#NerdsUnite: Confessions of a videogame journalist
<editorsnote> Nerds, meet my buddy John. We started talking on the twitter not too long ago, and then he reached out and asked if he could write for us regarding his journey through the nerdy realm. I was all DUDDEEE!! That's so raaaddd!! And now, here we are. Like right now, in real time, this is happening. Pretty cool huh? HIT IT JOHN!!! </editorsnote>
#TalkNerdyToMeLover's John Sollitto
Awwww yeah! Rock and roll baby! It’s been a heck of a week so far. For those of you who don’t know, I’ve been conducting an experiment with my team to see if the game Rocksmith to see if it can teach a couple of guys like us how to play guitar.
Not only that, we had a couple of guys learn with tabs to see if there was a difference in learning on your own without the game and learning with the aid of Ubisoft’s newest game.
So this week we’ve been buckling down cause we’re going to test ourselves and see if we can actually play the songs we’ve been learning for the past two weeks. If you want a rundown of the WHOLE experiment look at my last article here on TNTML and you’ll get the whole explanation.
Here’s a couple of pictures of science happening:
This here is Russell, he’s one of our tab guinea pigs and he’s workin’ away. ^
Little artistic over-the-shoulder-shot of Heath, our other tab guinea pig, playing his first round on the game this week. ^
Mike is rockin’ out and I’m all tuckered out napping behind him from…well I was just napping. ^
I won’t give you all of the observations we’ve made because then what would be the point of watching the videos we’re painstakingly making. And by “we” I mean Michael, since he’s our editor and camera dude. Jesus too. That being said I’ll tell you a couple of things that are somewhat personal for me about the experiment and keep the academia out of it.
My. Fingers. HURT. I mean seriously. I have such a newfound respect for all guitar players just from the sheer amount of pain my fingertips are feeling. Also, the rest of my hand is cramping from trying to stretch up the guitar neck to get to the frets. Having written that sentence, I now feel a little bit dirty. But in all seriousness, you would think that after years of playing videogames I would have some marginal hand and fingers strength. Apparently that is a fallacy.
Funny thing too. Now, I’m not as good as Mike and Jesus have become, which I am totally okay with admitting; but, despite all the frustration and hundreds of times I’ve practiced, I really haven’t given up at trying to really learn this song. This has been a REALLY great exercise in patience for me.
There’s also something to be said about learning music that’s really therapeutic. I mean, this has been a BLAST, win lose or draw. I mean, even if in two weeks I still can’t play the whole song, I don’t care. I’m going to keep at this. I love doing it. It’s a peaceful thing to me and I really enjoy being a part of the music in a way I never really was before. Sure, I sang along, but now I feel really connected to it and I can really “rock out” you know? It’s another form of expression for me that I’m definitely going to pursue.
Looking at all the work I’ve put in (all the work meaning two weeks of just learning which is infinitesimal to the years of work other musicians put into this), I really look at musicians as artists and artisans more than I did before. Sure, I knew they were skilled, I mean, how they could not be? But looking at how their music is structured, looking at how dexterous their hands are and the amount of patience and concentration they must have, there really is a whole different level that people don’t see if they don’t enter the world of actually playing or making music.
On the gaming side, I can say this: EDUCATIONAL GAMES CAN WORK! Holy crap! I really didn’t think I would ever say that but sweet-tap-dancing-Moses this game WORKS. I mean, if this game could be used for anything after this experiment, it should be used as a model for other companies to just see how practical and fun a learning game like this can be. I am just so impressed and incredibly proud to see that our generation of games has produced a game like this that is both functional and fun.
Now all they have to do is increase the set-list. :D
Well nerds, it’s been fun but I gotta get back to rockin’ out! Love all, serve all!
#nerdsunite
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