Harmonix, don't give up on us!

[TerryM]

It's been a while since I've played, or posted, or read the forum. And that's part of why I'm writing. I have something to say, and I hope someone from Harmonix reads it.

I visited the forum yesterday, and I found a few reasons to be encouraged. For one thing, the forum still exists. I didn't read a whole lot of posts, so my take may be incomplete and inaccurate, but my impression is that although nothing is on the horizon (maybe nothing at all, or maybe just nothing that can be pubicly disclosed), Harmonix is still interested in future TB:RB DLC. Maybe it will happen, maybe it won't. I hope it does.

The reason I am writing is because I read something from one of the Harmonix guys that said the best thing we could do to encourage a future for TB:RB would be to continue posting messages, playing the game, etc.

I can only speak for myself, but I would think that I am not alone in what I am about to say.

It would be a mistake to judge my interest in TB:RB based on how often I visit the forum, or post messages, or even play the game. I LOVE the game, as much as I did when it was released. I can't tell you how much I appreciate that it was released. If there is to be no more DLC, I will be sorry that there wasn't more, but happy for what there is. I will also always appreciate the obvious care and attention to detail that went into the game. All aspects, from the images, to the sound, to the features (like the harmonies). It is a wonderful achievement that lives up to the legacy of The Beatles. Well done!

However, I personally am not interested in taking part in continuing polls about my favorite songs, or favorite Beatle, or favorite dreamscape. If you wanted to know which DLC I would like to see released next, I would tell you. In fact, I did that in the past, more than once. To continue to do so would be just repeating myself, and since nothing is on the horizon, it just seems like wasting my breath. I must also say that it has been some time since I have played the game. If Harmonix was to look at my activity, they might think that I have given up on the game. That would be a mistake.

So, what would I like Harmonix to consider?

I have purchased ALL available DLC,

and,

I have said that I will purchase any future Beatles DLC, and I will do it immediately upon release.

What do I think Harmonix should disregard?

How often I visit the forum, or post messages, or play the game.

In fact, believe it or not, I purchased the Rubber Soul DLC the day it became available on my platform (PS3), but I STILL have not played it! Why? I'm saving it! It's not about a race to completion for me, it's about enjoyment. I still enjoy playing the disc based songs, AYNIL, and the Sgt. Pepper album. I have 'completed' bass, guitar, and vocals for all of that content, but I still go back and play it again, trying to increase my personal high scores. I haven't touched the Rubber Soul DLC.

What about Abbey Road? Yes, I have the Abbey Road DLC as well. I have played bass on all of those songs, but I haven't played guitar, and I haven't done the vocals yet, either. So, it's been over two years, and I still have 'new' Beatles Rock Band content to look forward to! If Harmonix is looking at how often I play, or my scores, they might thing that I have lost interest in the game. Not true! I'm just making the experience and enjoyment last.

Bottom line: I am still here. I STILL WANT MORE DLC! And I will buy it as soon as you release it. I want you to be immediately rewarded, I want you to get an immediate return on your investment. So I will buy it, and then I will play it in my own time, when I am ready for it.

You ask us to not give up hope. Fair enough. I am asking you to not assume that lack of activity on the forum or even lack of gameplay indicates that the demand is not still here for more DLC. Put it out, and I will buy it! And I won't be alone.

Thanks for listening.

[GNFfhqwhgads]

Reading absolutely nothing, I'm just gonna say the same thing we always do.


HARMONIX KNOWS PEOPLE WANT BEATLES DLC. THEY DON'T 'FORGET' ABOUT THE BEATLES. NO ONE HAS TO BE TOLD THE BEATLES ARE POPULAR. THE BEATLES ARE PAINFULLY SLOW TO WORK WITH. IT TOOK THREE YEARS TO GET WHAT THEY GOT.

[nascarfan19]

Yeah, pretty much what GNF said. I just wouldn't caps lock it all because you're a newbie.

[GNFfhqwhgads]

Caps lock is out of laziness to do italics.

[Bront20]

Reading absolutely nothing, I'm just gonna say the same thing we always do.


HARMONIX KNOWS PEOPLE WANT BEATLES DLC. THEY DON'T 'FORGET' ABOUT THE BEATLES. NO ONE HAS TO BE TOLD THE BEATLES ARE POPULAR. THE BEATLES ARE PAINFULLY SLOW TO WORK WITH. IT TOOK THREE YEARS TO GET WHAT THEY GOT.

