The Christmas Onslaught Cometh

[HeXcoda]

Starting tomorrow night we'll (presumably) be seeing a new wave of Rock Band newbs online. You'll know them right away -- can't get the headset to work, are wearing the basic ripped black shirt and a mullet, have character names like Hardcore9275, and don't have any songs unlocked.

'twill be trying times for all involved. Here are some survival tips.

VETERANS: Don't be choosy about difficulties. It's going to take time for newcomers to get up to speed on the strat with its new strum bar and different button sizes, and many players will likely be completely new to the series. Obviously we're not going to get many diving into expert on drums, either.

There may be repeated failouts; again, patience, because frankly online quickplay scores and stats don't matter and even a failout is good practice for the person who got squished.

That said, if someone's being a complete jerk on the mike -- say, a 13 year old singing LA LA LA, or someone going "I'm SO stoned right now KAFFKAFF" or various suburban homophobic epithets, kick them out and let them know why. Let's ensure folks understand that we're trying to keep a civil community here.

NEWCOMERS: Welcome to the band! It's gonna be tough transitioning in and it's recommended you get some solo practice in before you dive headfirst online. But if you wanna hop into the deep end, keep the following in mind.

There's gonna be a metric ton of guitarists out there, likely including you. Not everybody can play guitar. Bass is not a crime and in fact is a backbone of the Rock Band experience, what with the 6x multiplier and Unison Bonuses; you could be the glue that carries people through. Also, if two people pick Guitar, the winner is determined RANDOMLY. Keep that in mind.

If you decide to sing, more power to you! However, despite what you may have heard, nobody can hear you sing online -- and if you hold the right trigger to do it, it may screw everyone up due to the vocal timing lag. So, don't do that unless you clear it with your bandmates first.

Don't quit in the middle of a song. If you hate the song just tough it out until the end and then leave. If you quit the band has to play another 20 seconds before the game forcibly fails them out, and that's gonna result in some negative feedback on your profile (for XBLers).

There is no shame in picking non-expert. Pick a difficulty you can pass without failing out of over and over. Yes, people can save you, but that only works three times and if you just don't have what it takes to stay alive yourself consistently it hurts the whole band. Anybody who whines about you dropping down a peg is a jerk and doesn't deserve you in their band.

When making your character, you don't have to stick numbers on the end of your name. Character names don't have to be unique. Also, and this is a personal taste thing, skip the top hats, skull faces, and emover haircuts. They're completely overdone. Not everybody can be some goth twist on Slash.

EVERYBODY: Have fun, and we'll see you online!

[DesiredFX]

Agree with everything you said but I especially agree with:


There is no shame in picking non-expert. Pick a difficulty you can pass without failing out of over and over. Yes, people can save you, but that only works three times and if you just don't have what it takes to stay alive yourself consistently it hurts the whole band.

The difficulty I pick is the difficulty I'm comfortable and confident playing at. It's not a challenge to you to jump in over your head and frustrate yourself and everyone you're playing with.

Learning to play these games takes time and practice. Not as much time and practice as real instruments, of course, but more than simply picking up the controller and starting to play. I know some guitarists who play their real guitars much better than they play this game. It's a different skill set and it won't just come to you the minute you open the box.

[Shoeless]

I'll third this, it's a good suggestion. I can play guitar on Expert (not to the point where I can pass Green Grass and High Tides, but I do okay) and when I go online I have absolutely no prejudices against playing with people on varying skill levels, it's all about having fun.

But what does make me roll my eyes is seeing people initially select Medium or Hard, and then seeing others select Expert hesitantly jump over to Expert and then try to struggle through it. I've got no problems with bailing people out, particularly since I know I might need it on some of the trickier guitar solos on Expert level, but when someone is way, way, WAY out of their league, it stops being "let's play the song" and turns into everyone else constantly keeping an eye on the struggling player and kicking Overdrive at every single opportunity to keep the person in the game, or else bring them back when they've failed out. That just feels like baby-sitting, instead of an occasional goof where someone screws up and needs to be brought back.

