HMXJohnD said...
HMXJohnD said...
Hi All:
Hope you're all doing well and shacking with antici....pation for Rock Band 2 to drop officially in just an hour and a half. I'm astounded and excited that all of the hard work we've done and all the feedback you guys have provided is finally being churned out on a real gods-honest videogame. ROCK!
Where have I been since our last update to Seattle? Well, the road streak continues...
After Seattle I flew through Boston to grab some clean clothes and bopped on up to New York to film "30 Minutes To Midnight" for SPIKE TV with everyone's favorite gaming personality, Geoff Keighley. The show (which airs tonight! WATCH IT!) was filled with a lot of fun personalities: 3 top forum bands (Centaurrr, Challenger, DIE!), acoustic Rock Band (Bread Pig), that guy who runs on a treadmill while singing, one man rock band...It was a super fun show to shoot (though we really tested wireless capabilities by running 3 setups in a tiny room filled with networked stuff...sigh, dev kits are not fans of wireless peripherals).
All in all, that shoot was boss and super rock band friendly. Go watch it on SPIKE TV tonight! (or hopefully on repeat/online in the future!)
THE CONCERT
After that, I headed out to Los Angeles for the MTV Video Music Awards along with HMXSean, HMXaleX, HMXHenry, our wonderful MTV Games crew of Peter, Pete and Marc, and the illustrious new community assistant, Kat (does she have a handle yet?)
Day one was pretty nuts. We threw a party for LifeBeat (HMX hates AIDS!) at the House of Blues in LA, featuring performances by Panic! at the Disco and Plain White T's. We had a huge Rock Band setup on the floor, and a crowd of 300-400 people lined up in front to watch the bands rock out.
In the context of that, Sean, Kat, Alex and I closed out the night before Panic's performance with a rousing two song set. The second song was "Are You Gonna Be My Girl?" by Jet. Throughout the whole night, I had been eyeing the railing directly in front of the stage. Since we were in a side area, we had a nice solid wall right in front of us that was just SCREAMING to be jumped up on.
So, as Sean wandered through the crowd (go wireless instruments! also, so many cries of "OMG Dave Grohl!) I decided I was going to climb up there to encourage people to clap along to the intro. I did, and it ruled, and people clapped. Fantastic right? Except, apparently I misjudged how high up it was and how flexible the material in my jeans were...and split my pants.
While you continue to laugh at my misfortune, I'll explain that I didn't split them down the back or anything (revealing my AC/DC boxers)...just on the inside of the leg, so it wasn't a huge HOLY CRAP! moment...but still embarassing. Ever undeterred, I leaped off into the crowd, finished the song and had an awesome time. Panic! held it down and played a great set (I wasn't sure how much I'd enjoy them live, but they were really really solid.) Then we went back and crashed.
THE AWARDS SHOW
Day #2 was super VMA day: Sean, Kat and I headed to the Red Carpet, while Alex/Henry headed to a backstage talent playspace. After some time in the 95 degree heat, we were all a little confused/disoriented...so when the curtains at the back of the stage ACTUALLY CAUGHT ON FIRE, it took us a second to figure it out. Just another example of us almost killing ourselves due to rock band.
We played with a bunch of people on the carpet (Locksley, who has new DLC out from two weeks back, Perez Hilton, some people I didn't recognize...) but most importantly, we got to hang out with our favorite vocoding genius, T-Pain. He arrived in a sort of thriller-esque/marching band jacket and top hat made of red pleather and zippers. He proceeded to kick his friend's butt at guitar and then scream "THAT'S RIGHT! I'M T-PAIN! WHO'S THE BOSS!?! LET'S PLAY AGAIN!". Boss.
I headed over with Marc from MTV to jam on the on stage setup. While we were back there in the holding area, we got to meet Olympian Michael Phelps (he likes rhythm games!), Ciara, Danity Kane, Lindsay Lohan and a bunch of other people who we'll never have on Rock Band, but all of whom were attractive and very nice. Then we played with Miley Cyrus (Hannah Montana) and Tokio Hotel in an on-air promo for RB2 during the VMAs. It was SUPER high pressure (had to make sure we were at the right part of the song, that people didn't fail out, that controllers stayed connected...and we had about 25 seconds of exposure...AHHHHH live TV).
