Quote:
Originally Posted by Dean
I'm sorry, his point is somehow that a game controller would somehow make a great musical instrument and that existing ones "are not engineered for use".
This claim is asinine. While a game controller could be made to act as an instrument, there is no way it will ever compete with any number of other existing instruments that are actually engineered for the purpose.
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Are you shitting me? Where did PA say that?
Here's the quote again:
Quote:
Originally Posted by Penny Arcade
I wrote about this a while ago when talking about the remix mode of Frequency, another Harmonix game, and how it made the PS2 controller a kind of instrument. That idea fascinated me. Actual instruments are not especially ergonomic, in general terms - they are not engineered for use. They need to account for crass physical laws to epitomize their function. Instruments are beautiful, let me be clear. But they are not, themselves, music.
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Nowhere is there an argument made that "a game controller would somehow make a great musical instrument". His point was that old school musical instruments are bound by the laws of physics in their designs, i.e. you can't make a piano that uses hammers on strings to sound like a drum set, but due to technology (of which video game controllers are part of) we now have the ability to engineer new devices that could be more ergonomic methods of producing music. His point was the instrument itself doesn't define the music, the produced sound defines the music. i.e. Even if you're using a video game controller as your "instrument" it doesn't make something that is any more or less "real music" than a piano or guitar makes.
Remember, PA was arguing against the "yokel" that's making the claim that music made by a game is somehow not music because it's not from a "real" instrument. It's got *nothing* to do with whether or not your XBox controller is the "sousaphone for the 21st century".
I contend that the guys over a Penny Arcade don't actually think Guitar Hero is the equivalent of really playing a guitar. They just contend that Guitar Hero is to playing the guitar as Madden '08 is to playing in the NFL. It's a "dumbed down" version of a more complicated task that makes the fun of the real task more accessible. It still takes skill, but not as much or not quite the same skill to play. Like the Tony Hawk games: they're obviously not the same thing as really jumping a skateboard off the roof of a skyscraper, but they're still fun. Just because the game is based on a real activity doesn't detract from the game itself, and it doesn't mean the player is somehow convincing themselves that the game is a surrogate for the real thing. For example, I have Rock Band, and I have a guitar. Playing the Rock Band guitar is challenging and fun, but it's not like I no longer pick up the real guitar. It's just guitar karaoke for chrissake, they can both co-exist.