Where I'm coming from blog.

[AeroZeppelinSevenfold]

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)

wow. someone who knows about history!

but really, I agree with just about everything you said. (axclude the religion part, I would rather not talk about it here) GH feels like a video game, where you just add up score and what not, Rock Band makes me feel like I'm playing music. I'm a musician. I know what playing music feels like.

I just hate how the GH fanboys blindly hate Rock Band and love GH just because of the brand name. of course, rock Band has its fair share of people that do this, but GH has far more.

lets try not to derail a devs thread. Lets take this elsewhere.

[RockBandRocker]

but really, I agree with just about everything you said. (axclude the religion part, I would rather not talk about it here) GH feels like a video game, where you just add up score and what not, Rock Band makes me feel like I'm playing music. I'm a musician. I know what playing music feels like.

I just hate how the GH fanboys blindly hate Rock Band and love GH just because of the brand name. of course, rock Band has its fair share of people that do this, but GH has far more.

Well, you asked me about peace, so I had to address that. I don't want to get into theology either.

I felt like I had to give a longer response than my intitial one. I don't even dare venture to comment on the blog. It thought that since Sean left this open, this would be the better place to comment and have him read it.

I didn't mean to de-rail the thread. I just wanted to give Sean some credit for commenting on this issue. I was amazed at the sheer number of RB vs. GH threads that were allowed to flourish this week. I tried to take the attention away from these topics, making forums about RB1 songs being shown in RB2, etc., but the "war" threads trumped those.

Hopefully now that E3 is over and all the relevent news is out there, things can quiet down a bit and we can continue on with business as usual.

[Rokkstar]

Awesome entry I liked it

[akauDOUBLEu2349]

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/

Amen(don't mean to be religious, sorry), I always get called a fanboy by my friends because I tell them new stuff in Rock Band 2 when they scream to the hills that GH4 is going to be soo much better even though they haven't even seen stuff on it or Rock Band 2 except reading the GH4 article in GI and nothing on Rock Band 2. I tell them because I'm happy for the new features and songs and want to share the experience with them but they say I'm trying to say that Rock Band is better than Guitar Hero, when I'm not.

[jeccaneko]

To tell you the truth, I didn't know HMX existed until sometime after GH1 came out. I first played GH1 when Best Buy was demoing it. I saw a guy standing there jamming along to Iron Man on a plastic guitar and it looked fun. I tried when he ended the song and walked away. At that point in time, I'd never even touched a guitar, much less a controller shaped like a guitar. Needless to say, I sucked. But deep down I've always had this guitar playing interest. I just never felt like I could hack REAL guitar.

I bought GH1 and loved it. I ended up pre-ordering GH2 and loved that too. Then later on, HMX announces they're working on a game called Rock Band where you could play guitar, bass, drums, and sing. I was stoked...

...but then I realized that it wouldn't work well for me. I didn't have a 360 or PS3. I knew I'd want DLC and such.

I forgot about Rock Band for a while. In that time, I bought a real acoustic guitar. She's a real beauty and fun, albeit a challenge since I'm an adult and this is my first instrument, to play. I'm not a tab person. I learned to read sheet music too, which was part of the reason learning guitar was so hard.

Then in February I remembered Rock Band. I can't really remember how I did. But I was getting a decent sized tax return, so I bought an Xbox 360 and Rock Band Special Edition. I've spent more hours on this game since then than, well, any other game in a long time, if ever. I've been gaming for about 20 years now, so that's really saying something.

Unlike you, Sean, I don't particularly enjoy my job. In fact, the only thing that keeps me from throwing in the towel (other than the fact that I need to eat) is that I need to stick around a little longer to try to reach a major goal of mine. One that should be panning out by this time next year. I will not say what it is right now so I don't jinx it.

But the point I'm making here is Rock Band and my guitar and music feel like the only things that keep me from getting too depressed in the short term. I'm very much of a short term thinking person. I can make goals, but working towards those goals doesn't necessarily make me happy, especially if working to get there is hard and I don't like what I need to do. Rock Band and music give me sense of accomplishment, and the sheer happiness of playing music. And that means a lot.

So, since I didn't get to add to the community project (sorry Apples, if you like this - I couldn't think of anything good to say at the time and Sean's post suddenly inspired me), this is my way of saying thank you HMX.

[dman7529]

Thank you for sharing this Sean. It is really awesome to see someone passionate about what they do, and not just doing something for the money. You and the rest of Harmonix keep up the great work!

[DarkEternal37]

Great blog post. My story's really similar to everyone elses.

I heard about the game, read up on it and thought that it was a cool idea but probably not for me. Just didn't seem like the type of game I'd get into, you know?

