In this article entitled 'Video Gaming is the new MTV', Gameplayer explores the notion that video gaming is set to play as important a role in establishing new artists and bands as MTV did back in the 1980s.
"By the time the average punter had played SingStar ten times over they had thirty songs etched into their memory and that, from a cynical commercial point of view, is irresistible brand marketing. For millions of people, their first exposure to Mis-Teeq, or the Sugababes was not through the radio, or through MTV, but through a video game. Think about that for a second."
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
IGN India says: “ Interior Night’s Charu Desodt on bringing Singstar to life on the PS2, winning a BAFTA, and upcoming Xbox Series X|S and PC game, As Dusk Falls.”
Player 2's long-form feature about kids and video games continues with a look at introducing toddlers to games for the first time.
Trends are very time dependent and the amount of work it takes to get a video game out to market will effectively kill its chances at gaining critical mass to influence or spread a trend. What I mean to say is, why would I wait six months to a year to hear a new artist when I could listen to online radio shows that give instant access? Alternately, with P2P/Bit Torrent/FTP/IRC/Usenet/Youtube or directly getting an mp3 from the band themselves it is instantaneous.
Clearly, propagating music/trends via games is a monolithic, slow process whereas the web is nimble and evolves much quicker. If this were nature, the web would be the small mammal that inherits the earth, and the video game industry the lumbering dinosaur...