The Game Composer’s Blog

Guitar Hero creating real guitar heros?

I’m sitting here at 1:53am watching my wife dominate at Guitar Hero. I love just sitting back and watching her breeze through Cliffs of Dover on expert. This is her unwinding time, after we got back a little bit ago from our friends’ house where we played a few hours of Rock Band. Those friends had a baby a few months ago and (now to the point of this post) I couldn’t help but wonder if that baby is going to grow up and maybe someday play a Guitar Hero type of game and be inspired to pick up a real instrument because of it.

I’m not wondering about their baby in particular, actually. I’m sure he will be exposed to much more music than simply the music coming out of their Wii. But I’m sure there are thousands of other kids out there who are going to play hours upon hours of GH/RB and I wonder how many of them are going to try out a real guitar or drum set. I have no opinion one way or the other right now if they really need to after playing a video game simulation. I’m sure playing the games do help educate people at least a little bit about the inner workings of music, such as rhythm and pitch. And that’s great, but there’s nothing wrong with just having a little fun playing a video game. Rock Band especially is an awesome way for families to play cooperatively. Cooperative games in general are extremely rare, and one that’s based on music seems natural and timeless.

Will music games take on a greater cultural role than simply being video game pastimes? With school budgets always being cut and music programs continually being reduced or eliminated, music games will probably take on at least a little greater role in exposing kids to music and inspiring them to pursue music on their own. It won’t be limited to rock and roll either. With Wii Music, due out sometime this year, apparently there will be a conducting game. That will grab quite a few kids’ imaginations. And mine.

I foresee a game in the future where you hook up real instruments to your console via MIDI interface and play tunes using real instruments with people around the world. I do get a little uneasy seeing how much time people can put into practicing their Guitar Hero guitar when they could make progress learning the real versions of the instruments in the same amount of time. Hooking up real instruments will eliminate the fake-instrument time sink and encourage new and exciting ways to practice their instruments, via gaming.

There is the risk with the GH/RB games that kids beg for a real guitar, get one, and then very quickly get discouraged because, well, playing a real guitar is… hard! They want to play Weezer or Beastie Boys, and they want to play it NOW! The games make music creation instantaneous. When just starting out on an instrument, music making takes some time and lots of practice. With today’s shrinking attention spans, that can be a problem. Then again, maybe at least a few really talented kids out there will unleash their undiscovered real-instrument talent after being inspired by a music game. And that’s good enough for me.

September 14, 2008 Posted by thegamecomposer | Ponderings | Guitar Hero, inspiration, music games, Rock Band | Leave a Comment