati tags: Dance Dance Revolution Supernova, DDR, Dance Factory