Have any of my
readers ever played games such as Guitar
Hero, Rock Band, or Dance Dance Revolution? Last week we
looked at several examples of games in which players can control music. Today,
let’s talk about games with the purpose of creating music.
During the late
1990s, Dance Dance Revolution entered
the arcade scene introducing the idea of a “rhythm game.” A physically
interactive game, consumers are given a “dance stage” on which they can step on
various sensors as they follow a list of step patterns on the screen. Console
versions were also made available for people’s use in their own living rooms.
This idea of a
“rhythm game” sparked the makers of Guitar
Hero to develop a similar gaming idea in 2005 in which players can “play”
guitar on a guitar-shaped controller as they follow “notes” that scroll by on
the screen in time to the music. An expansion of this idea came with Rock Band in 2007, which also included drums
and vocals. These “rhythm games” provide a new type of video game in which the
music itself is the game.
Games such as Guitar Hero and Rock Band provide an avenue for players to do something that they
may be incapable of in real life. These games allow people to feel like skilled
rock stars even if they may be tone deaf. It’s interesting that these games
have created tension amongst many “real” musicians who cannot understand why
people spend their time mastering a toy-version of an instrument rather than
practicing the real thing. What are your thoughts on this?