I personally still shudder at the remembrance of someone formerly playing on Medium Guitar suddenly picking Green Grass & High Tides and selecting Expert. The next 10 minutes was an ordeal of every single other player fighting to keep that person in the game. After the guitarist survived that song, s/he kept picking more songs on the Expert level and left to everyone else to constantly bail/revive them with Overdrives. Needless to say, I left the session after the 4th song was picked, again on Expert, and it became pretty obvious that the player was riding on everyone else to carry them through the songs.

[Corscore]

I am ready for some newcomers. I see a lot of familar faces on the tug of war mode. I see this especially on the drums on medium or hard.

[RedTsunami]

Nice thread man! I for one am actually getting it on chistmas eve (tomarow, OMG!!), and I think the drums are the only thing I'll be newbish on. Then again, I DID play donkey konga though...ah well.

[HeXcoda]

Looking forward to seeing you online, then, RedTsunami! Hope you enjoy your time with us. :)

Echoing the above comments... yeah, don't feel pressured by your peers to jump up to a difficulty you're not ready for. At times that can be fun -- usually when someone warns "I think I'll try this a step up..." and then steps back down afterwards. But jumping up TWO pegs and staying there when you know you can't maintain at that level and play consistently? That's just being cruel to your bandmates.

Another thing I thought of for the list...

New players: Voice chat is great! Playing with a bunch of silent movie stars really gets boring fast. But there's some things to know.

One, 360 players, you need to use those little black cables that connect your guitar/drums to an XBL headset. Study the tiny instruction slip that came with them to know how to install them; basically you plug the XBL into one end, the other end into your guitar/drums (the hole is REALLY tiny and hard to find on the guitar!) and then optionally snap the plastic U shaped thing on to hold it in place.

However, if your mike is spamming the room with nasty feedback, mute it! Also, before going into the song, either turn your TV down or (if you're the drummer especially) mute your headset. In-song chat can be fun too but courtesy is more critical. The others will have a hard time if they hear CLACK CLACK CLACK in their ears at the wrong beats because of the lag.

It's a bit of a tightrope, going between Silence and Audio Horror, but it's worth figuring out. Neither of those two are very fun but Quality Voicechat makes the online experience more than just solo play with non-AI bandmates.

[mattitude]

Not to mention how different these boards are gonna look.

When the game was actually released, the boards changed overnight from those who had been so psyched about the game that they'd been posting for months prior, to all the rooks who finally felt compelled to join the forums, usually just to complain about something.

Come tomorrow, there'll be a whole second wave. Sigh.

[IBizzyToneI]

To those who are about to start playing Rock Band prepare yourself for an incredible expirience. Both my brother in laws who are a bunch of cool cats as I call them, are getting rock band for christmas simply because all it took was one time of taking it over to their houses and bamn they kept saying" can you bring it again tomorrow. mind you they are both 35 years old.

Merry Christmas to all. See you guys online.


and yes I did lose all my posts with the update, so had to make a new name with I's in the front and back.

[Conner_Malvecino]

I guess just be thankful that there IS a second wave...otherwise, if we didn't see anybody newbies come Christmas time, wouldn't we consider Rockband's release a financial failure if it didn't spin off as least twice as many board memberships post Christmas while still exclusively an NA release? I saw, bring them on in...perhaps they'll be somebody with cooler mods cooler videos and alas...

...maybe a hacker who can make the PS3 Les Paul to work?!?!?

[HeXcoda]

I don't think we have to worry about RB being a financial failure. NPD numbers clocked in half a million units sold, and for a 170 game, that's somethin'. It won't displace Guitar Hero this year but word of mouth, DLC, and sales through next year when supplies build up will help a lot.

As for tomorrow, we're definitely gonna get a new wave; maybe not a tidal wave but it'll be considerable. Hopefully this thread will help some people out and smooth over the bumps in the experience.

MORE TIPS FOR NEWBIES...

Topics we already know about and have heard at great length: Inability to change instruments on a character, BWT not being playable online, no BWT elements in solo play, community site having phantom characters and bands, and people disconnecting during ranked matches. All these things kinda suck, we know, but there's not much else to say about them. Hopefully some of them will be addressed in patches, sequels, etc.

Do yourself a favor and when forming your bands for Band World Tour mode, make the leader a character/instrument you won't mind having available in every single play. IE, a guitarist or a vocalist, not a drummer! Also, you should keep all instruments logged out of profiles on your xbox and just make them guests, creating their characters under your main profile -- otherwise they won't appear on the website.

