Independent Game Thoughts

With the newest Guitar Hero announcement, "Warriors of Rock", I'm convinced that Activision doesn't really know how to handle the Guitar/Band Hero brands.  I'm basing this on my experience with the game Band Hero and as a novice rhythm game player but let me put it this way, Activision has left a lot of my money on the table by not giving me what I've looked for in the Band Hero game.

There's three problems with the way Activision is handling Guitar/Band Hero.
1) They are not offering songs that my kids can play or that my kids want to play.  Every song is from some obscure rock band or from a popular band from the last four decades.  The song list starts and ends with the inclusion of Taylor Swift in Band Hero.
2) They do not offer many songs that are party play oriented despite outfitting the game with party play modes.
3) They've almost completely ignored Country music.
4) Activision doesn't release nearly enough DLC songs.

Let's look at each of them in turn.

1) They are not offering songs that my kids can play or that my kids want to play.

My wife and I purchased Band Hero for our kids for Christmas.  I wanted a rhythm game but more importantly wanted a game that my kids might enjoy.  Band Hero had Taylor Swift and Hillary Duff plus a few other recognizable songs so we thought that this might help the game resonate with our girls.  The release of Band Hero certainly made us feel like Activision was paying attention to new music beyond the hard core rock and roll that is the staple of Guitar Hero.  Since the release of Band Hero, there has not been a single song DLC or game release for the system that my kids would enjoy playing. 

2) They do not offer many songs that are party play oriented.

There's two ways that I play this game.  I play by myself in career mode trying to unlock various songs and achievements and I play with my family and friends when we all get together at my house.  You would think that Activision understands how its products are used.  They don't.  The newest Warrior's of Rock release will be full of good songs for solo play and very few songs that fit the bill for party play.  To assume that party players are even half as experienced as I am from solo play is a large incorrect assumption.  The two types of play require two different set lists yet each new release from Activision seems to want to give the solo player far more content.  I guess this stems from the Guitar Hero roots where solo play was the only method of play.  If I'm a developer choosing songs for the next release, I'm picking a set list that is easy to play, has vocals that people know by heart and is likely to be one of the songs that you catch someone in a car singing while they are driving.  These are my party play songs.  Think, glorified Kareoke and you'll get the essence of party play.  All the other songs are the songs that they're already good at picking.  Those are for the solo player or the rare group of players that want a good challenge.  Activision completely misses the boat with song selection for party play modes.

3) They've almost completely ignored Country music.

Of all the issues with the game, the lack of Country music as either DLC or as a game release of its own is inexcusable.  I understand that the company making Guitar Hero/Band Hero might not have employees that like country music but that's no excuse for leaving the tracks out of the game.  More importantly, Country music tends to have clear, easy to sing vocals and very good guitar and drum lines.  Anyone that listens to any amount of Country music can name you a couple of dozen songs that would easily make good solo songs and a couple dozen more party songs.  Every country artist has one or two sing-along-songs in their play lists.  Country music happens to be the hottest selling genre of music over the past decade and is the fastest growing segment of the music buying market.  Country fans attend the most concerts and buy the most CDs.  Why Activision would not cash in on this trend is a failure of its management team for the Guitar/Band Hero franchise.