The most fun I've ever had in gaming was during the peak of the Rock Band/Guitar Hero era

[Deleted member 12129]

This is something I was thinking about lately for some reason. I enjoy my gaming time but I tend to play alone 99% of the time on PC, occasionally with friends online. I get a few hours in after the kids are asleep and before I go to bed myself. It's a good routine. I miss the social side of gaming I used to have.

It made me think back to the peak of the plastic instrument craze from 2007-2010. It was tons of fun, and I picked up an interest in a lot of classic rock I hadn't heard before. I loved Rock Band, and the way it was able to pull in people who weren't gamers at the time still impresses me to this day. I remember having friends and family over to play 4 player Rock Band, or break it out at parties. I carted my Rock Band gear in a 6 hour drive to an Easter get together in 2008 with extended family and we played Rock Band with family who had never played a videogame before, and probably hasn't played one since.

It was the type of fun I haven't been able to replicate since as there really hasn't been a social gathering type of game that has come close. Rock Band 4 came and went rather quietly, and by that point people weren't interested in the fad anymore.

Anyway, I guess I was just thinking of fond gaming memories a lot lately and that era always sticks out in my mind as the one that brought me the most happiness. Just thought I'd share in hopes that others thought the same.

 

[fracas]

I've been really wanting to play RB4 but secondhand instrument prices are ridiculous

Full band experience is pretty much the best MP of all time, though. Ultimate party game

 

[IsThatHP]

Yeah, spent my college years with it. Good times. No, great times, maybe my best times.

We still play RB4 on occasion but I really wish they had released more character customization options over the years. We're all getting older and a lot of us get a bit bashful about singing now, which is a bummer.

 

[lobdale]

Yeah, the Rock Band days were a real treat. It's too bad Activision basically destroyed the market by flooding it with tons of shit way too fast, and then the whole Rock Band/GH competition made it too confusing to ever really know what instruments worked on what game and what shit you needed. I still lament the fact that I moved overseas right when The Beatles Rock Band was released and by the time I was back home and could theoretically set about tracking down instruments it was basically impossible to find and now all the DLC is gone.

That was a real special era of communal gaming, we'd routinely have packed living rooms with everyone singin and stomping their feet, even our local bar had a Rock Band night once a week. It all just kinda... evaporated.

 

[Deleted member 8752]

That was what the Wii was for me, which was during the same timeframe. It came out when I was in college and literally everyone liked it. It was very social and made for some of the most fun times I've had with the hobby.

Hardc0re gamerz!!!111 hated this stuff and continue to trash it. But they really missed what made those initiatives so cool.

 

[Deleted member 2172]

I know exactly what you mean OP. Those were some damn good times. Many, many gatherings and parties with friends and family enjoying great music together.

After various attempts over the years to get back in to it with friends and family I've largely come to accept that it was just a really awesome time in our lives and leave it at that. No use trying to recapture that magic when it'll never compare to back then. It just ain't the same.

 

[Man Called Aerodynamics]

Yeah, those games were special. I get that the bubble burst; the market couldn't support 50,000 plastic instrument games.

But the current market really can't support any? Even just pure singing games. Why isn't there a new Lips or SingStar? No one wants to buy that, really?

It's like the toys-to-life craze (which I also liked)... It sucks that the market cannot seem to find an equilibrium point. It goes from 0 to 100 and then back to 0.

 

[Deleted member 2172]

Yeah, those games were special. I get that the bubble burst; the market couldn't support 50,000 plastic instrument games.

But the current market really can't support any? Even just pure singing games. Why isn't there a new Lips or SingStar? No one wants to buy that, really?

It's like the toys-to-life craze (which I also liked)... It sucks that the market cannot seem to find an equilibrium point. It goes from 0 to 100 and then back to 0.

Click to shrink...

I think it is somewhat that. I don't think these games sell nearly enough to justify all the licensing costs required for the popular songs that people want to perform. I think RB4 does still get DLC though, and Rocksmith has a strong community around it.

 

[SeanShards]

But the current market really can't support any? Even just pure singing games. Why isn't there a new Lips or SingStar? No one wants to buy that, really?

Click to shrink...

Twitch Sings is completely free (I think there are paid cosmetics coming as an update) and AFAIK you don't have to livestream to be able to use it as a karaoke game. It does require an internet connection to play the songs.

https://www.twitch.tv/sings/en-gb/download/

Searchable list of songs: https://songlist.sings.twitch.tv/

 

[Goldenroad]

I had a Rock Band named Baked Potato, and I went by Pepper Jack. It was pretty fun.

"Motoring!!! What's your price for flight"...over and over again.

Then I moved into a 2nd floor condo in 2009 and the first time we pulled out the drums we got the people from the floor below banging on the ceiling. Thus ended the righteous reign of Baked Potato.

 

[Foxtastical]

I just played a bit of RB4 this past weekend because I too remembered how fun gaming was during that period. It's a little weird to think about how big that shit got and then how quickly it died. I'm happy it came out when I was in college. Always had a good group to play with.

And then damn, I really wanted to play Beatles Rock Band, but it's really expensive to get 360/PS3 instruments now. I only have the Xbox One shit cause I got it for cheap, and I doubt Beatles Rock Band will ever be BC.

 

[Taker34]

I think it is somewhat that. I don't think these games sell nearly enough to justify all the licensing costs required for the popular songs that people want to perform. I think RB4 does still get DLC though, and Rocksmith has a strong community around it.

Click to shrink...

Yeah though the DLC output is just a former shadows of itself in terms of quality and release frequency. Like you've said due to licensing they probably don't make that much profit and juggling all those expired licenses + negotiations must be a nightmare. Then they have to add the notes for all instruments AND work with the original master tapes for their multitrack format (which they dropped doing for some songs afaik).

I still love them for making many master tracks available unintentionally, since their multitrack songs eventually are being distributed over the internet but the game genre itself is slowly fading into obscurity.

 

[Deleted member 17210]

Those guitar controllers elevated the rhythm genre to a new level for me. And I had wanted a Beatles video game ever since watching Yellow Submarine as a kid.

 

[Mesoian]

There are days where I think about buying a full rockband set off ebay.

That feeling usually gets sated by a good few rounds of Beat Saber though.

 

[Deleted member 13328]

Would always play it before going out drinking, everyone participated, even people who never liked video games.

 

[hollams]

I still play it a quite a bit. It got me started playing the drums and I bought an electronic drum kit that I've had all these years and still a blast to play. I will be bummed when no more music comes out.

 

[Deleted member 2172]

I still love them for making many master tracks available unintentionally, since their multitrack songs eventually are being distributed over the internet but the game genre itself is slowly fading into obscurity.

Click to shrink...

Totally. Those master tracks are complete blessings. When I begin learning a song on guitar one of the first things I do is check if it was ever released on gh/rb LOL.

Then I moved into a 2nd floor condo in 2009 and the first time we pulled out the drums we got the people from the floor below banging on the ceiling. Thus ended the righteous reign of Baked Potato.

Click to shrink...

Those kick drums were so loud on the floor. We got the cushionest rug we could find specifically to counter the thud that echoed through the floor when trying to do stuff like Enter Sandman on expert.

That feeling usually gets sated by a good few rounds of Beat Saber though.

Click to shrink...

Beat Saber is like the spiritual nephew of the gh/rb era. Its not quite the same, but at the same time its satisfying enough! Great game.

 

[DarthBuzzard]

OP, you should try to demo an Oculus Quest with Beat Saber. If you like it, share it with the family by casting it to a screen and you'll have some new memories to make that will feel very reminiscent of those Rock Band days.