Online Community

[JohhnyPoser]

What happened to the online Co-op play? I am not trolling, this is probably the game I've enjoyed more than any other. I play this game probably more than anyone, but clearly I should have stopped a few weeks ago. Like most Xbox Live communities, the Rock Band Online play appears to have been destroyed by individuals who take the game way too seriously.

When I first started playing, the online community was fun and most people realized we were all just trying to have a good time. But now the only people who play are either trying to go for impossible scores or are just completely unresponsive and boring. Everyone I used to see online and enjoyed playing with have moved on to better things.

I've done vocals hundreds of times On-line and no one complained, not once. I leave my mic open, I figure why am I going to play online and be the singer if no one can hear me sing? That's no fun. I know I'm a horrible singer, but pretty much everyone that was playing used to welcome my vocals with open arms and I used to receive several friend requests because I actually had the guts to let people hear what an awful singer I was. Today I play, I get a few online games and most of the band leaders tell me to turn off my mic and a few attempted to kick me but I didn't give them the satisfaction of doing so.

Most of them complained that there was a delay (most of the time it is caused by using the wireless Guitar Hero 3 Controller). I've played many times with vocalists and encourage them to leave their mics open because I know vocalists are very rare and it's more fun when someone can actually hear you. When I get a delay from a singer I don't complain, it doesn't even bother me. And today I get complaints from freaks who all play on expert and because I play on medium as a vocalist, I am not worthy to be in their band. Try to find a vocalist on-line that plays on expert. I've come across one and I've played this game on-line endlessly for this entire month since it's been released.

My point is that like all other games on X-Box Live, this game's online community has gone down the toilet. Just like when you play a shooter on-line and there are all these annoying kids and unfortunately sad adults who just talk trash the whole time. I hated Guitar Hero's On-line play because more often than not I'd end up in a match with some pre-pubescent brat who would talk trash the whole time and then if he lost accuse me of being ***. The only people who accuse complete strangers of being *** are individuals who are uncomfortable with their own latent homosexuality.

And What's with no one having downloadable content anymore? How many times do we have to play Welcome Home or Dani California?

I'm just letting off some steam, people need to stop taking the on-line co-op play so seriously. There's no achievements to unlock in an on-line co-op player match, the scores don't matter. Just have fun.

[SSPWOLF]

Could be a matter of your personal tastes. My wife and I play online almost every night and we rarely ever have problems. She sings on hard and I play drums (hard), guitar (hard), and bass (expert). Noone ever kicks us out for not playing everything on expert. You might just be finding the wrong groups.

Now, concerning you always singing and letting everyone hear you... I would probably ask you to stop that as well. When you are playing drums/guitar on expert (or hard if you aren't super talented) it helps to be able to hear things that are actually in the proper RYTHYM so you don't get thrown off.

Even if you are an amazing vocalist, the fact of the matter is that there is a HUGE amount of lag when it comes to taking live vocals and transmitting them across xbox live. This is why the game doesn't automatically let everyone hear you, and why it's called "game chat" not "game sing"

So if you were doing that while I was playing, I'd get annoyed because your vocal lag would be throwing me off constantly. Not that I'm a score-monkey.. personally I just want to have fun and I DGAF about the score... but if something is throwing me off it makes the game less fun for me. I like to make my own mistakes.

Some groups like to hear people sing because they think it's funny and just want to make fun of the person singing. (Sort of like asking a fat kid to dance).

Personally.. I enjoy the social aspect of the game (as does my wife) and we love it when we get into a good group of people who just want to have fun and aren't being D*cks.

[JohhnyPoser]

Oh, and I relaize I haven't even touched the surface of why the On'line play is going down hill: People who quit in the middle of songs, people who can't wait thirty seconds to form a band, little kids who play on-line and have to needlessly start trouble with complete strangers by insulting the way a character looks or the name you chose. It's co-op play, we're not killing each other like in Halo. Why the animosity and the desperation for cheap feelings of self superiority? I realize that this is expected in every Xbox Live game, but it seems to be happening more than ever and this is a game that I did not expect to be taken over by the no class human trash of this world.