Say what you will about Miley's music (I personally think it's actually pretty good if you listen to it, for all of the packaged stuff that comes along with it, they aren't bad songs and they aren't badly performed). She is, hands down, one of the nicest and easiest to work with people I've encountered in all this Rock Band insanity. She always seems legitimately interested in the game and has a great time while playing it, and is sweet and thanks people etc. How nice not to have a huge ego when your music basically PRINTS money. Essentially, she's a rad chick and I'm glad she hung out with us. Tokio Hotel are also nice, but they're clearly happier speaking German, so I tried to leave them alone. I can't imagine maintaining that hair in 95 degree heat.
After that segment wrapped, I hung around to watch a performance or two backstage, managed to pull Pete Wentz out of the way of a moving set piece, and then packed up. We all went to the afterparty to have a celebratory drink and, of course, play EVEN MORE ROCK BAND. The Ting Tings played and they were EFFING fantastic. I hope we get them into the game!
After we wrapped, we took over the front lobby of the Sheraton Universal to distribute and box gear...a few drinks and a lot of confusion later, we were finally boxed up and ready to head out...I slept for a few minutes and then headed out tooooooo.....
LAS VEGAS
So we headed to Vegas for the GameStop Manager's Conference, where The Hellion, HMXSean and Alex Rigopulous (BIG CHEESE) played on stage in front of a few thousand people. Alex went onto make a bunch of crazy announcements about the Wii feature set, what we're looking to do this fall and how great GS is. Then we invited a group of managers up to beat the developers.
MAN DID THEY DESTROY US! IT WAS LIKE 500,000 to 300,000. WHAT AN EMBARRASSMENT. It's like the Battle of the Bands meter was just laughing the entire time...ugh!
But good for them! ION drum kits for everyone! Blast you GS Managers and your sick skills!
From there, I flew back to LA, where I'm currently on set hanging out with some really good gamers and some really fun rockers. I'll have some updates about that when we get closer to the show airing, but it's certainly going to be a fun set of things to watch.
Anyway, hope the epic update was entertaining. Can't wait to play with you guys on RB2 when I get back to the office on Thursday!
ROCK,
HMXJD
HMXJohnD said...
Hi All:
Not a huge update here. We've been wailing at PAX (penny arcade expo) pretty much round the clock since Thursday. Some pretty amazing stuff ("Sex Generals" Penny Arcade guys playing on stage, a band of storm troopers at our booth, a great panel featuring HMXers, this weeks DLC announcement and much more), but mostly just a LOT of Rock Band 2 playing. Like...A LOT.
Got to meet a bunch of you, which was amazing. We all took turns filling in for less than 4 person bands, leading to the following conclusion:
The right sized Mic Clip is important.
I enjoy rocking out while singing. I make a pretty significant ass of myself. This often involves waving the mic stand around etc etc. We have a straight stand out here in Seattle (which is my favorite kind when I'm not playing an instrument.) But, the rock band mic isn't a standard sized microphone. I find it's comparable to the larger barrelled Shure wireless mic, which has a less tapered body and a thicker overall composition than say, your industry standard SM58.
What does this mean? It means you can cram a Rock Band mic into a standard mic clip, but, like a dog in a sweater, it isn't going to be happy.
http://kotaku.com/5043971/tristan-rocks-pax-08
That link goes to a video of my performance with the most adorable rocker we had, Tristan Crecente, and his dad, Kotaku Editor Brian Crecente, at our PAX booth on "Hungry Like the Wolf". Why do I bring this up? Because, about 30 seconds in or so, you can see the microphone explode out of its clip and hit me in the face. Johnlok said that I "dropped it" etc, but I claim MIC CLIP EXPLOSION.
Just for the record. Thanks again to all the awesome guys at penny arcade for putting on the best event of 2008 (other than our who concert) and for all the forum goers who came to hang with us. I think Johnlok and henry and HMXaleX have some pretty great stories/photos that they'll be sharing soon. Until then, ROCK ON!
Yours,
HMXJD
HMXJohnD said...
Hey Guys:
Live from Leipzig, en route to Munich, here’s my second and final missive from Germany, as I’m moments from boarding a flight back to JFK. Upcoming week in NYC should be great, including an awesome DLC night at Angels and Kings on Wednesday Evening (which is just a few blocks away from where I stay with friends when I’m in town…I’m quite the imposer).
