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Get Over Yourself People, It's Just Guitar Hero.
Posted on Wednesday, September 16 2009 @ 01:22:12 Eastern

Ugh,

Diesel here.  I don't understand people obsessed with music these days, with the most recent case being Guitar Hero 5's use of Kurt Cobain, who died due to Suicide.  The buzz around the internet minus-ing Courtney Love's awe-inspiring case of Twitter stupidity, is that Nirvana fans are not too happy about the use of their role model [which is awkward in all-too-many reasons in the first place] as an un-lockable character.  This allows players to use Kurt Cobain and make him sing AFI or have him behind the drums to Du Hast.  And at this point, every Kurt Cobain fan just crapped their pants because this, in their eyes, is an insult to him and what he stood for.  But what people fail to realize is that Guitar Hero 5 is not a documentary or anything fact-based.  It's a video game.

IT'S JUST A VIDEO GAME.

It's also kind of funny as to what they want done in order to feel like everything's okay.  Courtney Love is trying to sue Activision for using Kurt Cobain, though Activision have said publicly that they were given written consent to use his image in the game.  Like Activision would be that stupid to put in Kurt Cobain without anyone saying anything.  Apparently that's what Courtney Love thinks, and is showing off her rage in the form of 120 character lol-fails.  Though no real paperwork has been filed and it's been all talk so far, it has sparked fans and even former band members to join the bashing.  Here's what former Nirvana members had to say,

"While we were aware of Kurt's image being used with two Nirvana songs, we didn't know players have the ability to unlock the character...We urge Activision to do the right thing in 're-locking' Kurt's character so that this won't continue in the future"

Nirvana may have been a prolific band in the 1990s, but in all honesty: it's just a skin of him, it's not actually him.  I think the real kicker is that if you don't want to use Kurt Cobain: you don't have to.  I can tell you while getting ready to review Guitar Hero 5, I haven't used Kurt Cobain once, since I'd rather use my created dude anyway.  Plus, if you "re-locked" the character to two songs, you're just making people play those songs over and over to see him.  What if the person playing the game wants to be his favorite character and doesn't give a **** about what song he's playing?  He just wants to be Kurt Cobain in a video game, because it's fun to him and he enjoys the feeling of being Kurt Cobain.  So you just want to ruin any confirmation of fun and possbility to play someone's role model because he's too good?  Really the fact you want him to be the first character that's technically not unlockable makes him look too good for the public: makes him look elitist, and it makes me not like him more.

While all this mess is going on, it just makes you like Johnny Cash's fans more and more.  Why?  They haven't said nearly as much as anyone else.  Johnny Cash has also passed away, and he's in the same Guitar Hero boat as Cobain is: able to play any song in a rock-your-socks-off style.  And so what?  It's very un-Cash like, seeing him jump in the air and strumming his acoustic guitar to Darkest Hour, but that's part of the game.  You don't have to use Johnny Cash if you don't want to, but I found it hilarious watching Johnny Cash headbanging to Blink-182.

So while Nirvana's former members and Kurt Cobain's widow are complaining about Kurt Cobain's use in Guitar Hero 5, it's all over every piece of work around the game thanks to the band's fans.  And I'm sure I may get some people who are that way, but it's a ridiculous statement to say that a musician is too good to be embarassed like everyone else.  I mean, you can make Shirley Manson since Children of Bodom: that's embarrassing.  So what makes Kurt Cobain so different from the rest of the people who've put their image in Guitar Hero?  Is it because he's dead?  Well we've already put that statement down because so is Johnny Cash and you don't hear people complaining about him there.  Is it because people don't want him there?  Well whoever sold his rights gave Activision the opportunity to use him as a playable character, and that's exactly what they did.  They paid the money for the image, so they're gonna make damn sure they get their money worth.

Or is it because people believe that Kurt Cobain wouldn't have ever sold his image to the corporate world?  Well, if he didn't put an untimely end to his life, we could answer that question in full.  But as the situation goes: someone has the rights to Kurt Cobain's image, Activision asked them if they could use his character in the game, and this person agreed to full terms.  That's how it went down, and that's how it'll stay down.  Unless the people who are complaining buy the image rights and do something about it, otherwise it's fully legal and Kurt Cobain will still be singing Bon Jovi and Billy Idol.  So until then, talk will be talk and Guitar Hero 5 will ship with Kurt Cobain as a playable character.

Because it's just a Video Game, and I think it'll be okay folks.

Stay Classy,
Diesel