Remove foot pedal requirement for drums

[Bryan Atomic]

I have a friend who is paralized from the waste down, he loves to play the gutar and sing and we have tried to help him play the drums, but it is hard for us to time the foot petal beat with his playing. I would like for him to be able to play the drums on his own, and for harmonix to make a patch that removes the foot pedal requirement or makes it automaticly think you pressed it when it is required.

I hope im not the only person thinking fo the disabled with this.

[Corp17]

In Best BUy they have a demo set up of rock band and on the drums the pedal is not required, so maybe their is a way in the game to take it off, i personally don't have the game to help you with, just throwing it out there.

[thrdeye]

Yeah, accessibility issues are the one reason they should have made the bass pedal optional.

[Edgehopper]

I have a friend who is paralized from the waste down, he loves to play the gutar and sing and we have tried to help him play the drums, but it is hard for us to time the foot petal beat with his playing. I would like for him to be able to play the drums on his own, and for harmonix to make a patch that removes the foot pedal requirement or makes it automaticly think you pressed it when it is required.

I hope im not the only person thinking fo the disabled with this.

I agree, but I'd require the patch to be a cheat code that doesn't allow for reporting to the leaderboards. Fairness is also an issue, and it's the bass pedal that makes drumming difficult at higher levels.

[Stevenam81]

I agree with you and I hope there will be a way for him to play drums. But...if they allow that, they would need to treat it as a cheat like the unlock all songs cheat and disable all saving, achievements, and leaderboards. I know it would be for a good cause in his case, but it would totally ruin the leaderboards. Guys will just get lazy and let the game do the bass pedal for them. Then the guys who are playing with the bass pedal like they are supposed to will not stand a chance for the most part. So...if you guys are just wanting to be able to play the songs for fun I'll all for it. But if leaderboards and achievements aren't disabled, I hope it doesn't happen. But I don't wish not being able to enjoy Rock Band on anyone so I really do hope there is a solution. Good luck.

[Bryan Atomic]

Well I have an idea. What if they patched the game to where the bass pedal is not required, but you dont get the score from the bass pedal hits. That way my friend could still rank, but wouldnt have as a high a score as he has less buttons to hit. It seems fair if done that way in my opinion.

[Quastor]

Just as a suggestion, in the meantime, someone else could man the bass pedal for him.

[Bryan Atomic]

Just as a suggestion, in the meantime, someone else could man the bass pedal for him.

Yeah we tried that, but it is very hard to do as we like to play the game ourselves and it also sort of feels like "oh, you arnt good enough to play on your own, here, let me help you" which annoys me more then it does him, as he can do the drums excellent without the pedal.

[Stevenam81]

Well I have an idea. What if they patched the game to where the bass pedal is not required, but you dont get the score from the bass pedal hits. That way my friend could still rank, but wouldnt have as a high a score as he has less buttons to hit. It seems fair if done that way in my opinion.

Well, that's not a bad idea. The only problem with that is it still affects the score. The bass pedal makes it harder to keep a multiplier going. When I played the demo in the store without the bass pedal I could get at least 95% and 5 stars on any song on expert. I've been playing drums for 8 years and it's a challenge for me to get 5 stars using the whole kit just on hard. The points from the bass pedal are not the issue. When you don't have to think about the pedal it makes playing a whole lot easier. When using the bass pedal it's not really easy to keep a multiplier going. If I didn't have to use the bass pedal and didn't get points from it, I would still get a huge score because I would have a 4x multipier going throughout the entire song, instead of making a mistake here or there and having to build it back up. And during those 8x sections, the points from a bass pedal are only a fraction of what you get hitting the pads.

[vipeness]

I have a friend who is paralized from the waste down, he loves to play the gutar and sing and we have tried to help him play the drums, but it is hard for us to time the foot petal beat with his playing. I would like for him to be able to play the drums on his own, and for harmonix to make a patch that removes the foot pedal requirement or makes it automaticly think you pressed it when it is required.

I hope im not the only person thinking fo the disabled with this.

I'm right with you there on that one...
http://community.rockband.com/vbforum/showthread.php?t=10083

[MJDoja]

then what about all of the people who just wont play with the bass pedal because theyre too lazy and just use that option, deciding to never learn how to play properly.

if your friend wasnt paralyzed, you think he would be lazy enough to still play without the bass pedal? i'd hope not.

not trying to be mean, but i think of the other hundreds of people for every disabled person who will just be too LAZY to use their LEGS THAT WORK, just turning this option on. i would love for your friend to be able to jam out for sure.. if the game wasnt so demanding of the bass drum i'd say it was all possible.

there are solutions, but if hes not even gonna play the bass.. and nobody wants to help him.. but you want to turn the bass off.. i dunno. sorry to say it but
if you cant play a real drum set how are you going to play rock band?

its a video game but, seriously, they didnt include a percussion or octapad or hand trigger instrument, they included a drum set, flush with a kick pedal, for realism. essentially it doesnt ruin the game for anybody but aside from the possibility of accomodating disabled accessibility.. my strong guess is that harmonix definitely intended to not include an *auto bass* option for other reasons.

[Job1021]

I have changed out the foot pedal from the game with a cheep "synth" drum pedal that I had laying around... I bet that you could just plug in any synth pad with a 1/8th inch mono connection into the foot pedal connection and rock out... I hope that you can find one cheap and try it...

[MJDoja]

I have changed out the foot pedal from the game with a cheep "synth" drum pedal that I had laying around... I bet that you could just plug in any synth pad with a 1/8th inch mono connection into the foot pedal connection and rock out... I hope that you can find one cheap and try it...

such thinking can only lead to good things, i didnt think to try that at all.. thats pretty cool

[drumphr34k]

When I first read your title and went to click on it I thought "OMG L2P NOOB STFU" then I read the first sentance and felt like a big a$$. I hope I'm not out of line with this suggestion but how about we mod the pedal to register when he blows in a straw or something? That way he can use both hands and blow when he wants the pedal.

[nicko68]

then what about all of the people who just wont play with the bass pedal because theyre too lazy and just use that option, deciding to never learn how to play properly.

So who cares? Does it matter to Harmonix who actually learns to play "properly" ? It's not like people are signing up for music lessons here, they want to play a game and have fun.

Some people like to play on Medium or Easy on GH. I find it boring, but if others get enjoyment out of it, so be it. That's what it's all about.

[MJDoja]

So who cares? Does it matter to Harmonix who actually learns to play "properly" ? It's not like people are signing up for music lessons here, they want to play a game and have fun.

Some people like to play on Medium or Easy on GH. I find it boring, but if others get enjoyment out of it, so be it. That's what it's all about.

blah blah blah, your logic fails


edit: drums on easy is easy.. you will not be great the first time you play but.. is it really that bad to get your leg to do a kick once in a while. (that is if you are not physically handicapped, which was the case in this thread)

[Job1021]

just tried it... didn't work with the drum pad... sorry.