The rest of the conference was cool, though it got extremely nutty yesterday with the addition of thousands of fans from Europe flooding the LGC show floor. While I love shows like this (fans first, etc), I have to say I prefer the vibe of PAX, which is one of curated mayhem rather than…well, just plain mayhem. Also, basically everyone at PAX speaks English, which is mad helpful when you’re trying to say “I’m carrying a huge case full of video game equipment…can you get the eff out of my way” to a crowd of cosplayers whose outfits are dragging into the walkway. ANYWAY, a few anecdotes from the rest of the conference since I last wrote:
#1 – "Official Parties"
The “official Games Convention Party” was on Friday night (I think it was Friday…days of the week get confusing). It was at some sort of epic manor just outside of town, which was lit up with insanely intense green floodlights (green being the color of LGC) and packed full of people. When I arrived with Brent D (our fantasgreat EA rep), The Hellion, HMXaleX and our EA Euro Rep “Sharp-Sharp”, we trucked inside only to find huge lines for beer, poorly ventilated space (the mugginess of the human condition never ceases to amaze me), and, as always, a lot of people from Europe who know each other and have never seen us before.
The idea of an “official industry party” for a games convention is new to me, having never being to Leipzig before. E3 and GDC have lots of evening events, and some of them (Microsoft parties, most often) end up being a sort of industry wide thing, but at those shows, we tend to stay with our peoples rather than wander about en masse. Leipzig showed why to a large extent. I’d like to think that video games are crossing over into the world of mainstream cool, but there are still plenty of questionable cultural choices to be made….one in particular that stood out was the band that played the event.
I know that Germany hasn’t always had the most uniformly excellent taste in music (I’m looking at you Hassellhoff), but it’s seemed like the times I’ve gone there recently, people are cultured and knowledgeable about the world of tunes. This band was not reflective of that. They were, from what I could tell, a 6 piece Rockabilly-eqsue cover band of 50s and 60s American hits. This sounds like it could be AWESOME…I assure you, it was really effing weird. The whole time, me and HMXaleX commented that we felt like an alien race was appropriating our culture and delivering a surprisingly accurate facsimile, but it felt dead inside. Then the damn drummer/lead singer (PHIL COLLINS STYLE!), proceeded to play a declaratively mediocre 7 minute drum solo. He left the kit behind to sing “Hit The Road Jack” (an amazing tune), but before he did, he put on black Ray Bans and began swaying back and forth as if he was blind. I almost punched him. Did I mention that they were all wearing these weird jumpsuit things and had pompadours? I guess I didn’t. It was bizarre.
We split pretty early. Again, as I mentioned in my first blog, all the drinks were lukewarm (including the beer, which always sets The Hellion on edge…), so we retired to our hotel to rest up for more rocking.
#2 – “The Mayor of Leipzig” and other sights and sounds of Leipzig
This is a quick and random story. So while HMXaleX, The Hellion, Brent D and I were waiting for our morning train to the Convention Center, we heard distant sirens. Looking down the street, we saw quite a lengthy police escort slowly processing down one of the major thoroughfares of Leipzig. We looked to see who might be coming that would deserve a police escort (Peter Moore and tennis champions perhaps??), only to be greeted by one of the most confusing tableaus of all time. In the 4th car out of 6, full police sirens blaring, sat a man in a full sized crow costume. That is to say, there was a giant anthropomorphic bird in the back of this convertible police car, sitting up on the edge like it was the damn pope-mobile. I turned to HMXaleX, whose jaw was dragging on the ground, and calmly remarked “oh look, it’s the mayor of Leipzig.”
Two quick follow-ups: A) We later saw a fan at LGC dressed up in a full wolf costume and taking photos with other fans. HMXaleX decided this was the comptroller of Leipzig. B) There was also a huuuuuuge “Sackboy” statue in the center of the square opposite our hotel. (For those who only rock in gaming, Sackboy is the main character model for the upcoming “LittleBigPlanet” on PS3, a hotly anticipated title). It was a sad-faced Sackboy…who was crying. And occasionally HUMONGOUS JETS OF WATER would SHOOT OUT OF HIS FACE AT BYSTANDERS. You know, to emphasize that he was REALLY EFFING SAD. Hey Sony, I get the whole “emotions in gaming” thing that you’re going for, but moisturizing the populace with oversized character tears is not what I was expecting…
Finally, we saw something a little depressing on the way back to our hotel after day 3 of work, which I guess got coverage on Kotaku. As we were trying to make our way back to the Radisson SAS, we got stuck behind a bus that was causing quite a stir. Atop this bus was a cavalcade of scantily clad women, shaking what god gave them at other cars and passers by, promoting their nightclub where they remove even more garments. This seemed to be a significant annoyance to the locals, including the old women (whose faces screamed “I am not your target audience, put those away!) and motorists (whose faces screamed “I am from Europe and see boobs all the time on late night TV, please move your bus so that I can drive to my destination”). Apparently the bus made its way to the convention center as a final promotional stop, much to the confusion of the gamers, who were far more interested in the latest C&C information than any T&A information.
