The Game Composer’s Blog

Game music, a matter of life and death.

Best Buy’s new music instrument store.

spinal-tap

Have you been in a Best Buy lately? I don’t know about the one(s) in your city, but the one here in North Seattle has a brand new corner which sells guitars, drum kits, keyboards, and various other musical instruments and accessories. As I was perusing the DVD section last month (looking for the new Doctor Who Season 4 set – whoo!) I was surprised when I saw the giant wall of guitars hanging in the new corner room of the store. I walked into the new section and quickly wanted to run back out. There’s something about those mega-chain instrument stores that make me very uncomfortable. It’s probably that horrible Guitar Center customer service experience I had a few years ago which forced me to try and dissuade everyone I know from ever shopping there, but that’s a story for another time (maybe those failed rockers, who look down their noses at up-and-coming kids who may have more talent in their kneecap than they have in their entire body, shouldn’t be dealing with the public).

But I digress. A couple weeks later, I did walk back into that corner of the store and I saw a decent selection of stuff and a worker who was more than happy to let me check out the place on my own. I don’t know if their prices are any good or if they had the latest versions of all the Gibson guitars, but I couldn’t help but think there is one and only one reason for that part of the store to now be there:

Guitar Hero and Rock Band.

The kids today all want to rock! And that’s a great thing. The more kids out there are rocking and learning about the great hits of yesterday and today – how they’re constructed, how they’re performed, what they’re saying – the less they will be inclined to accept inferior music. It can only help raise the quality of popular music. And, perhaps, put an end to the reign of the record companies. With the internet, those record companies are now dinosaurs, chewing on whatever they can to stay alive… even the hand that is currently feeding them!

“The amount being paid to the music industry, even though their games are entirely dependent on the content we own and control, is far too small.” – Edgar Bronfman Jr., head of Warner Music (Aug 7, 2008)

They still don’t get it! These games are responsible for reviving interest in so many of the artists on all these record labels. I have younger friends who have now bought Boston albums thanks entirely to Rock Band. It warms my heart to see them appreciate the genius of the band who gave the world Foreplay/Long Time. Sure, I was initiated long ago but these poor youngins grew up musically crippled by the likes of Hansen and Vanilla Ice.

“I think the industry as a whole needs to take a very different look at this business and participate more fully. If that does not become the case, as far as Warner Music is concerned, we will not license to those games.” same dude, same day

Argh! Music is no longer a commodity. There’s something to be said for musical education, performance and otherwise, and the latest generations are growing up more musically literate and won’t be as easily manipulated by the evildoers of the RIAA. Quality has a way of killing mass production.

Long live rock. Long live video games. And go ahead and keep selling those instruments, Best Buy. You have my blessing. Every guitar sold is a nail in the coffin of the senile old record companies.

December 19, 2008 Posted by | News, Ponderings | , , , , | Leave a Comment

Fake plastic instruments all over the place…

With games like Rock Band and Guitar Hero selling millions of copies all around the world, I can’t help but wonder if there is going to be a boom of games coming that take advantage of their fake plastic instruments. Sure, people are getting many hours of use out of their instruments in the games they were created for but once all those songs have been played to death or the players need a little break from all the rockin’, will they have some other games to plug their instruments into?

I’ve seen an experimental platformer called “Fret Nice” that uses the Guitar Hero guitar. I haven’t played it but it seems like it might be interesting. But besides that, I haven’t heard of any other games using GH/RB controllers. Maybe a guitar isn’t the best type of controller. How do you get past the fact that you are holding a decent representation of a rock and roll guitar? But with the drums and microphones, I think there could be a lot of potential for new and fun games. It could be as simple as whack-a-mole with the drums, but I’m sure something more interesting could be dreamed up. With microphones, there is also a ton of innovative ideas to be explored. What could be simpler than controlling a game with your voice?

I would love to see some original new games come out using these controllers. I look at the three Donkey Konga bongo controllers sitting in our closet and wonder why they couldn’t have gotten more use. Well, the games never came out (besides Jungle Beat). But with today’s downloadable games markets on all the consoles, there is no reason not to have some unique new games that use the music controllers. As long as they’re fun, I’d love to see them. In the interest of conservation, please, developers, give us something else to play using our fancy new plastic guitars and drums!

This blog came into mind because I am really looking forward to Guitar Hero World Tour on the Wii next month. The game looks like the bomb. But that will also bring our fake instrument count up to 3 guitars, 1 drum set, 1 mic, and 3 sets of bongos. Add the Wii Fit board and nunchuks littering the living room and I start to get a little… uneasy.

This picture has nothing to do with the blog post. Just wanted to brag about my perfect 300 in Wii Sports bowling. :)

September 20, 2008 Posted by | Ponderings | , , , | Leave a Comment

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 | Ponderings | , , , | Leave a Comment

   

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