Nevermind The Posers

What Are Your Thoughts On The Guitar/Band Series Coming To An End?

TNT
It’s a shame to see it go, but also not unexpected.  Quite honestly, I don’t really care.  All things bright are soon to fade, so was the fad of Guitar Band.  If you already have the equipment and the games, it’s not going anywhere; you can still play when you want.  Its downfall was it was the cost.  When updates and new equipment became available or even necessary, I found it to be overwhelming.

Mark
I don’t have much of an opinion towards the decline.  When it first came out, I was just as on board as the rest of the public, excited to try something different.  It was a unique twist on karaoke without the embarrassment, added cool points for making me feel like a living room rock star with my mini-plastic guitar, as I got to form dozens of mini-bands while constantly rotating members with my friends.  But alas, the novelty wore off fairly quick, as being in a real band was more fun for me.  I will say that the series will be missed, even the one that I didn’t try (DJ Hero).  It’s a shame that businesses are that incompetent, as they are “people” who don’t seem to understand that constant updates and over saturation of the market with similar new products and numerous expansions will lead to people getting bored easily, and thus financial ruin.  But in the very near future, the products will become hot commodity vintage items being swapped all over eBay and the cycle will continue.

Klone
First of all, making that full-band set-kit-thing of instruments, both for the Rock Band series and the Guitar Hero series, costing $200 was insane.  I think that hurt sales for the franchise once the games all expanded beyond a single instrument and became geared towards group play.  Personally, when that happened I felt that the franchise jumped the gun on trying to milk its fans.  I remember the big rage really kicking in world-wide with Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock.  I know that’s when my interest was piqued.  Back then it was the game and the guitar, that’s all.  No drums, no vocals, just shredding.  The price of the game and guitar controller did cause a bit of pause, but it was easy to digest.  When Guitar Hero: World Tour, and Rock Band 1 & 2 came out shortly after, the playing field changed because your price to play was more than doubled.  So, why is anyone surprised that sales tanked along with the economy?  I think that we should all remember when we first thought these games were cool, reminisce from time to time and maybe even pull out and dust off the good old ensemble of instruments and rock-out for a New Year’s or Birthday every now and again, but let’s also remember that fads and passing trends eventually fade away like Rock Band and Guitar Hero did.

Angela
Hearing about the fall of the guitar band series brings about two reactions, one of disappointment and the other of jaded expectation; even the mighty must fall.  As an avid player of guitar hero and rock band, I really enjoy these video games.  I found they were a good way to include multiple players and even families (we played a lot around holiday season at family gatherings) and really have some simple fun.  Playing my favorite songs and improving my manual dexterity all at the same time, its one of the few games you can play at home by yourself, with a group of drunks at a party or go to tournaments at local bars.  However, its been some time and I know there are only so many times you can re-invent the wheel.  More than just a passing fad, I think the guitar band series offered something real to gaming and it will be missed.  I still own an Xbox and a copy of Guitar Hero 3 and you can bet I’m still going to be playing it.

Hoverbee
I don’t mind that the Guitar Hero series is coming to an end as a video game.  We’ve had five years and 14 different versions of Guitar Hero.  They say that the popularity of music-themed video games has gone down and it’s too expensive to produce them.  I can’t say if this is true or not; I know beans about it.  Activision Blizzard won’t be making any new versions of Guitar Hero, but will continue to sell and support its catalog of Guitar Hero titles.  I think it sucks that 500 people are out of a job because of it.

Daniel-Edward
It feels like the end of an era about the end of the Guitar/Band/DJ Hero series.  I’m not musically inclined, and being able to play some of my favorite songs on plastic instruments felt as close to being a rock star as I’m going to get.  All those plastic instruments were a blast to break out during parties, and were always a crowd pleaser.  The music genre itself was a nice breath of fresh air from the same old Halo and Call of Duty games that come out yearly.  Who knows, with peripherals like Kinect we might not even need the plastic instruments someday soon.