Where I'm coming from blog.

[RockBandRocker]

Well said Sean, but I feel that your words are going to fall on (a majority of) deaf ears.

You guys created a monster with the original GH games, and you have also created a monster in Rock Band. Well, one of those monsters got kidnapped, got brainwashed and is now working for the other guys.

For the nerds out there: Rock Band is the auto-bots, while GH has become the decepticons. Titans!


Sean, I love how your post, indirectly, responded to all the "Rock Band will win" & "Rock Band pwned GH" type threads that have been created in the past week.

I think that a lot of us fans of Rock Band know that you guys have a passion for what you do. I think though that when we try to point that out to the other guys, we get labeled as "fanboys".

I think that, in time, your passion for the game will become clearer to more people, and someday we will all get along.

Rock On! \m/

[AeroZeppelinSevenfold]

I bought an electric and the cord that goes from the amp to the guitar stopped working recently, so I lost interest for the moment. lol.

However, people keep telling me to learn on an acoustic first. My birthday is in Sept. so I'm thinking I'll go out and get myself an acoustic. There are places around here that give lessons, so I'm thinking about signing up.

I REALLY do want to learn how to play. Every time I play Young Man Blues, Complete Control, or Gimme Three Steps, or even ThunderKiss '65 (going back to GH1) I want to learn to play even more.

yeah. thats pretty cool. you should learn on an acoustic first. it hurts to play because of the think strings, which then make the electric easier when you start on it.

trust me. you'll do so much better if you start with an acoustic.

I've been playing for 3 years now, and I can play a lot of Van Halen by ear, and some people say i'm better than them, but I don't think so.

and at RockBandRocker, how can we have peace in a world like ours?

[themadspin]

As I posted on the blog, I was a music exile for years before Rock Band.

After bailing on my jazz performance degree at UNT back in 1999, I had no idea what to do and pretty much stopped even listening to music for over a year.

Sure, I had the ubiquitous guitar stashed against my wall and my trombone is still tucked away with my flute in a closet upstairs, but I hadn't really challenged myself musically. They were all basically set dressings and relics.

Then came Rock Band drums and I became infatuated with the notion of learning to actually play drums. My girlfriend decided that if I'm still interested in drums in December I'll get an electric kit for Christmas.

I'd never have bothered trying drums if not for Rock Band, so for all the complaints that it's better to pick up a real instrument, I'd never have wanted to without the game. Even the cheapest electric kits wouldn't have drawn me in the way Rock Band did and would have cost more to begin with.

[Cassiuss]

I started playing during GH2, the setlist was pretty amazing and I was completely hooked, couldn't stop playing freebird over and over. I invited some friends over for a party, unrelated to a game party however the Ps2 got turned on and the party just sort of revolved around guitar Hero. Other friends came over and they played it, they got hooked and while I was playing on hard those newbs were playing on easy and I was destroying them.

That's no longer the case, those people now own rockband and whoop my butt.

I bought GH3 for the wii and played that until RB came out in which I purchased a PS3 with it, Ive never looked back. I have never in the 29 years(I'm 34)of my gaming life have I loved and appreciated a game so much. I even bought new zildjian 5B dipped Drum sticks. (Pretty awesome grips.)

I might even invest in an actual kit in the future!

My family and I do Rockband nights and its supposed to be a once a week thing but it usually does get played daily or a few times a week. I play in a "rockband" band now with some friends once a week and it keeps me feeling young and brings me back to when I used to hang in a friends garage rocking out to Metallicas Garage days in my teens.

Thanks to all of you at HMX, awesome job!

p.s. The whole timed exclusivity with microsoft kinda burns my a$$ but meh I can't wait for Christmas now!!!

[Apples]

Nothing in this blog I didn't already know.

You guys are awesome. You put all your passion and energy into being awesome.

Yes, there are convenient financial benefits, but that's just a side effect of the ultimate goal.... doing good, changing people's lives, and committing to what you're passionate about.




The fan appreciate project will bear that out next week. Some of the stories will really get to you. I know, because I read them all.

