Comments on: Fancy Pants Guitar Hero Controller

By: nicolapallitt

nicolapallitt — Sun, 21 Jun 2009 08:03:49 +0000

Thanks a million for commenting on my posts:) I foresee that looking at the social functions of the guitar controller and not just the game is going to be quite central to my study. My biggest challenge at the moment is getting research participants. I’m focusing on teens (aged 13 to 18) for the face2face part of the research because my study is part of a larger university project on youth and digital media. This week I will be visiting schools and getting kids to fill in a questionnaire. I thought of numbering all of the questionnaires and having a prize draw. GH Smash Hits is coming out here in SA at the end of the month, so I thought that may be a good prize. Advertising on one of the local organization’s site that runs LANS in Cape Town is quite costly, but I’m also going to be attending their monthly events to get in touch with more players. Judging from their forums, the ‘hardcore’ players who are into their strategy games are not all to pleased with the GH players. They complain about having to be subjected to Dragonforce’s “Fire and Flames” over and over. So there’s also interesting sort of conflicts between people who play different games. Any suggestions for getting in touch with teen players? I also thought of Facebook, but it’s quite dodgy for ethical reasons – imagine a 13 year old telling their parents “I met this lady on Facebook who wants to watch me play GH and ask me questions”. People also don’t know that Game Studies is a growing field, so I also feel like I have to constantly defend the project. I also see games as interesting sites of informal learning, so when I say ‘learning’ people are like “yes, learning is good, so this project is good”. It’s kind of hard to convince people of the potential value of games.

By: David Spira

David Spira — Sat, 20 Jun 2009 19:37:12 +0000

@nicola pallitt – I have a bunch of posts on Guitar Hero, you can find them by running a search. I completely agree with you that the social side of the game is incredibly important. I am a big fan of the Guitar Hero series, but at the same time I think it’s a bit much to buy a GH controller that costs more than the game itself. I also would like to think that the game can serve as a gateway to the actual guitar, even though the skills involved with both are very different.

BTW, you blog is interesting.

By: David Spira

David Spira — Sat, 20 Jun 2009 19:32:56 +0000

@ Ronin – I find that a lot of people who play guitar experience this. I think it’s important to recognize that they are two totally different skills and experiences. Just as a professional sniper might not be amazing with the sniper rifle in Halo. There is a place for both.

By: nicolapallitt

nicolapallitt — Sat, 20 Jun 2009 16:26:21 +0000

I think there is perhaps a different kind of play and pleasure involved in playing with a highly realistic simulated guitar. Have subscribed to your blog, would like to keep in touch – please check out my research blog http://nicolapallitt.wordpress.com/ I would like to know what you think about the Guitar Hero games and this post and others seem to show that the guitar controller as a physical thing is very much part of the game. Like, when people think ‘games’ they often think ‘virtual’ and not really the social side or the reality that it depends on.

By: Mark

Mark — Fri, 19 Jun 2009 16:54:39 +0000

You may remember – well, maybe you don’t but I do – that people at one point in the history of this great country paid to buy Pet Rocks. I’m sure descendents of those people will drop 2 hundy on a fake guitar.

By: Ronin

Ronin — Fri, 19 Jun 2009 15:44:23 +0000

I find it far easier to play my real electric guitar band to play a guitar hero guitar.