Four years ago, a pretty unknown developer by the name of Harmonix made a little game called Guitar Hero. Published by RedOctane and distributed by Activision, this piece of innovation turned the game industry on its ass and introduced an entirely new way to play games. Launching people onto the stage with nothing but a clunky piece of plastic – Guitar Hero would come to be known as one of the world’s most popular games and franchises.

… but what now?

Harmonix left after they had made “Rock the 80’s” and the franchise was later taken over by Activision themselves and they passed it onto Neversoft, famous for making the Tony Hawk series. This however would appear to be, (if not the downfall) then the rather stagnation of the Guitar Hero franchise… After Harmonix left, they got right to developing a new concept, something that would revolutionize the gaming industry – expanding the band experience from a pair of guitarists to the entire band with the game “Rock Band”.

What happened after this isn’t really relevant to my article so I’ll abbreviate it somewhat. Bare with me…

2007 – Rock Band release – Awesome!!

2008 – Guitar Hero: World Tour release – Meh, been done before! Good songs, though.
2008 – Rock Band 2 release – Sort of the same thing, but it was nice.

2009 – Guitar Hero: Metallica release – Very much the same thing, but a must if you dig the Metal.

2009 – Rock Band: Beatles – Yay! Wait…

Now as we all know, if something gathers too much publicity – people desperate for attention need to say some stupid-ass things in order to get a few more fans on Facebook… This would very much be the case of Nickelback’s front man Chad Kroeger*, White Stripes guitarist Jack White, the legendary Jimmy Page* from Led Zeppelin and former Oasis frontman, Noel Gallagher*.

Why do these people even care?  Hell, if I would make millions and millions of dollars from record labels, royalties, merchandise and other various sources of income – I sure as hell wouldn’t get up on my high horse and start lecturing on what other people do on their spare time, especially if it’s as awesome as getting a few of your friends together, have a couple of brews and rocking out to some kickass music that we actually GET TO PLAY. Sort of.

OK, OK… fair enough. I suppose these people are talented enough to express themselves regarding music and all that is related to that – but it’s a GAME, damnit! I mean come on, who here really has the energy to as Chad Kroeger said

“Start rock bands. Set down the ‘Guitar Hero,’ learn how to play an actual guitar and start a band, because it’s hard to find more bands to put a solid rock-and-roll package together, to get out there.”

Do people who play FIFA need to put it down and become professional football players? Should Gran Turismo or Forza fans put down their controller and invest in expensive cars and start racing in Formula 1 or WTCC? Hell, “America’s Army” should start recruiting anybody who has reached level 2, shouldn’t they? I mean, it’s not like people play games in order to escape their own reality in order to experience something that they’d probably never get to do in reality, right…?

I’m pretty fucking sure that I’m not going to go out and start a band just because I love Rock Band.

I hate people.

http://nintendo.joystiq.com/2008/11/20/chad-kroeger-asks-you-to-stop-playing-guitar-hero/

http://www.nme.com/news/the-white-stripes/45521

http://www.clashmusic.com/news/noel-gallagher-guitar-hero

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