[WiseOldUnicorn]

I haven't really gotten to play online very much yet (due to connection problems, vacations, etc.), but what little bit I have done has been pretty much good. The only thing that irritates me is people quitting in the middle of songs. Happened to me for the majority of matches I played. Never ran into any jerks playing GH3 online either...then again, I always played that on Hard, so that could have had something to do with it.

I have heard a lot of horror stories about people on XBL, though. That's one of the reasons I rarely use my mic. Heard way too many of my fellow female gamers complain about being harrassed on XBL simply for being a girl. I'd like to think the music game crowd would be better than that, but...

[JohhnyPoser]

Well that's fine but there is the option of putting turning down the volume on your headset or muting the vocalist in your xbox live settings (takes about 20 seconds). If people are courteous I will respect their request. More often than not the delay is caused by wireless equipment and I always plug my controller into the console.

That was not my only problem, as it seems that the overall mood of the On-line play seems to have taken a turn for the worst. Not only are there are lot less people on-line, there's an influx of jerks and people who just want to cause trouble.

As for your comment about being like the fat kid everyone tells to dance, like I said before I know I suck at the vocals I'm not pretending I'm good. If you're suggesting that I only do it because I think people will like me, you are mistaken. I only do the vocals because it's fun. Why do people sing karaoke? Most of them are horrible. I have a good time trying to sing the high parts in Run to the Hills and Foreplay/Long time. Most of the people I end up plying with online, I do not know personally, so I don't care what they think. I try to sound like the actual vocalist and fail miserably and people laugh, that makes it fun.

[SSPWOLF]

I haven't really gotten to play online very much yet (due to connection problems, vacations, etc.), but what little bit I have done has been pretty much good. The only thing that irritates me is people quitting in the middle of songs. Happened to me for the majority of matches I played. Never ran into any jerks playing GH3 online either...then again, I always played that on Hard, so that could have had something to do with it.

I have heard a lot of horror stories about people on XBL, though. That's one of the reasons I rarely use my mic. Heard way too many of my fellow female gamers complain about being harrassed on XBL simply for being a girl. I'd like to think the music game crowd would be better than that, but...

Once again.. I can't say we (my wife and I) have seen any of this.

It's rare we run into jerks, and easy enough to kick them or leave.

We play every night, on Xbox Live, and for the most part... people either don't talk, or tend to be fairly polite.

[JohhnyPoser]

I guess I was just having a bad night and running to all the wrong people, since you both said the on-line play is not as horrible latelty as I made it out to be. It just seemed to be more fun a couple weeks ago. I know I'll end up playing on-line in a couple of days anyway when I get back from my parents house for Christmas. Hopefully I will have more good times online and run into more people with downloadable content. I can't stand having to play Dani California, Learn To Fly, or The Hand that Feeds You 50 million times back to back. Half the songs on the disc are over played for me, that's my fault.

[HeXcoda]

Finding people who have DLC -- specifically FOUR people who have DLC -- is nearly impossible. Most gamers don't bother with DLC either out of poverty, disinterest, hatred of TEH CORPORATE GREEDS, or whatever. The best way to play DLC is to either play in non-4 bands (more chance all folks will have it) or stick to your friends list and coordinate getting DLC with them.

As for open mikes, as someone who sings 90% of the time online, don't make open mike your default. Check with people and see if they want you to do it first, and then after the song check to see if anybody had problems with it or found it annoying. Frankly, the lag really hurts the other players; it's not just your lousy singing voice but it's the way it throws them off their game by presenting a different rhytm in their ears fighting for headspace.

To non-vocalists out there -- take note of those scores at the end, and issue Good Jorbs to people who deserve them! And especially take note of the vocalist. The only feedback the band gets about how the vocalist is doing is usually that end-score and if the vocalist gets completely ignored by the other players for too long, they will probably find some reason to politely step out between songs and find a new band. (At least, I will.) It's not about ego, it's about being inclusive.

[Frederf]

I have to say that the voice lag is not caused by any wireless hardware but by the internet connection between remote Xboxen. Also, it is very rude and irritating to VoIP chat-sing during a network game. Only do this if everyone listening is agreeable to that arrangement. You would be the jerk for assuming that of others and not them for trying to kick you. I would kick you too if you did that and would not stop; it's just very bad netiquitte.

