Rock Band Rigopulos: We Dismissed Wii Mote Drums

Plus:iTunes alike Rock Band service a maybe

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Rock Band Rigopulos: We Dismissed Wii Mote Drums
Alex Rigopulos, CEO of Rock Band developer, Harmonix, has dished up his views on the drum feature in Wii Music. In a nutshell, he's not sold on it.

Speaking in an interview, Rigopulos said, "I have not heard enough about it to have an informed opinion. However, I will say in the early days of the Wii when it was first announced, we contemplated using the Wiimote for a drumming interface.

"We backed away from it because we found that the tactile element of actually hitting a surface when you're drumming is a fairly critical part to the visceral feel of actually playing drums. So when you're air drumming, it was a critical element you're missing in the experience. So that's one of the reasons we backed away from it and decided to build a custom drum peripheral."

As a weak critique of a rival game this one just about takes the biscuit though. If Alex is going take his logic to its conclusion then the entire rhythm game genre would fall to bits at the seams based on the fact that if you really want "the visceral feel of actually playing drums", go and use a real drum kit. If the idea is for the critical experience of 'air drumming' then, surely, using the Wiimote to drum in the air is about as genuine as it gets?

Be prepared for more inter-rhythm game sniping in forthcoming weeks.

Rigopulos also hinted that a music store that enables songs in Rock Band to be transferred to non-console media may be in the works. When he was asked if such as a platform is being considered, he said, "Certainly these sorts of things are obviously on our mind, looking at how music and interactive music can be delivered together to consumers, and there are a lot of options that we're contemplating but nothing we're ready to talk about specifically at this point."

Activision's CEO, Bobby Kotick, recently suggested that such a service might be spawned from the Guitar Hero franchise.

Source: GameDaily.biz

Comments

realvictory 28 Jul 2008 12:07
1/5
As a weak critique of a rival game this one just about takes the biscuit though. If Alex is going take his logic to its conclusion then the entire rhythm game genre would fall to bits at the seams based on the fact that if you really want "the visceral feel of actually playing drums", go and use a real drum kit. If the idea is for the critical experience of 'air drumming' then, surely, using the Wiimote to drum in the air is about as genuine as it gets?


No, I think there is a difference between using drums as a peripheral, and drum games in general. For example, there could be a game that did use real drums as a peripheral, but it wouldn't stop it being a game.

I think that with Rock Band, they made a good decision. Feeling that you're actually hitting drums adds to the experience. However, Wii Music is a different game, and if using the Wii remote suits that particular game best, then that's alright.
TimSpong 28 Jul 2008 14:13
2/5
realvictory wrote:
No, I think there is a difference between using drums as a peripheral, and drum games in general. For example, there could be a game that did use real drums as a peripheral, but it wouldn't stop it being a game.


I take your point. However, Alex calls is criticising an 'air drumming' that uses a mechanism that enables you to air drum.

Seems a bit of a piss weak critique to me.

Cheers

Tim
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PreciousRoi 28 Jul 2008 15:10
3/5
I disagree. I would say rather that using the WiiMote for drumming sounds rather a piss weak alternative to a real fake drum kit.
TimSpong 28 Jul 2008 15:24
4/5
PreciousRoi wrote:
I disagree. I would say rather that using the WiiMote for drumming sounds rather a piss weak alternative to a real fake drum kit.


Yeah, not for an 'air drumming' game though. I'll keep saying that until someone listens to me.

I mean, sure, a "fake drum kit game" is all well and good - I know that many people out there get a great deal of pleasure from it. But if I'm going to play an air drumming game, I want to drum the air!

(Actually, I want a Gene Krupa air-drumming kit... no, I want Gene Krupa's talent and Bonzo's kit ... or maybe Topper Headon's talent and Neil Peart's kit... in the goddam air!)
PreciousRoi 29 Jul 2008 05:31
5/5
Sounds like something you'd want a mo cap suite or something similar for...I'm afraid using a WiiMote or something similar would result in Wiidestruction with possible Wiicarnage...and I'm not talking about the good kind of destruction and carnage here, someone might lose an eye via flying WiiMote...

As far as the fake drum kit goes, I understand that there is a "real" kit of electronic drums which will be fully usable as a controller for Rock Band 2. As far as the standard issue drum "controllers", they aren't missing much are they? I mean with a bit of pressure sensitivity they might as well be as real as electronic drums can get, not so? I'm sure I'd rather have my kid, if I had one, banging away on his Rock Band kit than one of theose infernal snare drums that was what they gave to the kids to practice with in my day...I'm actually a bit of a frustrated drummer myself, when the time came around to pick instruments they went alphabetically and all the Amys went for drums, I was left with my second choice saxaphone, which even in the 5th grade I recognized as the sexiest of the woodwinds, indeed of the entire band, bar the glockenspiel. Alas, I wasn't much for marching or uniforms...funny, I guess I should have remembered that later in life, oh well...
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