Another Reason why Activision Sucks

[Maximum Carnage]

I want a Batarang.. lol.

 

[Joker]

Thaks for that, I'll log that away. You really should work on becoming a little more open minded and not so knee-jerk reactionary.

She is pretty good, writes her own music, and plays her own intruments. Plus what you described as her music means you obviously don't know what she writes.

When you're a grown up, you realize that each person has their own tastes, and that's ok, and that there is no need to judge one another based on those tastes...especially when all this stuff is pure minutae.

Rock Band is minutae, Guitar Hero is minutae, and your opinions are minutae. There are more important things in this world to focus that passion and energy. Maybe in a few years you'll understand that.

I've heard quite a bit of Taylor Switfs music, and most of it can be boiled down into exactly what I described it as. You finding a wet hole that will let you impregnate and popping out a couple of snot nosed brood doesn't make you any more of a person than I am, either, and it doesn't make your opinions any more valid. Taylor Swift may write her own music and play her own instruments, but she only has a contract because the record companies know EXACTLY what her target audience is, and that's females between the ages of 13 and 25, the same group that Twilight is targeted at. If you like that kind of thing, fine, great, go hog wild. But it's F**KING WEIRD. You're like a thirty year old listening to Britney Spears.

And playing both games doesn't give you the "best of both music game worlds" it just gives you one good game and one terrible game that's completely disrespectful to musicians, is obviously put together by people who have no passion or love of music, and the ideas are all approved by committee.

And I'm sorry if it somehow offends you that I hate a company that pretty much represents the absolute worst of American corporate culture. When a companies CEO comes right out and says that they're trying to make sure none of their employees are having any fun, and are kept in line by fear, I get visions of the s**t that guys like him pulled in the 20's and 30's, and am wondering, with the recession, how close we are to ending up in another situation like we had with the strike busters and other such incidents back then.

 

[Maximum Carnage]

Activision sucks for a reason. They are ALL listed right up there ^



:P

 

[DACMAN]

I've heard quite a bit of Taylor Switfs music, and most of it can be boiled down into exactly what I described it as. You finding a wet hole that will let you impregnate and popping out a couple of snot nosed brood doesn't make you any more of a person than I am, either, and it doesn't make your opinions any more valid. Taylor Swift may write her own music and play her own instruments, but she only has a contract because the record companies know EXACTLY what her target audience is, and that's females between the ages of 13 and 25, the same group that Twilight is targeted at. If you like that kind of thing, fine, great, go hog wild. But it's F**KING WEIRD. You're like a thirty year old listening to Britney Spears.

And playing both games doesn't give you the "best of both music game worlds" it just gives you one good game and one terrible game that's completely disrespectful to musicians, is obviously put together by people who have no passion or love of music, and the ideas are all approved by committee.

And I'm sorry if it somehow offends you that I hate a company that pretty much represents the absolute worst of American corporate culture. When a companies CEO comes right out and says that they're trying to make sure none of their employees are having any fun, and are kept in line by fear, I get visions of the s**t that guys like him pulled in the 20's and 30's, and am wondering, with the recession, how close we are to ending up in another situation like we had with the strike busters and other such incidents back then.

Yeah, I'm gonna have to agree with Brainiac. Grow up some and come back to us. If you can't get that some people like Taylor Swift without being a chick and between the ages you deem appropiate without it being "****ing weird" then you need to grow up.

Taylor Swift is different than Spears and many others before her in that her music is liked by many people of all ages and backrounds. She is a country music singer, but also has a good amount of pop following. She and her music are very likeable. I know it blows your mind, but your opinion isn't fact.

But as far as the treating workers bad thing, hopefully no one would disagree with you on that. But you do know all these games have to get approved by a "committee" of some sort or another?

 

[Joker]

Yes, usually games are approved by some kind of committee or another. But when you're entire music game is based on a board of people in suits who haven't listened to music since 1970, picking the set list based on "what are the top records in the country right now" as opposed to "what is good music?" and "what would be fun to play in our game?" you end up with s**t like Guitar Hero. Harmonix may have a song approval board too, but almost everyone who works at Harmonix is a musician. They could pump out Nickelback or Taylor Swift DLC every week and it would probably sell like hotcakes, but they have a bit more integrity than that. Activision, as their CEO himself has said, is about nothing but profit. If it'll make them money, put it out, if not, to hell with it. You'd never see a group like Freezepop getting a shot in a Guitar Hero game, because it wouldn't sell as well as their terrible Taylor Swift BS.

 

[BlackLantern]

well Country also has the widest appeal (age-wise) of any genre

 

[ProjectPat2280]

I find it amusing that Joker hates GH for cashing in on pop culture yet, here comes Rock Band doing the exact same thing with an uber gimmicky title, Lego: Rock Band, but for some reason he's fine with that. Hm. Brand loyalty is pathetic.

 

[hippie_hunter]

I have to say that Harmonix treats their gimmicks with respect. LEGO and the Beatles are completely original titles trying to change a few things by making them look different than a typical Guitar Hero game, and their AC/DC pack only had AC/DC songs.

