Gamegirl reports:
''So I was listening to my favorite radio station: X92.9, when one of the DJs: Greg Beharrel, posed a question that really sparked my attention...The question was: "Is [Guitar Hero/Rock Band] detrimental to the future of music? Rather than actually learn guitar, or any of the other instruments featured, are kids just going to play the game? Are they doing more damage than good?"
This great question inspired me to go more in depth with the topic. I wanted to get views, and opinions from people with various roles in the music industry: The casual guitarist, the band member, and from myself: The music consumer, and Guitar Hero!
It was interesting to hear all the negative comments towards these two games in question on the radio. The majority of callers to X92.9 were saying "Once people play Guitar Hero/Rock Band, they're never going to want to touch a real guitar or a set of drums." I can see that in some cases, but definitely not all. These kinds of games - I've seen for myself - have inspired people to start playing an actual instrument. My friend, Trevor, bought a guitar shortly after buying Guitar Hero... He would have never thought to buy a real one otherwise. A huge problem in this case that was being overlooked, was that a lot of kids and adults just can't afford to buy a real instrument, and especially can't afford all the baggage that goes along with owning such an item (Amp, lessons, etc...).''
These groundbreaking video games changed gaming forever and drew in scores of fans in the process.
The Guitar Hero franchise died in the wake of Activision's lust for Call of Duty, but we should be dusting off those plastic guitars for a new Guitar Hero game.
Guitar Hero was good. The problem was Activision started creating many versions. Guitar Hero had the every one year cycle like COD and people felt they were being robbed.
It was even worse then that. My roommate and I were big into rock band. Had a concert sized sound system for it in the shop. Both rock band and guitar hero were doing a yearly release yeah, but then also doing song packs and band packs every other week almost at one point. AND releasing them on physical disc. Before we stopped we had litterely dozens of discs for different songs and bands. They just never stopped coming out. People can only handle buying so much for 1 game.
Why in the hell would one want to spend time to learn a button mashing order when you can lean to play a real guitar in the same time frame.
TheGamer Writes "Harmonix has proven plenty of times it can make Rock Band work without instruments."
I mean, yeah, but was anyone saying otherwise? The fact is people liked the plastic instruments rather than pressing buttons on a controller. They enjoyed the simulated experience.
"Work"? No, but to be good? It's absolutely necessary. Not having the accessories is like playing a lightgun shooter with an analog stick sure it works, but one experience is completely unique and fun as hell, and other is torture trying to make do playing in a way it was never meant to be played
"trying to make do in a way it was never meant to be played"
I disagree. The accessories were a fun gimmick (and very marketable) but they were added AFTER the genre had been well established with games like Frequency and Amplitude (both also made by Harmonix).
The gameplay formula is different on a controller - there's a focus on switching lanes and contributing to all of the instruments.
Never played Frequency, but Amplitude and Rock Band Blitz were really good. I would love to get more of that kind of game. It's basically a different part of the genre, and stands on its own.
The insurmountable difference in popularity between Amplitude and Rock Band proves my point
Popularity isn't proof of quality. If it was, then Harmonix wouldn't be making music for Fortnite now. lol. Our disagreement wasn't over which one is more popular. Amplitude and Blitz just aren't "torture" to play.
Rock Band 4 and Guitar Hero Live failed to revive their sub-genre, and Rock Band 4 caused Mad Catz to have to file for bankruptcy. Doesn't mean that instrument-based music games are bad.
It does mean that there's too much overhead and risk for anyone to take a gamble on a big budget game that needs instrument accessories now though.
For the genre to thrive, for now, it needs to do so without the instrument accessories. That's just a fact, unfortunately.
VR games like Beat Sabre (a new sub-genre) and traditional music games make more sense and are more viable right now.
*"If quality is always proved by popularity, then Harmonix wouldn't be making music for Fortnite now."
I think CHEAP plastic instruments is THE reason why the instrument-genre ‘died’.
People invested in buying the game AND the peripherals, so the guitar, the dj-set, the drum, whatever, and the experience was absolutely fantastic. Great fun, great music, etc.
But then the instruments would break. A button would stop working, or your hits wouldn’t register, and that kind of hardware failure would end in you not being able to play the game as intended, and thus you not getting the scores you deserve.
So, now you had a great game, but a broken instrument, and nobody is gonna buy a new plastic instrument every 3-6 months in order to keep playing the game.
A solution would have been to release better quality instruments (obviously), at a slightly higher price, so you could have kept the new games coming and the genre alive, but sadly, that didn’t happen.
The only issue I ever had with any of the hardware was the drum pedal on the original rock band set stared to crack in half. The reason I, and other friends I know who played, lost interest is they weren't putting out new tracks that we were interested in anymore. I think earlier this year I looked through the releases for the last 2 years or so, and there was maybe 3 songs I would have bought.
Yeah I had this happen too with my drum controller, I ended up attaching a metal strip to it which fixed it up nicely.
Bust a Groove, Gitaroo Man and Parrapa the Rappa were such good games. Neither needed any extra peripherals
seeing as the artists and labels get royalties, why would it hurt them?
Hah, I think this article is a little ridiculous. There are always going to be basement bands. If anything it could be helpful by getting people interested in music.
I have friends who spend all their money on recording cd's and playing shows and they are terrible, but every basement band is convinced they are going to make it big. May be this could distract them as a cheaper alternative?
Kids today are such sheep, everything they do is based on whether or not it is considered cool. They don't take risks like when I was in highschool. They either listen to lame ass Emo or Rap, which isn't much better.
Guitar Hero and Rock Band have opened a lot of people's eyes to music they may have never considered. When you hear a song in passing it is easy to dismiss it. They just get written off as just another rock song. When you incorporate music into a fun activity like videogames a connection forms. Games like rock band make you appreciate these songs for what they are. People of all ages and backgrounds play videogames. A lot of these people never considered listening to rock.
Rock band isn't making kids put down traditional instruments, if anything it is causing more people to pick them up who never would have before. You can only go so far with rock band, eventually you are going to try and pick up a real guitar. For me, I dusted off my old guitars because of this game.