Speaking at a press conference in Los Angeles on June 19, the two guitarists said "they don't believe video games are an ideal way for people to be exposed to music or learn to play instruments."
As much as I enjoyed Guitar Hero, I have to agree that it's annoying that the game doesn't teach you to play an instrument and depressing that game buyers aren't really interested in the music itself--just how hard the game makes it to play the songs. The silver lining is that bands such as Dragon Force would be even more obscure if it weren't for the game.
... Read more"It's depressing to have a label come and tell you that Guitar Hero is how kids are learning about music and experiencing music," White said. He added that although he doesn't try to dictate "which format people should get their music in...if you have to be in a video game to get in front of them, that's a little sad."
Page added that he can't imagine that people are really learning anything significant about playing instruments by playing video games.
"You think of the drum part that John Bonham did on Led Zeppelin's first track on the first album, Good Times Bad Times," he said. "How many drummers in the world can play that part, let alone on Christmas morning?"
Despite being a lot of fun, Guitar Hero is likely causing a generation of kids to not learn to play real instruments. I completely suck at playing the real guitar (I am a drummer and I practiced endlessly as a tween/teen) but the game makes you feel like you know what you are doing though you clearly cannot apply your game skills to the real world guitar.
With my limited guitar abilities (Black Flag, Black Sabbath and the Misfits) I found that Guitar Hero actually made my playing worse.
Fortunately, we'll soon have Disney Star Guitarist, which trains you on the guitar by displaying Guitar Hero-like note information that applies to the frets and strings of an actual guitar. From what I gather you simply change the strings on an electric guitar to play the game. Genius.
Check out this video from Wired for a sneak peek.
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