I've run into a decent number of people that drop off the face of the earth mid-song but very few that were openly hostile verbally (XBL!). Oftentimes my biggest complaint is very dumb/repetitive song selections.

A simple few pieces of advice for online play.

1. Be patient. Three minutes of waiting isn't too long to get a great 6-minute song experience out of RB. Your favorite song could be played next time.
2. Be courteous of others' game experience.
3. If you have control, ask for suggestions.
4. Be aware of your VoIP transmissions. The drums are freaking loud and singing is very delayed. Mute yourself if you are constantly transmitting undesirable noise during a song.
5. Use the XBL reporting feature.
6. Don't harass the girls.
7. Work out an agreement of Lead vs Bass parts.
8. Don't play on a difficulty that you have little chance of beating.
9. Make your intentions clear to the other players. Are you going for a high score? Challenge?

[That_One_Dude]

Well that's fine but there is the option of putting turning down the volume on your headset or muting the vocalist in your xbox live settings (takes about 20 seconds). If people are courteous I will respect their request. More often than not the delay is caused by wireless equipment and I always plug my controller into the console.

That was not my only problem, as it seems that the overall mood of the On-line play seems to have taken a turn for the worst. Not only are there are lot less people on-line, there's an influx of jerks and people who just want to cause trouble.

As for your comment about being like the fat kid everyone tells to dance, like I said before I know I suck at the vocals I'm not pretending I'm good. If you're suggesting that I only do it because I think people will like me, you are mistaken. I only do the vocals because it's fun. Why do people sing karaoke? Most of them are horrible. I have a good time trying to sing the high parts in Run to the Hills and Foreplay/Long time. Most of the people I end up plying with online, I do not know personally, so I don't care what they think. I try to sound like the actual vocalist and fail miserably and people laugh, that makes it fun.

I still don't think you understand the reason your voice doesn't transmit in the first place. It's not ****ing supposed to. No one, and by no one, I mean NO ONE wants to hear your voice try to break the bandwidth limit on the chat by singing off-pitch at a delay that throws everyone off. Maybe if you were playing with friends or family they would allow it, but us people online aren't dicks becuase we don't want to hear you because we shouldn't have to mute you. And I don't see any problem with only wanting to play with people on the same difficulty and I don't see a problem with no one having the DLC, the game costs $170 to begin with.

[polishdog90]

Johhny just go to the Band Wanted section and post that you would like to add people to your friends list that like having fun and don't mind people singing along with the tunes. You can also add that you would like to play with people with DLC. Im sure you can get a few sn's that way and then you can start off at least 1 other person that you can have fun with.

[SSPWOLF]

I have to say that the voice lag is not caused by any wireless hardware but by the internet connection between remote Xboxen. Also, it is very rude and irritating to VoIP chat-sing during a network game. Only do this if everyone listening is agreeable to that arrangement. You would be the jerk for assuming that of others and not them for trying to kick you. I would kick you too if you did that and would not stop; it's just very bad netiquitte.

I've run into a decent number of people that drop off the face of the earth mid-song but very few that were openly hostile verbally (XBL!). Oftentimes my biggest complaint is very dumb/repetitive song selections.

A simple few pieces of advice for online play.

1. Be patient. Three minutes of waiting isn't too long to get a great 6-minute song experience out of RB. Your favorite song could be played next time.
2. Be courteous of others' game experience.
3. If you have control, ask for suggestions.
4. Be aware of your VoIP transmissions. The drums are freaking loud and singing is very delayed. Mute yourself if you are constantly transmitting undesirable noise during a song.
5. Use the XBL reporting feature.
6. Don't harass the girls.
7. Work out an agreement of Lead vs Bass parts.
8. Don't play on a difficulty that you have little chance of beating.
9. Make your intentions clear to the other players. Are you going for a high score? Challenge?

This should be it's own F.A.Q.

Bravo.

[Ventura]

No one, and by no one, I mean NO ONE wants to hear your voice try to break the bandwidth limit on the chat by singing off-pitch at a delay that throws everyone off.

You sure you're in the right place mate? This is a multiplayer cooperative game, you should be playing a single player game, or at the most, some sort of other competitive shoot-em-up, because you clearly just hate people.

