Hope everyone had a nice one with their families and, hopefully, with plenty of games! I've just recently gotten on the Guitar Hero bandwagon, and as a result, that seems to be all I'm capable of doing. For hours and hours at a time.I'm prone to addictive behavior with my games, and I really think there's something to the whole gratification element of the rhythm-action genre. Elite Beat Agents is still one of my favorite DS games ever, and ends up getting regular play, and I think it's just because it feels so rewarding. Rhythm games in general incorporate a few different elements: there's music, of course, and then there's skill-based learning.
There's a curve to all of these games, as anyone who's played can tell you. At first, you really suck, and then, as you practice, you get better. No matter who you are, nothing short of legitimate physical handicap -- you don't have all your fingers, or something -- will keep you from improving if you keep doing it (and even then, you'll probably get a little better than when you first started). When you hit a beat or a note correctly, there's immediate sound and visual feedback, and I think your brain responds to that on a reflexive, Pavlovian level. It happens without you even thinking about it. As a matter of fact, nothing will make you choke at Guitar Hero faster than thinking too much. You just have to get in a zone where you automatically respond to the visual and audio stimulation.
The reward not only comes in the form of success and progress, but the fact that it's all music-based plays a role too, certainly. Zillions of studies have been done about human brain response to music, and it's pretty evident that listening to music affects people on a fundamental, physiological level. So when you're playing a game like Guitar Hero or EBA, this positive feedback loop starts -- hit a note or beat correctly, and the song plays on, flooding you with gratification and creating a positive association with the music. And the more positively you associate the song, the better you perform at it, creating a virtuous cycle. We're all better at songs we already like, right?
EBA is almost more reinforcing in this respect -- the stories that you're playing through during the songs are hilarious. People strive melodramatically, situations escalate, and people cheer wildly. The images you see make you feel even more positively than nailing the complicated beat patterns do.
My iPod is loaded with EBA music. Yeah, I know. Only other gamers would understand why Ashlee Simpson and Earth, Wind and Fire are on my iPod. But I go running most days during the week, and I find nothing gives me a boost like the music of fast levels. When I hear the songs, I recall the same adrenaline rush and sense of overcoming challenge that playing the game creates.
Of course, simple tasks -- pressing keys on a fake guitar or tapping the DS' touch screen -- that increase in complexity and provide instant rewards are a recipe for addiction. Ever get good at a rhythm game and find you simply don't enjoy simple, low-stimulation levels in that game after a while? Ever go to sleep at night only to see circles or colored dots zooming past your closed eyelids? Find yourself thinking about playing the game when you're busy doing other things, humming the songs that are stuck in your head all day? I really think the positive feedback loop in rhythm games creates psychological addiction, and I've really got it bad for GHIII.
When it comes to music, I'm never the first to discover a band; I end up finally hopping on the wagon and listening to things after enough of my friends force me to. Same with Guitar Hero -- I'm late to the party here, having never played any of the games more than occasional dabbling until I bucked up and bought a bundle for my Christmas present to myself. As such, I find it cute and fun because I don't have GHII to compare it to, and thus can't indulge in the "sellout" talk that's being thrown around. People say the third installment's lost some sort of nebulous cred over the previous two. Concern over the integrity of a videogame sequel is nothing new, but I think the discussion gains kind of nifty context when we're talking about a rock music game. Chris Dahlen, who when he's not writing about games writes for Pitchfork, thinks GHIII is fun -- but not cool, and others have made parallels between the game's whole "selling your soul to the devil" plot of the game and the fate of the series.
Personally, I think that games that make you play fake guitar in your pajamas while pumping your fist in the air because you think that you rock aren't really "cool" no matter what context they're placed in. I don't mind if the thematics are based on a hyperbolic, stereotypical and cheezy concept of what rock is, because as a plastic guitarist, so are you. Besides, the "true nature of rock" is one of the most irrationally controversial discussions that can be had among music critics and fans. Remember how worked up you used to get about it as an alterna-teen? (If your favorite track on the GHIII soundtrack is Even Flow, you know what I mean.) If a videogame sidesteps that argument in favor of a cartoony cliche-fest, I think that's fun, funny, and keeps things simple.
But sellout or not, Guitar Hero has been a bit more of an ambassador, I think, to non-gaming cool kids than even the whole cutesy Wii phenomenon. It's a game you don't feel bad about telling your friends you spent all weekend playing. It's the first videogame in a long time I've actually wanted to brag to my friends about spending all weekend playing. Is it worth the price of a game's "soul" if it helps people "get it"?
Also, why's everyone all about Judy? Midori is so where it's at.