[Bryan Atomic]

then what about all of the people who just wont play with the bass pedal because theyre too lazy and just use that option, deciding to never learn how to play properly.

if your friend wasnt paralyzed, you think he would be lazy enough to still play without the bass pedal? i'd hope not.

not trying to be mean, but i think of the other hundreds of people for every disabled person who will just be too LAZY to use their LEGS THAT WORK, just turning this option on. i would love for your friend to be able to jam out for sure.. if the game wasnt so demanding of the bass drum i'd say it was all possible.

there are solutions, but if hes not even gonna play the bass.. and nobody wants to help him.. but you want to turn the bass off.. i dunno. sorry to say it but
if you cant play a real drum set how are you going to play rock band?

its a video game but, seriously, they didnt include a percussion or octapad or hand trigger instrument, they included a drum set, flush with a kick pedal, for realism. essentially it doesnt ruin the game for anybody but aside from the possibility of accomodating disabled accessibility.. my strong guess is that harmonix definitely intended to not include an *auto bass* option for other reasons.


You do realize this is just a game right? Your ego wont be shattered and your life wont be ruined if someone is better then you or anyone else at something. The game is for fun pritty much, so im not getting all the "Oh lawds, what if someone cheats!" mentality.

[FlyinWhee]

I always thoughts the "Auto Bass" threads were lame, but made me go "oh." and finally validated the issue. Yep, they should include a no bass-drum mode.

[MJDoja]

You do realize this is just a game right? Your ego wont be shattered and your life wont be ruined if someone is better then you or anyone else at something. The game is for fun pritty much, so im not getting all the "Oh lawds, what if someone cheats!" mentality.

and you have no brain, so dont discuss anything.

Yes i realize this is a game.

I know this game is for fun.

You are playing off of genuine sympathy and making it seem like people are elitist. There are a few different sides to the issue here. keep fighting for it buddy....

[Bryan Atomic]

and you have no brain, so dont discuss anything.

Yes i realize this is a game.

I know this game is for fun.

You are playing off of genuine sympathy and making it seem like people are elitist. There are a few different sides to the issue here. keep fighting for it buddy....

Uhh because you are acting elitist?

What do you care if my friend can play the drums in this game? Newsflash: The drums are not real drums in this game, the gutar not real gutar, and about the onlything real in the game is vocals. You get no pot of gold at the end of the rainbow for being the "best drummer" or whatever you are so fearful of losing, so what does it matter?

[cmg4894]

I'm going to sound really insensitive and like an ass but....
I feel bad about your friend. I wish he could play but he can't. As much as we all try and make the disabled equal they aren't. Now, I have a friend who is missing an arm. He does everything with us except play GH and now RB. He would love to but with one arm he can't. Should they make an auto strum feature so he can play? He knows he can't do everything a 'normal' person can do. He is a great friend and I don't want to hear that I don't like disabled people or whatever. He doesn't like all the PC crap about being equal and I don't either. So, no they should not include a patch. It sucks that your friend can't play. But that is what he got dealt in life. If something happened to me I would think it sucked that I couldn't play anymore but I would understand.

[Stevenam81]

Yeah, like I said. If he wants to just jam on the drums with you guys for fun, without the score being posted on the leaderboards I'm cool with that. I don't think we should ruin the entire leaderboard for thousands of people because one person isn't able to use the bass pedal. I understand there are probably more people that aren't able to use it other than your friend but I'm just making a point.

Bottom line. They should make a cheat that acts the same as the all songs cheat that disables the bass pedal so it acts like the demo. If he just wants to jam out and play the game, leaderboards won't be an issue to him. If he wants his drumming on the leaderboards, I'm sorry, but everyone else shouldn't have to suffer.

For all we know there could already be a cheat that does this. We know there is an all songs cheat, so there could be more. If not, maybe a patch could add it.

[Jixzer]

tell your buddy to go buy a new foot

Ok, that was just tasteless and uncalled for.

I have to agree, I wouldn't mind a cheat, but unfortunately, your friend has to deal with the hand he's dealt.

I too, like cmg4894, have a friend that does not have the use of one arm and he realizes there are certain things he just can't do, but he makes the most out of what he can. For example, he loves motorcycling, so he modified his motorcycle and put the clutch and the break on the right grip so he could still ride, and he just Velcro's the other hand to the other grip.

I'll tell ya, what that guy can do is magic. However, he still realizes that he has limits, and so should your friend. Sorry.

[MadSweeney]

Ok, that was just tasteless and uncalled for.

I have to agree, I wouldn't mind a cheat, but unfortunately, your friend has to deal with the hand he's dealt.

I too, like cmg4894, have a friend that does not have the use on one arm and he realizes there are certain things he just can't do, but he makes the most out of what he can. For example, he loves motorcycling, so he modified his motorcycle and put the clutch and the break on the right grip so he could still ride, and he just Velcro's the other hand to the other grip.

I'll tell ya, what that guy can do is magic. However, he still realizes that he has limits, and so should your friend. Sorry.

So, because his friend is paralyzed, they shouldn't include a cheat the disables the foot pedal? Even if it keeps the score from the leaderboards? Sorry, but that's just insensitivity for the sake of insensitivity. Why *deliberately* keep someone out of the loop if there's a genuine way to include them? If stem cell research comes up with a way to repair spinal damage, should we just say "you're already paralyzed, tough luck"? The cheat wouldn't affect your score or anything you do, so lay off.

[AdamBomb629]

There are things in this life that people can do and that people cannot. There are things that can be modified to a degree to accomidate people, but there are others that simply cannot be. IMO, I feel like video games, being a non-essential piece of life, should be made how they are. Other posters have it right (in this thread and others), if I had no hand, should I have an auto-strum or an auto-chord for the guitar? What if I'm deaf? Should the singing be modified?

Sorry, folks. Fix something for one, you must fix for all.

EDIT: However, I am for the cheat (as long as leaderboards and achivements are disabled.)

[MuyMacho]

I posted this in the other thread about this...

"Hey I read your post. There might be some solutions involving the apparent simplicity of the pedal mechanism. I checked out the kick pedal controller, and it's connected by a miniplug to the main four-pad unit. It's a simple single connection (if it were for audio it would only be mono) and that leads me to believe that there is some very simple, yet durable, 'on-off' switch inside the small rectangular section that is held in the pedal itself. There doesn't seem to be any actual 'pedal goes down and hits a switch' action, it seems more like a 'pedal detects impact of foot pressing something' action.

It's possible that you might be able to remove that box and see what sort of pressure it takes to activate a 'kick' impulse for the game to recognize - it might be something he could wear under one of his arms, at his side in a holster-type thing, and he could do the kick drum parts by snapping his elbow back against his body or something. Trying this with the box left in the full pedal seems like the resistance of the spring-action might be too much to do comfortably (plus who wants to wear a pedal under their arm!), but if you find the speed and amount of impact needed, it might be possible to trigger it by arm-motion with that box out of the pedal.

Or, it might be that a simple switch could be made that could be in his hand at the base of his palm, like how Spider-Man controls his web shooter devices in the comic book. It wouldn't interfere or get interfered with if he could loosely hold the drum stick and and click it with his fingers, over/around the drumstick. You guys could go to radio shack with the pedal and it's cord, ask them for a mono miniplug that's the same size, and a small 'momentary' switch (a switch that stays 'open' via a spring, only 'closed' momentarily when you press it down) and find someone who knows basic soldering and explain what you want to make. Wouldn't be hard to devise something he could click in his palm. Maybe even a mouth clicker or something, but that might look crazy, like a coach's whistle or something!

