Friday, October 09, 2009
Kotaku Hypes Scratch!!!!
I got kicked out of choir in middle school and ever since, I’ve limited my study of music to
whatever Guitar Hero and Rock Band have bothered to teach me.
Now, of course I’ve heard people say that this is wrong; that video games cheapen or damage
the experience of learning real music with their plastic peripherals and oversimplification of
beats, rhythm and notes. But it seems like even more music games seem to be popping up
in response to this criticism – all of which claiming that they are different, that they really are
about the music and not about mimicking and button mashing.
Think about it: we’ve got Timbaland’s Beaterator which includes lessons on real music theory
in the tutorial, DJ Hero which introduces the concept of an artist who uses other people’s music
to make an original song and elaborate music studio components in Rock Band and Guitar Hero
that put the power of composition directly in your button-mashing fingers. And let us not forget
Wii Music and all its lofty educational ambitions.
To tone deaf choir reject like myself, the music game scene isn’t just over saturated – it’s
downright intimidating. Am I supposed to be entertained, educated or indoctrinated? I can
hardly decide.
All of this came up today while talking with Carlo Delallana (designer) and Matt Leunig
(associate producer) about their game, Jam Sessions 2 – a guitar simulator. I was playing
Good Reporter and trying to find out how the game would treat me as a gamer and also as
a would-be musician (despite my evident failure in middle school).
I asked about the scoring system and Delallana said the game wouldn’t punish me or make
the song sound bad for messing up a note. I started to ask about competitive multiplayer and
both Leunig and Delallana emphasized that their game was more about making music than
trying to be better than the next guy. Finally, I told them about Beaterator’s music theory
lessons and asked for their take, and Delallana dropped this bomb: “There’s a danger in teaching
[music] because there’s no one way to learn music.”