If you're playing an instrument, and mess up on a note or two, he can hear you mess up. But I'll bet he ain't slagging you off because of it.

I'm amazed I'm the same species as people like this. And especially considering it's like 3 days till Christmas. Tell you what, I'm amazed at the ability of some people to be grumpy and hate everyone 365 days a year. That must seriously take some doing.

[That_One_Dude]

Dude, shut the **** up. Your band has no fans and you probably can't even play on expert. I'm more concerned about his ability to be a complete dick and force people over the internet to listen to his singing than how he performs. Which can't be too well if he can't play above Medium.

[SSPWOLF]

I think the two posters ahead of me need to go to time out. ;)

I think the crux of the issue is that the OP is looking for a more specific type of experience from the online play than, perhaps, is the average.

A bit of advice, civility goes a long way.. yes even on the internet, xbox live, and PSN.

1) A simple "Would you guys mind if I held down my "Game Chat" button so that you can here *my* actual vocals? would go a long way.

2) A simple "Hey man, It's cool that you are trying to really get into it, but unfortunately the lag makes it difficult for the rest of us, would you mind not using "game chat?" would go a long way.

If the singer isn't interested in playing unless he can be heard, then I suggest he finds people who don't mind and get them on his friend's list.

If the singer won't stop using game chat then either kick him, ask the leader to, or leave the band.

I don't understand how this could be a matter for frustration amongst psychologically sound people. It isn't like someone pulled A Clockwork Orange on you and is forcing you to deal with any of this.

-----

I spoke with a buddy of mine who says that people are always being d*cks on Xbox Live to him. He also said he thinks it's funny to cuss people out.

I almost never have problems with people being rude, then again.. I'm typically polite to people on Xbox Live. I LOVE to talk trash, but I also realize that if I walked down the street going "Oooo.. look at your shirt! You look like a jackass!" I'd probably end up getting punched eventually. So, as with real life.. I treat people with respect. If someone seems to have a good sense of humor I'll return the favor. If someone can "banter" with me and everyone is having a good time I will.

The bottom line is.. NEVER assume people share your opinions and style of gameplay.

[Ventura]

I'm more concerned about his ability to be a complete dick and force people over the internet to listen to his singing than how he performs. Which can't be too well if he can't play above Medium.

It's a game mate. And it's Christmas. Seriously, you need to lighten up a little.

The guy seems perfectly reasonable in his post to me. He hardly comes across as the "being a complete dick, forcing people to listen to his singing" type. Not at all.

It's Rock Band.. you know, band. As in, supposed to play together. The mouth is just another instrument, really, and he probably figures, since he can hear your instrument, you should be able to hear his.

Sorry JohhnyPoser, but I have the game for the PS3 right now, and not the 360. But when I get the 360 version, you'll be welcome to sing into that mic for all to hear in any band I'm playing in. And actually, given that so many I know get embarassed when others hear them sing, I respect you having the courage to do so.

Don't listen to these tools. More power to you mate.

[SSPWOLF]

It's a game mate. And it's Christmas. Seriously, you need to lighten up a little.

The guy seems perfectly reasonable in his post to me. He hardly comes across as the "being a complete dick, forcing people to listen to his singing" type. Not at all.

It's Rock Band.. you know, band. As in, supposed to play together. The mouth is just another instrument, really, and he probably figures, since he can hear your instrument, you should be able to hear his.

Sorry JohhnyPoser, but I have the game for the PS3 right now, and not the 360. But when I get the 360 version, you'll be welcome to sing into that mic for all to hear in any band I'm playing in. And actually, given that so many I know get embarassed when others hear them sing, I respect you having the courage to do so.

Don't listen to these tools. More power to you mate.


Not to split hairs...


But, we CAN hear his instrument. We hear the vocal track from the original singer. If he stops singing, we'll just hear the background vocals.. we won't hear the FULL track.

Just like If I'm playing drums... you hear the drum track from the game.

I also get annoyed when people leave thier mic on and play drums and I hear it or if they are playing a loud guitar controller and all I hear is "clickety clickety clickety click click click"

I do know that I can mute people, but the vocalist comes through the T.V. speakers pretty loudly.