[cuddie]

Something to keep in mind: most of the newcomers will be children who recieved Rock Band as a gift. While there are a few that can act mature and some I have mistaken for adults, the majority will be annoying and disruptive. I'm not saying this because I think every kid is annoying, but just through personal expierience the majority are not pleasant to deal with.

[ClinTrojan]

OP, sweet thread, needs to be stickied. I am a non hardcore player myself and love to just have fun and have couple suggestions.

DO NOT PLAY DRUMS WITH SHOES ON....the pedals are plastic and will break, also do not stomp the pedals. A simple soft tap is all it takes.

Make sure you play online with the controller who has the profile attached to it, or no one will be able to hear you online. XBL idk about PS3. Just hit the guide button and check. If you see a ghosted out profile then sign out with the correct controller and sign back in with the one you wanting to play on.

[Harsher]

Great post man. Thumbs up!!!

You should write a book, 'how to survive a rock band' for dummies!!! LOL.

[WiseOldUnicorn]

Dude, this should be stickied. Seriously.

To anyone getting Rock Band for Christmas: for those about to rock, we salute you. :p

[HeXcoda]

I agree about stickying, but that's typically reserved for more official type posts... maybe Apples will take pity on us and paste it up there? :)

A lot of the newcomers are definitely gonna be kids. Those of us old enough to hold down full time jobs already had the 170 needed to buy the game, after all; the rest are folks who couldn't afford it for themselves, barring the occasional spouse giving it to spouse and so on.

And yeah, a lot of them are gonna be annoying. I still say patience is a virtue. Kids can learn; we were all kids at one point and thought things like cracking wise or signing into the mike were cool and would win us friends. We learned fast enough that this was not the case. Be polite, request they stop doing whatever irritating thing they're doing and why, and if they refuse or get snippy, THEN kick them out. There'll be enough bandmembers floating around that they can be replaced (and they can find another band) (and if they have to do this often enough they'll clue in) (and then we're all better off).

My general stance is to ride out the bumps in the road. Technical issues and attitude issues WILL abound, but don't compound them by being nasty in response. We'll get them and ourselves through the newbie hump!

[riginal]

re : difficulty

When you're playing online, play at whatever you are most comfortable with for a given song. It is irritating to see people play over their heads, presumably because other band members are playing on Expert. Failing out on Medium should be more embarrassing than playing (successfully) on Easy.

[blakehess11]

I'm going to be one of these newcomers tomorrow. However, I've been going over to a friend of mine's house practically every other day to play his Rock Band and I'm already at the point of being able to pass like 60% of songs on Drums on Expert, and I can pass GGAHT on Expert guitar, but can only play vocals on Medium. All these etticut threads have been rae4lly helpful since I havent been able to play RB online 'cause my friend doesn't have Live.

So I'll be seeing you guys online!

[TwisterSlammer]

I guess this thread is probably a good way to say hello to everyone. I am getting RB tomorrow, but have drum XP from playing drummania in the arcades for quite some time (not sure how much this game compares to it, but I know when Guitar Heroes came out it blew guitarfreaks out of the water).

So will be looking forward on seeing some of you on XBL in a little bit, probably will play some of the game offline prior to get a good feel of the game and what I can do (dont look for me on vocals ;))

TwistedSlammer

[blakehess11]

I too have Drummania experience before p[laying Rock Band drums. As for how it compares, ROck Band has better songs, but I still prefer DM because of the more realistic pad layout and higher diffuculty. I'm no Drummania god, though.

[vApathyv]

I see a lot of newcomers introducing themselves in here, so I figured I'd do something a bit different and say that I'd be more then happy to play with any of you guys just so you can experience online play in a friendly environment.

And of course I gotta give props to the OP. Awesome thread. I may not be a newcomer, but I still find this to be a very helpful little thread, and agree that Apples wouldn't be wrong with stickying this.

[Maggot_Brain]

Tomorrow will be the end of grammar as we know it. (DoOdZZ!!)

[Sgt Pepper]

I'll be getting it tomorrow, but I told myself long ago that I'd get some experience before I dive in online.