Stories like:

"I didn't get into drugs because I got into music instead"

"I found commonality with an estranged family member/sibling"

"I found a new passion in life with a real musical instrument"

"We discovered a new family bonding experience"

"I stopped driving home drunk because I stayed in playing Rock Band" (scary, but true quote)

"It saved/improved my relationship with my girlfriend/boyfriend/spouse"



Anyone who says its totally about the money is missing the point. You can be a financial juggernaut without being a cold, heartless bastard of a faceless corporation. You can be successful and achieve higher goals than money.

[AeroZeppelinSevenfold]

Nothing in this blog I didn't already know.

You guys are awesome. You put all your passion and energy into being awesome.

Yes, there are convenient financial benefits, but that's just a side effect of the ultimate goal.... doing good, changing people's lives, and committing to what you're passionate about.




The fan appreciate project will bear that out next week. Some of the stories will really get to you. I know, because I read them all.

Stories like:

"I didn't get into drugs because I got into music instead"

"I found commonality with an estranged family member/sibling"

"I found a new passion in life with a real musical instrument"

"We discovered a new family bonding experience"

"I stopped driving home drunk because I stayed in playing Rock Band" (scary, but true quote)

"It saved/improved my relationship with my girlfriend/boyfriend/spouse"



Anyone who says its totally about the money is missing the point. You can be a financial juggernaut without being a cold, heartless bastard of a faceless corporation. You can be successful and achieve higher goals than money.

nice post Apples. I think HMX may be crying out a few tears when they read all of the things you put on the giant awesome cake!

Thanks for everything you guys! I've never been so into a game, and I looked at other forums for other games, and there devs barely talk at all.

you guys talk, get to know us, figure out what we want, and then try your best to put them in the game.

just a few things you guys have done that we requested, and is absoulutly amazing.

1. You are making our DLC and (most) of our disc songs compatible with the next game, which also proves that rock band is a platform.

2. Before Rock Band 1 came out, you asked us how much DLC should be, we said we wanted it low, like 1-2 dollars, and you did your best to make it cost $2.

3. YOU GOT AC/DC!!!!!

also, Bass Tour, online tour, ability to switch instruments, etc.

you listen to your community so well, and I thank you for that.

I'm gonna shut up now.

edit: I really like the stories people are making in this thread. they are very interesting.

NOW i'm gonna shut up.

[cromartie90000]

yeah. thats pretty cool. you should learn on an acoustic first. it hurts to play because of the think strings, which then make the electric easier when you start on it.

trust me. you'll do so much better if you start with an acoustic.

I've been playing for 3 years now, and I can play a lot of Van Halen by ear, and some people say i'm better than them, but I don't think so.

and at RockBandRocker, how can we have peace in a world like ours?

I used to have an acoustic, and I had a lot of fun with it. Until I broke it. It was VERY rough on the fingers, but that's a small sacrifice if you really want to ROCK.

Through Rock Band I've met 3 other AWESOME people (though truthfully i met the first one playing GH3, then we defected to Rock Band when it was released and later we met the other two.) And we all play regularly, daily. We're great friends now and we help each other out. Our drummer's kit broke, so I had mine shipped to him, our singer's mic gave out so I shipped mine to her! lol. I know if my guitar controller ever breaks they'll have my back.

My RB disc stopped working (every single time I tried to play it, it gave me the "unable to read disc error.") I went to buy one only to receive a text shortly after saying "hey we put our money together and are buying you a new disc!" I'm like "WOW THAT'S AWESOME! But I already got one lol."

We are SO excited about the online world tour feature.

[Rod_Stixx]

Part of what makes the game great is the passion the gang at HMX has for music. It's what makes the game so enjoyable for us. If you guys were just banging out a game, it would be a very different game.

I play guitar and piano and never really got into the first two GH games. I just figured I could play on my acoustic instead. When Rock Band was coming out, something just told me that this was going to be an awful lot of fun - not just for me, but for my gf, daughter and for groups of people. Sure enough, it's just as great as advertised. Nobody's gathering around to sing next to me banging out something on the acoustic or cranking a tune out on my amp. Plug in Rock Band though, and there's always people who want to play along. It's just fun! As I'm the only one who can drum much, I play them fairly often and might just add a kit to my collection of real instruments at some point.

Hell, Rock Band was what finally made me take the 360 plunge. We hadn't touched our old Xbox in a while, so we just kept pushing off the next console.

