A week or two ago, I was driving home from the bank and lamenting the fact that I have no artistic skill beyond my mediocre ability to sculpt with moldy mashed potatoes. "Why!?" I cried, nearly plowing into several pedestrians. "Why can't my useless Guitar Hero skills translate to a useful real-world activity that could, quite possibly, win me some ladies?"
Not a day later, I was introduced to Guitar Rising, which Nick Chester and I got to demo on the show floor at this year's GDC. Adopting the conventions of the many guitar-based rhythm games now available, Rising takes it a step further and uses a USB dongle to hitch up the guitar of your choice to your PC, and prompts players to hit frets and strings to play along with some pretty choice music. While it's not necessarily designed to turn you into a guitar god overnight, from our short time with it, it really seemed like a product that could boost dexterity. And these pudgy fingers need all the help they can get.
Attaching that competitive element and a score to the act itself can keep people coming back, and might help to develop some of those dormant or otherwise nonexistent skills. I sucked something fierce, but hey -- if a few weeks of Guitar Hero could see me up to expert level, what would a few months of Guitar Rising do?
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Contest:
2:42 AM on 02.23.2008
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All jokes aside, this is an interesting concept. My younger brother recieved an electric guitar and amp and all that recently and is trying to teach himself. I'll have to show him this.
both
at the same time!
But Chester just left today... BUT LINDE IS SITTING BEHIND ME O.o
This is the most disgusting thing I've ever typed.
It be more professional and maybe taken more seriously if it was simplified like the Rock Band tracks. No need for the hearts in the background or the bright orange color.
If it was down to a black track with white lines and some kind of non-distracting winamp visualation in the background, it seem more top notch.
If you need a TV and game console to learn how to pick up an instrument and learn to play, maybe you shouldn't be a musician...but a game developer. I can say as a drummer that playing Rock Band's drums on expert is like playing the drums.
Potential!
I'm all for it, though. I had (rusty) drumming experience going into Rock Band, which has actually made me better. Might as well give guitar peeps a chance to practice.
am i being monitored? if so, sum 41 on rock band pl0x
here my money
Also, do you think tuning the guitar differently would throw off which fret to play on? I assume the game knows the fret by the note you're playing and the octave that it is in, but I could be wrong.