Guitar Hero kills desire to start a crappy band

well seeing as how I'm a pilot, pro-basketball playing, famous guitarist, I have nothing to worry about

I think there is some legitimacy to his comments, when taken with a reasonable interpretation. I write, and I know I've passed on finishing my great American novel from time to time to knock heads in Saints Row.

I dunno. I think the analogy with sports games is a bit skewed since sports aren't as 'technical' as playing a guitar. To a beginner, learning to play a guitar(or other stringed instrument) can be a daunting challenge and requires much practice to be even somewhat proficient, while a person new at basketball can easily shoot a ball at the hoop and hit nothing but the bottom of the net on the first try. If intended as such, basketball and other sports can be technical and difficult for a beginner, but their general simplicity lends themselves well to the uninitiated.

I think that now, considering how music games are reaching critical mass, that a guitar-based game that uses teaching as a foundation would be successful. The Software Toolworks company had an excellent idea when they produced the Miracle Piano Teaching System for the NES and Genesis back in the early 90's, but it didn't 'catch on' since gaming wasn't as socially acceptable as it is today.

I play guitar. There is a great feeling of accomplishment when you learn to play a new song all the way through. There is some feeling of accomplishment when you beat a video game but its not the same as a "real world" accomplishment.

Any of you guitar hero experts that think your the shit, pick up a real guitar or bass and make use of some talent. Best two songs to learn how to play when you first start playing are "Sunshine of Your Heart" by Eric Clapton and "Iron Man". But learn some scales first so it relaxes your fingers.

*Please* let this be true.

If so, I'd buy the guy that lives in the apartment above mine a copy right this second.

Er, so wouldn't playing GTA fulfill the "Go out and kill a bunch of people and steal cars" fantasy?

dont worry, they got this covered.
one of the loading screens in guitar hero suggests
that "At some point, you should really look into buying a real guitar."

so does this mean that shitty screaming emo bands will slowly die out? cause if so thats great news

I'd argue the opposite: That Guitar Hero inspires more people to take a stab at actually playing guitar.

MAKE UP YOUR MINDS! First you say "Videogames prompt people to do things in real life that they normally wouldn't do"(Remember then GTA killers?), and now you say "Videogames fill the need to do things that you would normally do in real life"! THIS MAKES NO SENSE! Common people! Get your stories(read: lies) straight!

Very good point #9. :)

This story is actually one of my biggest reservations when it comes to the Guitar Hero series. As a guitarist for now 13 years, it just seems like a cheap thrill versus anything near the real feeling of being able to play a guitar.

Also, a Flight Simulator doesn't teach anyone how to fly. It may give some basics to help cut the time of real life flight lessons, but it's only a primer at best.

@rockintom99

Over the last couple of decades, there's actually been a suspicious decline in crime with the increasing popularity of video games.

Of course, correlation isn't necessarily causation.

You don't pick up chicks playing Guitar Hero, but if you play a real guitar, they pretty much all want to bang you, therefor his argument fails.

Guitar Hero gave me the desire to learn to play a real guitar. I'm not going to start a band but I'm getting pretty good and it gives me a lot of enjoyment.

Actually playing guitar hero lead me to start learning to play music.

@#8: Indeed it does. Join my fight against murder simulators!

I guess I've never really felt like a rockstar while playing Guitar Hero. It's just a damn fun game. When I want to rock, I just put on my axe and shred.


Wow.....that last sentence was damn stupid.

The flight simulator example doesn't really hold up to Guitar Hero, if you're playing a true flight sim. I have friends who are actual Helicopter pilots who will log time on their computer helicopter flight sim games, to practice for real, because it is so accurate to what they actually do.

From what I've seen in guitar hero, its not quite that exact replication of playing guitar. It may give you timing. But learning different cord progressions, and scales, are nowhere to be found in that game.

Hey, the deus ex machina of "Snakes on a Plane" was some guy who learnt how to fly a plane via a video game.

To The Intangible Fact, #4 - looks like you making use of your talent hasn't helped your learn song titles or their artists. The song is called "Sunshine of Your Love," not "Sunshine of Your Heart," and it is by Cream, not Eric Clapton by himself. He played the solo on the song, but it wasn't a solo piece.

