Guitar Zero

MTV has licensed to sell to sell Harmonix' "Rock Band" game, an expanded, multi-player competitor to Guitar Hero. It's received great reviews and is expected to sell well especially during the holiday season. I have an idea for those gamers and parents of gamers who are thinking about buying this game...

BUY A REAL INSTRUMENT AND LEARN HOW TO @$*&*@! PLAY IT!

I am going to throw logic out the window for a second, and say something I cannot canonically prove. Games like these make a better case for cutting funding to the arts in our schools. That's right, I said it.Why fund kids to play in the band or orchestra when they can buy their own plastic controllers and mimic playing the real thing to a video crowd? Is instant gratification of playing along with records on a fake guitar really that overpowering that people would rather learn to play a game than try to learn the real thing?

With that nonsense just stated, there are a few things I do like about Guitar Hero and its clones. I like that it could spark interest in a child/person to learn a real instrument. It also helps them with their rhythm timing and listening skills as you have to know what the guitar parts are prior to beat matching what's on the screen with what you need to push on the controller. I also like that it's introducing the younger generation to older songs that would be healthy to learn in a more traditional course of instruction.

I must admit that I suck at GH the 2-3 times I've played it. It's completely counter-intuitive to my style of guitar playing. However, I can play a lot of these songs on a regular guitar and do a decent job at it. What's next? Workout Hero! You hold a pair of cheap, light plastic bar-bells and "lift" them while you select the weight. At the end of it, you'll be able to lift half a ton!

South Park captured my sentiment exactly (sorry for the poor quality)...

Currently playing : Rock Band Special Edition Release date: 11 December, 2007

Note: This was originally posted on MySpace with comments at:
http://blog.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=blog.view&friendID=16074757&blogID=330691919&Mytoken=5466A367-4928-442C-8754A3A6F778202710565802