[Maposaurus]

I can only get it for PS2. Woe is me.

[Edgehopper]

And for the new folks that come in here--see the thread in the Announcements section about the Christmas DLC? See the 15 pages, approximately 75% of it whining? Don't do that (the whining.)

[AdamWill2]

Simple (and dumb) question, but I can't find it in the manual...

This is on PS3, BTW. With its sucky online environment. 360 sounds much nicer.

What determines whether you're leader or not? Is it just that, if someone's looking for members when you hit 'join band', you'll join their band, or something else?

I keep winding up as the leader. Wouldn't be a problem, except I have no headset and it seems my taste in songs isn't to everyone's liking. (No, I'm not picking easy songs all the time, but I'm *also* not playing RttH on endless repeat). I really don't mind what I play so I'd be happy joining someone else's band, but I can't seem to figure out how to make that happen. Anyone? Thanks.

(yeah, I checked the manual. Couldn't find the answer there. Sorry if I missed it).

[FLYmeatwad]

I've had Rock Band since day 1 and I still don't know how to work the headset. I plug that piece into the adapter and then into the guitar and the drums but I am still unable to be heard, so I've just given up and decided to only talk when I do vocals online.

Still, it would be tops if I could figure out why my head set won't work because it makes band play online annoying. Plus then maybe I can actually have my requests not to pick Metallica, Nirvana, and Reptillia every damn time.

[DesiredFX]

And for the new folks that come in here--see the thread in the Announcements section about the Christmas DLC? See the 15 pages, approximately 75% of it whining? Don't do that (the whining.)

Is it still acceptable to pick on the whiners?

[aukevin]

I joined the ranks this morning as we had Christmas on Christmas Eve. I haven't gone online yet, but I plan too. I've been having fun trying out the drums, still on beginner. I thought I'd start out with the guitar on Hard because I've been play GH a long time, but I have a hard time with Rock Band's guitar on the fast notes. I guess it'll take practice with that too. So far the game is a lot of fun, I'll be seeing some of you PS3'ers online.

Question... does this game support a mic for the band members to talk to each other? If so, I'll have to find me a wireless mic to use. Thanks!

[Blue-Alloy]

No the game does not. Currently for PS3 owners, there's no voice chat functionality of any kind.

[sa_nick]

Woa, theres already a bunch of ppl on the forums that joined in December. Hopefully it doesnt get to insane/annoying with all the newbies.

It usually does though...

EDIT: what the hell? whys it say i joined in Dec? It should be Apirl, and whered my 1200+ posts go? Noooooo!!! Maybe thats why so many ppl have December, lol

[Lady Siara]

Yeah, I'll definitely make sure to unlock some songs and get a feel for the game before I go online. I gotta practice those vocals anyways. XD

[sinkdawg]

I'm not a newbee (I got the game on launch day) but this is my 1st post so be gentle!

I never really played Guitar Hero before so I'm only a "medium" on guitar and a "medium" on drums. With that said, so far -- everyone online has been great and very helpful.

The earlier post was right about all the kids getting the game tomorrow. (I can't play Call of Duty 4 or Halo without having some 13-year old cuss the entire time). We will just have to be patient and not be afraid to get out of a band if you can't take it anymore!

It's also going to be interesting to see how many of tomorrow's games will have broken guitars (mine was and I got a new one in 3 days -- with the $100CC deposit). I have a feeling there will be alot of angry parents on X-mas!

[HeXcoda]

A few more helpful notes...

Band Leader: It's randomly picked amoungst the first joiners. If only one other person joins at first then it'll either be you or him/her. If four people get banded together simultaneously it'll be one of the four. There's no way to force yourself to be / not be the band leader.

PS3 Voice Chat: I don't have a PS3, but as far as I know voice chat's not possible... maybe with the warhawk kit? Beats me. My sympathies to you guys.

Broken Instruments: The following may happen to you... guitar double/triple strumming when flicked, bass pedal snapping in half, unresponsive drum pads. If any of this happens, quickly go to the EA support site (check the tech support forums) and order a replacement. There've been mixed results, some folks getting their replacement gear right away, some not, so good luck. The two replacement plans available are empty box to you then broken guitar back then new guitar to you, or the "express" of new guitar to you and old guitar back. The express requires a $100 credit card deposit but the money's refunded if you send the old guitar back within a month.