One important fact people are missing here... (aside from the ability to be polite to each other and find a style of play that everyone can agree on, or agree to disagree and find other people more compatible with them) is that.. there's no way to make YOUR vocals work properly.

They are going to sound:

1) Compressed. Highly compressed and thin. What this means in laymen's terms is... it's like hearing Ozzy Osbourne singing through a megaphone and broadcasting at full volume through a crappy cell phone speaker.

2) Highly lagged. So.. if you are singing perfectly on Rythym to "Run To The Hills" we hear Bruce Dickenson scream "RUN TO" and then we hear you yell "RUN TO" so all we get is "RUN TO RUN TO HILLS HILLS RUN FOR FOR LIFE LIFE" with two different voices of various levels of quality.


When I'm playing with people in my house, I acually encourage them to turn OFF the vocal track so that we just hear them.

I WISH the technology existed to do it PROPERLY online.

Unfortunately, it's just not really an option. It's NOT like talking on a cell phone, or chatting on Xbox Live headsets. The "voice" you hear when you and your buddy are chatting on LIVE is highly compressed so that it can be sent using minimum bandwith.

It would be like my trying to use pro tools on a computer with 128 megs of ram. The latency would render it impossible to record anything other than spoken word or acapella vocals.


I'm all for people having FUN, but if this guy can only have fun by broadcasting his vocals, he's going to have to realize that it's not going to be fun for a lot of other people.

If he can find people who DO want him to, then I say GOOD FOR YOU!

Personally, I refuse to play that ******ed Timmy song... however, I don't get mad at people who want to play it. I'll usually say "Hey guys, my wife doesn't like to sing this song, and I don't like to play it.. can we pick a different one" and if they absolutely insist.. then my wife and I will leave.

No muss, no fuss, we don't get angry... we just move on to a group more suited for us.


Once again, the bottom line is: Expecting other people to cater to you is ridiculous and insipid. There's thousands of people playing at any given time, I'm sure you can find people who will ENJOY your style. Don't expect people to bend over backwards to please a stranger. I paid as much money as anyone else for this game and I'm entitled to as much enjoyment as everyone else is.

[Frederf]

I've had the fun of people lag singing into the voice chat, clack-clack-clack drummers, cat-stranglers, and general really irritating noises coming through the chat system instead of ... ya know, communication, which is what it was designed for.

How do you mute such people that are not kind/self-aware enough to censor their own annoyances? I haven't seen that option.

The OP just seems not to realize that 90% of people would rather not suffer the vocalist's tinny lagged audio. He's not evil or anything, just living in a reality at severe disconnect with the one I occupy.

P.S. An auto-mute-while-playing option would be really handy for me. I know clack-clack-clack is unpleasant for the entirety of the song for other people.

[SSPWOLF]

I've had the fun of people lag singing into the voice chat, clack-clack-clack drummers, cat-stranglers, and general really irritating noises coming through the chat system instead of ... ya know, communication, which is what it was designed for.

How do you mute such people that are not kind/self-aware enough to censor their own annoyances? I haven't seen that option.

The OP just seems not to realize that 90% of people would rather not suffer the vocalist's tinny lagged audio. He's not evil or anything, just living in a reality at severe disconnect with the one I occupy.

P.S. An auto-mute-while-playing option would be really handy for me. I know clack-clack-clack is unpleasant for the entirety of the song for other people.

If I'm on drums, I usually just disconnect the cord for my headset and throw it over my shoulder. It keeps it out of my way, which serves a dual purpose.

I've I'm on guitar, I just hit the mute switch.

I suppose there's some people without mute features on thier headsets... I'd suggest just unplugging during songs, and plug it back in during the "see what percentage everyone got" phase.

As far as muting other people... you can (on xbox) do this on thier gamertag screen. IMO it's more hassle to go through all that, and typically if they don't respond positively to a polite request to simply "stop doing that" or "please mute your mic while you play" then I'll just decide not to play with them.

[Ventura]

But, we CAN hear his instrument. We hear the vocal track from the original singer. If he stops singing, we'll just hear the background vocals.. we won't hear the FULL track.

Yeah I hear ya. Heh, you can tell I've not really played online yet. Read too many "they left cause I was only playing on medium" stories, that's kinda turned me off until I'm at least good enough to rock on hard.

