MEMBER BLOG

Rock Band Goes Too Far
Posted on Wednesday, October 22 2008 @ 09:43:15 Eastern

I know a lot of you will remember my talking badly about both the Rock Band and Guitar Hero franchises because I play a real instrument, and although I admit I tend to be hard on those games, on occasion they are a lot of fun... to play.

Now is when I believe that the franchises have actually gone too far.  If you visit http://www.rockbandlivetour.com you'll understand what I mean.

EA has taken Rock Band, and instead of simply sponsoring bands to tour in support of it (because their material is in the game), they are paying bands to tour and instead of play their instruments, they play Rock Band.

Now, I'm all for going to see a concert, and I'm all for playing videogames, but who will really pay to see a band play Rock Band and only limited tracks of theirs (and I suppose the rest will be them covering other tracks in the game?) in a live concert venue?  I know I wouldn't, I would rather spend my money on seeing actual music be played instead of music being played IF the band hits the corresponding green button.

I suppose the only interesting thing would be to see if the singer, when singing his own songs, scores any less than 100% from his vocal pitch.  Granted, he can always just mute his microphone as so many players do so that you hear the studio track instead.

The final downside to this entire idea: the bands they got to actually tour while making complete asses of themselves with plastic "instruments" are Panic at the Disco, and My Chemical Romance... bands that nobody but preteens wanting to be cool would pay to see anyway.