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I love karaoke, and I'm a horrible singer. But that's okay - people don't go to karaoke to get a singing lesson, and folks don't play Rock Band to become a guitar hero or a rocksmith. A lot of music games might now focus on teaching players how to play real instruments and the like, but Rock Band is happily going back to basics after figuring out what's really important to its fans. "We really took a hard look at what the fantasy of Rock Band was," Harmonix' product director Daniel Sussman told me at a hands-on event. "What were we trying to do? And if we could go back in time and do it better, what would we do?"Authenticity is funny because on the one hand it's like, you don't wanna be a caricature. At the same time what we're building is a fantasy, and Rock Band works because it invites you to sort of forget about the fact that you're in your living room. And it's a weird thing in the context of Rock Band 3 because I feel like we got away from the fantasy and, you know, I'm really proud of the work we did with Rock Band Pro and sort of the idea that rock band can be this gateway to actual music enjoyment. But that's not the point, you know, and the point is to invite people to get that feeling, that rush of what it feels like."
The rush of what that feels like is perhaps a lure for some people, but I think for a lot of others it's the ability to revel in some silliness with your friends to the (approximate) tune of some of your favourite songs. Hitting all the right notes and achieving 100 per cent on everything will always be the goal for more goal-oriented players, but for many the best Rock Band moments, historically, are when you're crooning along, adding your own flourishes or riffs or doing your best Christina Aguilera impression to a Darkness song - usually at 3am and with kebab sauce still on your fingers.
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