Fake plastic instrument games...what the hell happened?

Shoqiyqa

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Mar 31, 2009
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I still have RB3 and still play it. The pro guitar just *****d me off, but the rest of it's fun. Unfortunately, the lightweight MadCatz guitar (for elves) has utterly died and the solid, reliable Logitech guitar is for ogres and half-trolls. It's great. It feels like you could use it to fight your way through the entire L4D2 story without damaging it. It weighs enough to break a Tank's spine with one good swing. It's constructed from lead-filled adamantium tubes.

There has been some speculation about a game and kit re-release in the near future, timed to last just long enough to tide us over until the next generation of consoles come out, which would be the logical time to see Rock Band 4, with, perhaps ...

... more than 4 players in the band, using 2 or more consoles.

... harmony vocalists or two lead vocalists [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y3xyp54bZqs] to give proper credit, on their own logins on their own consoles, getting their own scores and achievements.

... an option to turn off the background noise.

... an option to turn off the video and just have the charts on-screen (look up "photosensitive" and think it through before flaming that suggestion, please!)

... an option to have an automated voice or pre-recorded voice actor "read out" the menu options and song titles, band names or whatever during menu stages and scores and other stats after each song so blind people can enjoy singing without having to have sighted guides present the whole time. As a bonus, a four-beat vocal count-down to the start of vocals at the beginning or after a long pause would be nice too. (Not all songs have an instrumental intro to tell you when to start singing.)

... more Meat Loaf and more Bonnie Tyler.

... Vocal-led music [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pXDonUxBxig]. You don't need guitars. Strings, pipe organ, brass, woodwind and drums [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RiYRASDlq-0] are plenty of backing.

... three guitars, to play Iron Maiden properly.

... Kim Wilde, never shitsponge stainpants, for the love of all things holy, unholy, precious and anything interesting!

... electric violin and/or cello. (If this [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LveS3tx-6cQ] doesn't convince you, maybe this [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZEe9sXO1M-I], this [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fOGh5yf219g] or this [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5KrVztcBYg4] might.)

... multi-language support. We've got a bit of German, but that's about it. How about some Italian [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vl6h7UWo1_Q] and maybe something in Japanese [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H0UX8NUuBss] (that roughly translates to: "You're a fine specimen so get me pregnant," I think) or perhaps something African [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pjwQyVLqFGI] or Spanish [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CCfgiM7TTDg]?

... formalwear and nightwear as clothing options, rather than even more ridiculous "punk" crap than RB3 already has.

... more than three vocal lines in a song. Given the "more than 4 players" and "multiple vocal logins" above, there'd be no good reason not to have ...

... four-part harmonies.

... Frederick, Mabel and Chorus of Girls (on eight mics).

... Police Sergeant, Chorus of Policemen, Pirate King and Chorus of Pirates.

... THIS! [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=paH0V6JLxSI] (also this [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QEllLECo4OM] and this [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mfFQuhWaA_k])

There was a thread full of these suggestions on rockband.com

*giggle* Rockband's forum search came up with "subspace" in the captcha. *giggle*
 

SonicWaffle

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Oct 14, 2009
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Fun story - I have a copy of the Beatles Guitar Hero (or Rock Band, whichever it was) as well as the guitar, for the Wii.

I do not own a Wii. Nobody in my flat does. We have never owned a Wii. I'm not even sure where it came from, it just sits in a cupboard in the living room.
 

Loonyyy

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I think it was a few things: The oversaturation, which amusingly enough, Activision admitted was their intention, the fact that the genre was kind of a gimmick, and each game was essentially the same, to an extent never before seen, and that the games had the worst model for content: You get a bunch of songs, some you like, some you don't, and then you put up with it, and maybe shell out another $60 for the sequel because that's got tracks you like.

These games could really have done with a creative DLC model. If the game came with only a very short list of songs, classics that people would know, and preferably not dislike, and then the rest were all DLC, at a lower price for the game, and the DLC, they'd be onto a winner. Just work out which songs people like (Hey, I wonder if there's like, a network, for socialising, where you could do one of them poll things or something. Oh wait.), and then arrange them and sell them.

I do enjoy playing those at parties, but I'm loving me some Rocksmith. It's awesome. It's sort of got that DLC vibe going, there's a bunch of different DLC packs, so you can basically construct the game after the basics. It's annoying as an Australian, because the DLC packs are on delayed release though. Plus, I now can almost play guitar.
 

GloatingSwine

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cloroxbb said:
I still own Rockband 3, have tons of downloaded songs,

Dingdingdingding!

We have a winner!

It turns out that the market for being able to sell people plastic guitars over and over again every year wasn't terribly sustainable, but it didn't matter because you could release songs as DLC and people would still give you money without you having to develop a new game every six months.

