Music is a huge part of my life; as a drummer and a DJ there is rarely a moment in which I don’t have something on my iPod that I am listening to. With such a diverse taste in music I find myself wanting music to go beyond it’s normal role in video games as either background noise, or the implicit interaction of the game ala Rock Band or Guitar Hero. I am not saying that the way music is used in games today has no place in the industry, actually quite the contrary.

When the original Guitar Hero for PS2 came out in late 2005, during my senior year of high school, one of my good friends purchased it on a whim after playing it at a game store and brought it over to my house. Lets just say that somehow I got him to leave it at my house where I spent the next month with his copy. Other then playing Guitar Hero, I spent the rest of the time either avoiding him, or making up excuses so that I would be able to keep it for longer. Eventually I had to give it back and purchase my own, and at the time 90 dollars for a game was unheard of, but the experience it provided was at the time well beyond anything I had ever played.

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With the recent (and expected) official announcement of Guitar Hero 4 and it’s succession of Rock Band’s extra instruments (vocals and drums), it’s clear to see that the music genre is no longer what it used to be. Merely 5 years ago, I would be hard pressed to get any one of my friends to pick up a controller and play a console music game. Then again, five years ago, there wasn’t anything quite like Guitar Hero or Rock Band.

Oh wait, yes there was.

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So, word has it that Rock Band not only continues to be delayed for a European release, but that it will cost about 200 GBP (around $400 US) for the full ensemble, as opposed to the average retail price in the US of $150. To make up for the extortionist charge, a fifty quid (about $100) game-only version will be available, which will utilize any USB PC microphone.

Well, that’s spectacular if your idea of a rock band is American Idol. In fact, don’t they already have a few American Idol and karaoke games? Why shell out good money for a music game stripped of its most essential elements, namely the controllers? I would normally say that “it’s a bit like” followed by some hyperbolic example to put things in perspective, but my mind is boggled at some base level when it comes to how fundamentally, functionally, stupendously stupid this is.

What we have here is a failure to communicate, or at least a failure to comprehend what makes Rock Band such an awesome game. It isn’t just the ability to become the band member in game, it’s the simulation in real life. As South Park pointed out about the Guitar Hero series, you’re not going to learn how to play a real guitar through any simulator on the market. That’s not the point. The point is that you can imagine yourself on stage, playing a guitar while going through motions that simulate what you’re imaging. If you had to use a regular controller, the whole spirit of the game would be lost.

Rock Band is this at a higher level, as there’s a communal aspect to the game play which is one functionality of gaming that has sustained various titles for years. Sure, online team play and Guitar Hero’s co-op mode do involve player interaction, but the ability to bring your friends together to rock out makes the game communal and interactive in real life as well as in game. Like a real band, bonds are forged or broken based on who is pulling weight and who is sucking ass.

You’re not going to have that experience with a game and a single microphone, though at the prices being set in the European market, you’ll need to have a band of Rock Band-ready friends already established in order to pay for the full kit anyway. Whenever it’s released, that is.

-M. Elizabeth Williams