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Guitar Hero World Tour Equipment Problems, Subscription Possibilities?
Guitar Hero: World Tour's recent launch saw boxes of plastic instruments flying off store shelves, quickly selling out in many areas. Unfortunately, many players reported problems with the bundled drums sets, prompting Activision to release a drum "tuning" application and a free midi-USB cable to connect the instruments to a PC. Otherwise, reviews for the game have been largely positive, and MTV's Multiplayer Blog did an analysis of using Rock Band drums in GH:WT, and vice-versa. Kotaku looked at which set was louder, coming to the conclusion that while they sound different, decibel levels are very similar. The early success in sales for GH:WT caused Activision to say holiday demand may not be met, and that they're examining two methods in particular to develop the franchise: instrument upgrades (hopefully less ludicrous than Logitech's $250 axe) and the possibility of a subscription-based model for user-generated content. "[Activision Blizzard CEO Bobby] Kotick says that there are now 25,000 user generated tunes that have been created for the game, and projected 'up to 100,000 songs' by the end of this year."
No mention of the PS3 WT drums on RB compatibility issue? We have to make some noise if Rock Band is going to release the path Guitar Hero says is needed.
"Not knowing when the dawn will come, I open every door." - Emily Dickinson
a subscription for user-generated content? so Activision wants users to pay them money to share their self-created content?
why are mainstream game publishers run by such douche bags? it's not enough that users are adding value to their product by donating their time/creativity to create new content for the game, but now the game publisher wants to "monetize" this content by charging users for sharing their own songs with each other.
If you're going to seriously play drums on this game (or rock band 1 & 2), get rid of the bundled drums and replace them with the ION Drum Rocker set (about $270-$300). They are much easier to play for extended periods of time.
Shouldn't the user generated content be free?
I mean, it's not costing them to produce, and their own stuff means servers and bandwidth are already necessary, right?
I'm betting user-generated content will be finding its way onto bittorrent along with a crack for any kind of lock-in to the subscription service.
I've paid more. I play GUITAR FREAKS and drummania. I've owned a guitar that was about $300 cause it was "arcade style": http://mgrsti3030s.seamlesstech.biz/templates/frmTemplateR.asp?CatalogID=10923&SearchYN=N&subFolderID=97 (And places like play-asia.com don't have it anymore cause it's a limited edition item so it's "out of print")
And the "arcade style" sets for drums are full electronic YAMAHA drumsets.
I'm very very used to expensive controllers for music games to simulate an arcade experience.
Pancakes. Oh I blew it.
the drum tuning application provided by Activision, which requires a 20 character code to install, only came with 19 characters.
Activision did, however, suggest a work-around. "To do this, simply enter your existing code, and then for the last character, try the letters A-Z, and then the numbers 0-9. You should eventually get the right combination, and be able to install the applicatin."
24,500 of which are mario bros. related
495 which infringe on commercial bands
the other 5 are my 3 year old niece's random creations
I could really use a USB MIDI adapter. I don't suppose anyone who doesn't need it wants to get one and sell it to me? Or for that matter, someone who only needs it once? It's about $40 shipped to get the M-Audio Midiman Uno, so it would have to be cheaper than that... On the other hand, if I just wait a year they should be all over Gamestop for like ten bucks. Anyway, this is a call to all slashdotters who have the kit and weren't thinking about getting the device: what were you thinking? You know you're going to want one someday.
"You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
Why is slashdot into slashvertising so much now? It used to be "news for nerds", not news for wanna-be-jukebox-heroes. All the articles of late, and not so late, to put it mildly, is "news for newbies". Anyone with a 6th-grade education would feel right at home here. And are. Grow (back) up slashdot.
Did any of you see the TV ad featuring Olympic athletes? Good idea, but something went wrong. Kobe never looked so stupid.
Fuck systemd. Fuck Redhat. Fuck Soylent, too. Wait, scratch the last one.
