I Comment on What Other People Think

I came across two posts today that peaked my interest and required me to throw in my own two cents. Firstly, GameSetWatch pits Guitar Hero against Rock Band and begs the question of which one makes you rock out and how the public will respond? While many of the comments picked Rock Band to come out on top due to Neversoft's infatuation with nipples and boss battles, I took a more visceral outlook on Guitar Hero,

I used to come home after school to an empty house. I'd strap on my garage sale guitar and crank up my second hand amp. For the next couple of hours I was a rock legend, attempting to bang out a my favorite punk and grunge songs of the day. I never got particularly good but it was awesome and I appreciated music and those who could play well a whole lot more. Guitar Hero captures those old feelings of rocking out for me, allowing me to relive those afternoons. I have yet to play Rock Band but I am curious to see if the same feelings I had living out my garage band fantasies with my friends can also be recreated.

The other post came from game designer Steve Gaynor who posits that games are too long, suggesting that people don't often walk out of movies but if they would if they were as long as games. While I agreed that too many games run with a game mechanic and stretch a game out far too long, I offered a second analogy,

Many great novels can be quickly read, even serialized. On the other hand, there are those that can't be quickly read, such classics as David Copperfield or War and Peace, which many people start but don't finish. Length becomes an issue in the same way for games because the player or reader doesn't have the patience, the time, or maybe even the desire.