On Rocking Out For Real

Blaugust Post #27

The resurrection of Guitar Hero and Rock Band brings to mind the guitar game that came around as they were fading. Rocksmith (also on Steam) requires an actual stringed instrument and a special USB cable. The latest release is almost two years old now, but they just put it on the new consoles, so I suppose it counts as current. Unlike the others, this one is attempting to teach how to actually play guitar in the form of a game. It has an arcadey score attack mode if you miss the Guitar Hero aesthetic. It also now has several years worth of DLC.

On Rocking Out For Real

Needing an actual guitar or bass makes the buy-in here rather high, but for people like myself who already own one, it’s an interesting experience. It has some major flaws in teaching how to actually play an instrument, but it is pretty good for learning how to play specific songs. It (on the default settings) dynamically adds more notes in as you get more familiar with a given song. Songs you’ve never played before are adjusted for what the game thinks your skill level is.

On Rocking Out For Real

If you’ve ever thought about learning guitar, this might be a good first step. It makes “practice” entertaining, which helps a lot. You should seek out another resource if you’re serious about it, however.

On Rocking Out

Blaugust Post #26

I’m quite likely to pick up Rock Band 4 whenever that comes out, the announcement that my instruments and previously purchased tracks will continue to work was somewhat influential here. Even with varying skill levels, it makes for a very fun party game. The expansion of the single player mode helps too. They’re dropping pro guitar mode, but I never used that in RB3. (According to metrics they released, I’m far from alone.)

On Rocking Out

At the same time, Guitar Hero Live is coming out this year, and I’m not sure who the target audience is. It’s guitar-only, uses a different controller than all previous games, and abandons the colorful atmosphere of previous Guitar Hero and Rock Band games in favor of showing a live audience. When you add the tracklist included with the announcement to this, I can only conclude that it’s for someone who isn’t me. (They’ve since added tracks that I’d be more interested in playing, as well as vocals. There may be hope for this one yet.)

On Rocking Out

It’s 2008 all over again, but I’m OK with this. I suspect we won’t end up with mountains of unsold guitars in stores this time.

On High-Value Targets

Blaugust Post #24

Shadowrun is certainly going interestingly. Our group has managed to make a name of sorts for ourselves in Boston, getting us closer to some of the objectives we got there for (and a brand new one that pays really well). The problem is that completing some of these jobs is likely to bring a ton of heat onto us in very short order, probably to the level that will force us to leave Boston.

On High-Value Targets

We’re nothing if not ambitious, however.

Instead of picking and choosing, we’re trying to get several of the jobs done within a time span of about 48 hours. During this period, we’ll have to erase police records, protect a series of shipments (with a large side order of gang violence), break into a well-guarded mansion, and potentially recover a magical item of unknown origin (currently held by a shadowrunner team with different goals). On top of all of this, another opposing team is probably keeping track of us and may have to be dealt with.

On High-Value Targets

As the team’s decker, I get to study up on the disabling aspects of matrix use. I’m far from the most gifted character in combat, and it looks like we might be doing a lot of it. On the other hand, forcing things quickly means that subtlety is not as much of a concern. This is good for me, because my ability to be loud and break things is better than my ability to sneak, both electronically and in meatspace.

At this point, what could possibly go wrong?

#Blaugust Day 28: Addictive != Fun

While listening to some podcasts I happened to actually look at my podcast app and noticed an ad for some terrible mobile game or another at the bottom. As I watched, some quotes from presumably random reviews scrolled by, and I noticed one in particular: "Love it, Addictive as Hell!" It got me thinking, when did 'addictive' become a positive thing?
StarTrekTNG-TheGame
Best game ever!!! So addictive!
Up front here, I am by no means an expert on addiction. If I fail at clever in the course of this post, please let me know. It is absolutely not my attention to minimize or insult anyone who has had to deal with addiction directly or indirectly.Addiction implies that you're taking actions that you know are harmful to yourself, or that you don't really 'want' to do so much as 'need' to do. If anything, addictive behavior seems to be the opposite of fun; something one tries to avoid and then feels guilty about afterwards. I don't know if my time with World of Warcraft ever reached the level of addiction, but it certainly got to the point of not being fun anymore. The fact that I was able to drop it and not look back implies that it wasn't an addiction. How much worse then, to be in that situation and not be able to quit. I guess this weird view we have of addiction isn't really new. How many times have you heard someone call themselves a 'shopaholic' or 'chocoholic'? I'd hazard to guess that most of the people using those terms about themselves aren't really addicts though, they're trying to use the language of addiction to describe how much they enjoy the thing. It seems a little thoughtless when I stop and think about it. So maybe the problem is that, as a culture, we still don't really understand addiction. Not what it really is or how it really feels to be addicted to something. Maybe that's something you can't really understand unless you've experienced it. What I do know is that calling a game addictive is about the last way you'll ever get me to try it.