Truth is, I only glanced at that thing and it may be some super-advanced digital signal that you can't simulate with some parts from Radio Shack. But I really doubt that. I think if you're a company that puts all this stuff in a big box and sells it for the relatively low price of $170, you probably went for the simplest, cheapest working switch you can trust.

Let us know what you work out."

There are a lot of options for modding that pedal, so I don't think it's something that requires the kick drum be auto-play or disengaged in the software. Get clever and build a switch that can be triggered by hand or some other way than by foot. No patch is needed.

[tombrady]

My father is a former drummer and an accident left him wheelchair bound. He's a huge Who fan, and he was very excited about Won't get Fooled Again being in the game.

I see no problem with implementing an option that makes the bass pedal optional.

Certainly people who aren't disabled are going to take advantage of that and enable that option, but who really cares? If that's how they want to play, so be it...but it's going to help a lot of people who physically couldn't enjoy the game...so I see nothing wrong with an option for that.

[Eman311]

I think it's a great idea, but somehow it would have to not be included on leaderboards and such. or it would cause all sorts of score whore issues.

[tombrady]

There are things in this life that people can do and that people cannot. There are things that can be modified to a degree to accomidate people, but there are others that simply cannot be. IMO, I feel like video games, being a non-essential piece of life, should be made how they are. Other posters have it right (in this thread and others), if I had no hand, should I have an auto-strum or an auto-chord for the guitar? What if I'm deaf? Should the singing be modified?

Sorry, folks. Fix something for one, you must fix for all.

EDIT: However, I am for the cheat (as long as leaderboards and achivements are disabled.)
This would be an easy thing to modify...the examples you cited are not. There are versions of games in stores around the USA that have no pedal. I'm quite certain the coding neccesary to accomodate disabled people would not be extremely difficult.

Disable the leaderboards and all that ****...I just think most of the people that would benefit from this just want to have some fun with it...I highly doubt there are paralyzed people looking to conquer the leaderboards.

Plus there are all sorts of people *****ing that the drums are hard for them even on easy...so even those morons would benefit from this.

[Loxguard]

Hey, my friend is blind. Can we patch a braille pad into the game so he can feel which notes to play?

[thrdeye]

Some of you guys are just *******s and are taking this crap too seriously.

This would be simple, IMO, and I would be surprised if it's not already a "cheat" in the game. I hope someone finds a solution.

[Abspara]

Hey, my friend is blind. Can we patch a braille pad into the game so he can feel which notes to play?


Fist off, You're an insensitive idiot. If your trying to come off as funny, sarastic or cool, you failed.

Secondly, I agree that their should be a way to bypass the foot pedal for situations like this. If not for the sake of situations the OP described, but to make the game more family friendly, for the young kids and such that do not have the foot/eye coordination to manage the foot pedal.

[Loxguard]

Fist off, You're an insensitive idiot. If your trying to come off as funny, sarastic or cool, you failed.

Secondly, I agree that their should be a way to bypass the foot pedal for situations like this. If not for the sake of situations the OP described, but to make the game more family friendly, for the young kids and such that do not have the foot/eye coordination to manage the foot pedal.

Second off, You're an insensitive idiot. My friend really is blind and I think a braille expansion pack would be the next big thing in video games.

[MJDoja]

I still stand by my point. Disabled Accessibility and easy-er mode drums are two different things.

those disabled people *since its a game that doesnt strive for realism but it does, however that works.* should be able to play the game to its fullest extent. an auto-bass code would help them. so would an auto strum for some types of people.. or codes to do auto anything...

the only reason anybody wants auto bass is because it existed in the demo.. it wasnt intended for disabled people initially so i dont know where the actual entitlement thing came from. some of you guys are just reaching too far.

its not until somebody talked about a legit reason to allow somebody to have auto-bass that anybody could support it with any reason. since disabled people do exist and this is a GAME, the limitation of no auto-bass code seems pretty hardcore.

im against the inclusion of such a code for everyday capable gamers because it trivializes the whole damn game. anybody who isnt disabled should not use the auto-bass code if there was one. you think having a kick drum on easy is elitist? get real cuz thats lazy.

[Jixzer]

So, because his friend is paralyzed, they shouldn't include a cheat the disables the foot pedal? Even if it keeps the score from the leaderboards? Sorry, but that's just insensitivity for the sake of insensitivity. Why *deliberately* keep someone out of the loop if there's a genuine way to include them? If stem cell research comes up with a way to repair spinal damage, should we just say "you're already paralyzed, tough luck"? The cheat wouldn't affect your score or anything you do, so lay off.

Read my post again. I said I wouldn't mind a cheat. Secondly, I'm kind of a hard ass (16 years in the Army tends to take a lot of sympathy out of you) and people have to deal with their limitations or find ways to overcome them.

My friend Rick who only has use of one arm didn't go to motorcycle manufacturers and tell them that they need to make special bikes for him to ride because he is handicapped. No, he took it upon himself and developed a way for himself to ride. If more people did that instead of constantly crying for help when things are a little hard or when life throws up an obstacle, this world would be much better place.

I'm sorry your friend can't play. Yea, it sucks...but it's not HMX's or EA's responsibility to accommodate you. It's their responsibility to produce a solid product (uh...instruments?) that the gaming community can enjoy. Granted, RB is a special case; not many games require a foot. I guess the "pallid side" is playing the guitar part or singing is still an option. Sorry again.

[Emowii]

The required foot pedal on even the EASY setting in this game is the second biggest mistake Harmonix made with this game.



The worst mistake was the strum bar which just about ruins the guitar portion of the game.



You know, I learned a lesson with Rock Band this week. If you ever allow yourself to believe a developer has attained that level of wisdom in game development, that they just can't make REALLY stupid mistakes in their next game. Take a look at Rock Band and you'll realize you should never have that much faith in a developer, ever.


The requirement of the kick pedal on EASY for the drums is just insanely dumb, as it takes the drums out of the equation for the casual player who just wants to try them out for fun. The strum bar being like it is, is even worse though, because the previous games shipped by Harmonix had PERFECT guitars, and they somehow managed to fundamentally handicap one of the single most important part of the guitar for the game.

[espher]

The guitar is a preference, the kick pedal is a fundamental part of the drums and should be included on Easy where it's certainly not as complicated to use as it is on the higher difficulties.

[mind_in_rewind]

The requirement of the kick pedal on EASY for the drums is just insanely dumb, as it takes the drums out of the equation for the casual player who just wants to try them out for fun. The strum bar being like it is, is even worse though, because the previous games shipped by Harmonix had PERFECT guitars, and they somehow managed to fundamentally handicap one of the single most important part of the guitar for the game.That's interesting. I've had at least ten non-gamers try the drums, and they did pretty well. A few failed the first time, and a few five-starred the first time. Sounds about right to me.

Of course, I never imagined that there would be no bass drum on any level, even easy.

And, I really like the strum bar. I have or have had: two SGs, two X-Plorers, a Les Paul, and now the Strat. I prefer the Strat to all of them.

[PanteraOpeth]

Well I have an idea. What if they patched the game to where the bass pedal is not required, but you dont get the score from the bass pedal hits. That way my friend could still rank, but wouldnt have as a high a score as he has less buttons to hit. It seems fair if done that way in my opinion.


