There's been a number of video game genres that as a whole simply do not click with me for a variety of reasons. For example, I get incredibly nauseous within minutes of looking at almost every FPS (I think for me it is a combination of factors including but not limited to the game itself, the display type, screen size, etc) and so I almost never play FPS game aside from the one time I forced myself to blow through Portal to see what the big deal was all about. One particular genre that I simply do not click with me are the Guitar Hero / Rock Band games, which kind of surprises me because I do like music games such as Dance Dance Revolution and Rhythm Heaven. Nonetheless, I wish that this wasn't the case because I kind of want to get The Beatles: Rock Band.

I think the biggest thing that keeps me away from the GH/RB games are the fact that for the most part, I have near zero familiarity with the music of these games. I grew up in a first-generation immigrant family that did not really listen to popular American music aside from the pop music of the time. I myself went on a classical music binge ever since I saw Fantasia at the age of 10 and fell in love with it until I discovered film scores, show tunes, and video game music a few years later. In addition, until college, I did not have a single friend that listened to music other than those genres that I listened to. While I have grown to like a number of songs that are featured in these games, I simply cannot say that they strike me in a way that makes me want to play these games in the way that my love of j-pop and Eurodance at one phase of my college life (when I considered myself a hardcore anime fan) drew me into Dance Dance Revolution. For example, I discovered Kansas' "Carry On My Wayward Son" through Guitar Hero but I did not truly love the song until South Park used the song to fantastic effect in the "Guitar Queer-O" episode.



Perhaps for this reason, I am somewhat interested in The Beatles: Rock Band because I have been somewhat interested in the Beatles for a number of years now and I know that this interest grew after I saw the musical film Across the Universe by Julie Taymor which uses the music of the Beatles to incredible effect.

That being said, there is one final reason that I am reluctant to buy The Beatles: Rock Band: I just can't get into the controls. As someone that has played a guitar before (though I played a violin for much longer), I simply find it frustratingly difficult to get used to the controls of the guitar. I have extraordinary difficulties getting my right hand to forget the programming of years of using a pick. In addition, my brain and left hand sometimes forgets that I am playing a game and I will screw up because my fingers end up pressing what would be the "next button" were this a real musical instrument as opposed to what the screen actually tells me to press.

It also doesn't help that the easy modes are simply too easy for me but when I increase the difficulty, the complexity ramps up so much that I don't have the interest to play any further. I am definitely not in the camp with those celebrity guitar players in the world that have trashed Guitar Hero and Rock Band for providing gamers with a false impression of rocking out on the guitar. However, I have to confess that when these games become as difficult as they have become and cost so much with endless redesigns of instruments, expansion packs, and DLC, I kind of do feel like my time would be better spent actually learning the real instruments.

So to summarize, in what is arguably my shortest cblog ever, I want to buy The Beatles: Rock Band but I am hesitating because I have traditionally not clicked with the other games of this genre for the reasons listed about. I do enjoy karaoke and so there is a part of me that is thinking about picking up the game purely as a karaoke game. There is also the collectible-loving Necros side of me that would love to pick up the whole package just for the hell of it. Finally, there is the side of me that wonders if something is wrong with me for being completely apathetic to one of the biggest gaming crazes of this decade. Dtoid community, help me out here.