As the third installment of the Guitar Hero franchise makes its way to fans’ shelves, they know exactly what to expect: No matter how popular the game is, stuck-up non-believers will scoff before saying that you could have just learned how to play the real guitar with your time, and then scoff again for good measure.
Don’t let these poor fools get you down about purchasing Guitar Hero III (that’s EA’s job when Rock Band comes out this month). Here’s why learning to play real guitar just isn’t a viable alternative.
Playing guitar is HARD. I don’t know if you’re ever tried playing a guitar, but it’s not as easy as five colorful buttons and a single switch. Between six strings and more finger positions than the Kama Sutra, you won’t even have figured out how to play “Smoke on the Water” before you would’ve reached the final song in Guitar Hero. While some people spend a large amount of time playing Guitar Hero, the same time invested in the real instrument wouldn’t translate into equivalent shredding skills.
Learning guitar doesn’t guarantee rocking. Even if you did invest your time into mastering the guitar, it still doesn’t grant you the same experiences as Guitar Hero. To shred through the solo of “Bark at the Moon,” you would need to find talented musicians willing to form a band and indulge in playing guitar-heavy cover songs. Playing a video game for a few hours for a vaguely similar experience is sounding better all the time.
Guitar Hero is different from playing real guitar. Despite imitating its real-life counterpart, Guitar Hero appeals to gamers in a different way. Whereas a real guitar requires the player to remember finger positions, chords, strings and rhythms, people playing Guitar Hero just press colorful buttons in time with on-screen indications. This is why the game is so appealing: It simplifies playing a guitar into a fun and approachable formula that’s easy for everybody to pick up.
Learning to play guitar may be an easy comparison for those who have never tried Guitar Hero before, but don’t let their snide comments discourage you from enjoying your status as a virtual rock star. Not all of us want to spend the months required to master the instrument, form a band and learn the 40 or so songs from the game’s set list just to have a similar experience. The reason the Guitar Hero series has been so wildly popular is precisely because it’s simple, allowing gamers to feel the rush of being a rock star without the tedious bits of, you know, actually doing it. So slam your bright green and red frets proudly, and don’t let anybody make you feel like a lesser human being for it.