Sounds good to me.

[MuyMacho]

So, because his friend is paralyzed, they shouldn't include a cheat the disables the foot pedal? Even if it keeps the score from the leaderboards? Sorry, but that's just insensitivity for the sake of insensitivity. Why *deliberately* keep someone out of the loop if there's a genuine way to include them? If stem cell research comes up with a way to repair spinal damage, should we just say "you're already paralyzed, tough luck"? The cheat wouldn't affect your score or anything you do, so lay off.

Whoa, no one said 'stop stem cell' research... I think both of you are taking things to an extreme level... Modify the controller, and everyone can rock out. This is one individual needing to adjust the game controller so it is usuable for them, somewhat like when you turn up the volume on the TV to your taste, adjust the guitar strap's length, adjust the height of the drums, or move your chair closer - obviously this would be slightly more complicated and requires more modification - but of all the things to mod, that kick drum is probably the easiest candidate for modding. It already has that mini-plug to connect it, and it's likely a simple hand/palm switch could be constructed to act the same as the pedal does.

No need for a 'cheat' or a 'patch' to the game.

[Emowii]

That's interesting. I've had at least ten non-gamers try the drums, and they did pretty well. A few failed the first time, and a few five-starred the first time. Sounds about right to me.

Of course, I never imagined that there would be no bass drum on any level, even easy.

And, I really like the strum bar. I have or have had: two SGs, two X-Plorers, a Les Paul, and now the Strat. I prefer the Strat to all of them.

Well, thats interesting. You seem like one of those people who is terrified of admitting that you might regret certain things about your $170 purchase. I however, am not.


I regret buying Rock Band, and plan on finding a buyer for it on Ebay any day now. I have loved all of Harmonix's previous games, but it's clear to me that they didn't listen to common sense on two critical points, and the game is truly damaged by it.

You can try and put a band aide on it all you want, and say my friends are ok with the drums, or I've got the GH3 guitar to use on the 360, but I've got the PS3 version.

That means I've got the gimped strum bar (which nearly every single professional review agreed with my opinion that it sucks ass). Of course they wouldn't dock the game for it however, as that would just be too harsh.


The drums are simply not fun to play for newcomers. I don't care if 100 people swear their friends "did ok" on the drums, they are not accessible for younger people, and those who aren't genetically wired to keep time in music. I have given the drums a fair shot. I finished the solo tour on easy on drums, and I can now play almost any song to completion on medium. I still think they're too hard. I do not have a good time while playing them. And this is coming from someone who has put 8 hours time on them now, and they're still not fun. I've come to the conclusion that they won't be fun, no matter how much time I put into them. My friends and family who have tried the drums immediately commented that they wish they could just learn to play them wihtout the kick pedal. It's the single road block preventing people from having a good time on easy.

[Tarzanman]

Argh... I just started expert (got about 1/2 way through hard) and it is KICKING MY BOOTY.

As for the whole I-want-to-disable-the-bass-pedal-for-my-friend. Lol. No dice, pal. The drummer for Def Leperd lost an entire freaking ARM and he was able to adapt and keep drumming, so it should certainly be possible for your friend to adapt as well.

My recommendation would be to wire the kick pedal into a 5th drum pad. You could even get a real electronic drum pad and put it on a stand next to the rock band drum controller.

The problem is that if you disable the kick for one person, then a whole bunch of people are going to want to do it and before you know it drums are way too easy and make the game not as fun. No offense to you or your friend... but one person (handicapped or not) being able to play the drums isn't worth messing it up for everyone else.

The other thing to try is to see if you can score a demo disc from Harmonix.... they might sell you one if you write a letter and ask nicely.... but to be fair to everyone else they should disable the online.

[Emowii]

The problem is that if you disable the kick for one person, then a whole bunch of people are going to want to do it and before you know it drums are way too easy and make the game not as fun.



See, there seems to be one simple problem that people like yourself don't seem to be able to get through their head in this discussion.


NO ONE as far as I know, has asked that the kick drum be disabled for ALL DIFFICULTY MODES. People just want the ability to play the drums on EASY without the kick pedal. That is not asking too much.


I'm getting really tired of the "suck it up" tough guy types. if you're so tough and cool just go arm wrestle some other idiot at a bar or something. The rest of us will continue to lead normal lives where we don't have elite endurance and ability to keep time on a drum set for the first time in our lives without trouble.

[blue_dragonzero]

See, there seems to be one simple problem that people like yourself don't seem to be able to get through their head in this discussion.


NO ONE as far as I know, has asked that the kick drum be disabled for ALL DIFFICULTY MODES. People just want the ability to play the drums on EASY without the kick pedal. That is not asking too much.


I'm getting really tired of the "suck it up" tough guy types. if you're so tough and cool just go arm wrestle some other idiot at a bar or something. The rest of us will continue to lead normal lives where we don't have elite endurance and ability to keep time on a drum set for the first time in our lives without trouble.

No. The rest of us will continue to play Rock Band. Oh wait.....

I plan on selling it ASAP.

[espher]

I'm getting really tired of the "suck it up" tough guy types. if you're so tough and cool just go arm wrestle some other idiot at a bar or something. The rest of us will continue to lead normal lives where we don't have elite endurance and ability to keep time on a drum set for the first time in our lives without trouble.

You've registered to throw a fit about the guitar and act like a drama queen in every single thread you've posted in whether it's related to the topic of the thread or not.

Do us all a favour: eBay your kit, and leave.

You're honestly probably more aggravating than HeXCoda was about BWT before the game was out. (HARTS HEX, HARTS)

[MacGrad]

The required foot pedal on even the EASY setting in this game is the second biggest mistake Harmonix made with this game.

The worst mistake was the strum bar which just about ruins the guitar portion of the game.

Sadly, after reading all your comments on this forum, I've come to the conclusion that the biggest mistake Harmonix made was allowing you to buy a copy of this game.

[LongDarkBlues]

Lol, why don't you go to McDonald's and order a WAAHmburger and some french CRIES.

Its not about elite endurance or ability, it is about not catering to the laziness of people who will complain no matter how easy you make it. The drums on easy are a freaking JOKE. If you can't tap your toe (or the pedal) consistently on the upbeat or downbeat of a riff/melody with *computer aided visuals* then you have NO BUSINESS playing a rhythm game... period.

I'm not a tough guy, and nor am I an elitist.... but when I hear grown people (meaning over 13 years of age) whining and moaning about how the kick is soo-soo-hard-please-make-it-easier-for-me-cuz-I-suck when freaking 10 year olds can do it, I start to believe that the one complaining is full of carp.

No, its not your fault that you've never played an instrument and don't know what an 8-count is.... but it *is* your fault if you are too lazy or too dumb to use the practice mode to figure out how to not stink. It really isn't that hard, honest.

How ridiculous would it be if I bought Halo or some other FPS game and starting complaining "OMG, the gun is sooo hard to aim, make it easier cuz I can't use the analog stick to aim good". That is what you sound like.

Yeah - that's pretty much it. it's not the nicest way of phrasing it, but, barring paralysis, there's no reason an adult can't play drums on easy - I've had at least 7 people play on them now, and everyone could finish on easy, most of them - non-musicians, mind you - preferred to play on Medium after a couple of songs. Easy drums is every bit as easy as Easy guitar, it just takes one more limb. Hell, 4 days in, most of us are playing on Hard for the first couple tier songs.

