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Ubisoft Announces Music Game For Real Guitars
Despite recent troubles in the music game market, Ubisoft thinks the genre still has room for innovation. They have announced Rocksmith, a rhythm game designed for use with real electric guitars. The guitars will connect to a console or PC through the standard output jack.
"... the 'note highway' is actually a virtual guitar fretboard, complete with numbers which correspond to the different frets, and the 'target zone' consists of six horizontal strings. Wherever each note appears on the virtual fret board, that’s where your finger(s) go on the physical fretboard. Once the note reaches the target area you strum the string it comes into contact with. Simple. The camera zooms dynamically to highlight where on the fret board you should be looking at, in much the same way that a musician’s eyes would scan up and down the neck of the instrument during a performance."
If a game makes practice easier or more enjoyable, why not use it? In the end, it's the acquired skill that counts, not the way you got it. And if the game teaches you a usable skill, it definitively isn't stupid.
It is all the ultimate plan. Make games increasingly realistic by weening you off of the games and systems themselves.
A generation from now we'll be paying a $15 a month World of LIfecraft fee to be hooked up to the most realistic game ever. MPAA and RIAA will declare eyes and ears recording devices and seeing unlicensed events for free copyright theft.
I've played guitar for 30 years, and the following quote is disturbing to me:
"in much the same way that a musician’s eyes would scan up and down the neck of the instrument during a performance"
You're not really supposed to be looking at the frets while you're playing. Your fingers are supposed to know where to go without looking, much like when one learns to properly touch type. Looking at your fingers while you're playing is a bad habit that sadly a lot of new guitarists fall into. Yes, in the initial learning stages one needs to do so, but any good teacher will break that habit in their students as soon as possible.
That being said this might still be a useful learning aid for aspiring guitarists. I'm not interested.
I can already play real guitar and drums, and have played in a band in the past, but I find the game a hell of a lot of fun, without any of the hassles of being in a band. Quit whining.
which is totally what she said
Guitar Rising was first to announce a real guitar game back in 2008 but never released, presumably because of problems with the polyphonic pitch detection.
The first real guitar game released was LittleBigStar, back in 2009. LittleBigStar supported a wide range of instruments, including guitar and bass, and loaded mp3s and standard tablatures in different open formats. It had a good momentum and indie developers made different kinds of musicgames, which they called MusicWare, but it was closed down two years ago. By those measures RockSmith is hardly new...
The LittleBigStar team decided to go commercial, presumably because they had success cracking the polyphonic pitch detection nut. They released Offbeat guitarist which is freeware, support open formats and works great.
In 2009 Disney claimed to have found the holy grail of music gaming: Disney Star Guitarist but it was never released.
In 2010 Rise of the SixString was released with a guitar-controller hybrid.
Holiday 2010, Harmonix showed RockBand 3 pro-mode with the Squier Strat Controller. It went for sale in BestBuy stores in March 2011.
Holiday 2011, UbiSoft claim to have found the big new thing...
They criticise plastic controllers, now they criticise real guitars. Where's the happy in-between?
Those opposed to the music game genre generally believe the lack of realism is holding it back. It doesn't take any sort of musical skill aside from a good sense of beat to push 5 coloured buttons. Yet the instant it requires a real instrument, and real playing ability, it's not about the controller at all - you're still playing a game which immediately destroys any sort of credibility the activity of playing an instrument may have associated with it.
How is this any different to playing along with a CD, the radio, or youtube? It's not. It's arguably better as it will provide feedback on your progress while giving you a genuinely entertaining way to learn (by experiencing true rock and roll culture) rather than the stale "these are chord charts; now play these scales" you get from your local guitar school/tutor. I also hope Ubisoft will include an advanced tutorial for improving your playing technique instead of simply repeating a section of the song until you can perform the require button mashing from muscle memory.
There is no knowledge that is not power.