Who needs guitars when you’ve got Guitar Hero III?
As the third installment of the Guitar Hero franchise makes its way to fans’ shelves, they know exactly what to expect: No matter how popular the game is, stuck-up non-believers will scoff before saying that you could have just learned how to play the real guitar with your time, and then scoff again for good measure.
Don’t let these poor fools get you down about purchasing Guitar Hero III (that’s EA’s job when Rock Band comes out this month). Here’s why learning to play real guitar just isn’t a viable alternative.
Playing guitar is HARD. I don’t know if you’re ever tried playing a guitar, but it’s not as easy as five colorful buttons and a single switch. Between six strings and more finger positions than the Kama Sutra, you won’t even have figured out how to play “Smoke on the Water” before you would’ve reached the final song in Guitar Hero. While some people spend a large amount of time playing Guitar Hero, the same time invested in the real instrument wouldn’t translate into equivalent shredding skills.
Learning guitar doesn’t guarantee rocking. Even if you did invest your time into mastering the guitar, it still doesn’t grant you the same experiences as Guitar Hero. To shred through the solo of “Bark at the Moon,” you would need to find talented musicians willing to form a band and indulge in playing guitar-heavy cover songs. Playing a video game for a few hours for a vaguely similar experience is sounding better all the time.
Guitar Hero is different from playing real guitar. Despite imitating its real-life counterpart, Guitar Hero appeals to gamers in a different way. Whereas a real guitar requires the player to remember finger positions, chords, strings and rhythms, people playing Guitar Hero just press colorful buttons in time with on-screen indications. This is why the game is so appealing: It simplifies playing a guitar into a fun and approachable formula that’s easy for everybody to pick up.
Learning to play guitar may be an easy comparison for those who have never tried Guitar Hero before, but don’t let their snide comments discourage you from enjoying your status as a virtual rock star. Not all of us want to spend the months required to master the instrument, form a band and learn the 40 or so songs from the game’s set list just to have a similar experience. The reason the Guitar Hero series has been so wildly popular is precisely because it’s simple, allowing gamers to feel the rush of being a rock star without the tedious bits of, you know, actually doing it. So slam your bright green and red frets proudly, and don’t let anybody make you feel like a lesser human being for it.
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Guitar Hero III is just one of many ways to become a real man. Or you can return home.
Well said :)
Ultimacy
November 5, 2007 at 5:14 am
Well Wrote.
Larson
November 5, 2007 at 7:41 am
Well written and well said.
Kalen
November 5, 2007 at 10:22 am
This is just terrible.
John
November 5, 2007 at 12:55 pm
Are you kidding me?
GuitarHero is a game for tools who wish they had musical talent.
Cooper
November 5, 2007 at 3:14 pm
It takes a very long time to get good enough at Guitar Hero to play the game on expert. If Guitar Hero players put the same amount of time into real guitar, no, they wouldn’t be at the same level, but they would certainly have something to show for it. The learning curve for real guitar is strikingly similar to its pixellated counterpart: frustrating to pick up, doesn’t take long to learn a little, then takes forever to get good. But on real guitar you have something to show for it, something people other than your video game buds will care about.
Rebecca
November 5, 2007 at 4:18 pm
I disagree. It took me very little time to get good enough at Guitar Hero to play the game on expert. My familiarity with video games made the transition relatively smooth and I was playing expert mode within a couple weeks. I realize this isn’t true with everybody. I’d imagine people who don’t commonly play video games will have a harder time adapting as quickly as I did, but the same is true for non-musical people and real guitars.
Also, I don’t agree with your statement that people who are good at Guitar Hero have nothing to “show for it.” Besides being really good a very popular social pastime, you’d also have all the hours of fun you’ve invested playing the game. Everybody enjoys different hobbies and to claim that one is somehow more legitimate than another is ignorant. So maybe people are able to play “Freebird” on expert mode instead of being that guy down the hall who can play “Good Riddence (Time of your Life)” on his acoustic guitar. As long as both parties are enjoying their choice of hobby, I don’t think one has “more to show for it” than the other.
At the end of the day, I choose my hobbies by what I like to do, not by what I think will impress others.
Scott
November 5, 2007 at 8:12 pm
Scott said it as well as it can be said.
I don’t think anyone should base their hobbies on anything other than what they enjoy doing.
Doing anything just so you can impress other people is no way to live. Enjoy doing what you do, and don’t worry about “what other people care about.”
Zach
November 5, 2007 at 11:14 pm
First, I will start by saying that I have played the guitar constantly for four years and run a site about learning guitar, soloing, chords, music theory etc. So I know what is involved in playing the guitar.
I am going to first side with the guitarists. In no way can Guitar Hero compare with actually playing the guitar. Playing Guitar Hero WILL NOT help you to become a better guitarist.
Guitar Hero is a video game. It is not meant to be a way to practice without playing your guitar. It is simply something you do for the fun of it. And it is a GREAT game.
If someone were to ask me which one is a better use of your time, I would say playing the guitar. Playing the guitar is more constructive, playing an instrument is scientifically proven to make you smarter and more creative.
When you have beat a video game that is all there is to it, but playing the guitar brings a sense of accomplishment.
So I will end in saying that their is no way of comparing them, Guitar Hero and playing the guitar are two separate animals.
Guitar Solo tips
Timm
November 6, 2007 at 7:45 pm
I agree with you that you can’t compare the two. That’s the entire point of the article (disregarding the title that I didn’t write).
Scott Olstad
November 6, 2007 at 10:57 pm
i agree with whoever is above me, playing guitar is better in general, Guitar Hero may be more fun at time, but you can’t learn anything on the game, which makes it pointless, in reguards to becoming good at something, sure you feel good when you can beat Jordan or Through the Fire an Flames on expert but first of that just means you have been playing too long, and imagine how much better you would feel if you could play it on the electric guitar. if you ould plays one of those song on both the game and an electric what would you have more fun playing it on?
Adam
December 3, 2007 at 12:19 am
One month late to the party, somebody completely misses the point of the entire article.
However, for the sake of argument, I would probably feel better playing Through the Fire and Flames on the game. Not only would I have not wasted months of my life learning a single song on guitar (instead of the week it would take to master on Guitar Hero), but I would get to hear all of the other parts to the song as well, instead of just my guitar part.
But really, I’m not saying one is better than the other. What I’m saying is that comparisons between the two are dumb, because no pastime is more legitimate than another.
Scott Olstad
December 3, 2007 at 3:15 am
It just makes you respect rock stars more: what they’re doing is difficult! Though the great ones make it look easy, i.e., like they’re just playing a video game.
vip malixi
December 12, 2007 at 9:54 am