Is Guitar Hero breakin' the law? Breakin' the law?

"the Wario game for the Wii pissed me off. I bought it for a party game, and we had to noob through the single player stuff. and by the time we got it all done, the night was over"

Same. Guitar Hero doesn't bother me as much since it can be looked at as "levels." Wario was really annoying though - they try to push it as some party game, but the multiplayer must be unlocked by playing through singleplayer first, which reeeeeallllly brings it down if you're playing on a console without it unlocked. There's no reason why the multiplayer game shouldn't be unlocked in the first place.

Hell, they only use one remote for that mode anyway!

"This seems to be a sign of the crop of pussies that many gamers have become these days

We're too lazy to unlock all these songs, and, you know, play the game, so we'll assert that its all illegal and ruin the experience for people who actually want a challenge"

Spoken by someone who has likely never taken on the prerequisite to unlock a song on DJ Max portable that requires players to string together a 100,000 combo. Yes, you read that correctly. The ultimate burn? If you get that 100,000 combo first, you don't unlock everything underneath. Nope, you still have to achieve the 90,000 combo, 80,000 combo, etc, seperately. So if you want to unlock this the fatest, you HAVE to perfect combo the hardest song in the game at least 50 times in a row. Don't mess up, otherwise you're a pussy.

Seriously though. If we were talking a game like Gears Of War or Resistance (incidently, Resistance and GOW are both unlocked completely for their multiplayer), I can see how this arguement is bullshit. But we're not. We're talking about party games. Something that's supposed to be about playing with friends almost immediately. As someone else pointed out, you have to play Warioware for at least 3 hours before multiplayer is even unlocked. Here are some of my favorite examples....

Mortal Kombat Deception: Half the character roster is locked, leaving you with just 12 fighters. This means, you buy the game to play with friends and have a roster the size of MKII...

Super Monkey Ball: Huge amount of credits are needed before you can even unlock the first minigame. This is a title that is bragging about the minigames on the cover. And yet they are locked almost entirely down.

Marvel vs. Capcom 2: Seriously, just imagine this hell. Playing through the game at least 3 times to each the credits needed to afford a new character in a game that has 56 characters. But that's not the end of that hell. Oh no, if the store has alternate costumes (read: Palette swaps) for currently unlock characters, you HAVE to buy those before new characters even become available for purchase. A friend of mine told me it was over 30 hours before he had everything unlocked and he still calls me a pussy to this day when, after my 20th playthrough and still looking at a largely empty roster, I used a Gameshark.

For single player, unlockables are excusable and even a great gameplay dynamic. But for party games and such or even multiplayer modes, everything should be unlocked. Forcing someone to experience your multiplayer game in a single player capacity just to unlock the multiplayer game is hugely lame.

"...the site makes the assertion that having to unlock songs in the game before you can play them is an illegal practice -- "quite illegal".

There's nothing illegal about it.

IBM sells mainframes with all the options installed but only unlocks the components and features that you buy.

You can buy a car from GM and they'll give you OnStar initially for free, which will then it'll be disabled if you don't pay an additional fee to use the service. It's not included in the price of the car.

When you buy a cell phone is may contain certain features that are not enabled until you pay an additional fee, even though the phone is cable of handling those features.

I've found that simply changing my bandwidth speed on my cable modem at home was a matter of paying more and the company enables the option on their end to provide more bandwidth. I didn't have to change out any of my equipment they previously supplied me.

A legal response: http://lawofthegame.blogspot.com/2007/04/deceptive-advertising-not-quite.html

@Wes Jett:

Most of the songs in GH2 are covers, except for Primus, The Toadies, My Chemical Romance and Jane's Addiction. Everything else is done by studio musicians, according to GameSpot:

http://www.gamespot.com/xbox360/puzzle/guitarhero2/review.html?sid=6168531

If you doubt it, check the credits. The studio musicians are in there.

If I go out and buy a DVD, I can pop it in, FF to the last scene, and see the ending. That's my right. I have paid for the pleasure of the media in full.

If I want to skip all the unlockables and get everything right away on my party game - that should be my choice.

Back in the day, games didn't advertise things you had to unlock to get. And I'm not sure that *doesn't* fall under deceptive advertising laws, although the laws do vary by state. But even just a few years ago, games would advertise the type of game they were and show you beginning levels. It was up to you to find the rest. Unlockables were a bonus, not the meat of the game.

If GH is advertising such and such a song, and you can't get to that song without unlocking it somehow, then that ain't right.

@sheppy

excellent post. you said everything I wanted to.

