![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
I was listening to a weekly internet talk show a couple of weeks ago (Pushed to Talk, on tonight at 9pm!) and I realized that I haven't really brought this up here, so I figured I may as well to extend the conversation a bit!
Guitar Hero (and related "Hero" games, such as DJ Hero) have been canned by Activision. Meanwhile, Rock Band is still continuing, albeit they have been pretty quiet over the past few weeks while continuing to add new tracks, and FreeStyleGames (DJ Hero's developer) is still releasing the occasional song pack (but even then, it's been kinda sporadic to start since they come in packs of 3). Music games have kinda come and gone, kinda like how DDR Fever hit back around the mid-90s. (I feel old saying that!)
One of the things that I've always complained about with game consoles are peripherals. When it comes to music games, you're forced to pick up a specialized controller. DDR, the same. Nintendo, while completely unrelated to this situation, is notorious for peripherals. The Zapper, ROB, The Power Pad, Super Scope, Wii Zapper, Wii Wheel, WiiMotionPlus, WiiSpeak. How many games come out for these peripherals before they get discontinued and forgotten?
(Admittedly, I've always wanted the Steel Battalion controller. That's totally a geek item right there. Very Battlemech.)
Unfortunately, I feel that Harmonix kinda shot themselves in the foot when they released Rock Band 3. The reason behind it is not for the game itself (I like the visual upgrade and the Overmenu system, despite the confusion it can create), but for the Keyboard controller. While they claimed that the keyboard controller would breathe new life into the series by adding that extra instrument, I feel that they've actually stunted the selection of songs by having to add keyboards to the collection. Most of Rock Band's songs have focused on the four primaries of Guitar, Bass, Drums, and Vocals, but the problem is that not every song has Keyboards. Furthermore, some of the songs I've downloaded in the past have some great keyboard sections but they haven't been upgraded. I now have about 300 songs in my Rock Band Library, but only 60 of those have Keyboards, which severely restricts the number of songs that can be played with all the instruments (and otherwise, the keyboards are either left-out or are forced to play a guitar-based part).
The other problem is the backwards compatibility. There are some incredibly awesome DLC songs that I would love to play on the keyboards (as mentioned previously), and the only way to get the keyboard function is to unfortunately purchase the RB3 version when it comes out, which doesn't count as a re-download/upgrade. So instead of a song only costing 160 MS Points (for the RB2 version), I would now need to pay again to get the "enhancement" of keyboards and vocals, making the decision not a $2 song, but a $4 song - and for a song that I may not play very often (or in some cases, a song I have purchased and never even played).
I haven't really been playing Rock Band 3 a lot recently. There's not a lot of fun playing alone, even with the awesome keyboard. I would like to play that game more as a group, so I've actually taken to playing other games recently, and my Rock Band skills have kinda withered in the meanwhile. And if we do get together, there's the restriction of the keyboard that limits the song selection - unless we decide to do away with the Keys and just stick to the primary four.
It would still be fun to play in a big group, though. I wanted to hold another Rock Band charity drive for Child's Play as I did last year, but that, too, got dropped awhile back as I've been too busy to focus on it in any capacity. Maybe something can be done about this "not playing" thing with some of the locals. ^^
As an aside, I sent an e-mail to FreeStyleGames to ask them a simple question - if I purchase their DLC, how much of it does FSG (the developer) get? Or will all the profit go to Activision (the publisher) at this point? I haven't heard back from them yet, and at this point, I don't expect to. Even though the Hero games are now defunct, their DLC is still available, and the developers are still around. I'd like to support the developers but I'm not really wanting to just give my money to Activision. They've already decided to close the book on the "Hero" games, I'd be beating a dead horse. Now on the other hand, Harmonix's primarily support for Rock Band came through the DLC, offering over 1000 songs in two years while the discs only came with 80, so obviously DLC played a very big part of their plan, and the community-based Rock Band Network is still going strong, including such memes as the Bed Intruder Song. Maybe someone in the industry might be able to answer the financial question for me. :)
Guitar Hero (and related "Hero" games, such as DJ Hero) have been canned by Activision. Meanwhile, Rock Band is still continuing, albeit they have been pretty quiet over the past few weeks while continuing to add new tracks, and FreeStyleGames (DJ Hero's developer) is still releasing the occasional song pack (but even then, it's been kinda sporadic to start since they come in packs of 3). Music games have kinda come and gone, kinda like how DDR Fever hit back around the mid-90s. (I feel old saying that!)
