Off Topic: The NYTimes' Rob Walker on one of my favorite video games, Guitar Hero III:
Guitar Hero offers a connection to all this, but departs from it in an
obvious way: You’re not actually playing the guitar. No matter how good
you may get at Guitar Hero, if you decide to take up the real
instrument at some point, you’ll be starting from scratch. (The reverse
is true as well: Slash, the guitarist of Guns N’ Roses and Velvet
Revolver fame, recently confided to Conan O’Brien
that while he enjoys Guitar Hero, and his actual playing is included in
the new version, he stinks at it. “It’s two different animals,” he
said.) This isn’t to say that Guitar Hero doesn’t require the steady
acquisition of a measurable skill. It does. It’s just not a skill that
involves creating music. But maybe that kid at Best Buy isn’t
fantasizing about the end of the long and tedious road to attaining
musical virtuosity and stardom; maybe, like the controllers of the
various warriors and outlaws and strategists whose triumphs unfold in
digitally created worlds, what he really wants to be is a great
pretender.
Interesting. But I have no doubt whatsoever that during the next year we'll start seeing Guitar Hero enthusiasts start creating original scores via either an upcoming version of the game or some kind of hack/plug-in. The future of music is interactive gaming, bet on it.
And for those of you who doubt there's any skill involved in Guitar Hero, watch this video of an absurdly talented faux shredder.
