This game needs a "From the Makers of Guitar Hero" sticker on the box.

[DrAndonuts]

I'm kind of worried that the general public is going to write this off as a Guitar Hero ripoff, not knowing that it's by the folks who made the series. I think that putting a sticker on the box would really help it from being labeled as a ripoff.

What do you guys think?

[admanimal]

They would need permission from Activision to do that. I.e. not gonna happen.

[JohnnyFAS]

While this is true, it may be that since the name "Guitar Hero" is owned by Activision, they can't put that anywhere on the box. I coukd be wrong, and I hope they can do it, because I would love for this game to shatter all the GH records.

[Shoeless]

I don't know how feasible it would be at this stage (Harmonix is already struggling with the bilingual requirement for packaging in Canada), but aside from that, I think it would be a very smart idea. It's one of those things where the sad truth is, a lot of the public are going to look at Rock Band and think, "You dirty cheats just ripped off the guys who made guitar hero, what parasites..."

Even when you go on Youtube and check the comments there, for every music video that has a "This song is going to be on Rock Band, I can't wait!" there's an ignorant comment slagging Rock Band for having the audacity to rip off the good people that brought us Guitar Hero. The sad truth seems to be a lot of people just don't know the facts and assume that the Rock Band creators are being the unoriginal "bad guys" in this scenario, muscling in on the Guitar Hero guys' territory.

I think a sticker like that would, in small fashion, go some ways towards at least getting the average shopper to stop, look and go, "Oh, really, these ARE the Guitar Hero guys? I guess it'll be cool then!" Instead of just dismissing it out of hand because of a well-intended but grossly misdirected sense of respect for the Guitar Hero series.

[Rock_Starman]

Just yesterday I saw a post about Led Zeppelin being in GH 3. The reply to it was "Harmonix would have to beg them for it."

So I guess some people don't even know Harmonix isn't making GH 3.

On a side note what happend to Marcus sitting outside their house with the sign? Though I think he works for RO.

[bounchfx]

I whole-heartedly agree. More people need to know. This is a huge factor so far that people are only realizing from word of mouth.

[CPT_Destroyer]

That would sway the general public's thought of this being a generic GH clone, so I'm for it. :D

If they don't include it for whatever reason, at least we can spread the truth by mouth. If someone says that RB rips off GH, tell them they're made by the same people that made GH 1 and 2. If they don't believe you, show them Harmonix's name on both RB and GH 1 or 2, assuming most stores will still sell it.

[Finncognito]

Why exactly would they need permission from Activision? Movie trailers and ads quite often have "From the director/writer/producer of Succesfull Movie and Successfull Movie 2: The Sequel to Successfull Movie", even with different studios behind them.

[admanimal]

Maybe it would be possible as long as they don't use the real Guitar Hero logo or anything.

[shaneman]

Would they really need to own the rights to the name? I mean, just look at any fast food commercial. They almost always name the other restaurants by name, and say they're better.

Just throw a "Guitar Hero is a registered trademark of Activision Co" Of whatever on the sticker is super-fine print, and it'll all good in the hood, right?

[RkBndDrmr]

Maybe it would be possible as long as they don't use the real Guitar Hero logo or anything.

I don't know. They have GH posted on their website. http://www.harmonixmusic.com/ I would think they could put a "we made GH" sticker on if they wanted too because ..well they did. I don't see it happening in any case. I loved GH, GH2 (Thanks HMX!!) but Rock Band is just too awesome to have the GH name anywhere near it now.

[IbanezBassist_v2]

How in the hell would anyone get RB confused by being a GH rip off! Its obviously more detailed with a complete band rather than just the guitar. Anyone who is a fan of GH or HMX, which grows everyday in numbers, should know that HMX are the ones who started it all.

Unless you count GF...

[MartyMcFly]

How in the hell would anyone get RB confused by being a GH rip off! Its obviously more detailed with a complete band rather than just the guitar. Anyone who is a fan of GH or HMX, which grows everyday in numbers, should know that HMX are the ones who started it all.


I've talked to a lot of casual gamers who aren't hardcore GH players or anything. Some people don't think about what companies make a game, or who owns what.

Some people just play a game at a friend's house and that's it. When they see a game come out afterwards with a similar idea and look to it, they'll just call that game a rip-off.
We're talking about the General Public.

They're not all geeks ya know ;)

[tf5_bassist]

I think that instead of (or in addition to) a sticker on the RB box, Activision/RO should put a sticker on the GH3 box saying "From the people who have never made a Guitar Hero game before... But we did Tony Hawk!!"

or something to that effect.

