Comments on: Should Music Controllers Standardize?

By: Darrin

Darrin — Fri, 30 May 2008 16:19:13 +0000

There’s plenty of middle ground to be explored between slaving away at Mary Had a Little Lamb for umpteen years to learn a real instrument vs. hitting colored buttons on a plastic toy. Just like Gran Turismo is a middle ground between buying a $200K sports car and playing Mario Kart.

Paranoimia, I didn’t say it was easy. Running is basically left foot, right foot. That doesn’t mean everyone can sprint at the olympics.

By: Nash

Nash — Fri, 30 May 2008 15:08:22 +0000

1. There should without a doubt be standards for these controllers. Although Activision would disagree, a standard would help these games sell more copies. I skipped GH3 because I knew I was getting Rock Band. If the controllers worked for both games I would’ve picked up a copy of GH3 sans instruments after RB. They work on 360, why not on PS3? Then Activision wouldn’t even allow a patch to be released to fix it. Weak sauce. And standards doesn’t mean the controllers can’t be different or have different interfaces (like strings), it would just require the signal to be sent to the system the same way. A standard would allow that cool controller to work for every game.

2. I want fake toy instruments with a simple click and go interface. If I want complicated, I’ll learn how to play a real instrument. I think RB has struck a good mid ground between real and actual fun. Between work, school, and a social life I dont have time to learn how to play Vasoline on the drums in real life.

3. The DLC songs will never be universal. I know if I’m a dev and I take the time to program a note chart, I’m not letting some other game dev get that work for free!

By: Paranoimia

Paranoimia — Thu, 29 May 2008 18:52:36 +0000

Sorry, but I can’t agree. If it were that simple, we’d all be performing Mozart’s Piano Concerto’s at the Royal Albert Hall.

By: darrin

darrin — Thu, 29 May 2008 17:58:46 +0000

“Playing a real instrument is not ‘just’ plucking the string of a guitar, or pressing the key on a keyboard”

It most definitely is. Sure, you have to hit more than a single key, you have to hit a complex pattern of keys and you have to get the timing right but playing music really does boil down to playing notes by hitting keys, hitting drums, plucking strings, or blowing air. There is no mystical voodoo involved beyond that.

By: Paranoimia

Paranoimia — Thu, 29 May 2008 17:31:50 +0000

That’s just it though, Darrin – these games are nothing like playing a real instrument. You’re just pressing a switch – on, off, on, off. Playing a real instrument is not ‘just’ plucking the string of a guitar, or pressing the key on a keyboard; even playing drums is more than just hitting them with a stick. I can do all of those, but trust me… you won’t like the resulting sound!

I do agree with you, though, that it would be much better if they came up with a way of tying REAL instruments to the game – but that’s not a need for standardisation, that’s a need for a whole new software interface. Even then it could be argued that you may as well go and buy the real instrument – £180/$180 would be a reasonable start towards the real thing, certainly as far as a guitar is concerned.