A guitar player's opinion
By Rockdalf 12 Comments
I know this is opening a can of worms, but I was wondering what people thought of this upcoming rhythm game and controller, which doubles as a real playable guitar. Seven45 studios is a sister company to First Act, the people who introduced extremely low quality musical instruments to common retailers like Wal-Mart and Target.
Personally, I've been playing for about 6 years and I don't understand this. It seems like a gimmick to me, and unless the price is dirt cheap, you could get an astoundingly better guitar and amp for probably the same price as the game and controller will run. Combine that with learning lessons on easily free available sites such as this, and you could accomplish the same thing without feeling like a tool.
Just to clarify my personal stance on this, I love Guitar Hero and Rockband, even though I don't own the games. They're exciting to play, even more so with someone else who isn't solo-ing circles around you, but this new peripheral comes off as a lame attempt to make those games out to be something they're not... actually playing guitar.
I dunno, I could be wrong about this, but if I'm actually going to be playing guitar, I'd rather be jamming with friends or playing on a street corner for people passing by. When was playing a video game where you pretended to play guitar and drums not enough? Why must we blur the lines between playing music and video games and see what ugly mess becomes of it? Are we really ready to push ourselves into escapism that much?
Maybe this is another step in turning video game musicians into real ones, but I think it's a step that can be circumvented. If playing GH or RB interests you in the actual thing, I encourage you to strap on a pair and learn it yourself like those before you. There are no shortcuts.
