Acidic_Frog said...
Acidic_Frog said...
They say losing a pet is worse than losing a loved one...
Meet Kitty(...yeah....I didnt name her 
):
Well....I didnt "lose" her, per se, but I moved out on my own, and my gf HATES cats 
, so I had to leave her behind.
Visit her?
Nope...she was taken to a shelter, along with another cat we had).
She never really got along with ANYone, so Im guessing that no one is going to adopt her, and consequently, she will be put to rest.
Life goes on I guess.
/sadness
Man...now I feel so un-manly.
*ahem*
Im gonna go wrestle a bear and alligator with my bare hands, whilst I cook a steak on an open fire, and bench-press a car.
Yup...that should do it. 
Acidic_Frog said...
So the new game is obviously Rock.
So no MORE EVES!!!!!!!!! im guessing
however....
it has now surpassed request status...and more like a catch phrase(only in my mind though), so it shall live!!!!!!!!
Things I will discuss:
Before I begin, I would like to state that these are my theories and ideas, hope you'll find it interesting, and if you leave a comment, please state what youre replying to. Now:
1. Harmonix's before-timeness
Sorry, but thats the only way I could think of putting it. Basically, I think that Harmonix has been before its time in a lot of its projects. Thats not to say that it has not helped them. In fact, these experiences, and what some might dub as failures, are integral. I dont need to remind you of the huge success Guitar Hero was, plus the imminent success Rock Band will be. However, I MUST remind, and in some instances, inform some of you of Frequency.
[Link="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frequency_%28game%29"]Frequency Wikipedia Page[/Link]
"Its Guitar Hero, except with ALL the instruments of the song and no special controller" - Me trying to explain what Frequency is to someone who only knew of Guitar Hero.
Tell me thats not an accurate, if not an adequate(read:shameless)use of GH's popularity, way to describe the game.
The game, and its sequel, Amplitude, didnt sell well. Why?
Well, for one, music based games did not have the presence here in the US that it did in Japan at the time.
Because of this, the game had to be "explained", which is not good thing to attract new people.
Also, even though Amplitude had more popular artists, they failed to capture peoples attentions on the tracklist alone.
Money is one reason they couldnt get more mainstream artists. Thus, the games cost more to make(attaining licenses and such), than they sold.
So then, after a couple of titles later, here comes Guitar Hero.
Explaining the game- Dude, its a guitar that you use to play guitar in the game.
Even children understand said concept.
Money- Lets use covers. This way licensing costs less.
2. Possible Drum Controller solution
I, like you, am excited to hear their will be a drum controller.
What the design for it is, I dont know. Heres a thought though...
This requires a bit of background. Antigrav.
Antigrav is a game Harmonix developed that uses your arm and head positions, via the Eyetoy, to move the character onscreen.
The game was to use neon colored gloves to track your movements. However, the games code was tweaked to do away with them.
As I read Engadgets reporting on the [link="http://www.engadget.com/2007/04/26/sony-announces-playstation-eye-webcam-for-ps3/"]PS3 Eyetoy[/link] this week, I had a thought.
Say that the drum controller consists of(and pardon me if I get the names wrong) the snare and tom drums as a small, velocity pad sort of affair.
Imagine, though, that the bass drum and cymbals are controlled via eyetoy.
Maybe markers would be used to determine "where" to hit.
Then, the eyetoy is configured to keep watch on your feet, and your arms.
Tapping your foot would be the equivalent of using the bass drum, whilst hitting a bit away from the velocity pad would indicate cymbals.
Of course, this isnt that probable, since it would require everyone to get an Eyetoy, plus there will be the people clamoring for a more tangible thing than "hitting air".
(To them I would say, hey, look to your fellow band mates, who are rocking out on things such as plastic molds with buttons in them).
3. Harmonix's before-timeness Part II
So Antigrav brings to mind someone similar which came out later, but was way more successful: The Wii.
Im not saying that Antigrav is responsible for the Will, or that the Wii is a ripoff.
All Im saying is that they are similar concepts, are they not?
One can imagine a day when a successor to the Wii might not even use a controller to track your movements...
Frequency. Once again, Frequency.
Part of the problem for getting artists to let their music be used, is because of someone along the line of people that had to approve use of it, didnt think the music would be "secure".
Especially since user created content(something Rock Band mentioned to might have) was a big part of the game.
Sure, Guitar Heros success is now something Harmonix can bring to the table.
How about the new improved security of next generation media?
Thats something they could also tout about having now that they didnt during Frequencys time.
So now we get the delight of having the master recordings once again.
Awesome.
If you read this all, thank you.
I'm sure I missed a few things, but its late, and Im tired.
Sunday, April 29, 2007