Guitar Hero's expansions on the other hand completely rip-off of the previous main Guitar Hero game and they go off having other bands in the Aerosmith, Van Halen, and Metallica.

 

[ProjectPat2280]

I have to say that Harmonix treats their gimmicks with respect. LEGO and the Beatles are completely original titles trying to change a few things by making them look different than a typical Guitar Hero game, and their AC/DC pack only had AC/DC songs.

Guitar Hero's expansions on the other hand completely rip-off of the previous main Guitar Hero game and they go off having other bands in the Aerosmith, Van Halen, and Metallica.

Yea, i can agree that Harmonix tends to treat their properties far better than Activision, i wont argue that, however, there is nothing original about LEGO Rock Band.

 

[BlackLantern]

and how does it help anything if you're putting bands in the game that NO ONE has ever heard of??

who the **** is Freezepop??

 

[Joker]

Freezepop are an awesome indy techno-pop band. They're huge among the internet crowd, and play every year at PAX. They've actually got a pretty wide spread cult following.

Also, Lego Rock Band is a family friendly version of Rock Band. It's taking all the things that have made Rock Band and the Lego games popular, and combining them into a single game. Also, Lego Iggy Pop is hilarious. And the fact that it has a killer set list doesn't hurt at all. Showing that you can make a game kid friendly with mass appeal without stooping to the lowest common denominator of "what's popular right now at this second, even if it'll be forgotten in a year." I'd much rather play and sing the Ghostbusters theme song, most likely complete with it's own custom background animations (as this game is doing, much as Beatles Rock Band did) than do anything involving virtual Taylor Swift singing virtual Taylor Swift songs.

 

[Dark Victory]

Yeah, I'm gonna have to agree with Brainiac. Grow up some and come back to us. If you can't get that some people like Taylor Swift without being a chick and between the ages you deem appropiate without it being "****ing weird" then you need to grow up.

Taylor Swift is different than Spears and many others before her in that her music is liked by many people of all ages and backrounds. She is a country music singer, but also has a good amount of pop following. She and her music are very likeable. I know it blows your mind, but your opinion isn't fact.

But as far as the treating workers bad thing, hopefully no one would disagree with you on that. But you do know all these games have to get approved by a "committee" of some sort or another?

And this is coming from the man who deemed my film opinion invalid because I didn't care for Taken's theatrical cut.

 

[TheCorpulent1]

and how does it help anything if you're putting bands in the game that NO ONE has ever heard of??

who the **** is Freezepop??

Obviously you need the popular artists to draw crowds, but there is merit in putting lesser known artists into the game. I'd never heard of Freezepop before Rock Band, but I like them a lot now. It may not necessarily be the most profitable thing to put lesser known artists into the game, but exposing people to new music is never bad, as far as I'm concerned.

 

[BlackLantern]

Obviously you need the popular artists to draw crowds, but there is merit in putting lesser known artists into the game. I'd never heard of Freezepop before Rock Band, but I like them a lot now. It may not necessarily be the most profitable thing to put lesser known artists into the game, but exposing people to new music is never bad, as far as I'm concerned.

Freezepop is like a niche within a niche though....PAX isn't that known outside of the gaming community & industry, that might change in the next few years though

 

[TheCorpulent1]

The gaming community and industry is pretty huge at this point, dude.

 

[BlackLantern]

I'm talking about awareness within the general public....just walking up to a random person and asking if they know what PAX is will probably get me a blank stare

 

[TheCorpulent1]

Just walking up to a random person and asking them if they know what the capitol of Nevada is will probably get you a lot of "uh... Las Vegas?" answers too. People aren't aware of a lot of things. Doesn't mean you should give up on trying to spread the knowledge.

 

[hippie_hunter]

Yea, i can agree that Harmonix tends to treat their properties far better than Activision, i wont argue that, however, there is nothing original about LEGO Rock Band.

Brand new animations and slight tweaks to the gameplay are enough to call a title in the music genre a brand new original game.

Unlike the expansion packs: Guitar Hero Encore: Rocks the 80's (Guitar Hero II), Guitar Hero: Aerosmith (Guitar Hero III), Guitar Hero: Metallica and Guitar Hero: Smash Hits (Guitar Hero: World Tour), Guitar Hero: Van Halen and Band Hero (Guitar Hero 5), which are essentially the exact same game as the game they're based on with new songs.

The track packs on Rock Band however, are downloadable content and are sold at a retail level for those who don't have their consoles connected to the Internet.

 

[Tron Bonne]

There was a Freezepop song in the first or second Guitar Hero. It may have been a cover, since the first two games had a lot of those, but there was one. Also, yes, Freezepop is a pretty neat band

 

[Joker]

Freezepop has had master tracks in every game Harmonix has ever made, dating all the way back to Amplitude with Science Genius Girl. Get Ready To Rokk was in GH1, Less Talk More Rokk was in GH2, and then they already had two songs in RB (one was on disc, the other as DLC). The lead keyboard player for the band works at Harmonix. 90% of the bands on the "bonus tracks" sections of GH, GH2, and RB were Harmonix bands, where at least one member works there.

