guitar hero/rockband: waste of time? you decide!

abstract

Dagobah Resident
so i've always found something slightly off about guitar hero/rockband. HOW can someone play a fake guitar in front of a t.v. screen? i do music to STAY AWAY from a t.v. screen. and i've asked people before: "why don't you learn to play a real instrument? with as much time as you've spent playing a plastic guitar you could actually get good on a real one in no time." and the response i get is "shut up dude, i'm playing on expert mode." have we become so obsessed with the "virtual world" that we simply don't have time for the real one? or is it just easier to push buttons? is it the immediate (false) sense of satisfaction because you can pretend you're in a band? i'm guilty of playing excessive video games too, don't get me wrong, but there really are people who think they're cool because they can play expert mode (amazingly some people find this impressive) but they aren't building any real skills except maybe hand-eye coordination. not to mention you don't even have to retain anything in your memory because it shows you what buttons to press. it takes all the fun out of it when i don't feel the metal under my fingers, when i can't slide and bend and use a wah wah and feel the impact of the pick hitting the string, when i can't hear the glorious blasting growl of my amp turned up to 11 (why don't i just make 10 louder? LOL.) thoughts or comments please.
 
I understand well your point of view ... I play bass guitar, and I often struggled to understand what may motivate a person to invest so much time and energy in a video game which he will not receive any tangible benefit in"the real world". That said, most people who play Guitar Hero were not necessarily interested by learning a real musical instrument, like most players of Counter-Strike did not want join a real group of anti-terrorist intervention.

Just tell yourself that if Guitar Hero had never been invented, people who spend considerable time on it would have probably found another way to shut themselves up in another virtual world. What motivates someone to learn a real instrument is, in my opinion, very far from the motivations of someone looking to make a perfect on DragonForce - Through The Fire and Flames in expert mode.

My 2 cents !
 
it is true that human being seem to have a gift for wasting time in numerous ways. i suppose that i just have a problem with it because i've literally spent hours with a metrenome going "tick, tick, tick" just to learn a couple new challenging licks, not to mention the couple or three thousand dollars that i invested in numerous types of gear and everything else that goes with it, and then when guitar hero came along, it was like a slap in the face. i felt like the fun and challenge of being a musician becomes devalued in a way, when you just slap 50 bucks on the counter and bam, it's in your living room. im not saying we should burn every copy of guitar hero in existance, i've even played the games a little bit and it can be a nice alternative sometimes but the fact remains: you push some buttons...woohoo. pretty boring for me at least.
 
My brother bought this "game" several years ago, and I have to agree with most of what you said. I think it's one of the most ridiculous, pointless things to ever be invented. Yes, those people could learn a REAL instrument with the hours they spend instead numbing their brains with contrived, artificial nonsense. It has been shown that learning an instrument is one of the best things you can do to keep your mind "fit". Not to mention the absolute joy you get when you master a piece of music.

But it has been my observation that most people who play computer games don't really have much in the way of creativity, at least that's how it seems. They get their entertainment from being *led* (and unbeknown to them, programmed) by the creativity of others (i.e. TV, movies, computer games). To such people, it's almost a foreign concept that pleasure can be derived from creating THEIR OWN THINGS, whatever that may be. They truly are zombies.
 
yes, flouride and mercury consuming zombies oh and all that on top of junk food, "vaccines", toxic environment in general, television, programming...did i leave anything out? LOL.
 
[QUOTE author=abstract]i felt like the fun and challenge of being a musician becomes devalued in a way[/QUOTE]

I understand this.

I guess another way of looking at it is by contrast. A light then is shed on what it really takes to learn an instrument to be truly expressive: a lot of work that can't be done without learning about and developing self.

They're after a free lunch, and you know what that means. . .
 
On a related note, I had watched the South Park episode on Guitar Hero:

clip here: _http://www.southparkstudios.com/guide/1113/
episode synopsis (with spoilers) here: _http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Guitar_Queer-O

Sorry I don't have a link to a video of the whole episode since most video sites are blocked by the office firewalls and such.
It's not top-notch South Park but I still found it funny.

And it does tackle some of the points brought up in this thread (e.g. why play a game of guitar playing instead of learning to play a real guitar, the mind-numbing effect of games, etc.) so it might be worth a watch if you haven't already.
 