Hot pink helmets.

Tyson,

His argument may be stupid from a gamer's perspective. But from a legal perspective, I'm surprised you'd say it's one of the stupidest. There are far worse arguments that survive in court every day.

Do you really think a 55 year old mother would understand the concept of unlockables just from reading the back of the game box that advertises "70 songs"? If you don't, then this article has a potentially winning argument.

"That really irritated me about GH, a friend of mine brought his game over, but forgot his memory card, so we had to play through the entire game on all the difficulties just to play the songs we wanted (he playd on hard, I played on easy, then I played on medium)"

You're either an idiot or a liar. If any song is beaten on any difficulty in Career mode, it is available to play on any difficulty level, even ones harder than the one it was beaten on in Career mode, in Quick Play mode. Beat a song on easy in Career, play it on Expert in Quick Play or Multiplayer. Of course, the Unlock Everything code has been posted here already and is really, really easy to find online, so I'm leaning towards "idiot."

Game Stooge = troll.

This new car comes with air conditioning with climate control! (*)





(*)- Features unlock after 400,000 miles have been achieved.

There's a good point here somewhere -- unlocking songs can be a hassle, especially in a game like this which is suitable for party play. But it's hidden behind a bunch of nonsense, especially that bit about false advertising.

If you don't like the way a game's designed, that's fine. But to claim the way a game is structured is immoral and illegal is absolutely moronic.

Yeah, it's not really false advertising, and I definitely don't think we need it to be illegal. But unlocking is crap nonetheless... It was hard at first to transition from PC games (in the 1990's at least) where everything came unlocked, to console games where characters, weapons, vehicles, clothes etc etc needed to be unlocked. Flight Sims would be infuriating if to begin with you could only fly in Chicago with a Cessna.

Reading comprehension isn't y'all's strong suit, is it?

sheppy wins.

I posted this on the rebuttal's blog, thought I would copy it here.

Several serious holes in your logic:

1) You say "reasonable consumer of video games" that is not accurate. It is simply "reasonable consumer," much different. In practice that means your average 36 year old female with a high school diploma or 63 year old retired male. The kind of people on a jury.

2) It is not the FTC only that deals with deceptive advertising. Most states have their own laws describing defining a deceptive trade practice. In my state of Texas it is chapter 17 of the Business and Commerce Code. That law is much different than FTC law.

3) You say "if an ordinary consumer might be misled, the statement itself is still not material. Most consumers who buy a game are willing to play it, so most consumers will make the content available." This statement, while true, has no place in your conversation of what the law is. What does 'most' have to do with it? Nothing. It takes just one. One 36 year old woman to buy the game for her 4 year old son who just loves Hangar 18 (its his favorite song...thats all he wants to play!). Box/advertisement/promotional material says it has that song. Oh but wait you have to play a bunch of other songs (I doubt many 4 year olds could ever get past even the first level)...to get that song. That was a waste, of money and misleading to that woman who bought the game relying, to her detriment, on the fact that she would be able to play Hangar 18. She is the one who sues.

And before you say she wouldn't because of the huge legal fees...you are wrong, if a case is even half decent many state's lawyers will take a consumer case, because like in Texas deceptive trade practice law, the defendant has to pay legal fees on top of possible economic, mental anguish, and exemplary damages, AND pretrial interest, if they refuse to settle and lose.

I am not saying you are wrong, just that your reasoning is incomplete if not flawed.

For the most part everyone agrees that this isn't illegal , but whether or not its annoying is up for debate.

Since this is the first GH game I bought I had no clue so many songs were locked, and I'm not talking about locking them from venue to venue. I saw War Pigs was on the back of the box and i beat the entire game on easy not to find it. It wasn't even in the store to buy on Medium at first (found it eventually). I don't even like the song that much, but I found it strange that I could beat an entire game on a difficulty level and a song that's advertised on the back is hiding like a ninja.

Someone already mentioned it, but I think all the songs should be available at least to try in practice mode. But having everything unlocked to use in the main game would just make it too easy.

This is silly I see the argument only really an issue to me or valid in the forget a memory card senerio.

There are 36 songs on Easy and 48 on Medium and I dont believe they dont go up in number on Hard and Expert not sure as I havnt completed them yet. But I finished Medium in maybe 3 or 4 hrs so had all the basic songs unlocked. Free play doesnt care what level you unlocked the games at and you can play them as easy or hard as you like.

I was also able to unlock all the extra songs right away using the points I earned in the 1st playthough even got the Grim Reaper too. Almost all music games do this and have for a long time.

