Hey, there, loyal readers of my pointless ramblings! Welcome back to the blog I used to update frequently!
I’d like to say I was busy with this, or that, or dealing with University or something, but none of that’s true.
I’ve been playing tons of Rock Band 2, Sins of a Solar Empire, and TF2. With WoW occasionally sandwiched in between bouts of gaming my face off.
Which neatly brings me to my first rant of the night.
“Why do you spend so much time playing Rock Band/Guitar Hero? Why not go learn to play a real instrument?”
Allow me to answer your question with a questions of my own.
Why do you spend so much time playing GTA? Why not go buy a gun, steal a car, and go run over real people?
Why do you spend so much time playing Call of Duty? Why not go join a real army and shoot real people?
Why do you spend so much time stomping on turtles in Mario? Why not go stomp on real turtles and eat real mushrooms?
Why do you spend so much time raiding in WoW? Why don’t you go tame a real tiger and shoot arrows at real people wearing dresses?
Why do you spend so much time playing the Sims? Why don’t you just turn the computer off and actually cook meals/get a job/go swimming/flirt with your neighbour?
Ridiculous. Utterly ridiculous.
These are called video games. They are fun. They are amusing. They are diverting.
I have zero interest in actually learning to play bass. I have no desire whatsoever to have thousands of people watch me rock out on stage.
Why do I play Rock Band then?
Because it’s fun!
“But those examples aren’t the same!” some of you cry.
Actually, yes, yes they are. They are video games; they are intended to be awesome, fun things to do.
Get your head out of your ass and stop pretending you’re superior to your fellow gamers.
And so, here’s a story that’ll make you feel superior to me. Heh.
I play a lot of games. I’ve been gaming as far back as I can remember. Even before I had a SNES, I played those dinky one-game handheld things that you could buy for a dollar at RadioShack.
There’s an odd effect that I find is summarized quite neatly in that little comic.
It’s surreal when it happens to you, where your brain will simply automatically try to do something that doesn’t actually work in the real world.
I was shopping, picking up juice, milk, butter, eggs, cheese, you know, the usual, and my shopping cart was getting pretty full. It was heavy, and as such was difficult to steer and stop.
A part of my mind was concerned about hitting someone when I leave an aisle.
So, naturally, the logical conclusion would be to zoom out, or at least switch to third person and pan the camera around to see if there was anyone there I’d bump into.
So I stopped, and spent a good four seconds attempting to zoom out in the juice aisle at the Superstore. The middle finger of my right hand instinctively tried to use a scroll wheel, and I sort of leaned my head back in an effort to get the “camera” further away from my body.
Fortunately, I managed to catch myself before I referred to the check out as a checkpoint.
Though I did spend about an hour utterly frustrated that real life had so cruelly restricted me to a first person view. How the hell am I supposed to maintain environmental awareness when I can’t see fully half of what’s going on around me?
And why is it so damn difficult to make a six check without looking hyper paranoid?
Alright, fine. I’ll admit it. I’m sort of a recluse.
It’s not my fault, really. It’s just the more I find out about how the “real” world works, the more I realize that the “real” world is in desperate need of a hard reset.
For instance, American car insurance.
I found out how it works the other day, and I laughed, as I thought I had just been told a rather amusing joke.
Haha, oh man, you mean the insurance you pay for only covers damages you inflict on other people? Good one! Hey, I got one about this orc who has a parrot on his shoulder. So, the orc walks into a…
Wait, you’re serious? Ok, really, it was funny the first time, but now…
What?
*Researches*
Well.
I had no idea that the american automotive insurance industry was developed by a cat with Down’s.
Honestly, now. How is it possible for human beings to come up with such an utterly retarded system?
That would be like having life insurance, but where your insurance company only pays the people you kill.
I sure wish you would post something relevant.
Tryed “sins of..” after seeing you twitter feed, being an old orion series lover I had yo give a try… stressing with only a couple of worlds! bribing pirates while managing a couple of starship battles and a production queue at same time…surely i am trying to micromanage too much at same time :-S
previously finished dawn of war2 solo campaign and now giving a good try to Empire total war
At WoW…only connecting to raid hours, it will be painfull when I run out of golds for repairs…
Haha, I so know what you were trying to do in that store..I’ve had it myself. Realized I was talking wow to a friend, using all the correct wow language, and she was looking at me as if I was completely nutters.
Think the best example is me telling friends how much gold I spent for so and so…I mean seriously, lol!
I remember a night of solid SW:BFII, until around lunchtime the next day I couldn’t figure out why I couldn’t shoot.
Lady in supermarket saying ‘your change is three dollars and 52 copper’ FTW.
I guess some people equate skill at playing well in RB/GH with skill at playing a guitar.
They are wrong to do so. Completely different skillsets.
lol, thats why I keep coming back here!
I regularly find myself trying to Blink, Hearthstone, and Teleport: Home in real life.
Get your head out of your ass and stop pretending you’re superior to your fellow gamers.
Hell yes.
I hate the old “why do you play Rock Band when you could play a real instrument” argument. Or “only talentless people that can’t play real instruments play plastic instruments.”
Screw ‘em, I say. It’s a game.
If I wanted to play a “real” instrument, I would do so (and have done so), but I’m playing a RHYTHM GAME. *gasp*
And I agree 100% with Grimmtooth up above, being good at “real” guitar and being good at Rock Band guitar are NOT the same thing. Not at all.
Vocals and drums have the ability and potential to transfer skillsets, but not guitar/bass.
@ Eishen
That’s why the game comes with the ability to instantly speed up or slow down, or even pause if you need and still give orders.
It’s impossible to micro too much, though that will probably eat up way more time than if you didn’t :p
@ Grimmtooth
I suppose a few do. Though I have never personally met, or even heard, of anyone who does, every now and then a webcomic or something shows up to mock those people…
They must be out there somewhere.
@ Lucy
I know, right? The real world would be so damn convenient if you could get home, from anywhere, in 10 seconds.
@ Syrana
I’d argue against vocals transferring. Vocals in RB2, at least, is far more about simply imitating whatever the singer was doing, typically by either humming loudly or saying random nonsense.
Well, that’s why I said “ability and potential.” Doesn’t mean they necessarily will.
However, humming/nonsense works for the spoken phrases. The sung phrases still need to hit pitch.
Trust me, I know someone that cannot sing, cannot carry a tune and does not have a clue how to change inflections in his voice and he fails on easy.
I do fine on expert and damn well on hard/medium because I can change my vocal ranges.
The “band” I usually plays with never bothers to actually sing things properly.
Especially the “rap” parts that doesn’t actually require a pitch. They just repeat “X is a whore” where X is typically my name.
At least the drummer has stopped trying to hit me in the crotch.
Do you remember the LED football game.. I think it only allowed you to do running plays but could be wrong there.. you had to juke and jibe to get past the D. heh.
I will admit, though, that being able to play an instrument can be a HUGE asset in being able to play rhythm games such as rock band.
I <3 Euripedes' rants
My Mum hated me destroying her garden with swords and axes…
My wife would hate it too…
Why don’t they understand that WoW is the only thing between me and their gardens?
I told my wife that if it weren’t for WoW and other MMOs where I can be something that hurls fire, I would probably be a serial arsonist.
Sometimes playing vidja games IS about doing stuff you can’t do in real life. In GTA, if someone honks their horn at you, you can pull them out of their car and beat them to death…. sigh… I wish life was more like GTA.
I stopped playing GTA a while back …. because when I would play too much (if there such a thing as playing video games “too much”!) I found that on the highway I would drive about 5-10 mph faster and looked at lane changes completely differently ….
“oh yeah, I can make that….”