Thank god we don’t have Rock Band at the Jo-tel because I would never sleep or do my Spanish homework. Not that I do either of those things anyway, but as I’ve mentioned I have stayed up till 5am twice this month playing that game. A comment from Mike B. touched on something I’ve been thinking a lot about, which is the complete inevitability that in the next 3-5 years the selection of songs will expand to the point where you’ll be able to get just about any song. I’m sure the Rock Band people are working hard on expanding their repertoire and you can already buy expansion p
acks, but they’re still expensive. I’m sure somebody else is working on software that will automatically take a digital version of a song and transform it into a Rock Band level. Alternatively, I can imagine someone figuring out the software and a small cottage industry of programmers converting songs to Rock Band on their own. If the game stays popular and continues to improve, for instance, if they make the kick drum pedal feel more like playing a drum and less like stepping on a kitten full of sponges, there’s a good chance that bands will start hiring people to make their songs into Rock Band format, and release them a couple months after a successful album comes out on iTunes. You might even be able to download them from iTunes. This would work even better with classic albums, such as Dark Side of the Moon, Sergeant Pepper’s, and Third Eye Blind (by Third Eye Blind). Maybe they keep expanding it beyond the bass guitar. Throw in a saxamaphone for those Motown tunes. Someday a collective of nerdy repertory students will design, program and perform a 40-piece orchestral symphony on Rock Band.
Also, somebody needs to take this concept in the other direction. I have felt first-hand how addictive this game is. It can grip your mind for 6, 7 hours at a time. I have also tried to learn to play guitar before. It is hard. Just like learning anything else from scratch, the key is repetitive, consistent practice. But practicing guitar when you suck is not fun at all. You know you could put it down, walk across the room, push a button, and instantly be hearing the guitar playing of a Jimmy Page or a Paco de Lucia, and your fingers would stop hurting to boot. What if you could combine the neurochemically-addictive properties of the Rock Band interface with the groupie-laying benefits of learning an actual skill (to play guitar)? It would definitely be harder than Rock Band at first, but you could just make the beginner songs really easy. You’d have all the benefits of the backing music to distract you from how bad your instrument sounds, you’d have the timing of a audible, visual metronome, and most importantly you’d get the flashy graphics and instantaneous positive feedback reinforcement when you actually did it right. Please explain to me why this is not A) a good idea, that B) will make someone a boat ton of money.
P.S. I thought about the title for this post for at least 20 minutes, and that’s the best I could come up with.
10 responses so far ↓
Mike B. // Feb 1, 2008 at 11:59 pm
Taking the time to learn guitar is lame. Playing Rock Band is fucking awesome.
GHIII has a better song list for solo guitar mode, though.
Jaskot // Feb 2, 2008 at 12:41 am
I left the bar where the guy to girl ratio was favorable just to try and beat Raining Blood on hard for GH3 before pass the fuck out…probably on the couch…probably with a spill-prone food or bevarage on my lap.
Turd Ferguson // Feb 2, 2008 at 11:03 am
I’ve played a lot of Rock Band lately too, and am glad I don’t own it because it is too awesome. Its even better on a giant projector screen, in a room full of people, and drinking beers. The drums is waaaaaaaaaaaaaay harder than the guitar (at first at least). All girl bands often get booed off the stage in my experience.
Hip E. // Feb 2, 2008 at 1:53 pm
Yeah, girls are pretty bad at it. It ranks right up there with [catching an object tossed in their direction].
alison // Feb 4, 2008 at 1:05 pm
Listen, motherfucker. If I remember correctly, the last time I played, I got 97% despite the fact that I was wasted and it was 6 in the morning.
Granted, I was doing the singing, but 97%???
Stove(sucks) // Feb 4, 2008 at 2:37 pm
… and you had it on “Easy” mode.
Stove(sucks) // Feb 4, 2008 at 2:39 pm
I find the title a little cryptic despite the obvious attempt at humor. Or are you implying that Rock Band is great because it makes the repetition of doing motions fun… kind of like how everyone gets good at masturbating?
Hip E. // Feb 4, 2008 at 7:39 pm
I barely made it to the Rhyming Stage of Borophyllic Blog Post Titleing. (Titling?) Despite my best efforts, I couldn’t even get to the point in the process where you imply something. Thank you for elaborating on my theme. (That’s what she said.)
Alison, Stove (sucks) is right. The important thing to remember is to have fun.
Stickler // Feb 5, 2008 at 10:11 pm
Hip E. I agree with you. As someone who owns the game and also can play a variety of actual instruments I think that finding a way to take the format and attach it to actuelly learning an instrument would help you learn. The makers say that if you can play the Drums on Expert then you are actuelly playing the drums.
Britt // Feb 12, 2008 at 3:01 pm
It really is rad, the Rock Band. Baldwin and I decided kareoke bars need to start purchasing the game in lieu of just the old singing machine–can you imagine the good times?! Let’s just say due to various constraints such as dog cancer, and the Blazers playing too well lately to get tickets for 35 people, all we ended up doing for Matt’s 30th involved a keg, cupcakes, and hours and hours of Rock Band III. And no one was disappointed. Except maybe Walloch because he sucks. At everything. In general.
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