Remember RedOctane? I sure do. It went from making game controllers (and renting games!) to releasing an $80 peripheral with a game called Guitar Hero. I thought it was nuts for doing this. But almost six years later it looks like one of the greatest videogame risks and success stories (after the Nintendo Wii).
As I am not a big follower of Guitar Hero record-breaking, Annie Leung, has flown below the radar despite the apparent abundance of photo shoots and public appearances documented all over the Internet. This UC Berkeley graduate—who claims to practice four to six hours at a time before a competition—has reached the top of her… sport(?) and set the official Guinness World Record for female Guitar Hero players.
An article in the November 2008 issue of IEEE Spectrum Online describes how Guitar Hero is being used to help "train" artificial arms for amputees. It's part of the Revolutionizing Prosthetics (RP) 2009 project, sponsored by the U.S. Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA). One of the RP 2009 project's goals is that:
[i]n four years, DSO [the Defense Services Office] will deliver a prosthetic for clinical trials that has function almost identical to a natural limb in terms of motor control and dexterity, sensory feedback (including proprioception), weight, and environmental resilience. The four-year device will be directly controlled by neural signals.
Guitar Hero: World Tour – 1
Rock Band 2 – 0
For proof that Cinderella stories can happen even in the world of videogames, one need look no further than the Guitar Hero franchise. When the series started a few years back, it was an almost off the radar game that only the most hardcore rhythm game fanatics were following. Now, it's a pop culture phenomenon.
According to ESRB, this game contains: Lyrics, Mild Suggestive Themes
For a long time I resisted playing the original Guitar Hero. I had read the rave reviews. I had heard the buzz from friends. But I dismissed it out of hand, figuring that it was somehow beneath me. Being an accomplished guitarist, why would I want to pay 80 dollars to play songs on a fake guitar that I can already play in real life? So when Guitar Hero II came out, I hardly gave it a thought.
According to ESRB, this game contains: Lyrics
Cool as it may be to have a tool to be a groupie-getter, there is another point to Guitar Hero—it's also about making music.
According to the ESRB, this game contains: Mild Lyrics
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