Why My Father Is Wrong: A Defense of Guitar Hero

(whatever.scalzi.com)

43 points | by Tomte 4 hours ago

7 comments

  • bjelkeman-again 3 hours ago
    Even better: pick up Rocksmith, or one of the many clones being built by people using <ghasp> LLMs, and learn to play a real guitar.

    I did, and I now play bass in a hardrock/metall band. One of my guitarist started with guitar hero, moved on to Rocksmith, and here we are. Band practice tonight for a gig at one of the best little music venues in Stockholm, Sweden next month. (Which I am arranging.) Good things come from doing fun things.

    • wodenokoto 3 hours ago
      Went to the website and I still don't really understand what it is, other than "learn to play the guitar/bass/keyboard for free", which can be a million things.

      I assume you use a real instrument to play the game, but how? Do I connect my guitar to my PC? How? If not, how can it give me feedback? If I don't use a real instrument, then what?

      • happymellon 2 hours ago
        Rocksmith requires a dongle to connect your guitar to the USB.
      • Hamuko 2 hours ago
        >I assume you use a real instrument to play the game, but how? Do I connect my guitar to my PC?

        I use Yousician on my Mac to learn the guitar and the bass, and you just connect your instrument via an audio interface to the computer, and it gets your playing from that. I use a fourth-generation Scarlett Solo as my interface. I presume the Rocksmith dongle is ultimately just an audio interface too. Probably a pretty cheap one too.

    • happymellon 2 hours ago
      Oh, is Rocksmith now using LLMs?

      It's been around since 2011 so for the majority of its life its not been that.

      • poloniculmov 2 hours ago
        no, there's slopsmith, which is a vibe-coded alternative that's been embraced by the rocksmith community. It's turning into what everybody hoped Rocksmith+ will be.
        • jo-han 2 hours ago
          It's called fee[dB]ack now, at https://got-feedback.org/

          The project got renamed after a DMCA takedown.

        • happymellon 2 hours ago
          I misread about the clones part.

          Yeah, some are looking really good!

    • KingFelix 3 hours ago
      Sweet!!! Go shred!!! post some music!
    • Yokolos 2 hours ago
      Not everybody wants to learn to play a real guitar though. I play Guitar Hero for fun and entertainment as she clearly states in her post. It's literally just a game and it never pretends to be a way to learn how to play a real guitar. And when I've played it for a few weeks, I can put it down and play another game from my massive collection without the guilt associated with buying a guitar and the USB interface needed for Rocksmith and feeling like I've abandoned yet another hobby. Guitar Hero is guilt-free fun. That's valuable in itself.
  • hrunt 3 hours ago
    These two articles remind me of the old Point/Counterpoint from the Onion[0]. I feel like someone wrote the first article so they could write the second as a bit of absurdity.

    [0]https://theonion.com/opinion/point-counterpoint/

  • rcleveng 3 hours ago
    I loved guitar hero.

    Back before my interview with Google, I was super nervous, so I played guitar hero for a few hours in the morning before going down to Mountain View for the interview.

    It worked, I needed something to take my mind off of the CLR algo book I had been cramming to re-remember things forgotten. Fun times!

  • happymellon 1 hour ago
    Presumably in the same manner that I didn't play Celeste to become good at mountain climbing...
  • Ouman 2 hours ago
    A lot of the tension around generative AI comes from the fact that the abstraction layer is often presented as interchangeable with the underlying craft
  • p0w3n3d 1 hour ago
    Guitar hero was amazing. I wonder if it is possible to still buy the gear
  • zirkonit 3 hours ago
    At some point, the rabid anti-generative AI crowd becomes tiring. This is extremely masturbatory and very intellectually lazy piece of writing whose only purpose is to raise cheers from the same echo chamber an author is in.
    • otabdeveloper4 2 hours ago
      It's a reaction. Nobody would be "anti-AI" if AI wasn't being shoved into everything while at the same time shaming you like you're stupid for not enjoying literal slop.
      • foo12bar 2 hours ago
        [flagged]
        • happymellon 2 hours ago
          I do, and I deal with it all the time.

          Sometimes I get code handed to review that has to same variables set multiple times, additional classes/methods/functions added that aren't used, and when questioned I get a shrug as a response.

          Slop.

          Sometimes they review it and tidy before handing it over. Much like although we have printing presses, hopefully someone reviews it to make sure that they actually printed square on the page.

          Not slop.

          The problem is that we have lazy people and mandatory LLM usage has forced us to confront these people that don't even proof what they write. Before they would just hide in the background and not do anything.

          Literal slop.

          • foo12bar 1 hour ago
            No, this isn't what I mean. What does the word "literal" mean to you?

            Because to me it means the opposite of figurative.

            Ex., if I say "It literally costs an arm and a leg", that means I'm really paying in body parts.

            Or if I say "Your book bag literally weighs a ton", it means I'm saying it's actually 2000 lbs. and would take heavy machinery to lift it.

            Or in this case, you are saying the "slop" program or code somehow actually transformed into some mystery food melted into a gelatinous dish when you add "literal" to it.

            • debugnik 19 minutes ago
              Welcome to hyperbole.