Truth be told, if it were me and I wanted to, I'd ask. But while I'd also be more than happy to just leave it off if others didn't wanna hear me, I realise not everyone is going to share that sentiment, and I can appreciate how rude it must feel to this guy when people move to kick him because of it.

It's as you said really, it's a pity the technology doesn't exist to do it right. If his voice was coming through sounding like a bag full of cats on the way to the river, then yeah I'd probably say something. If not, though, I'd be alright with him having it on.

[vApathyv]

Personally, I've never ran into any *******-types when playing either. Every time I venture out into XBL on Rock Band, it usually starts with everyone complimenting each other's character designs, a couple of light jokes tossed around while everyone agrees on a song, quick agreement as to who plays what if you have two guitarists, and then after the song everyone gives out props and encouragement. Maybe I'm just lucky, I dunno. Or maybe it's because I play Expert and rarely ever get paired up with anyone else that plays Expert and there's some kind of unwritten "Respect mah authoritah" law goin' on I never heard of. I've always ran into nice people on Live (Well, on Rock Band at least. Don't even ask me about the other games. xD). Hell, the last guy I played with was even nice enough to wish me Happy Holidays when we all decided to log off, and that's NEVER happened to me in an online game.

I think you really just had a bad night, honestly. But on another note, if you'd like, you can feel free to add me. Keep your mic on too, it really doesn't bother me. Hell, provided you're okay with it, I would even encourage you and occasionally sing back-up. I'm all for playin' around, goofin' off, and havin' fun, so if we ever wind up playing a game together in the future, I've got no complaints against you just wanting to goof around.

[SSPWOLF]

About the playing on medium thing.... I haven't run into that much either. Are you on PSN or Xboxlive?

I play on Live, and seems like the mix is either people playing on medium or expert, and pretty even.

Never had anyone complain when I was playing on medium (and I usually sing on medium).

I don't think I'd understand it.. the scores don't mean anything, so it doesn't matter. I suppose if BWT worked online it might matter...

[Ventura]

About the playing on medium thing.... I haven't run into that much either. Are you on PSN or Xboxlive?

I'm on the PSN. I'll get into online soon enough, I'm sure, just as I said, read too many posts about people leaving cause the drummer or guitarist dared to just play on medium. Oh the nerve.

I wouldn't really be ready for hard, not random hard at any rate, and it's probably better to play something I can comfortably pass than to force myself onto a difficulty level where I might need to be saved. That wouldn't be fun for anyone.

There was a thread about medium skill gamers, where I got a few PSN gamers on my friends list, but it seems like cause I'm in Australia, there are precious few of them on during the hours that I can play.

[HeXcoda]

I think a lot of this angst and namecalling over singing could be fixed in one simple statement:

Don't assume they want to hear it; ask them, and if they agree, then have fun!

There, done. Then anybody who starts foaming at the mouth and biting people's knees over it (not to name names *COUGHthatonedudeCOUGH*) can avoid high blood pressure induced strokes.

As for difficulty, unless you're specifically going for score (and remember, quickplay runs are NOT leaderboard ranked, so, uh, why are you going for score?) let anybody play any difficulty they want. The goal of a game is to have fun. Fun does not consist of people failing out left and right and eventually leaving because they're being pressured to play above their skill level.

[dfjdejulio]

I've done vocals hundreds of times On-line and no one complained, not once. I leave my mic open, I figure why am I going to play online and be the singer if no one can hear me sing?

Eh, on the one hand, the delay and the ambient noise often ruins the songs for me. On the other hand, most of the vocalists I know will only sing under the condition that no one can hear them sing -- I for one will never sing with the mic open. My own preference is, no talking at all during the songs (but plenty of banter in between them).

But, people will have fun the way they want to, and I'm not going to complain if someone prefers to leave their mic open when they're singing or tries to do backup singing during a song. If that's what they enjoy, then that's what they enjoy. Just means I'm less likely to add them to my preferred player list and more likely to leave after a couple of songs rather than sticking around for a long set. I won't leave negative feedback or anything, I'll just quietly go on my way after a little while.


And What's with no one having downloadable content anymore? How many times do we have to play Welcome Home or Dani California?