As far as the rest of the issue goes, anyone who actually thinks they have some musical talent because they can play Guitar Hero is a moron. You may have hand-eye coordination talent and a good bit of manual dexterity, but that's it. Now, I can see how developing that manual dexterity could acclimate an individual into being an effective guitar player, but clearly the game doesn't make you one. I think you'd be surprised at how many people think it does though...I work retail, and I hear tons of people every day talk about our Guitar Hero demo and say things like, "I can't play that game because I don't know how to play the guitar," or "Hey, that's the game that teaches you how to play the guitar." If I were Activision I would look to clarify that issue to bring those individuals in as potential customers too rather than losing them due to their own ignorance.

Oh and i just read this one...#14, Ocho, if you think that games becoming popular has anything to do with crime reduction, you are very confused. Putting "correlation doesn't mean causation" at the bottom of the post doesn't somehow make you a statistician. Try reading something about that crime-rate deduction to understand it a bit more. Freakonomics by Steven Levitt is an interesting place to start.

I entirely agree with the headline. Not much on Guitar Hero but if it wasn't for games like Goldeneye, Conkers, Spy vs Spy (NES), Gears of War etc. I'd be out on the streets, potentially killing you. Quenching my blood lust on the living. Online gaming has become the perfect alternative for the satisfaction and stress reliever that is real world violence. Don't look at me like I'm crazy, you all know you wish you could strangle that nasally voiced smelly kid who thought he was a genius in your highschool math class.

Video games are a great outlet for stress, anger, and dumbass ideas.

The people have it wrong, violence and sex in games is making us passive and many virgins. The Catholic church needs to hook their schoolgirls onto gaming so they don't freak the fuck out the first time they see a guy. Nothing says abstinence like a 12 hour gaming session. Sure alcohol may be abused more, but think of it this way.. they sure as hell aren't on the road drunk.

Reminds me of the day they took dodgeball/warball away from kids because "it encouraged stronger more athletic kids to target and single out the weaker ones"(sounds like sports to me). I think like a week after that I started getting in fistfights and got many a suspension and banned from the bus. Then I sought haven in the wonder that is video games.

So parents, get your stupid kids out of the garden and take that lighter out of their hands, then hand em an xbox and a copy of Mercenaries to explore the wonders of fire.

Long live gaming and a happy Winter-een-mas to you all,
Anticrawl

I've played guitar in bands for over 20 years and never played Guitar Hero. I have no interest in playing a "guitar simulator" (if you can call it that) over the real thing. And yes, chicks dig a real guitarist.

Guitar Hero inspired me to finally buy a guitar and an amp. I've wanted to learn to play since I was 12. It's been 3 months and I've learned a few songs. I've never wanted to be in a band though I just want to learn some rock songs.

It's a matter of price and goals:
Flight Simulator: $50, decent joystick: $40.
Flight school: $8000+

You can make the same comparison for guitars.

Guitar Hero is making me want to learn Guitat even more. Been wanting to play for years. I wanted to play since I was 10, I am 18 now so about 8 years. The sad thing is, the Guitar Hero is actually giving my parents more of a reason to get me real guitar for my 19th birthday (I'll most likely buy one before then though).

I really hate it when these bastions of negativity go on and on spreading their pessimistic views on everything. I hate it more when people give them attention. What if people lost interest in playing real instruments, waah waah! You know what, maybe we wouldn't have this influx of crappy emo bands that show up on EA Trax all the time. Maybe these people would realize they suck before inflicting their pain on us. But enough of the negativity.

Hows about thinking about the possibility that someone playing Guitar Hero might actually be inspired to pick up a Guitar and make music of their own. Maybe once they get good at the game they realize they have the dexterity and discipline to start playing for real. Maybe some people who normally wouldn't have thought about making their own music find themselves comfortable. Maybe it opens people to new music they never would have listened to before, or gives them new perspectives on life or something.

I'm tired of these "GAMES BAD!!!!" morons who I can only assume can't see past the failure in their own life and need to project it onto others so they can feel less lonely in their misery.

see the last 20 minutes of Snakes On A Plane for my answer.

I think this is only true on a low-level. Like, if you had one of those apathetic urges to start a band, the thrill of wowing your friends with your Guitar Hero skills might be enough for you not to care about writing your own music.

However, for people with a larger desire to play, I can see the game spurring their desire to learn how to actually play a guitar. (But maybe not start a band. I mean, all those loading screens for the co-op mode were pretty negative. "It all comes out on the road...")