If you're here on the website and you're new, good work! That's half the battle. Being in the know by reading threads like these shows you're willing to do the legwork and fit into the community. Encourage other new players to do the same! The website's getting pretty awesome, anyway, so they'll want to register and link their accounts to it (to make bands and rockers show up). Eventually we're gonna be able to make our own photos of our characters online!

[DesiredFX]

Two things:

1. No in-game chat available on the PS3 no matter whether you use a USB mic or Bluetooth headset. The PS3 does have voice chat available--it's just not integrated into the game.

2. I think, if you are the leader locally and you join up with someone online, the chances of the leader of your local group being the leader of the online band goes up, simply because you're contributing multiple members to the band.

[AdamWill2]

well, online play with no voice chat is kinda pointless, isn't it? if I don't know who the hell you are, I really don't care how well you play guitar. can't see the point, to be honest.

online BWT would be fine. but online quickplay with no voice chat is basically meaningless. played a few games, and yeah...it was just like playing single player except the guitarist screwed up sometimes. woo.

i'll be playing offline till they get online BWT working, then.

[ClinTrojan]

WOW no online chat for ps3...why? I got xbox360 version and seems to me that microsoft must have bought "rights" to rockband or harmonix. Kinda how they did splinter cell games, how xbox would get them first and have then ps2 and gamecube would get ports.

Rock Band during E3 was showed using a X360
The TV commercials show at the end X360
X360 gets DLC 2 days early
I believe Live DLC is tiny bit cheaper then PS3 (could be wrong)
GuitarHero Guitars not working on PS3 (not harmonix fault)
Now not online chat for PS3 and not real reason for there not to be unless it is because PSN is free and Xbox Live cost money....then I kinda dont really feel sorry for that part.

Any way I am glad im not a PS3 owner right now...I would been pissed.

[HeXcoda]

* E3 was 360, TV is 360: In that case, yeah, MS paid for that. They co-sponsored the work.
* DLC 2 days early: Blame Sony for this. MS updates Tuesdays, Sony Thursdays. That's the way it is for all games on either system and Sony won't change things for one game.
* DLC Cheaper: Nope, it's the same.
* Guitar Hero 3: Activision for the lose. Proprietary controllers make Baby Jesus cry.
* No chat: Correct me if I'm wrong but this is partly because PSN doesn't have the baked-in support for a chat network that XBL has. It has to be added in by the developer using their own support network for chatting, which is no small feat. The lack of a standardized headset doesn't help either.

The problem is more that PS3 focuses on other aspects (graphics, storage) than the 360 (networking). Both approaches are valid, really -- this is not a console flamewar -- but Rock Band itself is a game concept that works better on the 360 since it doesn't need heavy graphics and does need heavy networking.

[AdamWill2]

"The lack of a standardized headset doesn't help either."

Your other points are good, but this one doesn't stand up. USB audio is a standardized protocol. That's why any USB mic works for vocals. All USB audio devices (except some very odd, pro-grade ones) look exactly the same to any host device. In the same way that any USB mass storage device just looks like...a mass storage device, any USB audio device just looks like...a USB audio device.

[zack10house]

can you really have two/three people locally and just grab extra members online for some quickplay? that's awesome, I won't have to steal it from my bro after all

[AdamWill2]

Yes, you can.

[Ventura]

Any way I am glad im not a PS3 owner right now...I would been pissed.

In all honesty, if both consoles had been region free for games so I coulda picked up either version and had it shipped overseas, there's no way I'd have gone with the PS3 Rock Band.

It's not that the PS3 is a bad console. It's a good bit of hardware and it's nice to not be worrying about whether it's gonna die on you every time you turn it on like you might with the 360. There's just not an awful lot to do on it, to be honest. The only AAA title on it that's not also on another console is Ratchet and Clank (admittedly), and the Rock Band thing is a good example of how games just seem to keep ending up better on the 360.

[TwisterSlammer]

I too have Drummania experience before playing Rock Band drums. As for how it compares, ROck Band has better songs, but I still prefer DM because of the more realistic pad layout and higher diffuculty. I'm no Drummania god, though.

