If they went out and got a real gun instead of playing FPS', they could take far more powerful stands. Let's thank the lord they're hypocrites.

@Musician:

You're actually finding that clubs who would have booked a live band are now replacing it with Rock Band/Guitar Hero? That's interesting to hear. I was kind of getting the impression that it was the "new karaoke"; the bars I've seen it in would rarely ever book bands.

I have no musical talent and no concern to develop any. RB/GH are great for the 15 minutes a day I care to listen to or interact with music, and then I put them down. A real guitar would be a waste of my time and money.

musiciab,

if you think technoque id whay makes you a musician i dont ever want to support you as most likely your music sucks.

write a song that inspires and captivates and wory less about how to shred and hammer on scales

@Nick:
It does happen a lot in metrodetroit. Live music isn't going to disappear because of it but serveral places around me have replace a weekly band with RB/GH.

That's not necessarily the games fault, but a musician's worst enemy is the club owners that hire them. That's my take on it anyway.

"Personally, I feel that a guitarist telling someone to learn a real guitar instead of playing Rock Band is akin to a soldier telling someone to shoot real people instead of play an FPS."

word. that reminds me of that sort of "I'd like to see you make a better (movie, game, work of art, etc.)" argument. it doesn't take a professional chef to realize when something tastes like shit.

I'm only good at singing and can hardly read music, and much too shy to take it up. RB is just a fun escape.

Like everything else worth saying, xkcd already did this.

While I understand the place the REAL GUN / FPS annalogy is coming from, it's not a fair comparison, IMO. Actually playing a real guitar is not going to have the same consiquences as ACTUALLY shooting someone with a real gun.

I certainly don't see the problem with music controller based games (I tend to agree with the guy quoted in the article), but I can also see why actual musicians would be "put off" by the genre.

These games don't reduce the pool of musicians, they increase the number of educated fans. People playing GH or RB are getting lessons in song structure elements (verse, chorus, fill, etc.) and arrangement (solos, doubling, rhythm vs. lead.) Sure, they aren't learning instrument technique, but they are learning form and basic music theory, in addition to rhythm training.

If someone isn't going to be George Harrison, he isn't going to be George Harrison, whether you put a piece of plastic in front of him or not. But maybe if he plays at being George Harrison for a while, he can pick some of the "language" and be an educated listener who recognizes and rewards skill in musicians, instead of the number of dollar signs in the background of the club remix video.

@Ikey Heyman - Why not try and take it up then? If nothing else, it's a great way to waste time.

I have no problem with people who like these kind of games.
I do however, have a giant problem with the attitude towards music it creates. A large amount of music showcased in rock band/GH have little to no depth musicially, and people start treating those songs like they are the end all, be all epitome of music.

Then again, that really isn't rock band or Guitar heros fault. I guess it's just the type of music people like. :\

If somebody gives up being a musician to just play Rockband instead, they weren't going to be a good musician in the first place. People that truly want to start a band or musical group are going to do it.

Right on the money Jim.

Personally, I don't have the time or the interest to form a band; having an actual career will do that to you.

I hate to offend any musicians here (I know a ton of friends that are serious about music), but honestly what the hell ever happened to fun? Sometimes, believe it or not, people play RB/GH because they want to just have fun playing their favorite hobby while enjoying music at the same time. I have a Bass Guitar that I want to pick up and learn, and it's been that way for years, but that's my point. Some people just don't want to learn an instrument, or aren't as dedicated to do so as they could be. Sometimes, people just wan to have fun, and that's the key word here.

I'm a designer, and I know that a lot of people use Photoshop to make forum sigs, avatars, etc. Do I expect all of them to becomes designers one day? No, because some people use it because it's fun to do. Same principle applies to music games.

i laugh at the artists/'musicians' that hate on rockband.

why the hate?? its a great thing for you, esp w/the rock band network coming out soon. its a new channel of distribution in which you can actually make a decent commission from.

i play piano, trumpet (both decently), sing, and attempted to learn guitar on quite a few occasions. i honestly would love to learn guitar but when it all comes down to it, i just don't have the time or patience anymore.