Well, every Friday night is poker night for my friends and I. I headed over to my friend's house where we were playing that night and a couple people ended up running like a half-hour late. The three guys that were there before me were in his living room playing GH1. Now this was probably like 3 or 4 months after the game had released.

I walked in and I said that I had heard of the game but I'd never played it. They then mandated that I play, not that I was going to argue. Picked the first song I recognized (More than a Feeling. Of course I remember it :P). I played on easy and was TERRIBLE. I couldn't get through the song. They laughed but I didn't care cause I had fun; Way more than I thought I would.

Flash forward a couple months to the summer. Two of my college buddies were visiting me and we were kinda bored. I was trying to think of something to do and I thought of Guitar Hero. I asked if either of them had ever played and like me they had heard of it, but never tried it. We went right out to the mall and bought the bundle.

We passed the one guitar around for hours. Even after the weekend was over, I was so hooked I'd get home from work and play for hours. By the time I got back to school in the fall I could play everything on Hard and a few on Expert.

Well, one of my friends had bought the bundle as well and we were finally able to play against each other, and that was a whole new awesome experience for me. I played in between classes, after classes, pretty much any time I could. Never forsaking my work, but it was way too addicting, in a good way.

Of course I picked up GH2 right around when it came out and I had Rock Band pre-ordered pretty much from the moment I could. I was playing expert when I picked up GH2 (still took me like a year to beat Jordan though D. I even took third place in a GH2 competition which was one of the most fun things I've ever had the chance to do.

Basically, thanks for giving me something to do that while others may view as waste of time, I consider to be self-fulfilling. I love to compete and push myself to be better and you guys have given me something that I could never have imagined enjoying so much with my friends.

Also, you get us yelled at when we're playing loudly after quiet hours but we don't care . That's why we bought an apartment this year instead!

[BYC]

Heh, I never had an interest in playing Guitar Hero. I also avoided all the previous Konami music games like DDR, Beatmania, Guitar Freaks, etc.. The reason was simple, they looked silly. Playing with plastic instruments I can get, but it just looked bad. Fast forward to Rock Band. As soon as I heard about Rock Band, I was intrigued. The 'Highway Star' promo looked cool, and now I can rock out with friends in a fake band? Embarrassing oneself is okay. Embarrassing a group of friends is AWESOME. Guitar for the sake of it bores me, same with vocals (I can do it with karaoke ) and drums. But together, that's something fun. Games like this with new technology and the internet = win.

As with many things in the world, single player = okay. Multiplayer = awesome.

[frizzy_bj]

Great blog, Sean.

I made a little comment in response to it.

Thanks for sharing.

[pksage]

Wow, coincidence.

Music and gaming are the dual focuses of almost everything I do outside of school and work. And what's so bad about that? Music is, in my opinion, the best form of creative expression; as much as I enjoy reading, a good piece of music has a lot more "replayability" than a good book. Gaming, of course, is m-m-m-m-my generation's preferred form of entertainment, an immersive experience paralleled by no other, and it's only going to get more interesting with each passing year.

I've wanted to work in the music gaming industry since about 2001-2002 - when I was 13 years old. The instant that DWI and Stepmania gave DDR players the option to create their own songs, I was all over it. I developed a great passion for music gaming, one that hasn't died down in 6 years of hardcore Bemani and Harmonix playing. And the desire to work professionally with music games hasn't gone anywhere either.

It's been hard, as a college student, watching Harmonix hire these huge numbers of people. Music gaming is what I want to do, and to me, Harmonix is music gaming right now. But I can't abandon my half-complete technology degree, as I'm sure Harmonix (and every other company) would rather see me have the degree when coming in. My biggest fear? That when 2010 rolls around, Harmonix won't be hiring.

But as painful as it is to sit here and not be able to be part of the industry, music gaming is music gaming, and I know I'll be able to make an impression whether I'm able to work at Harmonix or not. While they're my first choice, their greatest work (as Sean said) isn't a specific game, but is nothing less than the establishment of the entire rhythm genre to the American market. My dream is to keep this genre new and exciting, innovating what we've already seen into fresh and exciting ideas for the generation after mine. I'd like to do this with Harmonix, but who knows? I'm sure the market will be thirsty for competition even in 2010.

Oh, man, this post is cheesy, isn't it.

Anyway, I'm attending the Game Developer's Conference in San Francisco this year. Passing out some resumes, shaking some hands, making some friends, and hopefully securing some internships. The first step of a few thousand - but hey, a first step nonetheless. Thanks, Sean, for your story; it gives me so much more confidence that I can keep going with mine.