[espher]

I've been able to get 90%+ on everything I've played on medium drums so far, and I tried Dani California on Hard on request and got 91%, and fiddling with Tom Sawyer in practice mode I could hit 74% (although I'm certain I hit a bunch of non-notes and would have blown it horrible in the regular play mode), and I didn't even touch the drums until Thursday afternoon.

This with zero musical background or drum game experience. :3

If you put in the practice you should be fine. Those with a disability, well, time to get some mod solutions on the go. Hand controls are the most obvious one. I'm sure it would be possibly to rig up some sort of drinking bird assembly, although we may be approaching dangerously close to breakfast machine territory there. ;)

[Maggot_Brain]

They should kick your friggin ass out of here for that comment!:mad::mad::mad:

The idiots have arrived, mah man!

[piggy171]

Just to add my 2 cents...

I took my setup to a friends house yesterday and played with his 2 kids, 8 and 10 years old. neither of them could get through a song on easy with the drums, mostly because of the footpedal. They have trouble reaching it or just don't have the co-ordination to do it. Just so happens my friend is also temporarily wheelchair bound due to a really bad car accident. We struggled through some of WBT mode and only passed many of the songs on easy because I was continuously saving them while playing guitar. Of course that wasn't easy either because my guitar only works on the upstrum and only the tilt sensor only activates when it feels like it. But we did struggle and at first it wasn't much fun for the kids.

Anyway my point being, this should be a fun game with some degree of "pick up and play" ability, even for the young and inexperienced. If an option that does not affect the leaderboards increases the playability, and enjoyment of the game for all ages and abilities, then I am 100% for it. Why everyone is so concerned about people people "cheating" when it doesn't even affect them, I will never know. Why would anyone care if a 30 year old guy with 4 working limbs wants to cheat his way through a song? It has no absolutely no effect on anyone!

Also it would be a nice option for the inevitable day of the footpedal breaking. Lastly, I am sure it not a hard thing for HMX to do. I'm sure the programming code for it already exists, since the demo was that way. It just needs to be patched in or activated by cheat. In the end, this is a really easy fix that only enhances gameplay experience for those who choose to use it, and has no effect on anyone else. Unless the thought of people around the world using cheat codes to play games might make you so crazy that you wanna go on a killing spree. If that's the case, start with yourself.

[shadus]

I have a friend who is paralized from the waste down, he loves to play the gutar and sing and we have tried to help him play the drums, but it is hard for us to time the foot petal beat with his playing. I would like for him to be able to play the drums on his own, and for harmonix to make a patch that removes the foot pedal requirement or makes it automaticly think you pressed it when it is required.

I hope im not the only person thinking fo the disabled with this.

Even though it wouldn't be authentic, I'd like to see easy's foot drum moved to medium, and medium moved to hard, expert stay the same (our drummer said easy->medium was a leap in diff medium->hard he couldn't even tell) and have the kick drum removed entirely from easy. Let people who've never touched drums get their hands in sync before trying to get a third limb sync'd up.

In summary:
Easy - No Kick, all 4 pads
Med - Kick (present easy), all 4 pads
Hard - Kick (present med), all 4 pads
Exp - Kick (present exp), all 4 pads.

Hard isn't significantly harder than medium to rate it's own category.

[Frederf]

See? That's why it won't work. The Medium to Expert jump would be insane. I get 96%s on medium but fail on hard. The devs introduced the foot pedal right away so none of the difficulty jumps were mammoth.

[irlsanders]

Should be fairly easy to rig a bite switch that would trigger the kick drum. That way there would still be some parity in difficulty with legged players, and no patch would be required.

http://conceptusinc.com/biteswitch.htm


And to the original poster, it would be nice if you knew that your "friend" is paralyzed from the WAIST down. Calling him a WASTE is pretty rude.

[Matthias99]

See? That's why it won't work. The Medium to Expert jump would be insane. I get 96%s on medium but fail on hard. The devs introduced the foot pedal right away so none of the difficulty jumps were mammoth.

I haven't unlocked all the songs yet (just got the game the other day and have been traveling all weekend), but that is my impression as well. Hard is significantly harder than Medium, mostly because there are significantly trickier kick drum parts in a lot of songs. On Hard you're frequently doing *completely* different things with your hands and foot, whereas on Medium the kick drum is usually synced up with at least one of the hands.

Any remotely coordinated person should be able to clear most songs on Easy with a bit of practice. It's tougher to just jump in and play immediately than with guitar or singing if you are not used to playing a drum kit, but it's not rocket science. If you have no sense of rhythm then you're going to have problems playing any of the instruments.

I feel for the guy who is physically unable to hit the kick pedal. A 'cheat' to remove the kick drum part/automatically hit it (but disable leaderboard/acheivements/career progress/etc.) would be a good thing for that specific situation. But, that said -- you're not going to be able to accomodate everybody. Should there be 'auto-strum' and 'one-arm drums' as well? Someone who has a significant physical disability is going to have a lot of trouble playing many rhythm games. You can't necessarily expect game developers to bend over backwards for a tiny, tiny fraction of their market.

[viciousknid]

http://www.rockband.com/forums/showthread.php?t=24650&highlight=wheelchair

[LoopyChew]

But, that said -- you're not going to be able to accomodate everybody. Should there be 'auto-strum' and 'one-arm drums' as well? Someone who has a significant physical disability is going to have a lot of trouble playing many rhythm games. You can't necessarily expect game developers to bend over backwards for a tiny, tiny fraction of their market.

You can't accommodate everybody, this is true; however, you can bend over to a certain extent. It's a judgment call on HMX's part as to what's reasonable and what's not. Obviously they found autobass relatively reasonable if they set it on the demo kiosks. "Auto-strum" is kinda already available as part of the upper frets (yeah, for solos only, but hey). As for one-arm drums...well, I think someone's already made the obligatory Def Leppard reference.

Just because you can't help everybody doesn't mean you shouldn't help SOME of them. That's crazy logic.

I'm all for a cheat-style option disabling online leaderboards and achievements, however. If they're playing solely for fun, it won't matter too much, and I don't expect people without the right equipment, physically or materially, to be catered to in the competitive world. (After all, you wouldn't ski competitively with one leg, would you?)

[viciousknid]

(After all, you wouldn't ski competitively with one leg, would you?)


The link on post #62 will help anyone in a wheelchair that has full use of their arms and hands. It's what I came up with.
and YES, people do ski comptetitively with one leg. It's not the producers responsibility to accomodate everyone. Car manufacturers don't produce vehicles with hand controls do they? no. It's up to others to accomodate accordingly to meet their needs. But they should help find a resolve.
I came to this forum looking for a resolution just as I would for any other aspect in life that i'm trying to modify to meet my needs.
I came up with a solution thanks to some input from members. While leaving the cheat in place to bipass the kick pedal would be great it's not required.

In the case of the drums they made them to be realistically similar to an actual drum set. How many disabled people do you see play real drums? do drum manufacturers offer drums for the disabled? probably not. If someone with a disability (like myself) wants to do something that they don't meet the physical requirements for, they should find an alternative means to complete the task.

