Monday, April 02, 2007

In which I tout my powers of perception

Apropros of the official announcement for Rock Band (more info at Kotaku), I wanted to look back at a post I made in June of last year, in which I said this:
...it seems reasonable to assume that within a few years it will be possible to assemble an entire GH-style band, with a couple of guitarists, a bassist, and a drummer.

Well, that's not so impressive in itself. Why? Because this is the most freakin' obvious thing they could have done. Really, was there any other direction to go? Instead, I want to talk about what came next.

I'll up the ante even further: once that's done, I bet we'll see clubs hosting competitions in which groups of gamers get in front of a crowd and rock virtually. At the very least, people would participate just for the chance to get onstage under the auspices of some truly bitchin' band names.

This is an opportunity I hope nobody blows. Can you imagine hordes of Rock Band players descending on legendary clubs like the Middle East, which have hosted some of the greatest actual bands in history? We're reaching the next level here, which is why I want to throw out yet another prediction:

Harmonix will create a song editor that will allow Rock Band players to write and share their own songs.

I think that's the next step. We're going to have people writing and releasing songs made entirely on virtual instruments. And I'll bet you that some of the songs will be good.

4 comments:

avixe said...

Agreed on the obviousness thing - it also makes perfect sense from a business standpoint; it'll no doubt be $149+.

I'm not sure about the track editor, though, at least in the short term: the noise about GH2 for the 360 makes it pretty clear that officially licensed tracks (and notes) are a big part of the incremental-upgrade value. Maybe someday, but not anytime soon.

(Seeing this announcement last night, I admit I thought it was a joke. Now that it isn't, it's .. not as exciting as it should be, somehow.)

Mike said...

No offense, my good sir, but I think we all were thinking pretty much the same thing.

I also hate to point out that TT's, at least for a couple of months a year or two ago, was holding semi-regular GH contests. I came into it about a week too late to check it out.

I look forward to rocking to the xtreme with you, though.

Mitch Krpata said...

Johnson, did you predict Rock Band in June of 2006? I didn't think so.

Jim, I agree that it probably won't be something that ships with the game. But just looking logically at what could follow Rock Band, it's hard to imagine where else they could go except for user-generated content. In fact, I seem to remember reading rumors about user-generated content for Guitar Hero 2 on the 360. It would seem that that has been scrapped, if it ever was on the table.

Mike said...

Mitch: I suppose I may not have explicit online evidence of such a claim, though I could fashion such via backdating in LiveJournal or somesuch forum.

I do recall discussing at some length with at least Tyler, though.