This is the single greatest game of all time.

[liugeaux]

What I am saying is that Guitar Hero as a game has gotten more non-rock music listeners into Rock music than any one band has int he past three years.  I am not taking away from the talent of those bands.  I'm just saying that Guitar Hero as a vehicle for the genre itself is more powerful than the interest that one band can create alone. 

Oh, yeah? So you're saying a fucking game that features rock songs is more important than the bands who wrote them to begin with?

No, scratch that, it sounds as though you're insinuating that a plastic controller shaped like a guitar is more important for "real rock music" than actually learning to play the real thing. 

My answer...yes...why might you ask?  Without listeners, Rock Music would not exist...therefore something that adds listeners is more important than the act of creating it.  I can Yoyo, but if no one cares that I can Yoyo then my talent goes to waste.  A large number of the small children (yes, even though it is a teen rated game children are going to play it) who play guitar hero are probably going to ask their parents to get them a real guitar.  I know one myself that is begging his mom for a guitar for Christmas as we speak...because of the experience he had with Guitar Hero.  Anything that can get today's lazy ass kids to stand up and want to learn music can't be all bad.

Thanks to Guitar Hero my Black(I mean nothing racist by that) friends who usually listen to rap and hip-hop now know who Pearl Jam, White Zombie, Megadeth and Motley Crue and Nirvana are.  With that said the state that Rock music is in these days, the type of exposure that Guitar Hero is giving the genre IS more important to the sustaining of the genre than any one band.  Of course the game can't exist with out the genre, but that's like saying that CDs suck because they make the music more accessible to the masses of people and that Rock fans should only see live shows.  When in fact its the other way around...people want to go to the live shows because the CD is so good.

Anyone who wants to play music, by all means, pick up guitar hero and play the shit out of it. But if you really want to play and you never take the time to learn a real instrument, you're pretty fucking retarded.

Learning to play music takes time and talent two things most people don't have.  Guitar Hero takes much less time and much less talent...making it the perfect "gateway drug" for Rock Music. Also people don't want to learn to play music...they want to be better at something than their friends, Guitar Hero gives them a measurable venue in which to do this, while at the same time getting drunk and rocking out to some great music.

Did you actually SEE the guitar hero south park episode? It speaks the truth.

Finally, Yes I saw the South Park Ep about Guitar Hero and I think they nailed it perfectly until the very end when they called the player "gay."  All that proved was that Matt and Trey don't like Guitar Hero and they wanted to piss people off about it.  I have always loved South Park but for once I felt that they were really ripping on something they didn't understand.

[bernie]

yeah, as far as making some really cool rock music really accessible goes, i don't know how you can argue with that point.  how many people who played guitar hero 2 do you think knew who suicidal tendencies were before hand?  probably very few.  now i hear people making "all i wanted was a pepsi" jokes from time to time.  i think gh has been great for music.

and yeah, its a fun game.  this is just like saying "if you wanna play football, you're a moron for playing madden."  they're two different things.

[Adam Bomb 669]

I can understand ripping on something if you know what its about and still dont like it, but what bothers me is people who say stupid shit like I PLAY REAL GUITAR, THAT GAMES RETARDED without ever playing it.
That would be like madden saying I coached, why would I want to play some shitty football video game with my voice on it.

[call_me_sir]

OK, I'll try to share my perspective with this. First of all, pretend that you play drums. You've been playing drums for a long time and you consider yourself pretty good.

Now lets say that theres a game called Drum Hero. It comes with a miniature drum kit, snare, toms, hi hat and cymbals. You're excited about playing Drum Hero because you already know what you're doing.

So lets now pretend that every time the game tells you to hit the snare drum, you actually have to tap the hi hat. No big deal, you think, although you start to recognize how poorly crafted the game actually is.

Now it tells you to hit the ride cymbal, which you do, only to discover that you were actually supposed to hit the snare drum. You start to get used to the games inadequacies and carry on, except when you begin to play the next song, now you have to hit a crash cymbal to hit the kick drum in the game.

Get my drift?
You realize how the game could be fun for people who know absolutely nothing about your instrument, but since you take great pride in the instrument you play you consider yourself quite insulted.

[bernie]

its a game.  not a real guitar simulation.

[Donkeyboy]

its a game.  not a real guitar simulation.

I second that.  I think that while it's hard to learn real to play a real guitar and make music, you can play a rather difficult game and get SOME approximation of not only musical talent skill building but playing a real guitar.  It takes the same kind of finger dexterity to play either, it's just that the real thing is infinitely more versatile, because it's infinitely harder to truly master.  So, if you don't have the kind of patience or desire to learn to play the guitar for real, you can have fun with Guitar Hero.  And that's the long and short of it.  Whether or not it's "gay" is a statement based in beauty - meaning that it all lies in the eyes of the beholder/player/whatever.

[bernie]

i do agree that if you play guitar hero, you are by proxy gay.

[Elite Evil]

Only if you pickup the wrong copy of groupie hero.

[call_me_sir]

I second that.  I think that while it's hard to learn real to play a real guitar and make music, you can play a rather difficult game and get SOME approximation of not only musical talent skill building but playing a real guitar.  It takes the same kind of finger dexterity to play either, it's just that the real thing is infinitely more versatile, because it's infinitely harder to truly master.  So, if you don't have the kind of patience or desire to learn to play the guitar for real, you can have fun with Guitar Hero.  And that's the long and short of it.  Whether or not it's "gay" is a statement based in beauty - meaning that it all lies in the eyes of the beholder/player/whatever.

I guess I agree with that. Does anybody know any guitar players who like GH? My bass player hates it, I hate it and my other guitar player hates it, but my drummer plays it constantly.

[Adam Bomb 669]

I would guess slash likes it.

[call_me_sir]

You can never be sure. After all, I'd sell out and appear in a commercial of a game I hated if I got paid thousands of dollars for it too. I remember seeing him in some car commercial earlier this year too, I think the car had a built in amp or something because he was standing outside playing his guitar.

[chandler_455]

My bro plays guitar and he loves guitar hero

[call_me_sir]

Yeah well, there goes my theory. I need to see an episode of metalocalypse with gh now.

[liugeaux]

Going back to the roginal topic of this thread...I was playing Rock Band with a buddy of mine and I noticed that Don't Fear the Reaper was on it.  It immediately made me think of this video.

[Donkeyboy]

Call_Me_Sir:  Your avatar, Sir.  It seems that you blaze trees like forest fires.  I myself am a master arsonist.

[call_me_sir]

Good times. Someday we should get together and blaze a rain forest.

[Adam Bomb 669]

that or san diego
like I said before though my bro inlaw plays guitar, he constantly talked shit about the game until I bought it, now he plays it more than me.  I scored my first perfect on the game in form of heart shaped box on medium dificulty. 152,000 points baby.

[darkNiGHTS]

Call_Me_Sir:  Your avatar, Sir.  It seems that you blaze trees like forest fires.  I myself am a master arsonist.

Was it YOU that started the California wildfires?  They said an 8 year old kid, so....

[Adam Bomb 669]

no thats the kid on youtube.
[youtube]ZwdBtKCHG-U[/youtube]

[willplayer]

. . . And then he died. Seriously Guitar Hero is just so gay, I'll play it for the sake of the party, but I'll never be that good at it. I'd rather play my guitar in my room . . .