[RyanAbrams77]

I'm not trying to be insensitive here, but what about people with 1 arm? Should strumming the guitar be optional in the entire game for them? What about the blind? Should they make braille Rock Band?
We live in a capitalist society. What percentage of Americans are disabled in a way that would prevent them from playing rock band, and would otherwise want to? Its probably less than 200 people. They aren't going to make any more money, really, so they wouldn't bother.

[Gimpy]

Over 51m registered disabled people in the USA, 2.7 million people age 15 and older use a wheelchair, Rockband has sold about 1m copies.

[silvam14]

I'm not trying to be insensitive here, but what about people with 1 arm? Should strumming the guitar be optional in the entire game for them? What about the blind? Should they make braille Rock Band?
We live in a capitalist society. What percentage of Americans are disabled in a way that would prevent them from playing rock band, and would otherwise want to? Its probably less than 200 people. They aren't going to make any more money, really, so they wouldn't bother.

Def Leppard's drummer was pretty good with one arm.

Seriously, I can't believe that some people are arguing against a pedal free patch option because of Leaderboard issues. Does being high up on a leaderboard guarantee you something that I'm not aware of?

After wading through mostly crap posts in this thread, I think the best idea to appease everyone would be to make the pedal free option a sort of cheat code which would disable any leaderboard stats. Just my 2 cents

[RyanAbrams77]

Over 51m registered disabled people in the USA, 2.7 million people age 15 and older use a wheelchair, Rockband has sold about 1m copies.

"would otherwise want to?" is the key part of my post there.

Just because we are here on the forums (with 50k other RB nuts) doesn't mean that EVERYONE ELSE gives a **** about the game. We assume that because we care about something, that everyone else should or does. I got news for you: most people have other things to do. So, like I said, of the "2.7 million disabled people 15 and older in wheelchairs" and using the math of the amount of copies of rock band sold vs. the adult population of the US we arrive at this number 1/30th of 2.7 million. 90,000 disabled in wheelchairs, now cut down that number by the amount of disabled adults who would actually be able to use the game at all (probably less than half), we get to 40,000.

This, of course, assumes that "15 and older" is the proper demographic for the game in general. I am going to go ahead and assume that more adults over the age of 60 are in wheelchairs than kids/adults ages 15-59. Lets be generous and give it a 75%/25% split. Subtract out the 75% of the 40k, and you get 10,000 adults that are in wheelchairs and want to play rock band in the United States. I could cut down this number even further by subtracting out the people that don't care about the drums, but lets leave it at 10,000.

10,000 people cannot play the drums at a higher difficulty and want to (remember, on most songs you can pass on med/easy without using the pedal at all). Obviously more than my exaggerated "200 people" from my previous post, but my point is: don't hold your breath. Maybe in Rock Band 2 they will do something like this, but its not a pressing concern for HMX at the moment. We are really just entering into the realm of needing to make video games handicap accessible (with all the peripherals in these rhythm games), whereas before all you needed was to be able to hold a controller. In the future, I'm sure they will expand the accessibility of the game.

[AllMe]

Well I have an idea. What if they patched the game to where the bass pedal is not required, but you dont get the score from the bass pedal hits. That way my friend could still rank, but wouldnt have as a high a score as he has less buttons to hit. It seems fair if done that way in my opinion.


Exactly what my response was going to be.

[Tantras11]

I'm not sure if anyone suggested this already..but why not just play in training mode? After beating medium drums and started hard, I got curious about some songs on expert and gave it a try. Well I only lasted 10-15% through the song because of the kick pedal. I switched to practice mode where the kick pedal isn't necessary and enjoyed just drumming the song without a problem.

Sure, the scoring/stars isn't the same but at least you can make it all the way through a song without worrying about the kick pedal.

[BigBadFatKid]

good idea lets take the time to add some huge patch that automatically does bass pedals in every song just to help the 2-3 disabled people who play this game.

PS: how is he paralyzed from the waist down what did he do wrong?

[AllMe]

PS: how is he paralyzed from the waist down what did he do wrong?


Seek therapy. Bigfatkid, you aren't going to get the help that you obviously need by trolling the message boards.

[HeXcoda]

good idea lets take the time to add some huge patch that automatically does bass pedals in every song just to help the 2-3 disabled people who play this game.

PS: how is he paralyzed from the waist down what did he do wrong?

A) Troll.
B) If not troll, you have the IQ of a radish. I shouldn't have to state the obvious, but... nobody CHOOSES to be paralyzed.
C) That'd be 3-4 people, since I'm disabled and I can't play the drums as a result. I'd love some sort of autokick or alternate, pad-style pedal. As is, it's an instrument that's been gathering dust and I'm pondering selling it.

[Luvac Zantor]

Yeah, like I said. If he wants to just jam on the drums with you guys for fun, without the score being posted on the leaderboards I'm cool with that. I don't think we should ruin the entire leaderboard for thousands of people because one person isn't able to use the bass pedal. I understand there are probably more people that aren't able to use it other than your friend but I'm just making a point.

Bottom line. They should make a cheat that acts the same as the all songs cheat that disables the bass pedal so it acts like the demo. If he just wants to jam out and play the game, leaderboards won't be an issue to him. If he wants his drumming on the leaderboards, I'm sorry, but everyone else shouldn't have to suffer.

For all we know there could already be a cheat that does this. We know there is an all songs cheat, so there could be more. If not, maybe a patch could add it.


QTF. Insensitive, no, realistic, yes. QTF AGAIN.

[BigBadFatKid]

ill admit i do see why when you guys see a disabled peron posting you seem to want to help him and have HMX waste time to make a patch for them, but would you rather have them making DLC, and getting Les Paul compatibility for the PS3, or working on helping the population of 2-3 disabled people playing this game. Think about the big picture before you feel sad for the few disabled.

[Lord SIlverfish]

rig the pedal so that he can use it with his head. Its just a magnet and a reed switch.

[SpaceMonkey]

Think about the big picture before you feel sad for the few disabled.

Wow. New levels of inhumanity achieved. Did you really say that having empathy for disabled people takes a back seat to developing patches and creating new DLC?

[AllMe]

It's time to stop feeding the Troll.

[viciousknid]

C) That'd be 3-4 people, since I'm disabled and I can't play the drums as a result. I'd love some sort of autokick or alternate, pad-style pedal. As is, it's an instrument that's been gathering dust and I'm pondering selling it.

I'm not sure if everyone is reading these posts. but i've already solved this problem for the people who have full use of their arms and fingers. See post 62. On that link go to page 2 for what you need.
Works fine.

There's no need for a huge patch.

[jacelep]

What might be cool is to just make a 5th drum pad for that situation. The idea is for everyone to be able to enjoy the game. That is what kills me about a lot of the people posting about DLC. My kids love to play the game as much as i do. DLC that favors their taste is important too. That also is the same for creating a fun game for disabled people as well. Im sure HMX can figure a way to still put out DLC and create a mod to serve the disabled.

[DethBoxx]

I wouldn't think it would be that hard to make a mouth (or or whatever works) activated switch for the kick pedal.