[IbanezBassist_v2]

I've talked to a lot of casual gamers who aren't hardcore GH players or anything. Some people don't think about what companies make a game, or who owns what.

Some people just play a game at a friend's house and that's it. When they see a game come out afterwards with a similar idea and look to it, they'll just call that game a rip-off.
We're talking about the General Public.

They're not all geeks ya know ;)

True. But when I first got GH, do you know how many people knew about that or even who HMX was. Few to none. GH spread like wildfire. Word of mouth is the best form of advertising. RB will be no exception.

[MartyMcFly]

That's the exact problem right there though. Now Guitar Hero is well known. Older women that I work with even know what it is because of their kids or grandkids even.

It's had several news stories, and it's very well known now.
It's not a question of whether people will know about Rock Band, but whether or not they'll know that it's not a rip-off of GH.

Like I said, when 1 thing comes out, then something else that has a similar look and idea, people will automatically just think it's some sort of rip-off. (Again, by people I mean general public)

[BiffMan]

True. But when I first got GH, do you know how many people knew about that or even who HMX was. Few to none. GH spread like wildfire. Word of mouth is the best form of advertising. RB will be no exception.

Ding, Ding! That's really the bottom line. You need to have "by the makers of" when you're trying something completely different or you're not confident in your product. If anything, I'd recommend that they start to distance themselves from GH so they aren't seen as trying to be a knock-off or something.

A lot of people and press didn't know much about this game before E3 and look what happened there. Might be that it doesn't really build momentum until the spring, as was the case with GH, but it's eventually going to be huge one way or another between hype, word of mouth, and glowing reviews. Can you imagine this game getting less than 90% in a (non-idiot) review?

If you make it, they will come....

[toefer]

Ding, Ding! That's really the bottom line. You need to have "by the makers of" when you're trying somethiniew?

If you make it, they will come....

Sorry that I deleted most of your post, but I didn't want it to take up a ton of space. I agree with what you are saying, except that I don't think its a bad thing to use "by the makers of" when launching a new product. Some might see it as not being confident about the new product, but others might see it as a smart way of working that brand loyalty.

In any case, word of mouth is always important, and I hope the individual instrument bundles come out ASAP, because the more people that buy the game, the better it is for all of us (at least in terms of DLC).

[Yordakin]

The marketing for this game is fine. Just what it was for Guitar Hero. They don't need to put Guitar Hero on the box. It will already say "Harmonix". Consumers will know what's up. Plus, the size of this box is going to be hard to miss during the busy Holiday season. I'd be more worried about keeping up with demand through Christmas.

[toefer]

The marketing for this game is fine. Just what it was for Guitar Hero. They don't need to put Guitar Hero on the box. It will already say "Harmonix". Consumers will know what's up. Plus, the size of this box is going to be hard to miss during the busy Holiday season. I'd be more worried about keeping up with demand through Christmas.

The size of the box isn't the point, and while we all know Harmonix made Guitar Hero, I bet if you ask a bunch of random people who've played GH, not everyone will know, and that's been the whole point of this thread.

[JackBNimble]

I'm kind of worried that the general public is going to write this off as a Guitar Hero ripoff, not knowing that it's by the folks who made the series. I think that putting a sticker on the box would really help it from being labeled as a ripoff.

What do you guys think?

Sooner or later people are going to know RB is the granddaddy of GH.And most GH fans should already know this.
From what I've herd about GHIII, will probably start seeing loyal GH fans switching to RB very soon after the release date anyways.

[R0ck3r]

Sooner or later people are going to know RB is the granddaddy of GH.And most GH fans should already know this.
From what I've herd about GHIII, will probably start seeing loyal GH fans switching to RB very soon after the release date anyways.

Dunno, theres some people on here that are actually more interested in getting GH3...

[IErrantVentureI]

The general consumer probably wouldn't know who made Rock Band if this sticker wasn't on there. They'd think it was a GH ripoff.

I like the idea.

[Kylekillgannon]

I agree, especially knowing some of my friends........I still don't get why I asociate with such idiots :confused:

[Quinarvy]

If it matters, I was in EB Games the other day and saw the preorder box, it had the rock band box art on front, then a black back cover that started with "From the makers of the successful Guitar Hero series, Harmonix brings you Rock Band"

[hardyfoster]

activision may own rock band, but harmonix owns the "scrolling note" method / graphic. either company could be *****s about it if they wanted to.
Harmonix could say to activision to come up with your own "note chart", don't use ours.

but they released gh3 before rock band cuz they know RB is going to put GH in the shadows.