I use to love Drummania when I was able to play it... I only had a few songs beaten in advanced, but could S Dragonblade, and could FC merry-go-round. Timephase 2 would always kill me. Yea I was actually wondering game play how this was compare to it. I did notice there is one less drum, but had more popular American Style songs

[Jimmik]

hehe great guide. And indeed welcome to all the noobs!

[DesiredFX]

* No chat: Correct me if I'm wrong but this is partly because PSN doesn't have the baked-in support for a chat network that XBL has. It has to be added in by the developer using their own support network for chatting, which is no small feat. The lack of a standardized headset doesn't help either.

This isn't accurate. The PS3 OS--as I've mentioned before--has its own built-in voice chat mode that some games do access.

The invitation system Rock Band uses on the PS3 employs the PS3's native messaging system, so I expect the lack of voice chat has more to do with what Harmonix had time to implement than any difficulty with accessing the PS3's chat network.

The standardized headset is also a non-issue: the PS3 chat mode works with both USB and Bluetooth headsets of every stripe. It even works with a USB camera that has a mic built in, like the PlayStation Eye. I'm not sure about audio chat, but the video chat mode supports up to six stations in a single chat.



The problem is more that PS3 focuses on other aspects (graphics, storage) than the 360 (networking). Both approaches are valid, really -- this is not a console flamewar -- but Rock Band itself is a game concept that works better on the 360 since it doesn't need heavy graphics and does need heavy networking.

The PS3 actually focuses on networking pretty much exactly as much as the 360 does: friends, chat modes, messaging, online purchases, internet browsing, etc. The only problem has been that some of the network aspects of it were nailed down fairly recently, so anyone trying to wrap up development in October might not have had access to some of the more recent features.

One thing that is built into the PS3 that Rock Band also left out is the "Friends Met" tool, which simply collects the PSN IDs of everyone you've played with online and hangs onto them so you can invite them to be friends, or even block them if you didn't like dealing with them.

It will be interesting to see what the perception of networking on the PS3 becomes when Home is released (it's still on track for coming out in the spring).

* * *

I agree that it's important for this thread not to become a flame war, and I think one of the best ways to do that is to try to keep information in it accurate.

[HeXcoda]

I stand corrected, and I thank you. :) I own a PS3 but I haven't dug into the networking stuff too heavily. Glad to hear they're on par with XBL now! I guess RB was just too late to the game on it.

I'm gonna fire up RB off and on today, see if I can find any of the fabled noobs; last night I only bumped into vets. Anybody got any stories to share so far of lending a helping hand to new players?

[DesiredFX]

I stand corrected, and I thank you. :) I own a PS3 but I haven't dug into the networking stuff too heavily. Glad to hear they're on par with XBL now! I guess RB was just too late to the game on it.

Well, I wouldn't go quite so far as to say they're on par, but they have made advances in the areas where the 360 had much more robust and complete support. The best thing to come out of it on the PS3 side is that it's apparent that Sony knows what's missing and is doing what they can to get it for their players.

[CowboyGP]

Great thread! I can't add much in the way of advice that hasn't been posted already. Only to reiterate the importance of playing within your comfort zone during band quick play.

I usually play drums, but late at night I have to switch to guitar/bass due to the noise. I choose Bass a lot for band play, since most people seem to enjoy playing lead and I enjoy being in the rythmn section. Keeps everyone happy. I've also noticed that a lot of players (if they see you choose Bass for the first song) will alternate instruments with you song for song.

I fell into the difficulty trap one night though. I can typically play Bass competently on higher difficulty (Hard) than guitar (Medium). So imagine my shock when I ended up in a song I'd never played Bass on before and had to be saved all 3 times by my bandmates. To stay safe, if its a song you've never played before, step down a notch until you've had a taste of it.

Welcome Noobs! Like many others in the community, I'm here for the fun of it. One of the things I really enjoy about band play online is when I'm cruising through a routine section of a song on Med/Hard drums and glance over to watch a guitarist OWNING the song on Expert!

Get your feet wet offline, read the stickies at the top of the forum and THEN jump online. We'll all have a lot more fun that way, and whatever questions you have by then won't be the same ones we've all answered 1000 times.

See you all in the trenches!!