But, this is kind of a larger concern I have about games. Does the virtual accomplishment you get from beating games stunt your general ambition and desire? I mean, by constantly beating games, do you feel less of an urge to get ahead in life, or to create your own things? Something to think upon a bit, I figure.

I don't understand why people PREFER to play video games of things they could do in real life, other than they're lazy, chicken &/or uncoordinated. For instance, I wanted to like MotoGP, but I ride & it's so not the same thing that it's just annoying. A lot of people online think that what they do virtually somehow translates to real world proficiency.

"Anticrawl" thinks he's such a badass because he plays Gears. Go join the army, go to Iraq & play hopscotch with the IED's if you're so tough ("out on the streets killing you")- you're lame. This is what I'm talking about.

I don't know about that, I mean I'm buying a guitar simply based on the enjoyment of Guitar Hero.

I bought a guitar about three months after getting Guitar Hero 1, in December '05. I've been practicing for a year now, finally getting to the point where I can confidently play a few songs.

I signed up for private lessons about five months ago; one of the first things my instructor noticed was that, despite my not having any formal training in guitar, I already knew where to put my thumb on the fretboard, I could pick up and play scales better than his other new students, and I had less trouble with rhythm and song structure. He also noticed that I was about as bad at figuring out chords and moving up the frets as anyone else.

Not a vote in any direction, just sharing my experience. Just count me as another person who never would have bought a guitar if it wasn't for Guitar Hero.

Sammy D Kat: "I don't understand why people PREFER to play video games of things they could do in real life, other than they're lazy, chicken &/or uncoordinated."

I had the perception I was all three, until I started getting good at GH. GH also gave me confidence that I didn't have before - it poked holes in my usual excuses, "I'm not coordinated enough to do that," "My hands are too small." I got to a point where I told myself, if I can four-star Cowboys from Hell, I can learn a damn pentatonic scale. If I could go from stumbling through songs on Medium to beating nearly every song on GH2 on expert, I could go from stumbling through chords to actually playing basic songs.

If GH was on a Dual Shock instead of that toy guitar, I probably wouldn't have thought that.

Sammy D Kat - Haha, you're one pissy guy. When did I ever make a comment about being a badass for playing a video game? I'm simply stating that violent video games keep me passive and having any urge to commit real violent crimes. You're a fucking moron, get a life. And just so you know I grew up in the army, everyone since my great grandpa all the way down to myself has been a part of it.

I think you were describing yourself in your post with your 'I'm so cool I ride a bike' comment. Pretty much anything in game you could do in real life, but said things could be dangerous or wrong(ala chainsawing people).

Anticrawl

I don't know about other people, but I'm *more* interested in learning real guitar now that I've played Guitar Hero.

I don't think that generalization is proper here. I'm sure that he's right for some and wrong for others.

I love all of the failure put into all of the negative comments on this site, especcially with the comment left by "Sammy D Kat".

Everyone misses the entire point of video games and why video games were created in the first place. The purpose of a Video Game like a book or a movie is to entertain an audience, which is exactly waht Guitar Hero is doing for many people. The only reason people bash on video games is because it's not their cup of tea, that doesn't give them any reason to bash a video game. I don't see many people making fun of that guy reading the newspaper in the mall just because he is into the stock exchange, so why bash a gamer because he wants to play video games? It's a personal preference.

Sure you have a lot of people that can take games to seriously, let them take it to seriously and get back on with your "lives". If you are going to bash someone for something, you are just lowering yourself to their standards and are being part of the source of the problem to begin with. People are going to bash Guitar Hero players because they don't play real instruments, but it's painfully obvious that those who don't play musical instruments just don't want to do it. It has nothing to do with being lazy, it just means that person doesn't want to do it.

You also cannot say that only wannabee guitarists are the ones playing Guitar Hero since last time I checked DragonForce themselves have fun with the game. There are a lot of bands out there that play rhythm games because they love music and want to play games dealing with music, it's about entertainment. You have all of these haters out there that do nothing but hate because they cannot play games that well, but they need to learn to get on with their lives and do something worth doing, such as working for your family or giving back to the community.

Don't bash someone because of their personal preferences, all you are really doing is starting a fire that doesn't need to be started, and you are being the source of the problem. All of these bloggers and writers that write about how bad video games are have no right to criticize something they do not understand, it absolutely pathetic. I'm not going to go comment about what they like to do, so don't comment on something I like to do. Just respect the difference and move on with your life.