I’ll have a few more musings from my endless discussions/interactions with our cloistered English speaking crew that I’ll write up during my flight. In the meantime, happy rocking and I’ll see you all states-side!
ROCK,
JD
HMXJohnD said...
Hi All-
Coming to you live from Leipzig Germany for this year’s Leipzig Games Convention, where we have a rocking booth of RB1 stuff and a press demo room for RB2. I’m here with The Hellion and HMXaleX showing the game to press and chilling out, German style. Though I’ve been to Europe before (including last spring’s RB1 press tour), some things keep sticking out. Some observations:
- There’s an overwhelming lack of “cold” things here, most of which are comforts that I enjoy a great deal. The two that stand out are air conditioning and ice. LGC is in the convention center, which is effectively a giant greenhouse of glass, sunlight and anti-gamer elements ?. We have a portable AC unit in our demo suite, which rules, but it gets hot everywhere and can be stifling (especially on a packed train to work. Ugh). More importantly to me, they don’t serve ice in the drinks here. Without sounding like an American Andy Rooney about it, I love ice in my beverages. It keeps it, well, cold, as well as providing me with something to play with by swirling it around. Also, ice in soda just makes it more palatable. A still glass of EU’s sweetened soda can be kind of weird.
- The ladies here are pretty much uniformly attractive. That’s probably 50% because of the “booth babe” aspect to Leipzig (which is like the old E3 in that way). That’s cool. They’re also wicked smart and speak multiple languages and stuff, in my experience (just in case it sounded too gender normative).
- People overall at this convention have sweatier handshakes than any collective group I’ve ever met. It’s really hectic. Like, I’m not hating on damp palms, stuff happens, but it’s so uniform I wonder if we should have gymnastics chalk outside our booth. Intense. How can you rock with such slippery palms??
Regardless, we’re having quite the German excursion, schnitzel and all. The RB2 hardware is SO much fun to play on. I cannot wait until you guys get your hands on this both US and abroad. While RB1 rules, it makes a huge difference.
I have more updates and fun stories to recount (including a new game we’ve invented called “spoonman” and a dissection of the Spanish political subtext of “Give it Away”) but wanted to shoot this missive out now. Hell, who knows, I might post again before most of you are awake! ?
Love in Rock,
JD
PS. For those of you that have been asking about more full albums, we’ll actually be announcing 6 MORE albums (in addition to Moving Pictures) before the end of the month. Want to be clear though that it will be closer to the end of the month (ie not today, as all of Harmonix is on a yearly summer party day off…except for our crew out here in Europe. We’re grinding away!) That G4 tease caused a little bit of confusion…but rest assured you’ll be hearing about more full albums WICKED SOON, just not this week…cool?
Hey everyone:
Finished writing my epic blog update, and realized maybe you guys would want to ask a few followup questions with regards to Rock Band 2. So I figured I'd make a blog post here.
We're in the middle of writing the FAQ for RB2 (site is relaunching soon!) and I want to make sure we try to get answers to as many reasonable questions as possible. Note, I do not mean "WHY DIDN'T THIS SONG TRANSFER WTF HMX YOU SUCK!" or "what's the cheat code??". Legitimate questions we haven't answered yet. A few that came to my mind, that I'm trying to get answers cleared for are:
- What's up with the 20 Free DLC and when will they be posted?
- When are we going to see RB2 for other consoles/continents/regions?
- Why is HMXSean's Beard SO POWERFUL?
- Is Dan Teasdale really Australian? Or is he just a master of disguise?
What else is out there that you guys legitimately need clarified (ie that you couldn't figure out just by trying/messing around with RB2?)
I make no promises that we'll be allowed to or able to answer everything you might ask, but I figured it would help us compile a list of outstanding issues/points of confusion and do our best to resolve them...
So, whaddya want to know? post below!
Sunday, September 14, 2008