How are guitar/bass awarded in online multiplayer mode?

[pgdz]

Does anyone know how guitar/bass parts are "awarded" in multiplayer mode? It seems one player gets priority in choice over the other, and I can't figure out why.

Here's two examples of situations I've noticed while playing online:

Drummer hosts a game. Myself and another player join for guitar/bass. Host selects a song. Two guitarists get a "guitar/bass" selection: I choose Guitar. The other player moves to bass, then back up to guitar, and selects guitar. I'm forced over to bass.

I host a game. Various others join including another guitarist. I select a song. I select guitar. Other player selects guitar, but is forced to bass.

Is there some order of priority as to which player gets guitar and which player gets bass? It doesn't seem to depend on who's the host, or who choses first. Even better, can someone from hmx chime in and explain if there's some rule in play here, or if it's just random if both players choose the same guitar/bass part?

[DesiredFX]

As far as I can tell, it's completely random.

Personally, I refuse to play an extended session with anyone who won't switch off from song to song. Pick guitar more than three times in a row and I'm out or I kick you. Period.

[Leni Pocky]

If it makes you feel any better, I prefer playing bass over guitar.

It's completely random as far as I've seen.

[DesiredFX]

If it makes you feel any better, I prefer playing bass over guitar.

For a while, I did, too, but then after playing bass on the same 10-12 songs about forty times each, I wanted some variety (and it didn't hurt that I felt like I was getting a whole lot better than I had been at playing the guitar parts).

For the most part, if you're in an online Quickplay and you pick Bass, you won't likely get much of a fight from the other guy unless it's one of the songs with a really great/tough bass line and that's the reason he chose it.

[AgainstOne]

this is how it works:

if one person picks guitar and the other picks bass, everything is fine and each person plays what they picked.

however, if both people choose the same instrument, it basically does a "coin toss" to see who gets to play that instrument.

[deediare]

Personally, I refuse to play an extended session with anyone who won't switch off from song to song. Pick guitar more than three times in a row and I'm out or I kick you. Period.

My sentiments exactly. I hate it when some people interpret it as a race for the guitar, like if they are constantly watching the screen while tapping green.

[pgdz]

Yeah, I'm all about trading back and forth as well, and enjoyed long quickplay sessions with folks who did the same. But my last 2 times online was in pick-up groups with other players always picked guitar, and I would get booted to bass 4-5 songs in a row. I guess it's nice to know that this is a coinflip, and I was just very unlucky.

That bad luck and playing expert forced-bass while the greedy guitar player struggled on medium quickly soured me on recent sessions :P

[DesiredFX]

That bad luck and playing expert forced-bass while the greedy guitar player struggled on medium quickly soured me on recent sessions :P

Yup. Ain't that the worst of it, though? That the players that demand to play guitar aren't any good at it?

Hell, you're lucky he didn't end up on bass...he probably would have quit in a hissy fit--the one time it makes me glad that the PS3 doesn't have in-game voice chat. "Bass? Screw you guys! I'm going home!"