Guitar Hero is done.

[Starfighter]

You guys started with the use of pathetic so..

I really don't care for Guitar Hero anymore (I liked the second one, played it whilst getting drunk and so on) so I'm not here to protect the games for my own pride (I left my pride 12 years ago), I'm just saying it's a waste of breath to argue the uselessnessesstess of a game series that obviously have entertained a lot of people that never really wanted to learn the guitar but enjoyed the game anyway.

AND, I want to add that one thing does not exclude the other, why should GH/RB be concidered a.. a... "robber of potential new musicians"? Me for one have both a GH-game and several real instruments.

[Arkhan]

Are you aware there is an entire subculture of Guitar hero/RB people that believe the following:

1) Playing any GH/RB game develops musical talent. 
    This is untrue, as its playing Air Guitar with a grading system.  Maybe the drums.  MAYBE.  But its a step above smacking your desk with pencils. 
2) Playing RB pro for hours on end will allow you to pick up a real instrument and be just as good at it.
    Not really.  You're training yourself to play along robotically to a recording without any sound output of your own.  Playin your own real guitar or synth along to a CD is different.  You can hear yourself.  Succeeding at RB only allows the pre-recorded song to continue playing. 

Also, there are tons of GH/RB junkies with real guitars/basses sitting behind a couch getting neglected in favor of the video game since its all colors and shit.  Hours on end invested into a game.  Ask about their real instruments and they shrug and go "meh".

Whats wrong with discussing the problems of this?  Its an open forum.  We can discuss it if we want.  I'd have figured someone of your punk rock background wouldn't be so quick to put the clamp down on what people should talk about on a forum.

[guyjin]

[SignOfZeta]

I don't care, the only true pathetic thing is whining about it.

Well, tough. This is a discussion forum (and a fairly negative one at that). If you don't like discussion, go away.

And Zeta: So what if my specific examples were a little off? My point was that there IS stuff you could do irl instead of in games, Guitar Hero isn't alone in that department.

But its not that abstract, is it? GH/RB has you listening to music, inputing control to keep it going, it costs too much money, and it requires a lot of (untranslatable) skill to master. Its extremely similar to playing an actual instrument, but...its like your skills are DRM locked to a specific piece of software.

My actual recording setup consists of the following: M-Audio Trigger Finger, Oxygen 8, Gibson bass with Behringer amp, Alesis I/O, a mixer, two turntables and a microphone. It cost about $1600 or so, guessing, (minus the computer) but I can actually DO SHIT with it. Long after every 360 on the planet has croaked and the DLC doesn't work anymore, I can still make music with friends and family. I actually CAN play my favorite songs (many of them, anyway) but honestly composing your own shit is way easier, IMO. And believe me, I am not an exceptional talent.

Its not like I hate music games, I have dozens of Beamani stuff, but the difference between IIDX and what Rock Band has become is like the difference between communion wine and a case of Schlitz. Its simply gone too far. I'm glad that GH/RB has people interested in music (and is responsible for my local Best Buy having a music room) but it needs to progress from there.

There was a time when almost anyone could at least bang out some chords on a guitar or piano, but these days, especially in the US, we've become so consumptive that we don't bother. We think music is best left to professional musicians only and would rather ape their fake lifestyle that to actually create something. Music...it really isn't that hard. Almost anyone can do it. Not to be "cool", but to be alive and human.

EDIT: This is a topic that has been bugging me for years now, long before Guitar Hero. When this song came out a while back I thought it perfectly encapsulated what I was feeling.

[Necromancer]

 

[nectarsis]

Well, tough. This is a discussion forum (and a fairly negative one at that). If you don't like discussion, go away.

Quoted for irony, and lulz (considering the source). 

[SignOfZeta]

Well, tough. This is a discussion forum (and a fairly negative one at that). If you don't like discussion, go away.

Quoted for irony, and lulz (considering the source). 

I don't get it. Your emoticon-to-content ratio is too high. Do I have a history here of denying people their side of the story, or do you just not know what irony is?

[Arkhan]

The people enjoying rock band and having excessive fun with it are different than the zealots that buy EVERYTHING and go OMG I AM ROCK BAND PRO.   They can separate themselves from the game and are casual about it.


My friend bought like, 300$ custom pads for his drums.  f f s.


He played rock band for nearly 18 hours in one day. sitting there, playing the drums.   Thats bad

[nectarsis]

Well, tough. This is a discussion forum (and a fairly negative one at that). If you don't like discussion, go away.

Quoted for irony, and lulz (considering the source). 

I don't get it. Your emoticon-to-content ratio is too high. Do I have a history here of denying people their side of the story, or do you just not know what irony is?