Also, Kinect dance games happened.


Shoqiyqa said:
and maybe something in Japanese [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H0UX8NUuBss] (that roughly translates to: "You're a fine specimen so get me pregnant," I think)
You could at least choose something from the original Bubblegum Crisis. [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OSggDCal5lA] (Warning, contains 1980s hair and fashions)
 

Dr.Susse

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Apr 17, 2009
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I think you nailed it whit the over saturation. There where games coming out twice a year and there is only so much you can do beside add new instruments.
 

thesilentman

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Jun 14, 2012
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Over-saturation, and now I suddenly want to play TTFAF again. Damn it'd be fun getting 70% on expert again...
 

Something Amyss

Aswyng and Amyss
Dec 3, 2008
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gigastar said:
One genre that could have been saved by DLC packs...

But yes, too many full priced installments in too short a time, turned each one into an abysmal failure. Then Activision decided to simply cut losses.
Yeah, a lot of this stuff didn't need a full, new release. In fact, it'd be awesome if they had just made track packs for the games instead of full price add-ons.

Rock Band 3 is awesome, though. I like playing Pro Keys, even though I haven't put in enough work to be good. Also, pro guitar ain't bad, though I kind of would prefer Rocksmith.
 

Shoqiyqa

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GloatingSwine said:
Shoqiyqa said:
and maybe something in Japanese [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H0UX8NUuBss] (that roughly translates to: "You're a fine specimen so get me pregnant," I think)
You could at least choose something from the original Bubblegum Crisis. [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OSggDCal5lA] (Warning, contains 1980s hair and fashions)
Considering that a lot of the best stuff in RB3 is from the '80s, that's more encouragement than warning.

I saw T MMXL before I ever saw the original, though, and prefer it. It's so much more animated.
 

Steeveeo

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Sep 2, 2008
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Rock Band got thrown into the closet in my family because all the peripherals broke. Our guitar's strum bar and accelerometer broke, so you have to "strum" with the down arrow button on the d-pad of the guitar, and use the back button to engage star power. It's a bit ridiculous.
 

barbzilla

He who speaks words from mouth!
Dec 6, 2010
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Aris Khandr said:
Oversaturation was a part of it. Even ignoring Guitar Hero and its million releases, in one calendar year (November 2009 - October 2010) saw the releases of Beatles Rock Band, LEGO Rock Band, Green Day Rock Band, and Rock Band 3. In turn, Rock Band 3 had really poor sales, which was pretty much the nail in the coffin for the series.

I've actually been tempted to buy a real guitar to try out Rocksmith on Steam.
I can recommend rocksmith 100%. I love it. I have had one semester of basic guitar, so I advanced pretty quickly, but it makes it easy to play and move forward teaching you bit by bit.

OT: My girlfriend and I still play rockband sometimes when we are feeling goofy.
 
Oct 2, 2012
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I still have a couple of guitar hero 2 and 3 but my guitars broke because they're cheap, crappy pieces of plastic and me and my friends are gods at the games.

So sadly we don't play anymore cuz we can't find the guitars anywhere.

And it has collapsed because of publisher greed.
 

StriderShinryu

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Dec 8, 2009
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I still play my copy of RB2 fairly regularly. It's just, well, fun. That said, I think one aspect of the genre essentially dying that hasn't been mentioned is that the genre pretty much had nowhere else to really go. Once the drum kit was added, the core of the experience was complete and there just wasn't much left to add or evolve. Sure you could say that making things more hardcore and realistic by adding more complexity or pro instruments, but I think that misses the point of why people were playing the games in the first place. It's essentially karaoke for those not inclined to singing and/or for those who wanted to experience music in a different way on their own. It's a fun way to experience music with friends and very few people ever considering it an analog to actually learning how to really play/perform. Note that I'm not saying adding more depth and complexity killed anything, just that it wasn't ever part of the appeal for more of the people who really grabbed onto the genre as more than score attack bait.. a Wii effect if you will.

So, yeah, a genre that came into the market almost already fulled evolved to it's final form plus over saturation with near constant releases of games that ultimately felt the same because they had nowhere to go.

Anyway, this thread makes me want to go play some RB2...
 

soren7550

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Dec 18, 2008
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God, I still love me some Rock Band (whooo! When's Lunch? rules!), but I haven't played since around when The Beatles Rock Band came out. That was a hell of a lot of fun to play with my brothers, but that's kind of the thing. It's more of a group game than a solo one, and all those instruments take up a lot of space. Not to mention it gets really pricey with all the instruments, new games, and DLC.

And like it was said before, the series (both Guitar Hero and Rock Band) pretty much died thanks to Activision's way over saturation of the genre.

Hell, now I really want to get Rock Band 3 and make When's Lunch? arise like the beautiful rocking phoenix that it is!