Great little story from a recent family gathering on vacation...
10 of us descended to a condo on the beach for a family gathering from all different points on the compass. My gf, daughter and I were the only gamers. None of the others knew much about RB or GH aside from news snippets. When we broke out Rock Band and started playing, everybody was totally transfixed by the game. They just thought it was a hell of a lot of fun. Three generations playing the game together. My Dad is a huge Stones fan, and loved jamming to Gimme Shelter. When he showed some pics of the gathering to some people back home, they instantly recognized Rock Band and got into a big conversation about it. So basically, my Dad is loving the instant cred he's getting from other people for having played Rock Band. I know they're all excited about us bringing the game and console down to them for the next visit.

[AeroZeppelinSevenfold]

I used to have an acoustic, and I had a lot of fun with it. Until I broke it. It was VERY rough on the fingers, but that's a small sacrifice if you really want to ROCK.

Through Rock Band I've met 3 other AWESOME people (though truthfully i met the first one playing GH3, then we defected to Rock Band when it was released and later we met the other two.) And we all play regularly, daily. We're great friends now and we help each other out. Our drummer's kit broke, so I had mine shipped to him, our singer's mic gave out so I shipped mine to her! lol. I know if my guitar controller ever breaks they'll have my back.

My RB disc stopped working (every single time I tried to play it, it gave me the "unable to read disc error.") I went to buy one only to receive a text shortly after saying "hey we put our money together and are buying you a new disc!" I'm like "WOW THAT'S AWESOME! But I already got one lol."

We are SO excited about the online world tour feature.

wow your buddies have your back. my disc keeps getting unreadable too, but I figure I'll just wiat until Rock Band 2 instead of getting a new disc. its just annoying to have to open up the tray everytime your disc doesn't want to work.

and to rod_stixx, sounds like a good story man. Rock Band is a great way to bring the family together. also, you should really invest in the drums. they are a hell of a lot of fun.

and if you ever feel like jamming out to the songs on Rock Band with your real guitar, put the game in practice mode, and then just wail away on your real guitar. it feels much better than jamming along to the CD/tape/record/other music playing device.

the guitar in the song would be gone, so you aren't overlapped.its very fun, and helps with practice.

keep on Rocking both of you.

Good job HMX!

[RockBandRocker]

and at RockBandRocker, how can we have peace in a world like ours?

Depending on your religion:

1) Jesus comes back and destroys Antichrist with the power of God.
2) Shiva destroys the world.
3) Peace is attainable now, through your state of mind.



I know the competition is supposed to be "good", but in times like these, competition is the worst thing out there.

My original post was really more of a thank you to Sean for addressing all of the similar threads in the past week. I know my post count went up from posting in support of Harmonix.

I have tried to stay neutral, but in the end, Rock Band is the better game for me. The first GH games were fun. Like many, I thought the 3rd would be a fun game. However, that wasn't the case. FOR ME it was a terrible experience and a waste.

I enjoyed Rock Band a lot more. It didn't feel like "a game" like GH3 did.

So, I've been enjoying Rock Band for close to 8 months now. In that time, I decided lighten up on the Neversoft guys. After all, GH3 was their first try, maybe GH: Aerosmith would be better. I rented it, played it, and was let down. I had hoped for it to be better, but it really wasn't.

Harmonix knows how to make these "games" not feel like "games". The Neversoft guys make the "game" feel like a "game".

So for those of us who want to have a fun time, Rock Band is the way to go. Unfortunately, there are a group who just want to game, and for them GH has become the franchise for them.

Putting these two groups together almost always erupts in a fight (like 360 players vs. PS3 players vs. Wii players). It sucks though because instead of talking about consoles, we talk about franchises.

Who knows, maybe Neversoft, given time, can make a decent GH game. I , like many here, doubt it, but you never know.

I'm just thankful that Harmonix is invested in their community. I mean, I've never been able to talk and comment with game developers before. I like being able to make jokes about Sean, Johnlok, Hellion, etc. I'm also glad that they have a "Mod Squad" that is also vocal (Apples, and...uh...).

I'm glad that we can come to these forums and read these types of blogs. I think the Harmonix guys (and gals) are the only developers who actually post their thoughts and address fan questions, and for that I say thank you to you all.


(I apologize for writing the internet version of Thomas Payne's "Common Sense", but I felt that I had to say a lot)