[Dartagnan64]

I think a patch where the bass pedal doesn't count as much against your crowd meter on Easy and Medium is all that is necessary. That way you wouldn't fail out for missing all the bass pedal notes, could post a reasonable score but couldn't get big combo's obviously. That would allow someone with no useful legs play the drums with friends in a friendly non-competitive atmosphere without fear of failing out.

As to the necessity of accomodating to some but not all disabled persons, that's a dicier bit of social reasoning there. Who do you pick to accomodate? The one arm person or the wheelchair person? The deaf or the blind? I think in the setting where only a few can be accomodated then it is risky business trying to do so without reprisals.

While I feel sorry for the disabled and spend a lot of my life trying to help people with disabilities I think it is unreasonable to expect every disabled person to have access to every form of entertainment. Videogames is one form of entertainment that does require certain abilities not everyone in the population has. There is no way around that without watering down the medium to the lowest common denominator. In a capatilistic society, one can't expect a videogame company to make things so easy for the disabled that it alienates the majority of the population. There will always be problems with accessibility for certain groups. Arguing otherwise makes you feel better inside but it doesn't change the issue.

Rock Band is a game for people to simulate playing in a Rock Band. that in itself requires a certain amount of rhythm, timing, coordination, hearing, vision, etc. You just can't make it playable for everyone.

[AllMe]

While I feel sorry for the disabled and spend a lot of my life trying to help people with disabilities I think it is unreasonable to expect every disabled person to have access to every form of entertainment. Videogames is one form of entertainment that does require certain abilities not everyone in the population has. There is no way around that without watering down the medium to the lowest common denominator. In a capatilistic society, one can't expect a videogame company to make things so easy for the disabled that it alienates the majority of the population. There will always be problems with accessibility for certain groups. Arguing otherwise makes you feel better inside but it doesn't change the issue.


The bass pedal is already removed in the store demos. It wouldn't really be catering to the disabled if the company allowed that option for those that need it gone. I don't see giving the option, when the option already exists unreasonable.

[AnonymousMonkey]

Get a simple microswitch from radio shack, and wire it to a 1/8" phono jack. tape the switch to a drumstick with electrical tape, and plug the jack in to the bass pedal port. now you can trigger the bass drum with your thumb.

I tried it myself. If you do it right it will work.

[bluGill]

I've seen drummers hold 4 drum sticks on one hand (and 4 more in the other) - mostly when playing xylophone. So even if you only have 1 hand to work with you should be able to pass drums on any level if you make a custom drum set around your disability (or should I say specifically to your ability). Good luck, not having 3 full limbs to work with will make it hard. Come to think of it, many of us are looking at a second drum pedal so it might be better to say 4 limbs.

[Killbasa]

I don't think removing the kick track is the answer. It's a question of fairness. Playing 4 tracks is simply easier than playing 5. It would give an unfair advantage on the leader boards.

However, I do feel for those with special challenges. I would rather see, in this type of situation (physically unable to use the pedal), some other type of device for performing the kick track, such as a head band or hat that senses head bops for the base drum. Something along that line would be much fairer.

Since the pedal just plugs into the kit with a standard 1/8" phone plug, this seems like it would be pretty simple to do.

[Knucklesdude]

I myself am against taking away the pedal. It is an essential part of the drums and it wouldn't be nearly as fun. I sucked at it as well but it didn't take too much practice before I got good at it, and now it's really fun.

[Dartagnan64]

The bass pedal is already removed in the store demos. It wouldn't really be catering to the disabled if the company allowed that option for those that need it gone. I don't see giving the option, when the option already exists unreasonable.

There is many a demo that is a watered down version of a real game. That doesn't make it right. Many people play videogames for the challenge. Removing that challenge with an option isn't always the best idea. In the case of the foot pedal, if they removed it, they would have to also remove those that used the option from the leaderboards and achievements to keep things fair. I'm OK with that.

But I'm not in favor of the general concept of easing up on games to make them accessible for those that have trouble playing them for whatever reason.

[AcesHigh84]

Not to sound heartless, but i really dont believe this should be an option. A lot of us take pride in the time and effort we put into all the work on here. (Gold star'd everything on expert but the vocal tracks myself.). I put many many hours into drumming, guitar and bass. Yes, he has his diability, but thats just how life works. Sorry. For the hundreds of thousands of people that play this game. And all of the software improvement that needs to be made (online BWT, and other stuff discussed in other topics) I dont think it would be fair (not even talking score wise, thats another issue) to us gamers for HMX to take the time out of their day to create and add this patch for what is probably not even 1% of the RB crowd when there is so much else that they need to be working on for the other 99% of us. MAYBE down the road. But not until everything that NEEDS to be fixed is fixed. Look at it this way, he cant play real drums, so he cant play digital drums. Thats just life.

[viciousknid]

Get a simple microswitch from radio shack, and wire it to a 1/8" phono jack. tape the switch to a drumstick with electrical tape, and plug the jack in to the bass pedal port. now you can trigger the bass drum with your thumb.

I tried it myself. If you do it right it will work.

you people need to learn how to read before you start worrying about how to play the drums. Go back to post 62. I've solved this problem and posted the results twice in this thread already.

It's an unfair advantage to allow the full version game to not require the kick pedal. why should us disabled have only 4 pads to hit while everyone else has to use 5. I'll save you the trouble of going back to post 62 and leave a link at the bottom once again showing how you play full version drums. It's exactly like Anon monkey said. It's really simple and costs less than 10 bucks.
If you don't want to try it and practice playing full version then stop crying about it.

CLICK THIS LINK FOR THE THREAD ON HOW TO PLAY WITHOUT USE OF YOUR LEGS.
http://www.rockband.com/forums/showthread.php?t=24650&page=2

[toooomer]

you people need to learn how to read before you start worrying about how to play the drums. Go back to post 62. I've solved this problem and posted the results twice in this thread already.

CLICK THIS LINK FOR THE THREAD ON HOW TO PLAY WITHOUT USE OF YOUR LEGS.
http://www.rockband.com/forums/showthread.php?t=24650&page=2

lmao
This proves that people rarely read through threads on forums. They read the OP then post knee jerk responses to it. This thread should have been locked after post #62. Done! problem solved, good job viciousknid.

Also check out my drum mod for the cables you can use to make a connection for a drum kick. Since I didn't know much about reed switches I did it this way. You can make a special glove for the disabled player and still have the rockband pedal for other players.

bass pedal mod (http://www.geocities.com/objectionable1/basspedal.html)

[AllMe]

There is many a demo that is a watered down version of a real game. That doesn't make it right. Many people play videogames for the challenge. Removing that challenge with an option isn't always the best idea. In the case of the foot pedal, if they removed it, they would have to also remove those that used the option from the leaderboards and achievements to keep things fair. I'm OK with that.

Keeping them off the leaderboard is fine with me. Also, removing the points gained by using the bass drum.

My son has to wear orthodics on his legs and has had numerous surgerys on his achilles tendons because they are too short. He can't even physically play the drums on easy without failing. He isn't itching to get on the leaderboards, just wants to enjoy the game. To be able to switch off the pedal would allow him to have fun with a $170.00 toy I bought him. Since the store demo already has the abilty to turn off the pedal, why can't I have the same option here at home?

Also, I have read through the mods for this and I am not voiding the warranty on the $170.00 toy.

