Monday 14 January, 2008

GAMEPLAY:
I brought Rock Band to my house in Santa Cruz and played the game with my house mates. The two house mates that I played with have had less experience with making music and music instruments so I thought it would be a good idea to write about them for this entry. One of them Brad is a gamer and the other nicknamed Ninja, has had little experience with video games. At first they were skeptical to try the microphone, I was always the one who had to sing for the band which I didn't mind because I was pretty comfortable with my voice. But over time I kept urging them to sing and eventually, with the help of certain beverages, they started to hold the microphone and sing with confidence. They weren't the best singers in the world, but good thing is that they were having fun and the next day they continued to battle for the singer position sober.

I've also noticed that with my other three roommates who were watching us play started singing along with the lead singer and it shows that even if you're not playing the game you can have fun listening and singing along to the music. If you had little game or music experience, Rock Band is still a fun game to play. Even Ninja who had never heard of any of these songs started to like the music he was hearing. Video games is one way to get music to reach more audiences and I think that was likely MTV Games goal which is probably also why they decided to publish the game.

Design:
The game makes the players feel as if they were in an actually rock band playing for thousands of fans. They start off with zero fans and one gig to play at and over time successful gigs earn more fans and this helps buy roadies, audio guys, jets and other important staff/items needed to travel the world and play at large venues. To help set the atmosphere of a rock band on screen, behind all the commands to strum the guitar, sing, or drum are the virtual characters and avatars the players have created. They are all dressed in rugged yet stylish clothes and later on with more money from gigs, the players can buy expensive armor (for metal rockers), leather clothes (for goth musicians) and other women's clothing as all rock stars tend to do. This process of dressing and creating the player's virtual character creates an emotional link. If the avatar runs off stage to go crowd surfing, the player will say "That's me going crazy!" if he made the character to mirror his real-life self. Even if he made an exaggerated version of himself he will still feel a connection to that character because he created him.

While playing at the gig, the camera moves in such a way that imitates a live stage concert of real bands. These positions resemble the music videos that we've all seen on MTV at some point. The video will fade to grainy black and white, or the camera will attach itself to the base of the character's guitar and show the intricate finger movements fretting the string. All help serve to make it feel like the player is there filming and playing in a virtual rock concert.

There is one con about the game is that it is truly meant to be a multi-player game. Even though there are modes that allow solo play, the game can get pretty boring playing by yourself. I haven't played the game without someone playing beside me with the only exception being to practice a difficult song. And another point is a small problem with the drums. I've actually played drums before and the thing about being a drum player is that you can make a few mistakes and people really wouldn't notice it. This is because as long as you are holding a constant beat, you can free style at any point in time. This is specially evident in the kick pedal. Usually when I drum I use the kick pedal to hit the bass drum and hold the beat by constantly stepping on the pedal, but at lower difficulties the signal to use the kick pedal because irregular and doesn't do a good job of imitating the drum beat of the song. This is probably personal preference but I decided to include it as my three friends who are drummers complained about it.

But in all fairness, it is still a video game and if the kick pedal must be pressed on only at certain times, then I must follow that rule as defined within the game.

You are clearly very into this game. However, it sounds like you mostly related past experience with this game, rather than actually playing it in two sessions, with the first concentrating on gameplay and the second on design. Your design section starts off spot-on, but trends more towards review than game design analysis towards the end. That said, this game log is worthy. Not Madonna-worthy, but worthy.

- Ian Rickard, your TA

(the following is included on all my first-round gradings, and should not be taken as any commentary on your writing.)

If you're interested, I'm happy to provide additional nit-picks of your writing. However as this course is not considered writing intensive, lapses in spelling and grammer of the type I would critique will not have any affect on your grade and so you really needn't worry about them. If you're interested in this type of feedback, email me at inio@soe and I'll provide it privately.