These games are not music. You watch colors on a screen, and you push buttons according to the colors. This is the most passive game that ever exists. And it is exactly the perfect opposite of what music is. Music is creativity and networking. And these games are silly Pavlovian trainings that prevent to learn music. Sick bag please!!

to Polonel : I play guitar and I have written some songs (only the music). If you are interested I could record some of them so you can give some feedback :)
 
I remember when I tried guitar hero for the first time. My eyes was hurting like crazy and I got the worst headache.
Truly mesmerizing and pointless as already mentioned.
I don't really think people that are truly into this game care much for the real thing or the music, to them it's the score that counts.
And the forever time consuming (and also pointless- no pun intended) "achievement points" that's on the xbox360.
I also think that guitarhero cheapens alot of the music when they are turned into a game.
 
abstract said:
yes, flouride and mercury consuming zombies oh and all that on top of junk food, "vaccines", toxic environment in general, television, programming...did i leave anything out? LOL.

It sounds to me that, with everything you have written so far in this thread, you are judging these people, and harshly at that. Remember free will? Also, STO does not determine the needs of others. Just because you have chosen to learn to play a real instrument and put in a lot of hard work does not mean that everyone else should be denied their right to choose not to. You seem to want to denigrate those who enjoy the game and how the sub-culture of guitar hero gamers act amongst themselves. Let me play devil's advocate, and say that the same could be said for real guitar players. Of course that's not how I really feel, but you see the point? Who are we to judge? It sounds like you feel you are better than them. But remember, we are all on different places on the learning cycle.
 
appy polly logies, my intention was never judgement, i'm not telling anyone NOT to play guitar hero, i don't have time to convince people that i'm right about something, i just wanted open debate on a topic, ya know, generate some head scratching. like i said i've played it myself and it's a cool game. if you wanna play it, play it. how am i gonna stop you?
 
Play it, still play it. It motivated me to learn guitar (which I've been playing for more than a year now) and has taught me a ton about how drums work and makes me wish I had the room or money to learn them as well.
 
Heimdallr said:
abstract said:
yes, flouride and mercury consuming zombies oh and all that on top of junk food, "vaccines", toxic environment in general, television, programming...did i leave anything out? LOL.

It sounds to me that, with everything you have written so far in this thread, you are judging these people, and harshly at that. Remember free will? Also, STO does not determine the needs of others. Just because you have chosen to learn to play a real instrument and put in a lot of hard work does not mean that everyone else should be denied their right to choose not to. You seem to want to denigrate those who enjoy the game and how the sub-culture of guitar hero gamers act amongst themselves. Let me play devil's advocate, and say that the same could be said for real guitar players. Of course that's not how I really feel, but you see the point? Who are we to judge? It sounds like you feel you are better than them. But remember, we are all on different places on the learning cycle.

I don't think he was judging, just making a few valid observations, as was I. I don't tell my brother he's an idiot for playing that game. He can go on playing it as much as he likes. As abstract said, he just wanted to bring to light an interesting topic. It helps to highlight one of the many ways in which we are all programmed, and it helps people become aware of those things that should be avoided. Just check out all the advice on video game threads, and you'll see that the overwhelming consensus is that playing video games should be *avoided*.
 
i don't know if videogames should be avoided completely, should zombies ever start walking the earth, i feel a tad safer knowing that i beat resident evil 4 a few times. (bang bang slice wroaarrhh ahhh kick slice bang pow, take that you mutated sack of bones!!) you just never know. maybe everyone playing guitar hero was a bored musician in a past life (this is totally a joke don't take that seriously)
 
abstract, I do remember that the videogames issue (and addiction to them) has been discussed in the forum. I would say that every addiction should be avoided. You cannot pretend to be free if you cannot be free in a word.


(bang bang slice wroaarrhh ahhh kick slice bang pow, take that you mutated sack of bones!!)
Please remember that it is an international forum and all the members are not always familiar with local idioms and not always familiar with teenager culture references. And if you feel safe in winning a computer game made by some programmers, a completely fake and imaginary world, is it because you feel unsafe in a real world? Maybe it could help you to think about it?
 
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