Death of a Gaming Genre
Has this happened to anyone else that’s moved recently? You come across your old collection of Guitar Hero axes and Rock Band instruments, and you have an internal debate.
“These games were so much fun! How come we never play them any more? I really should hang on to these and get them out the next time I have people over.”
Which is soon followed by.
“Dude, no one is going to want to play “Psychobilly Freakout” for the ten thousandth time. And you know what would look good in this closet instead of this pile of crap? Empty space.”
The latter side wins. I threw mine away last year, and they join my DDR mats in gaming periphery heaven.
I’m kinda in the same boat. For years I was an Xbox fanboy, but between it sounding like a jet plane every time I turn it on and dcuo being ps3 exclusive, I have sided with playstation. The ony reason I still have my Xbox is because of all the songs and instruments I have bought for rock band. I barely ever play and when do ts just because the wife likes it. I would love to get rid of it all but I don’t really need the space and the trade in value is way too low.
Funny you posted this. I had a hankering for some Rock Band today, but I got rid of all my instruments months ago because I never used them.
The reports of the music gaming’s death are greatly exaggerated. Sure, the financials may tell a different story. But the artistry of games, like any other genre of media, means the worth of a gaming genre has to go beyond a measurement of ‘insert coin, count coins.’ The musical gaming genre speaks to the future of gaming, the possibilities therein, more than any other type of gaming in gamedom.
First, while non-unique to music gaming, note that Rock Band 3 upped their game a good deal from the other Rock Band games. Song selection, graphics, and playing modes (the leveling system via touring venues) all helped freshen up their format, but the biggest stride they made came with the addition of the Pro instruments.
Rocksmith then took this to a whole new level.
Rocksmith (which allows you to hook up a real axe of your choice), and the Rock Band 3 pro-guitar (still a toy but allows for transferable guitar skills nonetheless) took the place of 5 button clicking and flipping for me. Adding actual instruments adds an infinite level of difficulty you can plum unless you’re Jack White, Jimmy Page or even a budding young Quinn Sullivan. For us non-prodigies, it chops down the learning curve and speeds your playing progress. Yes, working out the delay and calibration still makes Rock band 3 and even Rocksmith imperfect guitar learning tools. They also do not pick up all the nuances of hammer ons, pull offs, picking, etc., only can show you where you should. If you make the right sound another way, it doesn’t yet differentiate 100%. Nonetheless, real instruments signal a significant step forward in home gaming technology.
Flight simulators have long helped pilots learn to fly real planes. Child psychology and gaming theorists have long combed over the role ‘play’ and ‘gaming’ plays in the important cultivation of life skills we carry into adulthood. We hear all the time on NPR type new sources of dreadful learning games that try to apply video gaming to trick us into learning about how micro-finance can save small island nations from dying horrible deaths where they melt away from unending eternal bouts of diarrhea. Psst, Altruism, where’s the fun in that? Somehow such didactic and depressing games have yet to match running and gunning in popularity. All video games, one can argue, fulfill the ‘learning life skills’ purpose to various degrees.
But in the end, it comes down to this. You can hook up a Kinect or Playstation’s Move to an RPG, pull back all the fake bow drawstrings you like, but, in doing so, you’re not going to best Viktor Ruban for a gold medal in archery. Music gaming, however, actually allows you to play instruments. For reals. You learn a real skill but still have fun doing it.
This also makes it a more niche market geared towards would be musicians. Still, all the former band nerds, choir geeks, and weekend axemen in the world have to count for something.
Also, you can still set up the play controls for a house party and folks will gravitate towards it. Pull out the pro-instruments and show off your chops, and you may even get laid without all the hassle actual touring brings. It’s fucking evolutionary, man, if you can get over your Forbes-fetish-money-grubbing, trend-humping BS. And now I’m reaching so I’ll stop typing. Peace.