One of the things that I've always complained about with game consoles are peripherals. When it comes to music games, you're forced to pick up a specialized controller. DDR, the same. Nintendo, while completely unrelated to this situation, is notorious for peripherals. The Zapper, ROB, The Power Pad, Super Scope, Wii Zapper, Wii Wheel, WiiMotionPlus, WiiSpeak. How many games come out for these peripherals before they get discontinued and forgotten?
(Admittedly, I've always wanted the Steel Battalion controller. That's totally a geek item right there. Very Battlemech.)
Unfortunately, I feel that Harmonix kinda shot themselves in the foot when they released Rock Band 3. The reason behind it is not for the game itself (I like the visual upgrade and the Overmenu system, despite the confusion it can create), but for the Keyboard controller. While they claimed that the keyboard controller would breathe new life into the series by adding that extra instrument, I feel that they've actually stunted the selection of songs by having to add keyboards to the collection. Most of Rock Band's songs have focused on the four primaries of Guitar, Bass, Drums, and Vocals, but the problem is that not every song has Keyboards. Furthermore, some of the songs I've downloaded in the past have some great keyboard sections but they haven't been upgraded. I now have about 300 songs in my Rock Band Library, but only 60 of those have Keyboards, which severely restricts the number of songs that can be played with all the instruments (and otherwise, the keyboards are either left-out or are forced to play a guitar-based part).
The other problem is the backwards compatibility. There are some incredibly awesome DLC songs that I would love to play on the keyboards (as mentioned previously), and the only way to get the keyboard function is to unfortunately purchase the RB3 version when it comes out, which doesn't count as a re-download/upgrade. So instead of a song only costing 160 MS Points (for the RB2 version), I would now need to pay again to get the "enhancement" of keyboards and vocals, making the decision not a $2 song, but a $4 song - and for a song that I may not play very often (or in some cases, a song I have purchased and never even played).
I haven't really been playing Rock Band 3 a lot recently. There's not a lot of fun playing alone, even with the awesome keyboard. I would like to play that game more as a group, so I've actually taken to playing other games recently, and my Rock Band skills have kinda withered in the meanwhile. And if we do get together, there's the restriction of the keyboard that limits the song selection - unless we decide to do away with the Keys and just stick to the primary four.
It would still be fun to play in a big group, though. I wanted to hold another Rock Band charity drive for Child's Play as I did last year, but that, too, got dropped awhile back as I've been too busy to focus on it in any capacity. Maybe something can be done about this "not playing" thing with some of the locals. ^^
As an aside, I sent an e-mail to FreeStyleGames to ask them a simple question - if I purchase their DLC, how much of it does FSG (the developer) get? Or will all the profit go to Activision (the publisher) at this point? I haven't heard back from them yet, and at this point, I don't expect to. Even though the Hero games are now defunct, their DLC is still available, and the developers are still around. I'd like to support the developers but I'm not really wanting to just give my money to Activision. They've already decided to close the book on the "Hero" games, I'd be beating a dead horse. Now on the other hand, Harmonix's primarily support for Rock Band came through the DLC, offering over 1000 songs in two years while the discs only came with 80, so obviously DLC played a very big part of their plan, and the community-based Rock Band Network is still going strong, including such memes as the Bed Intruder Song. Maybe someone in the industry might be able to answer the financial question for me. :)