Having a bass solo career vs. no bass solo career is kind of a lose-lose situation...

[Magnet]

If you organize the entire setlist into a list of songs that get more difficult with respect to the bass, people will complain about how easy and pointless the whole thing is (and their complaints will be valid). If you don't put in the bass solo career, people will complain that they never got to play through a bass career, which is also a valid complaint (and one of the talking points of emerging Rock Band reviews). Some people on the boards had ideas for a bass solo mini-career of ~20 songs, but even then it wouldn't work all that well unless there were a greater number of intricate bass parts in Rock Band. There are a few really great technical bass songs, but just not quite enough.

I think Harmonix ended up making the right decision with finally putting the bass into quick play and recognizing that the bass solo career probably wouldn't have been very fun to progress through with these certain group of songs. I think it should satisfy the majority of people that all the songs can finally be played on bass properly (that is, outside of practice mode), and I think that if most people think about the structure of the solo careers, completing the bass one would feel more like going through the motions than anything terribly valuable. Maybe beating the final bass tier on Expert would have been an accomplishment, but I personally think just getting to that last tier wouldn't even be worth the time and effort when you could just play the difficult bass songs on quick play without spending all that time on very easy songs just getting to them.

I'm sure it'll always be up for debate. Now that people are starting to get the game, we'll be learning a lot more about how the majority of the songs play on the bass. What are your thoughts?

[Bakkster]

Yeah, I've accepted the fact that a bass career doesn't make much sense, except in a bass-oriented game. I'm incredibly glad there is bass quick-play, though. That makes everything better :D

Once the game comes out I'll probably end up finishing that mini-career I started...

[HeXcoda]

A mini-career would make sense... take the best-in-show tracks and groove away on them, a few tiers long. Could be a lot of fun.

One thing worth mentioning: in interviews about BWT, HMX mentioned that there's one themed setlist which is all the hardest bass songs in the game. So there might be a chance to shine there, if you can find a partner to work with (or are able to sing and hammer intricate bass grooves).

[tmanrocks]

But seriously... who ACTUALLY wants to play bass in the game?

Bass is the redheaded stepchild of all stringed instruments , generally COMPLETELY abused and given no chance to showcase

Theres hardly any bands who let their bassists do much of anything

and in GH/RB basslines even if they are complex turn out easy since most people don't have bass solos... ever

Personally I don't care if there is or isn't bass solo career

[Bakkster]

But seriously... who ACTUALLY wants to play bass in the game?

Me.

WGFA, Highway Star, Flirtin With Disaster, War Pigs (DLC), Dani California, Detroit Rock City. And let's not forget about John the Fisherman and YYZ. It's not always interesting, but I enjoy even rocking a 6x multiplier the entire song.

[Xzyliac]

The bassist are getting a marathon setlist so maybe you can take that as your little mini-career. I don't know.

I've accepted that everybody is gonna ***** about something. It's just human. I say just make an awesome game.

[Frederf]

While I accept the logic behind not having a bass solo tour mode, preference aside, there is something I cannot follow.

Back not too long ago an developer was interviewed about bass and said something to the effect of "we're actively avoiding bass solos or other ways of highlighting it." I can understand not making a big deal out of bass, but going out of your way to deny interesting parts seems weird.

It's kind of bad enough you have to turn to your three friends and say, "Ok, who wants to play the only instrument not important enough to have it's own career mode for?"

[dlisapussy]

But seriously... who ACTUALLY wants to play bass in the game?

Theres hardly any band that lets their basses do much of anything

1)Me. I want to sing, drum, play guitar, and play bass. That's what this game is for, but bass quick play makes everything better.

The only thing that gets me mad about this whole situation is the marketing. I had the idea of Bass/Rhythm for every song that had rhythm. People always reply to that idea with "The marketing for this game only includes vocals, drums, guitar, and bass". I kept saying, well since bass doesn't have a career (which doesn't bother me), why not have the option of both? I'm not looking for a rhythm guitar career here, I just think it would be good to have it just like the bass. Quickplay, multiplayer, and BWT only. I really don't understand why people shot down the idea.



2)There's few bands who let their bassist do what they're capable of.
Those bands tend to kick ass.

[Symphonite]

Me.

WGFA, Highway Star, Flirtin With Disaster, War Pigs (DLC), Dani California, Detroit Rock City. And let's not forget about John the Fisherman and YYZ. It's not always interesting, but I enjoy even rocking a 6x multiplier the entire song.

Don't forget the second half of Epic! Everybody forgets about it because of how easy the first half is.