I stand by my argument, still, forcing people to unlock stuff advertised in the game forces them to look at other game modes that they may not normally

Example: Super Smash Bros Melee, still one of the best local multiplayer experiences out there, to get the full measure of the multiplayer mode (all characters/stages), you have to do some extensive work across most of the game's modes, something others may not have considered

Well, games that are meant to be party games (and really only such) should have everything unlocked. Warioware is a good example. However, Guitar Hero II is NOT a party game, so buck up and play the damn levels... or quite being lazy and play the fun game.

Anyone who doesn't get the joke in the title deserves a prompt kick to the face.

When you bought Castlevania for the NES, you saw a picture of Dracula on the cartridge and you think to yourself "Sweet! I get to fight Count Dracula!" Only, you can't immediately access the content, you have to beat all the other levels first, it's progression, not restricted content. This is a concept thats been in video games nearly from the start.

Well, I find the article kind of uninformed. There are cheat codes that instantly unlock everything on GH, I've used it during parties and the like before. The idea of unlockable content has always been irritating to me in other videogames, but GH it kind of makes sense that you have to unlock things. It gives me as a player a higher sense of accomplishment.

Such great anger; such passionate rebuttal; such poor reading comprehension skills.

The article never says that unlockable content is illegal. The article contends that listing unlockable songs as featured in GH without noting that they are initially locked could be taken as deceptive advertising, and that deceptive advertising is illegal.

I am not necessarily saying I agree that listing unlockable songs as "featured" is deceptive advertising, but I certainly agree that deceptive advertising is illegal. I'd hope that even all the many haters here could agree with that.

The analogy to conventional games with unlockable content is valid to an extent, and I don't think anyone would consider it deceptive advertising to mention featured content from higher levels on a game's packaging. However, higher levels in a conventional game exist only as part of that game.

The songs that GH2 advertises on it's packaging exist beyond the GH2 game and are familiar to non-GH-fans and non-gamers. The are recognized by many people who don't necessarily recognize the GH franchise itself. You don't have to have any prior experience with or knowledge of GH whatsoever to know and enjoy the famous songs listed on the GH box.

Ultimately, the primary purpose of GH is letting players pretend to play guitar to their favorite, familiar songs. And that's why those songs are all listed on the packaging, right? The fact that the songs exist independently from the game is what makes them a different sort of feature than a higher level in a platform game or an unlockable character in a fighting game.

All this said, I still don't agree with the authors conclusions, but I'm glad to consider myself in the small minority of posters who may have actually understood them.

Come on people it's a fucken GAME!!! What your saying about this game is Bull. It's a game if you want a game that you can cheat with then go out and get a DDR. GH2 and GH1 are games that are out to challenge you and make a big come pleat ass of your self in front of your friends. There is no point to a Game if you cheat all the way threw is there? No there is not so just play it and they not have other songs in the practice mode b/c they want you to get better at the ones that you have to get to the next level.
p.s.-There are cheat codes to it all you have to do is look and try ease or medium when starting out it gives you the same songs but much better pace So go out and Just Play!!!!

Sheppy wrote:
"We're talking about party games. Something that's supposed to be about playing with friends almost immediately. As someone else pointed out, you have to play Warioware for at least 3 hours before multiplayer is even unlocked."

You forgot Rayman. I bought it since I though it was "mini games". In part of course it was due to my inexperience with consoles.

I was play Zelda for a week - so Rayman was laying packed. Friends came over and I suggested unpacking Rayman. What a piece of **** it turned out to be - story mode what???? all stuff is locked??????? What I have bougth this **** for????

I was very embarrassed and disappointed. Thanks god that WiiSports was done by sane people and e.g. to be play golf you do NOT need to win gold medal in tennis or some nightmare like that.

Lockable content == pile of ****. I glad that no such **** exist in PC games. Or otherwise most PC games have cheats you can unlock game - or cracks or downloadable save game files - even if just to evaluate it before buying. But on consoles you immediately feel pissed since you bought already the ****** game - and often cannot return it (it was part of bargain or two weeks/10 days have passed).

In light of lockable content and silly save game systems on consoles, it is impossible to even think about trading PC for game console. Exclusive titles aren't worth it - especially if packed with the aforementioned /features/.

I don't think it's illegal... With most every game you have to go through each level before you get to the next one...
Like with Elite Beat Agents: You start with the easiest and the second easiest. Then once you beat those two you get the third easiest. Fourth, fifth, and so on.

Though, cheat codes could be nice...