*Misses the negativity connotation*

[TheClash603]

I have bought maybe $300 worth of Rock Band (primarily) and Guitar Hero stuff over the past few years.  I have also had groups of people come over no less than 20 times to play the games, and we've had a blast doing so.

In the last 5 years, I have probably played games with other people in person maybe 50 times outside of Rock Band / Guitar Hero.  I have spent $1000s of dollars on the other games.

To me, the beauty of these games is that it is a fun way to be social, and have a fun party.  Most of the people that came played on easy, and they had a blast.  The fad is gone, and now the parties are too, but I have some fun memories from all of those times.

Conversely, had I spent $300 on real instruments, and asked a bunch of non-instrument playing people to come over and have a party with those instruments...   probably wouldn't have worked out?

I am a big fan of rock music, enjoy singing loudly in my car, and going to concerts.  Problem is, I am tone deaf and talentless in the real world.  These games allowed me to enjoy music in an interactive sense, whereas I would not have otherwise.

[blueraven]

I'm a musician.

I have "real" instruments, and a band. My single biggest Turbob drain . I enjoy Rock Band and play it at my cousins house occasionally, and I think the XKCD comic hits the point dead on.

Rock band is fun, and yes people get way into it, but that's all it is. It doesn't say: will teach you music. In many cases the Bass parts aren't even in the the real sequence, and if you ARE a bass player it can screw up your rhythm. If you know the part, you actually have a disadvantage in my humble opinion.

Ark, I hope your buddy has developed a sense of rhythm after all of that investment.

I used to hate on it but now I just accept it as a passing fad that's a hell of a lot of fun to play when intoxicated. I'm not surprised they're canceling the franchise.

On, that note; buy my record

[SignOfZeta]

Well, tough. This is a discussion forum (and a fairly negative one at that). If you don't like discussion, go away.

Quoted for irony, and lulz (considering the source). 

I don't get it. Your emoticon-to-content ratio is too high. Do I have a history here of denying people their side of the story, or do you just not know what irony is?

*Misses the negativity connotation*

What negativity connotation? I know you are capable of complete sentences, I've read them. Now explain yourself, please. What the hell are you getting at?

[Arkhan]

.
Rock band is fun, and yes people get way into it, but that's all it is. It doesn't say: will teach you music. In many cases the Bass parts aren't even in the the real sequence, and if you ARE a bass player it can screw up your rhythm. If you know the part, you actually have a disadvantage in my humble opinion.

I play guitar.  It really f*cks the rhythm up.  Also the new "pro stuff".  Yeah I came over friends and tried the new MIDI controller guitar with real strings.  Busted out crazy train on expert.   Once my fingers got used to the goony plastic buttons up top, I was playing fine.

And then, the solo.  Yeah.  So, the guitar has like 17 frets.  The remap the solo (Which extends down to fret 24 land!) up to the top of the guitar.  Yeah, what in the hell.  So if you master that, you get a real guitar and wonder why your Randy Rhoads solo sounds like a disaster.    The games teaching you to be wrong.    Garbage.

Ark, I hope your buddy has developed a sense of rhythm after all of that investment.

He expresses interest in drums constantly.  Hes good at the drums on the game.   If hed have gotten a real drum set or even an electronic Roland set by now, hed be so good at them I bet.   Would've been a better purchase IMO.

I used to hate on it but now I just accept it as a passing fad that's a hell of a lot of fun to play when intoxicated. I'm not surprised they're canceling the franchise.

On, that note; buy my record

I always hated it mostly because I'm like this sucks, I can do this on real guitar, louder and not be told PRESS SKITTLE BUTTONS, LOL.

[blueraven]

The games teaching you to be wrong.    Garbage.

That's the root of the problem with the game imo.

PRESS SKITTLE BUTTONS, LOL.

Hahahha. Yeah that part is really goofy.

[Arkhan]

Fundamental parts of guitar do not exist in rockband.

You can play the same note in multiple places on the guitar.  Don't tell that to rock band.  It wants your fingers right where they say to put your fingers.  Nevermind that you're used to doing it the other way.  And nevermind that a D power chord can also be played as just a D chord.  Etc. etc. 

Sliding? Yeah. Where is it.
Bends? Lol how do you bend plastic buttons.
Varied string gauges?  Its plastic buttons.  Good luck.  They're terrible.  The tactile response is not what you want out of a guitar.
Tapping? mmmm yeah it don't work.

Not to mention mapping solos to the TOP OF THE GUITAR.  whyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy

It's just idiotic.  The new wave of RB stuff is just going to teach people to be even more n00b at real instruments but give them the false sense of talent cause they got 83292398 acheebments cause they 5-stared every song on every instrument