What is most interesting about Wii Music’s reactions are those from musicians. Far from being critical of Wii Music, musicians praise it. And when it comes to the rhythm games such as Guitar Hero and Rock Band, the same musicians scorn them. So what is going on here?
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This is why musicians love Wii Music while everyone else is confused about it. “You cannot mess up!” squeal the hardcore. But the purpose of music is not to play notes. Is the novelist about writing sentences and grammar? No, it is about writing stories. If it was writing, instead of music, then the rhythm games would be ‘grammar games’ set to people’s favorite stories, and an actual ’story game’ would be what WiiMusic is where sentences and grammar are no longer ‘issues’. Imagine if acting was seen as nothing more than ’saying lines’. How an actor would be horrified by that definition! And how guilty we would be if we believed it! Acting is far more than rote memorization. So why are ‘music’ games seen this way? It is because they are not music games at all. Even children instinctively realize this until their joy is trampled by mediocre teachers to ‘not make mistakes’ and to ‘make notes’
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This raises the question, why are rhythm games popular in the first place? The reason why is because people like to think they are a ‘rock star’ in an immersive way. The music also is well loved. However, all this music is not generated by the player. Rhythm games are little more than people attempting to immerse themselves into songs they love. There is nothing wrong about this in itself. But games such as Guitar Hero and Rock Band would be more accurately described as ‘music acting’ games as the player tends to act out the parts. In the same way, actors are immersed saying the lines of Shakespeare, but they are not poets or generating poetry simply by reciting Shakespeare. They are acting. Hitting inputs on plastic toy-like instruments is not generating music, it is acting as if the person is generating music. What the player is really generating is rhythm more or less.
So it is no wonder that musicians look at these rhythm games with such disappointment. Music is the most soul touching and transcending medium known to man, and such games have dulled the fantastic medium into nothing more than mechanical timed button presses.