To conclude subject "Unlocable content" stuff in console games.

I think games need finer classification. For example instead of "50 mini games to enjoy!" box should be saying "locked down mini game collection - until you play story mode". So innocent victims like I am wouldn't be throwing 50€ out of window.

TheOnlyOne wrote:
"Like with Elite Beat Agents: You start with the easiest and the second easiest. Then once you beat those two you get the third easiest. Fourth, fifth, and so on."

EBA is quest. So it might be different from mini games collection. But of course, if every next case has no relation to previous one - there is no point of locking it from player. This is different for adventures: deeper you go into story - more powerful items/stats you have to beat more powerful foes. (Though some PC adventures were doing just that: they were allowing you to start from any place in games, providing you with basic set of items and character level required to beat the level.)

But I still find it insulting: forking off 50€ - and then being forced to do just like game tell me to - without any options or ways around. Especially if box says one thing - but what I'm presented is totally different thing. (Wii Rayman' story mode v. score mode.) Not that I try to screw rules of the game - but I just try to get to content I'm really interested in - the content I have payed money for and the content game was advertised for.

This is so ridiculous. Gamers these days are some of the laziest, most pathetic people. Not only are all your games planned for you in a linear fashion, but now you can't even stand actually playing through them?

I miss the days when games WERE actually hard. They're not these days. People are such whiners.

Too bad Guitar Hero's been a rip of two games already.

Honestly I dont see why so many people can loves this game so much and I dont feel this game deserves any credit what so ever as being innovative by any means. Unless by innovative you mean a mishmash of Guitar Freaks and Amplitude/Frequency, stupid easy charts, and the narrow minded attitude that the only music that can come out of a guitar is rock.

This is stupid, it's a video game that you are designed to win in order to have fun. If your bad at a game thats your problem, beating it is where the fun comes from. Of course you cant just play every level from the start, look at any other game on the market.

This has to be the dummest thing i have ever heard... , what is the point of having the game if there are no obstacles or points of achievement. Then the game is pointless.... imagine playing any game where you start off with everything and can play wherever and whatever u want... its a waste... This guy has to be joking about it being illegal to have to buy the songs.... Can u imagine the stupid shit that could be said from this...? Any game that requires you to buy a potion for example... is that illegal? lmao...

Ok seriousley guys. I have one word for you--- NERDS! If you're suing some company just because u cant beat some new game, you seriousley need a life. Try spending time with your family, reading, writing, someting else that doesnt melt your brain and doesn't start controlling your life. If you don't like the game setup, or if you're contemplating buying the game, read some damn reviews and stop complaining to the rest of the world. (btw, comin' from a 12 yr old)

If yall are talking about your kids and stuff, maybe you should think about this--- you have a family. You have money. If you have a 3 yr old son get ur ass off the couch and go to the park. play catch with your son, go through the torture of playing tea party with your daughter. is it really worth the time and energy to play some dumb game just so that you can complain and ignore loved ones?

GET A LIFE!

You know whats really retarded? People are actually sitting here bitching about the legal rights of a game that is made for teenagers. I know some people who play it, god does it get on my nerves, but it is their right. They dont give a shit about having to unlock it each time, they get excited. I think its more about xbox lives points now and ranking then anything else, and if you are going to sit here and bitch about something being illegal because you have to unlock it, or bitch and moan for cheat codes then you obviously suck to bad to complete it yourself.

BS!!! Just because you are an incompetent player, doesn't mean all the doors should be opened FOR you. What game DOESN'T have levels to unlock? What would the fun be without them? Half the fun of video games is getting to higher levels (literal and metaphorical) by praticing your skill and becoming a better player. If you can't even UNLOCK the levels, then you are guaranteed to fail them anyway.

at first i thought this was a joke, but as i read on i realize not only is this true, it's also fucking rediculous. If there is not challange in a game, whats the point in replaying it, let alone try to be good at it? Ok, thanks dudes, everything in the game is already unlocked and i am $90 poorer, as long as i can show my friends this song tonight. Afterwards... i dunno, i guess i'll play my favorite songs... after that... i dunno, im bored with it so i guess i'll sell it for a real game.
If you suck bad enough to not be able to pass medium/unlock anything, then you shouldn't be complaining (and i recommend you not make a complete ass out of yourself and sue the developers). I have never heard or even imagined anyone would get the balls to sue a developer over something as trivial as this. "WTF ON THE BOX IT SEZ DAT I CUD PLAY THIS SONG, BUT LIKE NOW IT SES I HAVE TO UNLOCK IT! OMG THIS IS So BULLSHIT IM GOING TO SUE... WHAT?... PROGRESSION IN A GAME? WHAT?? WHAT ARE YOU TALKINg ABOUT CHALLENGE? I SHOULD... SUCK IT UP... AND ENJOY THE GAME? NO! IM GOING TO SUE!"

maybe the developers had this already in mind, thinking that people that suck bad enough to not be able to unlock all of the songs, shouldnt be entitled to get everything in the game. Its simple... what do you do when you cant beat a level? practice, get better, beat it, feel ACCOMPLISHED. Without that feeling, what makes people come back to guitar hero?