I bought the full band kit, and just got off the phone with walmart about returning it. Here's what I've had:
The drums are a bit better to use in theory, but the sensitivity (out of the box) is too low. I really have to hit things above where I'm comfortable and it isn't forgiving if you had poor aim. I got a blood blister after some extended playing.
Using star power is random. Sometimes it gives it to you, often times it doesnt.
I ordered the USB-MIDI adapter to fix my drum kit. It came in 4 business days. My computer detects it but doesn't do anything with it. Its not an option on the drum controller drop-down and none of the MIDI options are substitutes. Restarting didn't help nor did disabling the other audio devices. It shows up under the device manager though and has a green light when connected. So... I can't fix it.
My guitar's strum broke today and has about a 5% chance of registering a downward strum now. The tap bar was always iffy with it, and the star power button used for muting was flat out inconsistent.
I broke part of the things used for holding the drum sticks by playing with them up. Don't do that.
Freak on a Leash is fun to play, a lot of the songs aren't though. They're long and repetitive. Whoever put Dinosaur Jr. in there should be shot.
Red Octane makes you pay to ship your defective device to them, with a copy of the receipt (mind you this game hasn't been out for 90 days). Its hard to find their warranty returns on their website. Here's a link:
http://www.redoctanegames.com/Warranty/USA/
That is why I'm returning the kit to wal-mart, I dont feel like I should pay 12 dollars and take extra time out of my work day to drop off a package, then wait 3 weeks to get another potentially defective device.
Comment removed based on user account deletion
I haven't gotten my USB-to-MIDI cable from Activision yet (just put my RMA in today), but I was able to tune my drumkit with my USB MIDI keyboard (An EDIROL PCR-80). Here's the thing - I had to hook the drumkit to the MIDI OUT port, not the MIDI IN (I know this for sure, because I originally tried using my M-Audio iControl with only a MIDI IN port, and it didn't work). What does this mean? That cable Activision is sending out is MIDI OUT, not MIDI IN. So if you were planning on using this free cable to hook a MIDI keyboard to your computer as an input device, it won't work. MIDI signal goes OUT of the cable, not IN. If you still want mine when I get it though, let me know :)
Also, I cranked the sensitivity on my red pad up as high as it would go, and though it's significantly better (and I can actually play comfortably without smashing the living #@$% out of my plastic kit), it's still not as sensitive as the rest of my kit. Dunno if I want to exchange it or not (Target is perpetually out of stock for the Wii version).
If I was going to go to the trouble of getting people together to play different instruments, I'd ditch the fake guitar hero ones and buy real instruments. I was in a garage band in high school, but even if it required me to pick up an instrument from scratch I think it would be a lot more fun than playing a video game version. I realize they aren't the same thing, and each to their own, but the reward is so much greater when you actually play that I'm surprised by the popularity of the group game even more than I'm surprised the original guitar sims took off. C'est la vie (...or c'est la Guerre)
These posts express my own personal views, not those of my employer
I have posted a detailed How To Guide for fixing the Guitar Hero World Tour Drum Kit sensitivity problems. For example my Red Pad took a very hard hit to register consistently, and my Orange cymbal was similar.
My guide features high quality photos and videos demonstrating before and after response of the drums.
The official solution is to do a support request and get the USB MIDI cable shipped to you. But my fix will have you drumming TODAY.
I bet it's a bitch to tune the guitar controller!
My buddy bought the guitar set from Wal-Mart on the day of release. We hooked it up, but both World Tour and Rock Band 2 saw it as vocals. We tried a bunch of different things to see if we could get it to work, but ultimately, he returned it to Wal-Mart. His replacement guitar was accurately seen as a guitar, but the tilt sensor for star power is screwed up where star power triggers as soon as you have some built up. That's 2 defective guitars from the same place.
Achievment Unlocked - how many of those songs are just people uploading random trash to add 5 points to their e-peen (just like I did)
The first GH:WT I purchased for my kids was missing a bass drum pedal. Before returning it to the store, I picked up another one from another store, and it had a bad red button on the guitar (didn't work at all) and the drums didn't work 100% of the time (missed beats). I combined the working portions of both sets to come up with a single 'good' set, and returned the remainder to the first store.
the instrument compatibility state right now?
