Over at a site called GameStooge, one of the writers complains about having to unlock songs in Guitar Hero II:
Why must one have to unlock songs? The consumer just paid $90 for your product, and deserves immediate access to the products that are paid for. One should not have to jump through hoops to access what was advertised on your box. You want to make the consumer jump through hoops? That’s what Achievements are for. That’s the entire raison d’etre of Achievements (aside from tracking your progress through a game for all to see.) Getting through Easy gave Achievements, for example. However, getting through Easy doesn’t even unlock songs.
Now, I can understand games like DDR, where it's meant for an arcade setting, where there's only a limited amount of time to play. Yet, you're buying a game to play at home. The whole point of the game is that you build up your status as a guitar player -- moving from song set to song set as you do more concert tours. What he wants is akin to wanting to be able to fight the final boss of a game as soon as he pops in the disc.
More after the jump.
The guy goes on to say:
This practice is tired, quite frankly, and also is quite illegal: it’s called “deceptive advertising”. Had Red Octane been honest, it should have said right on the box: “To access this song, you must do so-and-so before you can play it.”
Really now? Deceptive advertising? I think it's common knowledge for all people that playing through a video game means that you have to progress in a somewhat linear fashion from beginning to end. This guy needs to look up the definition, perhaps. It'd be more like Sony putting in its ads, "If you buy a PS3, it will cure cancer." Now, it's not altogether untrue per-se, but it's stretching the truth quite a bit.
There's a reason why levels are included in Guitar Hero: so that you can improve your skill and aren't overwhelmed by everything in the game. I can understand having the songs unlocked in quick play or something, but otherwise, it defeats the whole idea behind the game. If you just have everything unlocked in a game, then you've completely gotten rid of a structured gaming experience. And in the words of Aaron Linde: "and is therefore: f*****g lunacy."
Contest:
8:16 PM on 04.06.2007
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not all of us can be as gifted in this game as others, lets face it
Expert mode or not, I beat the game on easy. That should account for somthing. (10 points added to my Gamerscore WHOO!) its bad enough I'll never earn money to buy new guitars, but my songlist is gimped by HALF, i still have 35 songs i have not touched yet, who knows if i ever will.
its not as if GH vets are going to start out on easy anyhow, they'll do that once they've beaten Expert mode cause thats where the "game" actually lies for them
bottom line i beat the game on Easy. i should have every song, every game has difficulty modes, and every game no matter what mode you play is exactly the same nothing has changed but the challenge. as should be the case with GHII
I don't buy a CD that advertises 15 tracks, then have to listen to tracks 1-3 50 times before it lets me hear the other tracks.
I know people will rag on the comment, but plenty of us feel that way about games these days. And guess what, you want to play with the rest of the stuff in the game nowadays, they take away the codes you used to be able to use, and you can PAY...whee. See: tiger woods 07 and NFS: carbon. It's pretty hard to take the "you should expend the effort to play the game to earn that content" argument if you can just pay 5.99 just to instantly unlock the stuff you already paid for.
You could say the same thing about the most worthwhile experiences in Half-Life 2 but we accept level progression in those kinds of games (or there are enough cheats that let us get there if we suck).
I think this says it all. There was a time when my 8 year old self just could not get past the 4th dungeon in the original Zelda. But part of what made video games so fun back then was the mystery of what lied ahead. So, I played and played until I was able to see those later dungeons.
I admit, cheat codes were great for seeing what came at the end sometimes *cough* Contra *cough*, and maybe a game like GH should have a menu in the options where you can listen to all of the songs it has... But, there's something to be said about making the last boss or the hardest songs a privilege to play.
I just call this a classic case of the Wambluance.
Seriously though, this guy is an idiot. I don't understand why people like put Guitar Hero in a different category of games. Maybe because it is a really popular game and a lot of people play it. But at the core it is still a video game, and you have to beat songs to unlock other songs. I would hate it if when I got a new FPS and all the levels were already unlocked, why should Guitar Hero be different?
Would you enjoy buying madden football, but only being able to play as the arizona cardinals until you beat the superbowl 8 times with them. Then once you did, you get two more teams. Now you have to beat the game with those two teams 5 times each, and that unlocks 2 uniforms. The box says "all nfl teams included" though.
What if motorstorm only let you play one single track, with motorcycles only, and you had to beat it 15 times to unlock one new type of tire? See the previous argument, as you should be getting the point now.
Your horrible analogies to games that are based on the progression of levels make no sense when assessed logically.
Enjoy it if you want, many people don't, and I actively avoid such games. Beauty of the free market ftw.
It's up to the gamer to decide how much time and effort he or she will put into unlockables, but it's something we should all have come to expect by now.
this guy sounds like the type of person who buys a strategy guide with every game he buys...
guess what, life sucks, buy a helmet.
I just wish there was more metal in the games. No, I don't mean more Guns n' Roses. Man, I can't stand them.
In cases like Guitar Hero 2, one can think of the locked content as another form of the sort of level progression we see in a majority of the games we play. You don't start up say, Devil May Cry 3 for the first time, and have the option to choose the level you start on. You start at the beginning of a given game, which is normally easy enough to let you learn the ropes, and gain access to later levels once you're good enough to earn your way to them. I suppose that you could say that you unlock them, in a way. Sound familiar?