You have to gain skill to unlock everything, not stupidity, which is a lesson Game Stooge has yet to learn.

Wow, gamers really are lazy these days....listen the whole point of having to unlock things on party games is for the "Single player experience" that's why most of said party games have an "unlock all" cheat such as GHII, it has one, but it also disables the save feature for the SINGLE PLAYER experience. Thus, it saves the fun for when one person is playing by themselves, and if his/her friends happen to come over and want to play, a simple chain of buttons are pressed and PRESTO! everything is there for playing and whatnot. As for not being able to unlock everything on easy mode well, that's another thing, you unlock enough to where you can actually get better to play on medium and then unlock everything, and by the end of medium you should be able to go to hard, and etc and etc....Look, I see your points on "It's not fair not to have everything unlocked at the beginning of a party game" But why should it be illegal? Bout as retarded as all of the people suing McDonald's and Burger King because "It made me fat"....

who cares
this is a horrible poser game anyway. its nothing like actually playing guitar its just pretending to play guitar
it makes people at my school think they're even cooler because they can 'play guitar' when really they're just playing a video game that is nothing like playing guitar

dont tell me i have no idea what im talking about because i do. i actually play guitar, classical and rock. and i've played the game before to proe my point.

this game sucks leagal or not.

its not like there advertising things that aren't on the game, everything advertised is on the game you just have to work through it to unlock it, thats what makes a game, a game. If you could skip through games and go straight to the final boss, then you have'nt really beaten the game, you just beat that one level.

wow u people are fuckin retarded if all games had everything unlocked then they wouldnt b challenging u fuckin pussys

QQ n00bs.

Just like any game, party game or not, you have to give people a reason to play single player. It's just like super smash bros, where you have to complete certain achivements to unlock bonus levels and characters to get the *full* experience. The game costs almost 100$, there damn sure better be incentive to play the game when you're not having friends over (which should honestly be most of the time, given you dropped 100$ on a video game).

I finally had to stop reading the comments because there are too many people around here who aren't buying games for the right reasons. It frightens me when I think what could happen if this stupid notion catches on and affects game development or (and this seems extremely unlikely, but what isn't possible in the new millenium?) legislation.

When you buy a game, you're not buying something catered specifically to your wants and needs. You're buying a game some developers threw together because they thought it was cool and that you would buy it. If you're not happy with the product, don't buy it. It's that simple.

The packaging is under the responsibility to promise things the game actually delivers. It's also going to hype things up a lot. That's understood. When you buy a music game and it promises 50 songs, any reasonable person should expect that half of them (or more) will be locked from the start. That's how games work. You're not buying a museum. You're buying an experience.

Should Metroid games include an option to start with everything unlocked because some twits miss the point entirely and think that would be cool? No. The directors have their vision and they should stick to it. There's no fun in buying a Metroid game and starting with all the weapons available. It defeats the whole point of playing the game. Most of the fun comes not from just the items, but from the thrill of earning them.

It's a ridiculous argument from start to finish. I've watched movies and wished they ended differently, but they didn't. Am I going to boycott the studio or try to say it did something illegal? No. I'm going to realize that I spent money on tickets or a DVD that wasn't tailored specifically to me. If video games can't follow the artistic vision of those designing them, then they shouldn't even exist. Stop the self-centered whining and play games instead of trying to water them down into challenge-free messes. Remember that ultimately, games are games because they challenge you and reward those who play well. Voice acting, cut scenes and licensed music haven't changed that.

Loads of games have features not currently available until you properly play the game, the main ones being the sport games like Tiger Woods & Fight Night, on the box it shows all the different courses you can play but most of them you have to play through the game before you get access to these places.

Anyway if you really do want to play these games without learning how to play them properly there is always the option of cheating. Either use a cheat code or find a game save someone's posted on the internet and load it up with all the songs. I got to the second island on GTA:VCS by loading a game save from the internet.