 

[BlackLantern]

Freezepop has had master tracks in every game Harmonix has ever made, dating all the way back to Amplitude with Science Genius Girl. Get Ready To Rokk was in GH1, Less Talk More Rokk was in GH2, and then they already had two songs in RB (one was on disc, the other as DLC). The lead keyboard player for the band works at Harmonix. 90% of the bands on the "bonus tracks" sections of GH, GH2, and RB were Harmonix bands, where at least one member works there.

if that wasn't the case....would they be getting exposure in Harmonix games??

 

[Joker]

There's a ton of other indy, and small yet signed bands that get DLC, like Paul & Storm, Jonathan Coulton, MC Frontalot, Black Tide, Kasabian, Silversun Pickups, and Endeverafter, just to name a few. Here, take a look at the DLC list...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Complete_list_of_downloadable_songs_for_the_Rock_Band_series

While Harmonix bands like Freezepop, Vagiant, and Bang Camaro, among others, certainly are in the game cause of the links to Harmonix, they still have quite a few bands with no connection at all to the company. I think it's great that you'll have weeks where you'll get Foreigner and then something by a band like Black Rebel Motorcycle Club. The Foreigner stuff probably sold a hundred times more, but they still gave a smaller band some exposure.

 

[Brainiac 8]

I've heard quite a bit of Taylor Switfs music, and most of it can be boiled down into exactly what I described it as. You finding a wet hole that will let you impregnate and popping out a couple of snot nosed brood doesn't make you any more of a person than I am, either, and it doesn't make your opinions any more valid. Taylor Swift may write her own music and play her own instruments, but she only has a contract because the record companies know EXACTLY what her target audience is, and that's females between the ages of 13 and 25, the same group that Twilight is targeted at. If you like that kind of thing, fine, great, go hog wild. But it's F**KING WEIRD. You're like a thirty year old listening to Britney Spears.

And playing both games doesn't give you the "best of both music game worlds" it just gives you one good game and one terrible game that's completely disrespectful to musicians, is obviously put together by people who have no passion or love of music, and the ideas are all approved by committee.

And I'm sorry if it somehow offends you that I hate a company that pretty much represents the absolute worst of American corporate culture. When a companies CEO comes right out and says that they're trying to make sure none of their employees are having any fun, and are kept in line by fear, I get visions of the s**t that guys like him pulled in the 20's and 30's, and am wondering, with the recession, how close we are to ending up in another situation like we had with the strike busters and other such incidents back then.

This statement tells me exactly the type of person that you are, and so I'll just step back and be done. I would work on finding a way to have a discussion without being disrespectful to others if I were you. Statements like this are not necessary.

 

[BlackLantern]

There's a ton of other indy, and small yet signed bands that get DLC, like Paul & Storm, Jonathan Coulton, MC Frontalot, Black Tide, Kasabian, Silversun Pickups, and Endeverafter, just to name a few. Here, take a look at the DLC list...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Complete_list_of_downloadable_songs_for_the_Rock_Band_series

While Harmonix bands like Freezepop, Vagiant, and Bang Camaro, among others, certainly are in the game cause of the links to Harmonix, they still have quite a few bands with no connection at all to the company. I think it's great that you'll have weeks where you'll get Foreigner and then something by a band like Black Rebel Motorcycle Club. The Foreigner stuff probably sold a hundred times more, but they still gave a smaller band some exposure.

and that's great, I guess....but these big companies aren't obligated to do so and bring the "underappreciated" music to the masses...

to be fair..I'm not a big fan of these music games...to me it's essentially musical Tetris....

 

[C. Lee]

I've heard quite a bit of Taylor Switfs music, and most of it can be boiled down into exactly what I described it as. You finding a wet hole that will let you impregnate and popping out a couple of snot nosed brood doesn't make you any more of a person than I am, either, and it doesn't make your opinions any more valid. Taylor Swift may write her own music and play her own instruments, but she only has a contract because the record companies know EXACTLY what her target audience is, and that's females between the ages of 13 and 25, the same group that Twilight is targeted at. If you like that kind of thing, fine, great, go hog wild. But it's F**KING WEIRD. You're like a thirty year old listening to Britney Spears.

And playing both games doesn't give you the "best of both music game worlds" it just gives you one good game and one terrible game that's completely disrespectful to musicians, is obviously put together by people who have no passion or love of music, and the ideas are all approved by committee.

And I'm sorry if it somehow offends you that I hate a company that pretty much represents the absolute worst of American corporate culture. When a companies CEO comes right out and says that they're trying to make sure none of their employees are having any fun, and are kept in line by fear, I get visions of the s**t that guys like him pulled in the 20's and 30's, and am wondering, with the recession, how close we are to ending up in another situation like we had with the strike busters and other such incidents back then.

Believe it or not...it is possible to discuss, debate, and disagree with someone without resorting to offensive personal attacks against their family. What you did does not enforce or backup your part of the argument, it just makes you look petty and rude. Do not continue to act this way.