Wired talks about how Guitar Hero and Rock Band are inspiring gamers to get off their geeky asses and learn to play the real guitar, Gateway Drug to Six-String Bliss:
Aaron Starke, a 20-year-old gamer from Sugar Land, Texas, was turned on to the guitar about three months ago after a job at Fry's Electronics got him playing his fair share of Guitar Hero.
"I play expert mode on pretty much everything," Starke said about his guitar-gaming prowess. Like Grondah, he found that learning to play a real guitar requires more patience than toying with a plastic, guitar-shaped game controller.
This means that in a couple of years we can expect MySpace to be flooded with dorkmetal bands! Will the nerds be disappointed when they find out that in the real world it takes more than just "expert-level" playing to gain fans? All kidding aside, this can only be a good thing for rock and roll. Right?
But this isn't just affecting young kids. One of the original founders of Glorious Noise recently emailed me to say: "I have reached the point in Rock Band where the amount of practice it's going to take to get better makes me feel embarassed. So I'm going to be giving the real guitar another go." Let's wish them all a whole bunch of luck!
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That's funny. It's so true though, you reach a point where you realize you'll have to actually practice to complete a song. And then you say, "shit, the reason I'm playing this game is because I don't need to practice in order to rock out" and then you give up and take out your real guitar and start practicing. It's all full-circle: back when I was a geeky teenager practicing guitar in my bedroom I nearly quit because Metallica was so hard, and now as a geeky adult I continue to practice real guitar because Metallica is too hard on Rock Band.
I've never played an instrument (unless air drums count), and don't have the time available to actually learn how to play the guitar.
But, after having spent countless man-hours playing both referenced games, I have come to respect the skills of those who actually play the instrument well.
Clearly, the video gameplay is nothing compared to real life, but it at least gives you a glimpse into what kind of time, practice, and patience goes into the learning process.
Better still, I have to play the game sober to do well. Slash made millions doing it for real, with a fifth of Jack on hand (or more), on a nightly basis! Genius!
"But, after having spent countless man-hours playing both referenced games, I have come to respect the skills of those who actually play the instrument well. "
Sounds llike you do actually have the time to learn the real thing.
Me, I'd learn the guitar if there were cheat codes to sound like the Black Keys.
@ Derek: Funny. After I posted, I thought the same thing.