I think it's just that there's so much downloadable content that the odds of four people having the same tracks has gotten pretty low. Last night we actually had four people with "Fortunate Son", and it was a blast to play it. The fewer machines you connect to, the more likely you are to be able to use DLC, since it's more likely for two people to have it than for four people to have it.

[dfjdejulio]

I don't think I'd understand it.. the scores don't mean anything, so it doesn't matter. I suppose if BWT worked online it might matter...

Last night, I was singing with random people on XBox Live. At one point I ended up with a pretty good team, with an "expert" on lead guitar and drums, a "hard" on bass, and me doing "medium" on vocals (I have a cruddy mic).

We were getting very very high scores, and people were starting to talk about gold-starring it, but it was pointed out that you cannot gold-star a song unless everyone playing is playing on expert. Maybe that's all there is to it?

(I told 'em I wasn't going to go past "medium" until I got a better mic, and nobody had a problem with that.)

[JohhnyPoser]

I've played many times with singers and probably 95% don't leave their mics open for you to hear them. The ones that do, I would say over half of them, I did not pick up any delay on the vocal tracks. While wireless equipment is probably not the only reason you will pick up a delay, it is one of the main culprits. I always check to see if I can hear a delay, by testing during the band selection screen. If I hear my own voice echoing a little late, I won't leave my mic open to sing in that band.

Anyways it was just rude obnoxious people I was mostly running into last night. I'm a reasonable man and will honor any request as long as it's put forth in a curteous manner. Mt tradition was to get drunk and goof off with the online play every week and I had some good times the past couple weeks, playing with people who, like me, didn't take the game so seriously. It was a Friday night for crying out loud, people need to loosen up.

I guess I will ask to leave my mic open, but it's not like I never gave people fair warning. When I enter a room I'll say something like "it's your lucky day, you get to hear Doctor Rockso (my character) sing and will give them a quick sample of my high pitched wailing. It's just my way of trying to get people to have a good time. I for one am burnt out on most of the track list and am just trying to get a different experience than the usual quiet game where no one says a word and the band leader just runs through song selection with out anyone's input.

I've always sang a song, no matter what the rest of the band picks: Timmy and the Lords of The underworld, I'm So Sick, I get By, Celebrity Skin. And I always throw 100% into doing my best imitation of the actual vocals. Most people used to enjoy that. The vocals are just plain boring to me if no one can actually hear you, that's probably why vocalists are the hardest band members to find. But if the majority consensus is to not leave the mic open during singing, then I'm done with vocals. The people I've played with that did the same as me or sing the backup vocals, did not bother me one bit and in my opinion enhanced the gameplay by doing something different cause I know they're having a good time. Most of the time I did not receive any delay through my headset and when I did, it didn't ruin my fun, not once.

[cuddie]

Dude, It must be just bad luck for you or something. I have not encountered any bad experiences, except for a time when a pre-pubescent boy entered our party, screamed that he was 'liek the best guitarist evrar!', and proceeded to fail on hard. It's not the lack of skill that annoyed me, it's just that if you're going to claim to be the best and take my already present guitarist's spot, please back up your talk with action. The whiny voice was also a downer, as he eventually blamed 'this crappy controller'.

All my other experiences have been pleasant. People are generally friendly, drunkards are generally hilarious, and some experts are willing to help you if you're struggling. It's a great community to me, you've just had bad luck.

[RavagerX]

I'm on PSN....so far my only issue is with ppl who do not want to switch between lead and bass guitar....meaning they ALWAYS have to be lead.

That is simply not going to cut it folks....hasn't anyone heard of sharing?

[espher]

I only skimmed the thread, but I just want to say I wouldn't be happy with someone singing open mike if they didn't run it by me first.

It's like playing any other team game that requires focus and concentration and having one guy sit there with his mic constantly open talking to himself and breathing heavily while playing.

I mean, yes, I can mute him, but then I might miss him saying something important or critical. There's a reason that some people (myself included) use push-to-talk style functionality and only speak during idle time or at crucial points when something is happening -- we don't want to screw other people up.

While it's a co-operative game, there's still a competitive aspect, even if it's just competing against yourself or a leaderboard, so it's understandable that people may not tolerate that sort of thing.

Really, as someone said, it's just not good netiquette.

Cheers. :)