With the Circuit City closing and my son being a little bit older (i.e. actually sleeping through the night now), I actually could justify buying a 360. I already had a wii but the state of DLC on the Wii made me want to get a 360 for RB2 and GH:WT.
My understanding is that everything is compatible between RB2 and GH:WT. But what about RB1?
As a side question, is the DLC for RB1 available for RB2? There were some good trackpacks I want to get but I'm not buying RB1 if the instrument compatibility isn't there.
And one more side question (last one), has anyone heard any plans from Activision to release a standalone drum kit? I only bought the guitar version of WT. I'm not spending 300 bucks on the Ion kit.
"Fighting the underpants gnomes since 1998!" "Bruce Schneier knows the state of schroedinger's cat"
Here's a different idea:
Try turning the GH Tunes store into iTunes for Guitar Hero.
And turn the Guitar Hero engine and tools into the Unreal Engine of rhythm games.
Let third party developers produce full-quality songs and let them sell them on GH Tunes. (For a price of course.)
Activision can then focus on making the Guitar Hero engine and instruments better, and release first party titles - like Aerosmith, AC/DC, & Metallica - but also benefit from others making less blockbuster games - see Guitar Praise http://www.guitarpraise.com/. That would solidify Activision's peripherals as the industry standard, their tools and environment as standard, and allow them to reap profits from selling the tools and licensing fees from third-party games.
Sounds like win-win all around to me.
- Jasen.
you racist bastard :-)
Slipping shoelaces ?
It is not a ludicrous price for what you get.
I won't buy one, but it looks like a quality build, not some plastic thing you snap together.
The Kruger Dunning explains most post on
I've used and played every single controller for Guitar Mania, Beat Mania, Guitar Hero, and Rock Band. I've used almost all the 3rd-party controllers for the PS2 and XBOX 360. I've played all the Bemani games in the arcade. I've even played the drum kit for Rock Revolution briefly.
In my opinion, World Tour has the best equipment currently available. The strum bar on their guitar is the best of any bemani-guitar, hands down. The World Tour drum kit, when properly tuned, is way better than the Rock Band or Rock Revolution drum sets. The ION Rocket drum set is probably better, but it's $300. The Logitech guitar might be good too (it isn't out yet) but it's $250 and only works on the PS2 and PS3.
This isn't just my opinion. My girlfriend is a pro drummer and guitar player and she agrees that the World Tour instruments are best.
Now as to the game itself, Rock Band 2 is better hands down for any number of reasons.
My advice? Buy the World Tour band kit and Rock Band 2 w/o the instruments. That's what I'm doing.
I followed the instructions here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dhF5noVUBN8
Basically, put masking tape across the sensor and surrounding surface to increase its sensitivity. Of course, be careful about the points where the wires are soldered, but otherwise the hardware is pretty solid. It took a Philips screwdriver, scissors, masking tape, and about 10 minutes.
You don't need glue. All that's needed is a phillips screwdriver, tape, and about 15 minutes. I have another comment posted here on this story with links on how to do it.
Note: it wasn't me who came up with the fixes I linked. But I tried them, and they work.
Here's the links again.
http://www.goodinput.com/2008/10/27/guitar-hero-world-tour-drum-fix/
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dhF5noVUBN8
There is no -1 Disagree mod. Slashdot.org/faq defines mod options. USE IT.
Yes, I know the page in the first link talks about detaching wires, gluing, etc. Ignore that. Use the pictures on that page for reference on how to get to the sensors. Watch the video in the second link, and apply the tape-only method to all 5 drums. It works.
There is no -1 Disagree mod. Slashdot.org/faq defines mod options. USE IT.
Put a little bit of foam rubber between the sensor and the piece holding it on.
Not you can't see any changes.
I suspect the fix will be something like this.
I don't like the cardboard because it's a little stiff(the cardboard you perv) around the wires.
The Kruger Dunning explains most post on