The ‘Hero’ Hustle
Dan England
For Fort Collins Now
2:04 p.m. MT May 8, 2008
Christie Lind used to play piano, but only because her parents made her take lessons. She, like thousands of other kids forced to spend sunny days inside playing “Chopsticks,” hated it.
But, like thousands of others, she now spends those same sunny days inside playing “Guitar Hero.” She’s addicted to it.
“Guitar Hero,” in case you live on Planet Ambien, is a game where you push color-coded buttons on a “guitar” to play songs such as Heart’s “Barracuda,” Muse’s “Knights of Cydonia” and Kiss’ “Rock ’n’ Roll All Nite.” The game’s popularity really took off with “Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock” and has inspired contests in bars, “Guitar Hero” parties and YouTube clips of kids playing Dragonforce’s “Through The Fire And Flames,” the game’s toughest song.
Even the Greeley Stampede is hosting a “Guitar Hero” competition every Friday until May 23, offering free tickets to the Poison concert and, to the champion of the finals, a signed guitar from the band and a chance to meet them.
This week’s competition is at Old Chicago on Harmony Road in Fort Collins.
For Lind, the obsession started when she was visiting her cousins’ house one day and they were playing, and the little snots (they’re actually 13 and 10) were stomping her at the game. She’s 21 and was fed up. So she practiced, and then her husband, Eric, bought her the game.
“You feel like a rockstar when you play,” Lind said.
Eric bought the X-Box 360 for “Halo 3,” but his wife is dominating the console these days.
“I think, at times, he thinks, ‘I should have never bought that for her,’” she said and laughed.
The video game, along with the similar “Rock Band” (that one has more instruments), is one of the few that appeals to the masses. Females play it along with males, the 10-year-olds like it as much as the 40-year-olds (and they play the same songs, more on that in a minute) and even those who rarely play games (Lind was one of them) enjoy it.
“Halo 3” may be about destroying and shooting as many things as possible (albeit with a cool storyline), but Paige Omi, a freshman at the University of Boulder, loves the fact that “Guitar Hero” is one of the few popular games that isn’t about just blowing stuff up. She was at last Friday’s “Guitar Hero” contest.
“It’s a challenge but I can actually play it and understand it, unlike all those other games,” Omi said. “You can recognize the music and dance and play.”
A Wired article recently asserted that the game was turning people on to learning how to play real guitar. That could be true, with some guitar places offering discounts to gamers buying the real thing, but Rick Busson, who teaches guitar at Aims Community College, isn’t seeing it.
“People go on and on about the game,” Busson said. “But there doesn’t seem to be a connection there. Video games are instantaneous gratification. Music lessons don’t fit that description.”
It usually takes at least two years, Busson said, of hard work before a player gets something back.
“I think the game might create a misconception about how fast you can play guitar,” he said. “We already have a little bit of that with guitar anyway.”
Busson wants to play the game, however, and he does see some value in it. His daughter, Nicole, 19, plays the game.
“If it does spark an interest in music, if it makes people see the power of music, it could be a good thing,” he said. “But I don’t see Nicole picking up the guitar.”
Nick Glynn’s boys, however, just might learn to play an instrument because of “Guitar Hero” and “Rock Band.”
“We bought it for my kids to give them an appreciation for music,” said Glynn, 41, of Greeley. “Now they sing the songs on the radio and download them to their iPod.”
They wouldn’t have known many of the songs Glynn grew up with, and if they did, they’d probably think they were dorky, but now they like them. His 6-year-old daughter, Evy, loves to sing “Mississippi Queen” on “Rock Band.” His son, Zack, 12, wants to play the drums, and Dustyn, 10, loves the music as well.
So he only bought the game for his kids, right?
Well, no.
“I didn’t think I’d like it as much as I do, but it grabs you,” Glynn said. “Then Zack blows me away, and I say, ‘All right, let’s put it away.’”
TO GO:
• The Greeley Stampede Guitar Hero contest lasts for three more weeks.
• Tonight, Old Chicago, 4709 S. Timberline Road, Fort Collins.
• May 15 at the Cactus Canyon, 1742 Greeley Mall in Greeley.
• May 23 - Old Chicago, 2349 29th St., Greeley.
• Sign-up starts at 8:30 p.m. and the competition starts at 10 p.m. It is free to play.
