Rockers Wanted: Rock Band
January 9th, 2008
We’ve been playing Guitar Hero at Brains On Fire for the last two years and it’s become a staple of parties, and even Rage Against the Haze teen events.
Just in time for the holiday season Harmonix (the original developers of Guitar Hero) came out with Rock Band. At first I thought it was a kinda dumb, cheesy idea. But I started hearing from friends how much fun it was to play. After I did a search of the song list, I made up my mind to go buy the game. Well that proved easer said than done. Rock Band quickly became as hard to come by as a Wii. At least it did for the xBox 360 version.
The day after Christmas I was strolling through my local Target, picking up some Christmas packing containers and on a whim I decided to check out the electronics section. I overheard a stocker saying he found a Rock Band. I stopped and inquired if it was for a 360. Yes, well then it’s mine.
Last Friday I brought Rock Band into the office and it didn’t take long for Rock Band to quickly become our new favorite. Rock Band has one major difference from Guitar Hero or any other music game: it’s not about one person’s experience. Rock Band is a group effort and the gameplay requires teamwork. While the four members of your band must all be concerned with their own performances, vocals, guitar, drums, the bass. You must work together to earn clothes, fans, even a private jet.
In very short time Rock Band has developed a robust online community, rockband.com offers downloads, finding online bandmates, a community forum, and numerous tools for fans to spread Rock Band love. As of January 9th there are over 72 pages of individual player character pics (see image).
Can Rock Band sustain this momentum after the holiday season? The beauty of Rock Band is the DLC (downloadable content) Harmonix has already released new song packages and a la cart songs ranging from The Black Crowes to the All-American Rejects. It helps that they are asking what do you want to play. As long as Harmonix continues to foster these conversations, Rock Band will be touring in living rooms for a long time.
Other posts by Geno.
Justin says:
Hey Geno.
It’s a pleasure being the guitarist for your band, Electric Diet.
January 10th, 2008 at 5:48 amminno says:
i bought rock band too mine arrived christmas eve it is my all time fav i thought it would be cheesey but it is cool.
January 10th, 2008 at 6:02 pmWe have to complete a tour now with 58 songs in the set list
Ryan Vincent says:
Geno,
I’m not that great at Rock Band. However, the youth group I volunteer with bought one for the youth and I love it. I guess I’m decent, but whatever. We don’t have a memory card yet for it (we’ve had it for 3 weeks now, the xbox version) so we resort to using the cough *ehem, cheat code,ehem* to play with all of the songs. They have some really good songs on there. We have yet to create a band though, which I believe would be really cool. Anyways thought I’d comment on this.
by the way, I work RAGE Against the Haze as an Adult Lead for the Midlands.
ryanv
May 27th, 2008 at 9:23 amAnonymous says:
COOL
June 19th, 2008 at 10:11 am