sure, its not like a real guitar; thats the idea and why we love playing these games! we get to live out our rockstart wanna be daydreams without having the drug addictions, strung out tours, crooked managers/labels.

just saying.. we don't pretend to be real guitars or musicians but more music fanatics. embrace us and maybe you could make a few bucks off of us too in the DLC :P

@WarZombie your photoshop comparison is a really terrible one, the question isn't what people use a guitar for, it is that they are playing pseudo guitar- it would be more like people using a light version of photoshop and thinking themselves designers

So, going against the trend here I will mention I am also a musician, I play bass in a rock band and do small local gigs and I freaking LOVE RB/GH! They are some of the best games ever made as far as I'm concerned (also worth note: I've been a serious game lover since my master system and now work in the industry). I have no issues whatsoever swithing between my real instrument and the fake ones, also RB/GH gives me the chance to play the drums and feel good doing it, when I play real drums I can do nothing but childish ryhtms, not much fun.
And that brings me to essentially the whole point of RB/GH; instant gratification. If I wanted to learn my fave metallica/the who/black sabbath song, starting from nothing, it would take months, years even before I could play the song, start to finish, and have it actually sound right. With GH/RB it can be done in about ten minutes, when people want to have fun they want to have fun NOW, not in two years after they've learned all these scales and memorized the complex finger patterns, they want to be able to jump in and have fun immediately.
Not everyone wants to be a 'real' musician, those that do are willing to put in the years of work to get there, those that do not can now have fun with a similar but not equal experience, whats the problem with that? I know no-one who has given up dreams of being a musician to play RB/GH, just the thought of that is ludacrous to me.
I love videogames and I love music and anything that brings the two together is gold in my books, now put down cooking mama and go make real dinner, it tastes better (did I mention I was also a cook for many years...?). Also stop playing trauma center and go to medical school.

Kohlstream: WIN.

kohlstream. put up the holocaust never happened on rock band network. i dont know how it would work but i want to play that on a 50inch tv with surround sound.

"It always amuses me when real musicians act threatened by a piece of plastic with squeaky buttons on it. Until people can take turns playing a real guitar when drunk and still have fun, music games have their definite place."

Well said!

I walked into a local guitar store here and asked to try some amps out. They started giving me shit when they spotted I had Guitar Hero:Aerosmith under my arm too. They said an "obvious amateur" like me wouldn't be allowed to try their amps and I should stick to playing my "retarded karaoke game".
They shut up when I got my 1959 Gibson Les Paul out it's case.

/somewhat irrelevant anecdote.



But yeah, anyone who complains about these games needs to start providing real justification when they do so. What do they take away from anyone? It's not like a group of really good Rock Band players could headline Wembley Stadium.

"Personally, I feel that a guitarist telling someone to learn a real guitar instead of playing Rock Band is akin to a soldier telling someone to shoot real people instead of play an FPS"

Couldn't agree more, Jim. In fact, I made a joke about this during my last standup show.

Definitely gonna take Harmonix's side on this one. I assume Jimmy Page and Jack White are in the business For The Music, so to say, meaning they want to see a revival and re-strengthening of rock. You get way more rock and way more variety of rock in GH/RB than you do on the radio or the TV. I'd say that music games have done more to make rock - classic rock, particularly - more popular than radio or television.

Also, I can speak as one of many that started out playing Guitar Hero with limited musical ability and was inspired by it enough to learn actual guitar. As much respect as I have for Page and White as musicians, they really are missing the point here and not seeing the benefit these games provide.

@musician

musician at 08/31/2009 10:59
I would love to see a feature that let bands upload they're own stuff, but that would probably be impossible with copyright problems and fraud.

It's called the Rock Band Network, should look into that

All in all music games are a good thing as it get ppl into music. But i do believe those ppl who pratice alot and get really good on a plastic instrument would be better off moving onto a real instrument as the basic principles of both are the same which is moving you finger to a rythmn.

The only pitfall many ppl who play a real guitar is that of it will take along time to get to the level many ppl want to be at eg play like hendrix. Where guitar hero can give the illusion of been a guitar god from day 1. But saying that there ae simple to play songs whicg sound really good with nice effects and singing with them. Take beatles songs they are very easy to play all that is needed is to learn the chord shapes.