Music Game Competition Heats Up 82
With Guitar Hero: World Tour set to launch on October 26th, Activision has released a list of downloadable content that will be immediately available. Activision has also apparently included a trailer for Guitar Hero: Metallica (which will arrive sometime next year), and they recently trademarked the name 'Guitar Hero Modern Hits,' which may be part of their plan to increase the amount of Guitar Hero content they produce. Meanwhile, new Rock Band 2 DLC tracks are coming as well, and the release dates for the PS2, PS3, and Wii versions have been set. Early reports say the Wii version made the platform jump better than the original Rock Band, and that all currently existing DLC will be available for Rock Band 2. MTV's Multiplayer blog took a look at Wii Music, which creator Shigeru Miyamoto calls, "Not quite a game and not quite an instrument."
Re:Music authoring (Score:4, Insightful)
If they take down all songs that have a copyright,... how do they have any songs at all?
That review of Wii Music... (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:Music authoring (Score:5, Insightful)
The authoring function would be great for indie bands who could presumably make their songs available for GH:WT play.
Then I watched a YouTube clip of a "music studio" demo [youtube.com] given by one of the developers. The painfully obvious and much simpler approach would be for bands could simply transfer their actual multitrack audio (separate drum, bass, guitar, vocal and backing tracks) then just program corresponding controller movements for gameplay.
But no, that would interfere with one of the key revenues the game generates, promoting the real music added to the game, which undoubtedly is not free to the copyright owners of the music, all of which are signed to RIAA labels. Instead there is a music editor for you to create music within the game, limited to the game controllers for input, presumably without vocals at all. That's why musicians spend thousands on gear and recording, so they can broadcast their music from a toy studio.
From the demo: "We're trying to provide the community with everything we can" ...except the most important tools for the most in need. Next time pull the RIAA cock out of your ass before deciding what is or isn't good for music.
Another quote to show just how far off point these guys are: "I want to see a band perform live on stage with Guitar Hero controllers." Do these people not know where music comes from?
People wanking away with their fave tunes at home is one thing, but invading the arena of live performance is completely cannibalistic. The next generation of music will be lacking in originality and diversity (even moreso than already) thanks largely to kids being introduced into music as a binary instruction set - hit the wrong button and you're ruined.
The Easter Island civilization collapsed because they chopped down all the trees on the island to make boats and shelters, not realizing that trees don't just grow out of stone. Musical talent doesn't either.
Re:Music authoring (Score:3, Insightful)
All songs have copyright by their very nature as creations that can be copied.
You can create a very liberal license (make them freely copyable, in fact) but they still have copyright.
For some reason when i hear words metallica (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:Guitar Praise (Score:1, Insightful)
Everyone knows the best bands are affiliated with Satan.
Re:Guitar Hero vs Rock Band (Score:2, Insightful)
It's this kind of posts that make me lose faith in the gaming community.
Harmonix developed the first 2 guitar hero games, and then they expanded upon it with Rock Band.
Activision has been horrible with their management of Guitar Hero, so horrible that they drove away the original developers and had to bring in their own. Activision's president also at one point managed to say "Yeah, Guitar Hero World Tour will be the FIRST game to allow you to play all 4 instruments in a band!" which was an outright lie,Rock Band had been out for at least 8 months.
Also, Activision is horrible for the music game market because they "lock up" exclusive artists, which in the long term is bad for the genre. It's kind of what happened when EA Sports locked in the NFL franchise - EVERY OTHER sports franchise slowly withered away. Obviously music is wide enough that this won't be as easy as locking up one brand, but having exclusivity on Metallica, Aerosmith, Jimi Hendrix and Guns N Roses is a big deal in a "rock" genre.
Another issue is taste - clearly Neversoft has none in regards to what a game that originally began as a "rock star simulator" means.
The original Guitar Hero was awesome because it made you feel like you were indeed playing the songs. I play guitar and I strongly believe that Harmonix "gets it" in regards to how to simulate that you're playing the instrument.
Neversoft is firmly locked in the "This is a GAME and our players want DIFFICULTY" camp, and I just hate that. I can assure you that playing Dragonforce's "Through the Fire and the Flames" is not as hard in the real guitar as in the GH3 game (tho it is incredibly hard).
Anyway, it really saddens me that Harmonix worked hard for the brand recognition of Guitar Hero, and then when they wanted to expand upon their vision they were unceremoniously removed from their own franchise, and now that they have been building on Rock Band for a year, Activision has followed them with a copycat version.
Also I hope the people who say "GO LEARNZ A REAL INSTRUMENTS LOLZ" die in a fire.