I always just kind of thought getting good at Guitar Hero was a matter of practice (or for clumsy f*cks like me, an impossibility), but maybe you can actually learn the trade of banging the hell out of that plastic guitar like the kid you see above. NBC New York (via the New York Post) reports that New York University will now offer a class called "Guitar Heroes (and Heroines): Music, Video Games and the Nature of Human Cognition."
Marcus commented on the class, saying:
Video games are an understudied area. People dismiss them unfairly, but 'Guitar Hero' is a good tool for teaching and I'm interested in the nature of learning.
The course will address topics such as "Why are human beings so easily sucked in by video games?" It will only hold 16 students, but Marcus says he has a waiting list. Not a surprise, considering a lot of students probably want to earn credit by sitting around talking about music games. Hell, I would. Also, while I'm at it, I would like to take a Rhythm Tengoku class.
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Contest:
7:20 PM on 08.31.2009
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On the plus side NO MOAR STUDENT LOANS. They've all been paid off. :)
If it was something more like "Video Games and the Orwellian Dystopia; Final Fantasy VII", I would be on that like icing on a cupcake, but this seems like it might be a tad simplistic to me. Of course, without taking the class I'm just guessing.
Being a gamer, I also wanted to take this seminar, but it filled up way before I learned about the class. There is no actual guitar playing, its more of a tag line to get people interested (or get gaming blogs to care). Its more of a psychology class. It really is just an interesting class for gamers and psychology majors.
If you think that this class is a waste, note that it is obviously not mandatory at all. Also, there are honors seminars which tend to be more curriculum oriented. For the record, seminars tend to be more rigorous then the required classes for the GEN ED program.
Bobby Kotick and the rest of the chumps at Activision must feel really good about them selves right now, how they are making the franchise that used to be cool to in exploited whore who can turn tricks on a dime...
Second, lots of universities offer classes like this. I'm in Seattle and the UW offers classes like this.
Finally, the course is probably about cognition, not about guitar hero. The class is taught by a well published researcher on brain development. The guitar hero part is the hook in the title (that's why it's before the colon).
I gotta say, this destructoid post picks up the snide misreporting of the New York Post article--a pillar of journalism--and adds to it by implying that the class will help you improve your guitar hero skills.