[viciousknid]

Also, I have read through the mods for this and I am not voiding the warranty on the $170.00 toy.

it wont void the warranty. the mod is a switch just like the kick pedal. you just unplug the pedal and plug in the button switch. they are both triggered the same way.
since the kick pedal uses a plug in, there's no way to know you plugged something else in instead.

If my brother wants to play the drums, he just unplugs the switch i made and plugs the kick pedal back in. It's just like going to the store and buying a different set of headphones for your ipod.

i do understand your argument. but your talking about reprogramming the game to put a demo feature back in. That costs a lot of money to do and won't affect the games already resleased for people who don't have an internet connection to download a patch. Making your own button is the easiest and most cost effective resolve.

[LoopyChew]

I'm not sure if everyone is reading these posts. but i've already solved this problem for the people who have full use of their arms and fingers. See post 62. On that link go to page 2 for what you need.
Works fine.

There's no need for a huge patch.

While that is indeed an awesome solution and I wholly and genuinely applaud your ingenuity, I do want to point out that, for example, HeXCoda's disability isn't paraplegia. I can't say for sure that he can't use your thumbswitch idea, but as you point out in your qualifier, not everybody has full use of their arms and fingers (since all you need for the pads themselves are a good grip--which doesn't need the use of fine motor controls in your hands--and use of arms).

[mrpenbrook]

Now, I have a friend who is missing an arm. He does everything with us except play GH and now RB. He would love to but with one arm he can't. Should they make an auto strum feature so he can play?

Yes. It's pretty trivial, in fact; during the solos, you don't have to use the strum bar at all.

If it were some sort of major engineering effort, or if it would change the game in such a way that it's no fun for the majority, then I could see not making these accomodations. But they're no big deal and they bring more people to the party.

[_JK_]

http://www.engadget.com/2008/03/04/rock-band-drum-kit-modded-for-beatbox-control/

[Lanceres218]

that was the link i was looking for i am glad someone found it.

[davez82]

im fine with removing bass pedal requirements as long as points are not given to the missed notes

[Solid_Snake]

why oh why bring a dead thread back! Ok yea I suppose that would be an option. But think about it if you don't have to hit the bass on some of the hard Expert songs. You could keep your streak up longer, heck maybe even FC it and get a higher score than someone doing it the normal way.

Even without the missed bass notes no longer give points, if you keep your streak up on the pads, which should be easier without the bass, you could get highers scores than people who struggle doing it the legit way. Would that be fair to them?

[silvam14]

Oh, yeah by the way I want to not have to hit the "Fire" button on COD4 and just be able to say "fire" and have it work.

[dabrry0523]

I wish there was a way to cancle out the foot pedal. I also have a hadicap where i cant bend my foot as well as anyone else. Plus my brace locks my foot at 90 degrees so i stink at any part with the foot pedal :mad:but rock whenever it isnt in use!!:)

[RyBu]

First off Dab... welcome to the forums.

Second, thanks for doing a search on a thread instead of posting a new one... that shows respect.

Third.. CURSE YOU for bringing this demon thread back to the main page!

[mercuryshadow09]

First off Dab... welcome to the forums.

Second, thanks for doing a search on a thread instead of posting a new one... that shows respect.

Third.. CURSE YOU for bringing this demon thread back to the main page!

Also it's called necro-posting and it's a non no.

[Shadowheart]

I'm going to sound really insensitive and like an ass but....
I feel bad about your friend. I wish he could play but he can't. As much as we all try and make the disabled equal they aren't. Now, I have a friend who is missing an arm. He does everything with us except play GH and now RB. He would love to but with one arm he can't. Should they make an auto strum feature so he can play? He knows he can't do everything a 'normal' person can do. He is a great friend and I don't want to hear that I don't like disabled people or whatever. He doesn't like all the PC crap about being equal and I don't either. So, no they should not include a patch. It sucks that your friend can't play. But that is what he got dealt in life. If something happened to me I would think it sucked that I couldn't play anymore but I would understand.

i have to agree with this.
I mean, it's a game.. Your friend can play the guitar/bass and sing, so it's not like he can't play with you at all.

But making special features because he can't use the bass pedal goes beyond what a game should offer.

also:

http://www.rockband.com/forums/showthread.php?t=24650&highlight=wheelchair

just for the people that hadn't seen it yet

[Aoxomoxoa]

I haven't bought RB yet so this might be dumb question...

Couldn't I just ignore the kick pedal if I (1) don't care about scores, leader boards, etc. and (2) don't care about "learning the right way to play drums"?

Will the song/game stop or something after so many missed kicks?

I'm glad the kick pedal makes the game more "realistic" for some people. However, I will do well to coordinate two drum sticks on easy/medium... based on my experience with the guitar in GH.

BTW... If there's "no point playing the drums without a pedal", as many posters suggested, then maybe the guitar should have a grid of dozens and dozens of buttons to simulate each string/fret position :rolleyes: What the hell do they think the "point" is anyway. It is a game!

[thedoorsdk]

You can't 'ignore' the bass pedal completely, no. Playing on easy will severely limit the amount of bass pedal in each song (some songs don't have any, if I remember correctly), but that's as far as it goes. Luckily, Rock Band 2 will feature a no-fail option so you'll be able to ignore bass pedal hits as often as you want and still get through the song.

[packerfan8675309]

good idea for sure

[Lenown]

Well RB2 is going to have a option to turn off the bass pedal. Or it'll automaticly hit it for you. I don't know which one. But RB2 has a option you can unlock to make it where you dont have to do bass pedal

[G_Rob_7]

edit: drums on easy is easy.. you will not be great the first time you play but.. is it really that bad to get your leg to do a kick once in a while. (that is if you are not physically handicapped, which was the case in this thread)

Yes.

I can not tell you the countless number of times I've heard "I could do the drums if there was no kick pedal" or "I wish you could turn the kick pedal off".

Does this mean that everyone I know is lazy? No, it means that not everyone has the ability to have three limbs doing different things at once. Mind you, these are the same people who had no problems practicing and learning how to add a blue and orange fret to their guitar skills.

Theres a ultra easy mode in the new GH that requires you to strum on beat and doesn't make you press frets. There's a no fail mode in RB2. As long as a "no kick pedal" or "ultra easy" difficulty for drums didn't affect leaderboards and such I don't see what the problem with it is.

[toymachineSH]

RB2 No fail mode the end

[gmagnus]

Well RB2 is going to have a option to turn off the bass pedal. Or it'll automaticly hit it for you. I don't know which one. But RB2 has a option you can unlock to make it where you dont have to do bass pedal

Where did you hear thaT?

[nouse]

Unless it wasn't posted before...

Try this mod
http://www.kinetic.com/channelk-rock-band-mod.html

Check the video at the bottom to see it in action

[moneyp]

1. The mods need to come in and relieve this board of a dozen tactless losers or so.

2. I agree that they should have made this game bass-pedal optional from the outset. Sure, there are probably a slew of (non-handicapped) people who would play without it, but so what? The bass pedal represents a huge part of the score for most songs. You don reasonably well with one, you'd likely outscore someone who isn't using it.

3. This question was answered at E3 and it's not going to happen. The only option is No Fail Mode, which will probably only be available in Quickplay and not the World Tour mode (I'm guessing). It sucks, but there it is.