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Originally Posted by gopher_p

Am I way-off, and are the background visuals really that important for people? Or are the complainers just looking for anything to whine about?

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The answer to that would probably be rooted in whether or not you're the type of person who thinks what they think is important is some universal truth; while at the same time others thinking something is important, but you don't, constitutes whining.

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If there were no background visuals at all, would you still play Rock Band?

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It's be pretty lame and I probably would have never left Guitar Hero. I would have seen it as a stale and vapid experience honestly.

I'd have thought it was something you'd do in a preschool class, playing color coded instruments to onscreen cues, solely for the sake of playing color coded instruments to onscreen cues. Like musical simon. I'd be fully expecting a lab tech to give me a treat every 10 minutes and adjust the electrodes on my forehead while I'm being observed on the other side of a two way glass by scientists.

I'd have laughed at anybody that wanted me to sit down and play it. "No listen! You hear that?! You press the button and Celebrity Skin comes out the TV!" To which I'd respond, "that's nice, can we take the musical tetris out of the system and play a game now?"

The band aspect is at least 60% of the game for me as i can't think of another reason I'd be playing plastic instruments other than playing a game where I'm in a band and in order to do it I have to play plastic instruments. Having a band visually on screen, not sucking, is a pretty big component of that aspect. I mean I used to play text based adventures back in the day, but after playing stuff like Fallout or Oblivion I'm in no rush to go back to the stone ages of videogaming. I need a bit more stimulation these days.

Facetiousness aside, the chart based play is fine for what it is, a play mechanic that lets you pantomime playing music, but that in and of itself has limited appeal, for me anyway. I need those added elements of creating a band and seeing the creations perform the song I'm playing live, they're the characters in game. Only thing is I have the benefit of instead rather than picking what someone else made to go onstage, the game lets me put my own motley crew up there a nice extra in the engagement and stimulation column. And seeing them onscreen is the payoff to that creative outlet.

Just my .02.

I've spent a lot of time creating characters, and making band logos, and I love seeing them in action. So yeah, they're pretty important to me and I would be very pleased if HMX updated the game and fixed at least some of the animation problems that plague RB3. If Rock Band 4 ever happens, besides making sure all the songs from past games and DLC make it into the game, the main thing I want out of it is a more in-depth character creator and better animations.

I think background visuals are important, but sometime there a bit of a distraction.

I definitely prefer the game with visuals, especially after they patched the game to make the highway lanes less opaque. Since then, the only time that they have bothered me is when I had some of those trippy backgrounds where a bunch of guitars come flying at you. It happened on a song with a really slow tempo and it took a lot of effort to not speed up as the guitars where winging by at a speed at least twice as fast as the notes scrolling down.

I am not certain I would play less if the characters and backgrounds were gone but I would definitely enjoy the game less.

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Originally Posted by Doc_SoCal

Personally, I would play with nothing but the charts, but the extras looks nice and I do like having my band look like I made them that way as opposed to no option to do so at all.

I would welcome a bare-bones option that would toggle all background stuff off but I would not use it at parties.

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This. As much as I loved RB2's graphics (and complain about RB3's looking poor in comparison), being able to turn them off would have been great. I've bombed out / choked / missed the next star on too many harder songs getting distracted by either getting into it like my band does in RB2 or wincing in pain at the bobblehead that RB3 makes my singer.

On top of that, I'd like to have the blank background extend to all modes when you turn it on - even the menus. You know how the game loads faster when you try to go to Quickplay as fast as possible? That's because the game doesn't load characters during that blank screen.

Keep in mind, I want this to be an option. The background graphics are a reason Rock Band seemed more polished than Guitar Hero, which in turn looked better than Power Gig. Have you seen Power Gig's animations?

When I'm playing I almost completely ignore the background, but people(playing or watching) do comment on the background more often then I thought they would. I also watch the background a good bit while not playing, though I still watch the charts a bit more.

I had to go with I'd still play without the background. I get pretty focused on the chart when I play and actually find what's going on behind the chart mildly distracting at times (but to be fair, it's rarely the character animations but more the strobing light effects that'll bug me). Still, I think the game would be pretty empty without our characters, venues and the performances. I wouldn't mind it if we had an option to turn off the background, but honestly I'd only use it on occassion. I would actually find venue select to be of more value. More options in general are always good, I think. The exception to that rule being the "Delete This Song" option.

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Originally Posted by Pitch-Black

More options in general are always good, I think. The exception to that rule being the "Delete This Song" option.

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You've never downloaded a song and later come to hate it? I'd have paid $2 again just to never have to play "BYOB" ever again, but thankfully I can just remove it from my game.

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Originally Posted by Obi_Wan_Kenoli

The band aspect is at least 60% of the game for me...Having a band visually on screen, not sucking, is a pretty big component of that aspect. I mean I used to play text based adventures back in the day, but after playing stuff like Fallout or Oblivion I'm in no rush to go back to the stone ages of videogaming.

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This.

I need more than scrolling colored gems and quickplay to make a compelling gaming experience.

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Originally Posted by MisterFurious67

This.

I need more than scrolling colored gems and quickplay to make a compelling gaming experience.

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Agreed. Without the rock star fantasy aspect, I would have never played Rock Band. If it ever turned into Lips with plastic instruments, I'd be out.