Rock Band – working together vs working apart part 2
I wrote earlier about my obsession with Pandemic; a new board game I picked up that forces people to work togther instead of against each other.
I forgot to mention another game from my past that had me at hello. Rock Band.
I remember my wife (GF at the time) asked me what I wanted for my birthday. I said Rock Band. Not only did I say I wanted it, I asked for it a week early and went to the store with her to buy it.
Much like my board game experiences of my youth, my video game experience were much more viceral, but far less tramatic. Mostly because I was better at Video Games at I could readily beat most of my friends.
But when Rock Band came out, magic happened. This game didn’t have people killing each other. Punching eachother (KO!) or even hurting eachother. We had to work together.
Now, co-op is nothing new in video games. Games like X-Men and TMNT, for instance, had you working together to defeat the bad guys. But Rock Band wasn’t about defeating anything. It was about creation. Colaborative creation. I remember the first couple of songs we played. I don’t think I’ve ever given so many high fives in my life. We all felt so good. Like we had done something special.
I’m not saying that Rock Band is a substitue for rehearsing, creating and performing in front of an audience. I know what that feels like too. But it was rare to feel that way when playing a video game. The feeling of making something instead of destroying something. I love a good spray of virtual blood as much as the next guy. But I’d choose Rock Band over that any day.
I can say that the majority of my Rock Band days are over. I don’t play as much as I used to anymore. When you start seeing colored bars in your sleep, it’s a good sign that you should stop playing and maybe proceed with living your life… maybe even picking up an actual guitar. So 5 sequels and three drums sets later (I play hard), I’ve finally put the musical controllers to rest.
Wait, they have a keyboard instrument now?
::Puff of smoke in the towards the nearest gamestop::
