Steamd

This Christmas, my mom helped me get a Nintendo Wii for my wife. So now my wife has a Wii to help relieve some stress from her frantic days in law school. But what was a surprise to me was what my mom also go us…Guitar Hero III! Boy, oh, boy! Is this ever a fun game! Even my wife, who I did not thing would enjoy it as much as me, has taken to it. In fact, I think she stayed up an extra hour or so last night and played it.

Being a musician myself, it’s no wonder that I would want to play this game. So when I read a review on The Register entitled How to be a failure at Guitar Hero III, I was really taken back by the stupidity of what I read.

“No one who plays guitar can transfer their skills to Guitar Hero III or Rock Band.”

Umm…yes and no. The physics can’t be transferred, that’s for sure. It’s a plastic thing in the shape of a guitar with five buttons and a lever. It’s obvious that guitar skills don’t apply to a device like this. However, a sense of rhythm and groove does apply. Some of the solos in the songs require you to adjust your timing and thus you can’t hit the buttons on a perfect upbeat or downbeat. So, in that sense, guitarists and other musicians can apply that to this game.

“A recent article in the New York Times on the guitar games wheeled out some egghead to claim that: “There is an aspirational element to Guitar Hero… [it satisfies] the desire to interact physically with music.”

No, not even close. In Guitar Hero III, I noticed, the guitar sound is essentially always the same, no matter what one does. The key to tone in an actual guitar is the direct physical interaction between the player and the instrument. This is expressed in the guitarist adage that everyone’s tone comes from their hands.”

Umm…I don’t think that’s what the so-called egghead meant. The whole notion that Guitar Hero some how gives others a way to feel what it’s like to play a real guitar is crap. But that’s not the point of the game. The point is to get into the groove of the song and hit the buttons in the correct order. The end result is that you have people who get really into it and do all kinds of crazy shit. Those who just sit on the couch playing the game aren’t having as much fun. The ones who are having all the fun are the ones who get up and jump around, bob their heads, and really get into the music while playing the game. That’s what the New York Times writer meant by the desire to interact physically with music. When you’re in the groove then you play better and get a better score.

No one really thinks their going to learn how to play the guitar by playing Guitar Hero. If they do then their naive. The only thing you’ll learn from Guitar Hero is hand and eye coordination and a sense of rhythm, timing, and groove which is critical to learning how to play guitar. You have to admit that you can’t learn to play music without these basic skills. Same applies to dancing. Can’t dance well if you don’t have any sense of rhythm, right?

Playing a real guitar is about expressing yourself through music. You mean to tell me we have a bunch of people playing Guitar Hero that think they’re expressing themselves in a meaningful way, that somehow your ability to kick ass in Guitar Hero makes you a better guitarist? I don’t think so. Hell, even South Park showed just how ridiculous it is on an episode called Guitar Queer-O.

The whole point, the only point to Guitar Hero is to have fun. If you think Guitar Hero is pointless and don’t want to play it then just don’t play it. But to criticize a game like this on the basis that it supposedly makes people think they’re playing a real guitar is bogus.