Yeah, but have they ever heard of Led Zeppelin?

[hmxhenry]

Reading absolutely nothing, I'm just gonna say the same thing we always do.

HARMONIX KNOWS PEOPLE WANT BEATLES DLC. THEY DON'T 'FORGET' ABOUT THE BEATLES. NO ONE HAS TO BE TOLD THE BEATLES ARE POPULAR. THE BEATLES ARE PAINFULLY SLOW TO WORK WITH. IT TOOK THREE YEARS TO GET WHAT THEY GOT.

By not reading his post you missed the part where he made a completely reasonable argument, leaving your snarky reply completely unrelated to anything he asked about. Well done. If you're not going to read what people are posting, don't bother replying.

So, what would I like Harmonix to consider?

I have purchased ALL available DLC,

and,

I have said that I will purchase any future Beatles DLC, and I will do it immediately upon release.

What do I think Harmonix should disregard?

How often I visit the forum, or post messages, or play the game.

Thanks for listening.

Thanks for posting. It's refreshing to see a unique approach to discussing interest in TB:RB.

To give you a bit of context, and this is true of all video games (and most products in general), making the argument for why a 2 year old title should be supported is a difficult thing to do. 2 years in video games is a long time, and it's rare that you see titles patched, updated with DLC or promoted aggressively even several months after launch. With sequels becoming more and more plentiful, and closer and closer together, it seems that the industry standard is to jump ahead to the next release rather than to continue support for the old release.

We are extremely lucky to have such a supportive community that continues to enjoy the games we made well after release. That's why we maintain servers, leaderboards and forums for our older titles and we do continue to promote instrument and DLC compatibility whenever we're able to. But a great deal of determining continued support is a numbers game, and the most recent numbers at sometimes the most valuable.

It's awesome that you bought all the TB:RB DLC as it became available, and it's posters like you that helped make The Beatles the most downloaded band in the RB platform. But, as I'm sure you can imagine, DLC sales spike at release and gradually decline over time, and if we're looking at the current interest in TB:RB, it's much more telling to look at current sales, current activity, etc. There's a tricky difference between install base, the portion of the community that has TB:RB or has bought DLC and could buy more DLC, and active player base, which is the portion of the community that is still buying DLC and still playing regularly.

I don't know how much your DLC habits are reflective of the majority of people playing RB, though it is an extremely clever way to stretch out the content and continue to enjoy TB:RB over the years. I just don't think most people have that kind of patience! To put a weird sales analogy to it, you bought a bag of cookies 2 years ago and have been eating them one at a time, but the people making the cookies are likely going to base their marketing off the people that are coming into the store every week to get more cookies.

Not a perfect analogy but hopefully it conveys the importance of regular activity and persistent involvement. Any title updates, be it patches, DLC, or anything of the sort, costs money and takes time and one of the hard questions that we have to ask is "how many people will be interested in this?" not "how many people were interested 2 years ago?". So that's why I encouraged people to remain active, to show that there is a continued interest in TB:RB, the content and the community at large. I hope that clarifies things.

[Fabtrocks]

I would totally buy Beatles DLC, the game is old but, just minor advertising, Facebook, Twitter, and forums would get the word out that there is more DLC for TBRB.

[Blasteroids]

It's been a while since I've played, or posted, or read the forum.

Hi TerryM! I can relate to your post in that I do not visit this part of the forums often. My activity in no way reflects how I view the game and DLC. Having purchased the game and DLC numerous times on multiple platforms, I still find it hard to find anything more to discuss on this game other than the "When is there more DLC", "Whens the export?" & "Is there a TB:RB2?". To which we all know the answers

Not a perfect analogy but hopefully it conveys the importance of regular activity and persistent involvement. Any title updates, be it patches, DLC, or anything of the sort, costs money and takes time and one of the hard questions that we have to ask is "how many people will be interested in this?" not "how many people were interested 2 years ago?". So that's why I encouraged people to remain active, to show that there is a continued interest in TB:RB, the content and the community at large. I hope that clarifies things.

But how many games have an active community after 2 years without developer support? I have seen how a community can literally vanish overnight due to no developer support in another game. The problem is the community sees the game stagnate and looses interest.

