Why do you play RB? Scoring or Band Simulation/Touring?

[mikeyts]

DATS IRREGAL BAWWWWWWWWWWWW.

Seriously though, bumping for the sake of bumping is illegal on these forums... I think its a stupid rule too.

You know, I've taken a look at the forum rules and I can't find any mention of that .

[mikeyts]

Everyone should be back from their holiday break by now; I'll bring this up one last time.

[Fane1024]

80+ songs for $60 (or $70 once you include the export fee) is always going to be a draw, at least for the people who play RB regularly. If you would buy even 1/3 of them as DLC, it's worth getting the disc, regardless of whatever new features are added.

Casual buyers may have declined, but I still think the core audience would buy RB4 even if it was just a tweaked RB3 with new songs. Whether that would make it profitable or not, I can't say, but it would probably be close enough that it would be worth doing in order to keep RB in the public eye, so long as the DLC is still generating enough revenue.

That said, I would be much more excited for RB4 if they announced the return of a deep (or deeper) Career mode.

Personally, I think the splash screen should offer a choice of two modes, which you can set to be automatic: Quickplay/Party Mode, which would work pretty much like RB3, and Career/Tour Mode, which would work like a non-cutesy version of LEGO RB, with aspects of the Tour from RB2 and some of the features of the RB3 tours.

[MisterFurious67]

80+ songs for $60 (or $70 once you include the export fee) is always going to be a draw, at least for the people who play RB regularly. If you would buy even 1/3 of them as DLC, it's worth getting the disc, regardless of whatever new features are added...I still think the core audience would buy RB4 even if it was just a tweaked RB3 with new songs.

Completely agree. And if they market it effectively, sales could expand way beyond the core audience.

That said, I would be much more excited for RB4 if they announced the return of a deep (or deeper) Career mode...which would work like a non-cutesy version of LEGO RB, with aspects of the Tour from RB2 and some of the features of the RB3 tours.

Add back in the customization features that so many are asking for and I would gladly pay $100 for this and be able to get many friends back into playing.

The Rockband franchise is far from complete or perfect with the current iteration, even if some people feel like they got everything they wanted in RB3. There's a lot more immersion, customization and flexibility that can and needs to be added to the game to keep the music rhythm genre moving forward.

Pro mode is in - now it's time to get the band and the game back together.

[mikeyts]

My contention is that, of current owners of any of the main-series RB games, only the core fans (like us) would buy an RB4 which primarily consisted on RB3 with a new setlist and that many of us (like me) would not buy it at full price. If it's only appeal for me was some new songs, I could wait for it to hit the bottom of the bargain bin. At some point, which may already have been reached, new revenues from new versions of RB will not be nearly enough to sustain the company. They now have Dance Central and are hopefully working on new properties.

[Klodrik]

Personally, I play to have fun. Other than that I'll try and reach the top ten of a leaderbord if I'm close.

[lotr rocks 0]

I play for fun, whatever that may be at that given moment in time... I also primarily play songs just because I enjoy them, not because I want to grind a number one or complete a tour. I play the songs because it is fun to do so, and is a great way to interact with the music.

[MisterFurious67]

My contention is that, of current owners of any of the main-series RB games, only the core fans (like us) would buy an RB4 which primarily consisted on RB3 with a new setlist and that many of us (like me) would not buy it at full price.

The problem is that only core fans (for the most part) are buying RB3 now. It's already down to $30 at major retailers. That means that the current appeal (pro modes & instruments with a heavy solo focus) isn't cutting it. They need to expand the competitive, touring and simulation aspects, not eliminate them.

They now have Dance Central and are hopefully working on new properties.

You keep bringing this up, which sounds to me like you're fine if they just ditch RB at this point and move on to other things, rather than be pushed to improve it and reinvigorate the genre. That's fine if you believe that, but I would rather continue pushing for a better game.

[metalmanone]

From day 1, I have always played Rock Band for the simulation of fronting a real band with absolutely no musical skills except my voice. I play the game through a Yamaha PA system while turning the artists voice completely off and using my Peavey PA system for vocals. Got the Ions with all cymbals, pearl pedal and roland KD8. When we get together and play this game it is as close as I will ever get to being in a real/fake band.

[mikeyts]

The problem is that only core fans (for the most part) are buying RB3 now. It's already down to $30 at major retailers. That means that the current appeal (pro modes & instruments with a heavy solo focus) isn't cutting it. They need to expand the competitive, touring and simulation aspects, not eliminate them.

I haven't said that they should eliminate the band-sim/tour aspects of the game (as long as they don't do anything that would require me or anyone else to play any of the tour, ever again ). All I've said is that I think that a new game which only offers a new setlist and improved band-sim/tour features isn't going to sell well. There's no way to market it as being better than the previous game in ways that any new player could understand or care about, so only some of the people who bought RB3 are likely to buy it at full price.

With RB2 they didn't need much of a marketing message--the first game was new, fresh and exciting and people who loved it were hungry for more of the same. TBRB, LRB, GDRB, 2000+ pieces of DLC and several GH games with band features later, that's not true. (I know, I've stated that before in other threads). The marketing message for RB3 was "Rock Band, Now With Real Instruments!" They apparently decided to address a perception that it wasn't as good a casual party game as GH by adding drop-in/drop-out (which GH had) and instead of the old tour, giving people bite-size junkets which could be completed in an hour or two, to entertain visiting friends who may never have played the game before and may never play it again.

So, what's the marketing story for the improved-band-sim/tour-features-plus-new-setlist RB4 that you envision? When someone holds up RB3 in one hand and the newly released RB4 in the other and asks a store clerk why he or she shouldn't buy the old, $18 RB3 instead of paying $60 for RB4, what can be said which will make that customer want the version that costs more? If I hadn't been interested in RB3's pro instruments and hadn't been locked out of new DLC by the file format change, I'd probably still be waiting for RB3 to hit a rock bottom price. I won't be paying full price for a new RB game that doesn't give me something that I want other than just a new setlist, and I could not give a lesser damn about band-sim/tour stuff.

You keep bringing this up, which sounds to me like you're fine if they just ditch RB at this point and move on to other things, rather than be pushed to improve it and reinvigorate the genre. That's fine if you believe that, but I would rather continue pushing for a better game.

I keep bringing that up because I want Harmonix to survive and keep supplying me with RB DLC and I don't think that revenues from your vision of RB4 can be a huge factor in that survival. You can only milk a single franchise for so long, particularly a franchise that you can't give a fresh campaign story to because its campaign doesn't have an actual story (a feature of the single-band RB games is that they do have a story, though one which only fans of that ban will care much about). If HMX wants to thrive and grow, I think that they need to concentrate on creating new properties. If their market analysis indicates that they can sell enough of a new-setlist-with-improved-band-sim/tour RB4 to make a good profit they should go for it (which I'm sure that they will ).

I strongly doubt that there's any way to reinvigorate this genre, in the sense of getting people who've burned out on it interested again and/or getting a lot of new customers interested. I only started playing a year ago and wouldn't have had my housemate not whined until I'd play TBRB with him. Until I tried RB and GH, they always seemed stupid. When I tell other gamers that I meet that I enjoy RB I can see their eyes glaze over--"been there, done that, brought home the tee-shirt and wore it out" (which is OK, since I kinda feel the same way about the ever popular multi-player shooter genre ). I don't know what HMX or anyone else can do to change that.