Rockband is dead
#1
Tue, 03/20/2012 - 12:29
Rockband is dead
just kidding - but seriously - I have my 5 button guitar and the fender pro and haven't touched either since I got Rocksmith. I mean - you can't even feel the strings vibrate with either one of those when you play this (released today as DLC)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U5HlfXPG0HI
But yeah - Rocksmith isn't really a game - and it's not what you'd play if you got some non-musician (do those exist?) people over drinking, etc.
But Rocksmith os so much more satisfying
All your guitar belong to us...
I took all of my Guitar Heroes and Rock Band games into gamestop this weekend. I only got 11 cents for Guitar Hero 2 but I just wanted them out of my house They wouldn't take any of the equipment, so I just drop them in their dumpster when I left. My kids don't play them anymore either, they play Rocksmith or I play with them. Both my girls wanted a guitar for Christmas, so I picked up a couple Squiers. One full size, One 3/4 size.
Activision killed the Guitar Hero franchise just like they did the Tony Hawk series and are working hard at killing COD. (Although some might think of that as a good thing, myself included)
I never understood the draw for those games. To me they just seemed like "Dance Dance Revolution" with a guitar shaped controller instead of a dance pad. With Rocksmith, at least you're actually learning something. even if you only use it for practicing chords & scales, at least it brings a fun & challenging aspect to it.
Now if only someone would just make a game where we can upload any song from our ipod or wherever & have it transposed into the game.Not to mention, how much that might encourage people to share & collaborate on their own songs in a fun way.
if i pay for shipping send both of 'em my way, i have a guitar that works with rockband2 but not guitar hero 3 and damned if im going to pay $30 for a toy guitar so i can play one game that i spent $10 on. seriously, email me..
As much as I am sure I will not touch them anymore - for some reason I cannot let go of them.
You'll see me on hoarders years from now and the thing that falls on my head and kills me is a plastic guitar!
Pick up a learn a real guitar, and you will never look at those games the same again.
Shit man for 299.99 you could get a real guitar and an amp and still have money leftover. I have the Explorer, Les Paul and GH:WT guitars that are collecting dust... Make me an offer.
I still like Rockband. :(
I still play RB nearly every day. I don't really get the "learn to play a real guitar already" sentiment. That's not applied to any other video game, why RB? Up until RB3's Pro Mode they never purported to be teaching you anything "real". I just enjoy picking up a controller or sitting at a drum kit and enjoying a wide variety of music. No, I'm not really learning how to play a song but I'm interacting with it in a way I can't by just blasting it through my earbuds on an iPod.
I did try out Rocksmith last weekend for the first time. I will say that it's much easier to pick up than the RB3 Pro Mode. However, comparing it to RB is like comparing Duck Hunt to actual hunting. I did sort of enjoy it but it got really old hearing the same 3 songs over and over. I don't think I'd buy it for the same reason I give when people ask me why I don't play real drums at RB parties. I'm 40 yo and I don't really think I'm going to be starting a band at this point in my life. That being the case, why learn to play an instrument for which I have no audience?
For anyone looking for more like-minded RB players, there's a couple of good groups on FB that are still very active.
Playing RB and the like are great for parties with friends who aren't musicians and have no aspirations of being a musician, and yes comparing RB to playing real guitar is completely pointless. However, if you are taking the time to learn to get good at a video game that mimics the motions of playing an instrument, why not just put in the time to play an instrument? The drums actually translate fairly well to real world application, as well as the singing. And I know that is what you like to do Big.
However, as a guitar player before the games came out and back in a band at 40 years old, the guitar parts of those games bore me to death. Besides finger exercise, there isn't anything of value to learn as a guitar player from these games. Plus my library of songs available for me to play is not controlled by a gaming company and record studios. If I like a song and want to play it, I listen and learn it. Or I go online and find some tab for it.
I can understand that you got bored with the same three songs over and over. I didn't have that problem as a seasoned guitar player. I could get the required score to move on with the "story" mode fairly easily. Hell I barely even looked at the screen playing "Satisfaction," but that is because I used that song to strengthen my pinky finger 25 years ago. You could have gone in and selected any song you wanted on the disc from day one. You don't have to unlock them.
I feel it comes down to how much you want to enjoy your music. If you are satisfied with just hearing it and singing along, great, more power to you, but I'm not. I want to know how it is played, what amps they used, what pickups are in their guitars, what studio tricks they used and so on. Music isn't something I hear, it is something I feel. Call it growing up with a mother that has played in symphony orchestras, or an escape when reality sucked when I was younger, but I live and breath music, and playing a play-skool guitar just doesn't cut it for me anymore.
I agree with you Big)ne one most points. I still very much enjoy the "fun" of playing RB and listening to good toons, hell, maybe finding a band I like I never heard of. I am not on that says "learn to play a real guitar already" . Never have been that type.
My only disagreement is that I as well am 40 yo, no interest in starting a band. To your question "why learn to play an instrument for which I have no audience?" Simple for me. I need no audience cept for myself. I enjoy earning/playing. Have had a passion to learn for a long, long, long time. Tried seriously twice and life got in the way both times. I am now at a point that 1.I can dedicate the time, 2. the means(money) to invest in it, and 3. I'm affraid if I dont stick it out now, then it will never happen and that is not an option for me. I enjoy it WAY to much.
Anyway, IM on RB every now and then, if ya see me, hit me up.
I'll kind of echo the others here. As I mentioned in my first post, Rock Band still has a place for me. The one thing I have stopped doing though is playing it by myself. The thing is that I reached a plateau in Rock Band somewhere around 4 star difficulty songs on expert. That is pretty much the extend of my hand eye cordination to "sight read" songs in the game (word in quotes because I really don't know what the fuck it means). If I want to get any better then I would have to break each song down into sections and memorize each part. I decided if I'm going to spend the time and energy required to memorize a song, then I might as well do it on the real thing.
I used to come home in the evenings and fire up Rockband and just relax for an hour or two listening to music while I pretended to rock out. Now I sit and play the real thing instead (sometimes with Rocksmith, sometimes just me and the amp). I'll continue to play both games but I doubt I'll ever spend any time practicing Rock Band ever again. The funny thing is that I think learning the real thing is actually improving my Rock Band skills a little bit.
To sight read a piece of music means pretty much what it says. To play music as you read it. As in not having it memorized. It is generally used to orchestra and school band settings. Not really used by rock bands and the like because a very low percentage of guitarists, bassists and drummers can actually read sheet music.
I still play and enjoy Rockband. I play weekly and look forward to new DLC every week. I can barely play Rockband on hard, so the prospect of me playing a real guitar is very unlikely.
I don't get the real guitar sentiment. Hell with that reasoning, why play first person shooters, just buy a gun and go have fun. Or join the Army and go to Afganistan and hunt Taliban.
In all seriousness, Rockband is still the best game I ever owned.
I'll be so sad when the last of my guitrollers die, lol. No Seriously. I never became any good at RB, but just playing and seeing my make-belief band performing awesome songs... Yeah, it was one of the best games ever and the thank you note the game displays now makes me sad...
But... I can finally play the solo in 3Dimes down on hard... lol.
Anyway, I think that people shouldn't confuse aspiration with gaming. I had no aspiration ever to become a racecar driver too, but I played the shit out of Forza... I have no aspiration to become an akimbo shoolyard killer, but I love Borderlands... If I ever get the apiration to learn guitar, you can trust me to go to class to learn how to play it. As it stands, I rather take it one step above air-guitar... plastic guitar!!