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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."
It's the same situation on the Wii. Guitar Hero: WT is incompatible with the Rock Band Wii drum kit. It's absolutely ridiculous for both platforms to not support these controllers, and reeks of a money grab by Activision.
For what it's worth, I've had less fun with Guitar Hero: WT than Rock Band Wii, gimped as it is. Hopefully Rock Band 2 Wii is at least as good as the previous installment, and DLC works as promised.
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.
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.'"
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).
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.
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.