What do you think Activision needs to do to keep GH alive? You're getting the same game with Rock Band. The only thing different is the songs. Hopefully RB gets ac/dc.

[Thrashdragon]

What do you think Activision needs to do to keep GH alive? You're getting the same game with Rock Band. The only thing different is the songs. Hopefully RB gets ac/dc.

The Guitar Hero series' only hope once Rock Band really gets going is to use the songs that Rock Band can't handle (i.e. anything with double bass), and guitar instrumentals that Rock Band wouldn't want. They need to cater to the ScoreHero crowd that are all about points and difficulty. They've done this to some extent with some of their song selection, but the enormous HOPO window makes everything so easy it pretty much defeats the point of putting difficult songs in there.

They also need to adjust the ingame sensitivity to the strumbar. The first reviewer that plays like I do (thumb and index finger held as if holding a pick, then striking down on the strumbar) is going to absolutely slag the game.

[HPLabonte]

I agree, especially knowing some of my friends........I still don't get why I asociate with such idiots :confused:


i guess i'm lucky, my friend went on a mad tirade about how much activision sucks for piggybacking off of HMX's success with the GH brand. yay!

[xenopherus]

The sticker is a great idea. As I said in some other post, Harmonix is doing nothing to advertise to non-gamer America and releasing the game on Black Friday would be totally pointless because of this. They have to have commercials all over the tv, radio, in movie theaters and magazines and everywhere else. The few little commercials that have been circulating online won't cut it at all. I can't understand why they're not doing more to get the word out there. Saturating the media should be one of their main priorities right now, ESPECIALLY since GHIII comes out in just a few days. Of course everyone is going to think RB is a GH rip-off.

[JackBNimble]

activision may own rock band, but harmonix owns the "scrolling note" method / graphic. either company could be *****s about it if they wanted to.
Harmonix could say to activision to come up with your own "note chart", don't use ours.

but they released gh3 before rock band cuz they know RB is going to put GH in the shadows.

What do you think Activision needs to do to keep GH alive? You're getting the same game with Rock Band. The only thing different is the songs. Hopefully RB gets ac/dc.

Activision doesn't own RB.You ment GH3 I'm sure!

[Thrashdragon]

The sticker is a great idea. As I said in some other post, Harmonix is doing nothing to advertise to non-gamer America and releasing the game on Black Friday would be totally pointless because of this. They have to have commercials all over the tv, radio, in movie theaters and magazines and everywhere else. The few little commercials that have been circulating online won't cut it at all. I can't understand why they're not doing more to get the word out there. Saturating the media should be one of their main priorities right now, ESPECIALLY since GHIII comes out in just a few days. Of course everyone is going to think RB is a GH rip-off.

I think there are a couple of reasons for the lack of advertising. First, they can't make enough for this holiday season as it is (as shown by the inability to buy any peripherals). So they're making sure gamers know about it, and that should be enough to sell out what they can manage to produce this fall. That leads to reason number two:

Once the game is in enough households, it doesn't need any more than word of mouth advertising. Guitar Hero didn't. I never even heard of Guitar Hero until another poster on a FPS-focused game forum I frequent asked if anyone else was looking forward to GH2 being released. I happened to be in an EB that had it on display a couple of weeks later, tried it out, and bought the game and a PS2 that day just to play it. These games, when well done, sell themselves.

[DrAndonuts]

That's true, but Guitar Hero didn't have any competition when it came out, and it wasn't going against a established (and good) franchise. My only worry it that GHIII got the jump on Rock Band, even though Rock Band is the spiritual successor to Guitar Hero, both aesthetically and developer-wise.

I'm sure it will be a hit, but I really don't want it to be labeled as a copy cat.

[notDREW]

while i don't want to sell Guitar Hero short just yet, Neversoft has the tendency to water down their games with gimmicks to put on retail boxes. I love Guitar Hero and GH3 is probably just as good as the others IMO. But i have a feeling that the series will get to that tiring point in the fifth iteration. But to stay on topic, i don't think Harmonix or EA can do that can they? That name belongs to someone else.

[BenGmanUk]

I've already planted the rock band seed with my friends and colleagues. Just you wait, those 20s won't come out their wallets fast enough...

:D