The game that I saw disintegrate is now 15 years old and still has players! If it was not for the people who developed mods/bots and expanded on certain aspects of the game, then it would have died. However that same approach cannot be applied to this because it is a fixed engine on fixed hardware, so the community cannot expand it in anyway, shape or form!

Please do not take this the wrong way, yes you guys will post here and keep the leaderboards online, etc. When I mention support I mean active development that makes things change in-game. Something to keep the players coming back for more. With the main RB platform this is done with weekly DLC and the patches which have added features/fixed bugs. With this game there has been nothing after the initial DLC offering.

Since it has been left soo long, there is now only 2 outcomes I can see. The first being the export into the main RB platform. The second being a TB:RB2. The chances are probably more towards the first, which is still only just above doubtful.

BTW: Would still love a TB:RB avatar T-Shirt

[caflagel]

Not a perfect analogy but hopefully it conveys the importance of regular activity and persistent involvement. Any title updates, be it patches, DLC, or anything of the sort, costs money and takes time and one of the hard questions that we have to ask is "how many people will be interested in this?" not "how many people were interested 2 years ago?". So that's why I encouraged people to remain active, to show that there is a continued interest in TB:RB, the content and the community at large. I hope that clarifies things.

HA HA HA HA! I think the people of the forums have made it ABUNDANTLY clear that there is still interest in this game. I know I have made it clear MANY MANY times. So here is my question: How the HELL is this ( coming on to the forums and showing support, and keeping the forums active ) supposed to help this game at all? The fans of the Beatles: Rock Band have been keeping the forums active and have bought the DLC, and have been requesting songs and albums for TWO WHOLE YEARS NOW! And where has this got us? Nowhere. The game has not been updated since the last DLC release ( as far as I know ) for whatever damn reason. It seems like coming on to the forums to show support is a futile effort, because NOTHING EVER COMES OF IT!!!

It's especially funny how we're expected to support a game that the DEVELOPERS have not shown support for in two years! What the Hell! HERE'S ANOTHER QUESTION: By coming on to the forums and showing support, who are we trying to convince to update this game? It can't be Harmonix because according to you, Harmonix is still interested in Beatles DLC. Is it Apple we have to convince to give permission to produce more DLC? Does Apple know that the fans still want more Beatles DLC, does Apple even remember this game? Does Harmonix keep Apple reminded that they as well as the fans want more DLC? If it's Apple Corps who needs to be convinced than maybe they should consider the fact that The Beatles are the most downloaded band in Rock Band platform, I mean shouldn't THAT give Apple Corps some kind OF DAMN CLUE that the fans are ARE STILL INTERESTED? What the hell do we ( the fans ) HAVE TO DO?!!!!! Jesus! Our support is getting us nowhere. And we don't even know if Apple REMEMBERS THIS GAME OR EVEN CARES! Paul McCartney seems to care enough to put the DREAMSCAPES in his live performances, so I'll assume he is on board with Harmonix.

We buy the DLC, and we bought it until The Beatles became the most downloaded band, so naturally you'd expect The Beatles DLC to increase. But no, that doesn't happen. I mean why would it? They are only THE MOST DOWNLOADED BAND! I especially LOVE this little gem of a B.S. quote from John Drake "We're waiting to see how things sell. We're waiting to see how the albums do. If they sell well, we'll have a lot more content." really John? Did the albums sell well? Yes! Did you produce "a lot more content"? NO, HELL NO YOU DIDN'T! I also love how passive and uncaring John Drake seems in the first 40 seconds of this clip http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CIpNn...&feature=inbox Yeah John, you really sound like you give a damn. Only you don't sound like it at all. Maybe if there was more DLC in The Beatles: Rock Band you could sell more albums and make more money. I know I, as well as MANY MANY fans would buy the DLC in a HEARTBEAT. So who needs to be convinced to make more DLC? And what in GOD'S HOLY NAME do the fans have to do to help? It is clear that keeping the forums active and buying ALL THE DLC until The Beatles became the most downloaded band has done nothing, not a DAMN THING AT ALL to help this fantastic game. These question ANNOY the hell out of me, I would really like to know the answers to them.

[SirDavidTLynch]

So here is my question: How the HELL is this ( coming on to the forums and showing support, and keeping the forums active ) supposed to help this game at all?

It probably helps more than locking the forum and ignoring usage stats of how many people still play the game or whatever.