In Guitar Hero, you start with the easy stuff, and it's up to you to get good enough to earn access to the rest of it, most of which is harder than the stuff you start out with. It's just another form of level progression, only you're playing a faux-guitar rather than controlling some demon-spawn on a quest to um, make the Devil cry or something.
So really, this all boils down to what other people have said already. It's nothing to whine about, and is something that has been a part of gaming in one form or another since gaming began.
Oh, and comparing micro-transactions to unlocking new levels or songs in a game is sorta silly, if that's what you were doing there. I may be too tired to have actually understood whatever it was you were on about.
But, seriously, if you are having problems:
a> Use yer pinky.
b> Play Hard and Expert with your pinky on Orange and Index on red. It help!
c> Enjoy Life
d> Use 2x Cheat
e> Read stuff on Gamefaqs or teh Googles
WARNING: Under no circumstances should the user attempt to rationalize temporary lack of skill under lofty pretenses such as fraudulent advertising, or a "ZOMG they be out to get me"-type of mentality.
I can still game with a traditional controller since my thumbs and index fingers work fine, but I'm still bugged by games hiding so much stuff beyond 'unlocking'
I got Mortal Kombat Deception a while back and when I realize more than HALF the fighters would need to be unlocked by beating the game over and over and over and then using points earned to buy them from the krypt which did not mark what I was buying... well that was it. I got rid of that game in a day. Hiding some secrets is expected, but I paid full price for the game I couldn't even play Multiplayer with because I didn't like any of the fighters I started with.
I hate games that give me everything up front, or have unlockables that are pretty much useless. More games should require you to actually play them to earn the good stuff.
Never heard any bitching about unlocking all the characters is SSBM, didja? And if I hear it for SSBB, I'll break a fool.
Point is, the content is there to encourage the player to improve at the game and actually PLAY it. If everything was unlocked from the beginning, someone might play one of the harder songs first, say the game was too hard and never play it again. That seems like more of a waste of time and money to me than trying but failing to unlock everything while having a good time in the process.
I admit, I'm getting pissed off trying to get past level 3 in Gradius on the Virtual Console. But that's just part of gaming, you progress from easy to hard, and if you can't handle easy, you certainly can't handle hard.
@ El Fajitas: You mean some people actually don't use their pinky and don't shift in GH? I knew to do that right away. Then again, learning from cello, then bass guitar, then guitar might have made a difference in my common sense.
It truly is teh suck that you can'ts play much of the game, yes, but you would be in an unfortunate minority, such as me not playing Robotron 2084(?) because passing each level requires me to have a seizure. The deeper point could be simply that some people are truly unable to fully enjoy this kool && popular game, and feel discredited/cheated because it ain't no cheap-o toy. So this is not a "i paids, gives me teh unlockables or u sux" thing but more of a "i paids, this be hard, but i * really want * teh unlockables but can't gets em" issue.
Emphasis on 'it be hard'.
I know what he expects, to be able to whine like a bitch on his shitty blog and drop in latin phrases into his writing to give off the impression that he has had some shred of a joke education.
Wahhhh! I fucking suck at Gears of War, and I really want to play the train level!!!! False advertising. Now I'm persona non grata in the internets because I'm a fucking whiny bitch, but at least I seem smart because I drop latin phrases into my blogs and italicize them!!!
I own quite a few games where I never did unlock certain things because I couldn't play it continuiously for several weeks. THAT pisses me off. Hell, I never even *finished* Whiplash.
Progression. The songs get harder and harder the further you move up.
If you notice, each song gives you something different, teaches you a different way to move your fingers, strum, etc, but it's all logical progression.
If all the songs were unlocked at the start, you'd jump to freebird like a moron, SEE that it's too hard, and just go back to the easier ones until you get better anyhow.
The guy should just stop complaining and get better at the game. There's a reason everything isn't unlocked in the beginning.
this has nothing to do with difficulty. just the sheer amount of time and annoyance of it is enough to make me hurl discs out on craigslist.
i bought nfs: carbon to play with my brothers, but we dont play it because the cars that we want are still locked! why am i forced to play the shitty ass single player when all i want is the multiplayer? why am i unlocking crap in warioware while the rest of my friends are restlessly waiting? why do i have to beat tekken 20x before i can start using all the characters? its ridiculous, its artificial, its stupid.
Also. I hate the concept of achievement points. Its not enough to go aroun and collect the most coins for reptitive replay value, you now have this added bonus tedium of having some meta game say "Hey main, do this and I'll give you points"
Screw points. Screw filler replay/difficulty value. Screw yo couch.
I was excited at first with EA's hockey games started letting you add as much experience you want to your created players. But somehow... it wasn't the same.
Same thing in Fight Night.
ZING.
if a mario ad said "32 L3V3L5 0F PVR3 PWN4G3," and then you bought it only to find out that you had to play level 1 to get to level 2, would you go scream to your mommy?
they're called unlockables for a reason, can you guess what the reason is?