DarkRealityX
Member
2009 CGS
Chocowinity, NC, USA
Posts: 4 |
Hey, this is Nathan J., bassist for DysS\MemB/EreD; we came in third at the Rock Band 2 tournament. As do others, I have a few suggestions for how the tournament could be improved next year. So it isn't assumed I'm (or we're) "just jealous" of the winners, that isn't the case at all, when it came to the finals, all 12 band members got along great, we all wished each other well. We brought our A game and did our best; whatever else may be said about anything, when it came to the finals, they simply did better and thusly deserved to beat us. That's fine. But the tournament itself was a damn shame at worst, disorganized at best, and to call it a "Summit" bordered on insulting. And while this is a long message, consider that half of it is problems from an unbiased perspective, and the other half is the solutions, the tips for how to do this better next year.
1a. Hardware Problems
The equipment was a joke. The projectors and the Xbox were fine. Both guitars (as well as the drums) were specifically Rock Band 1 controllers and inferior to the Rock Band 2 instruments people were used to. One guitar had a stiff strum bar; when you're playing on Expert (as we all were) that's really hard when notes are literally right on top of one another. A loose strum bar is kinda OK, but when you have to exert twice as much or more energy to something you're doing 300-700 times per song, well, it's unacceptable. The other guitar was wireless, but its battery cover was missing and the batteries were held in by duct tape, and badly at that; they kept coming out. On top of that the tilt sensor in the guitar's neck (to deploy the overdrive) was broken, so the player had to strike the "back" button just below the strum bar, usually causing them to miss notes (and break the score multiplier). Lastly during the finals, the drum set was sliding around on the floor, causing problems for all three drummers.
One band was almost disqualified because one of the guitars was left in left-handed mode and the guitarist was right-handed, so all the notes were backwards. The microphone settings were set wrong and everyone had to learn to adapt, without setting the mic settings through trial and error as would happen in a normal environment. Worse than any of that, the game had a lag (the music plays desynchronized with the falling notes, meaning a player who gets into the rhythm as opposed to sight reading will have a hell of a time hitting anything) that was only not fixed, but the tournament director just laughed and told people to "suck it up".
1b. Hardware Solutions
Look, if you're going to have a Rock Band tournament (and use the word "Summit" which means peak, or top), use top quality instruments. The Xboxes were new; at least use new instruments. This would have eliminated 90% of the problems. A simple adjustment to the drums (rubber feet/stoppers) would have fixed that bit as well. At the least they could have cleaned up the instruments, fixed them up. The stuck strum bar was probably a result of someone spilling a soda on the guitar, probably something real sticky like root beer. The broken tilt sensor is a common problem actually, but it would have been nice if both the guitars had working tilt sensors (and one did, the one with the stuck strum bar). And battery covers are not hard to find; there was simply no excuse for the duct tape rig job.
As for the left-handed mode and vocals settings, they should have taken the time before each song to ensure everything's set right. Each singer would only have to configure the mic once, and jot down the settings, and then quickly apply the settings each time they played. The lag should have been fixed. Call for volunteers "who's the best at fixing lag?". It's not an ego thing at all. If you suck at fixing lag, you're not gonna try to look good. Get a few people who actually know how to work out the lag (the game makes it fairly easy) and have them all work out a consensus. Not that hard.
2a. Organizational Problems
First, we were either told or given the impression that 3-person bands were acceptable. We came as a 3 piece band. I as the singer's husband and the drummer's girlfriend as well, were just there for support. She can't play and doesn't ever try, and while I'm OK on bass, I'm not tournament level by any stretch of the imagination. I can *pass* songs but I don't usually get above 90% (though in the 85-90 range) unless I know the song. So when we were told all of a sudden bands have to have all four positions filled, I joined in at the last minute. Other 3-piece bands simply folded, either unwilling to add someone they didn't know, and/or spectators who knew the game but didn't have bands were unwilling to join a stranger's band.
The first round was messy. First, we had nine teams, so 1v1 was a bad idea. The solution? The tournament director's children formed a band. A six-year-old girl (who couldn't read) on vocals, a 7-8 year old boy on one guitar, a 9-10 year old boy on drums, and a 12-13 year old boy on the other guitar. They did "Eye of the Tiger" by Survivor (the director's pick, it's the easiest song on the game) and "Give it All" by Rise Against, the hardest song played in the tournament, the other band's pick. The kids barely passed "Eye of the Tiger" and failed "Give it All" (ya think?). The idea of each band picking 1 song and both doing it was OK, but we unwittingly got an unfair advantage over our opponents by choosing "New Kid in School" by The Donnas, as our (female) singer could sing it but theirs (male) couldn't. I only picked it because I knew it well, and also because I thought it would appeal to the kids; they didn't like the music that was being played, especially the girl, and I figured a "girl song" would be both good for them and easy for me (because again, I suck at the game). A band shouldn't lose in the first round because their singer, a guy, can't sing like a girl, but then again, that's an inherent flaw in the game itself. Girls can sing the guy songs, but guys can't sing the girl songs. The tone and pitch are too high for a guy to reach. This is well known and isn't even a question. There's also talk that the band who advanced to round 2 by beating the kids went straight to the finals, not having to play "Drain You" by Nirvana (all the second round consisted of). They beat little kids and then they beat us, including me who sucks at the game. Again, they beat us fair and square, but for their credit, they should have been given a little more chance to show it than just us and kids.
During the finals, we were on stage and to the left. We were visible to the audience, but off to the side. This made the leftmost player's notes (in this case, lead guitar) obscured by the shadow of the band members. (Double negative on us because our guitarist is the star of our band, he gets the best scores anyway.)
Additionally, the line to get into the place was way too long, and it took way too long to get in. It was fairly warm, but let's think about this a second, shall we? North Carolina. February. Anybody else making the connection? Nights and early mornings see below-freezing temperatures in the South all winter long. People had children in that line. Telling people they had to stand outside for an hour while they figured things out inside was only OK because of a fluke with the weather. Had it been the prior Saturday, things would be different. Next year they just might be.
2b. Organizational Solutions
For bands, make it clear on the web site that bands must have all four members. Host a service on the site/forums where people can recruit, exchange gamer tags, and practice together well in advance of the show. Though Rock Band is competitive, more than most video games, it tends to foster good sportsmanship among its players, from what I've seen, including what I saw at the tournament. Nobody beat anybody, they/we simply got higher scores. As I said, it was all very friendly at the finals. We even got email addresses from the other two bands to share our pics (and by the way, if anyone else wants those, send an email to darkreality@gmail.com and we'll get them to you). So it was really all good. Build on that at the organization level, get a community of gamers, and also let them in on the planning process, to an extent. This will turn out more complete bands and everyone will know where they stand.
Nine bands (or a multiple of 3 but not 2, e.g. 15 bands, 21 bands, etc.), what to do? First off, I don't mean to be mean to the kids. D-Squad should have opened the tournament with three easy songs and the game set to No-Fail mode. That would break the ice and set the mood. (Also that girl should know how to read next year, my niece is a year younger and she's learning to read now, in Kindergarten.) For groups of 3 you group the bands up into groups of three. Bands A, B, and C make a circle. Bands D, E, and F make a circle. Bands G, H, and I make a circle. Each band chooses one song. One song is chosen at random by the tournament director. Each band does all four songs. And these should be done concurrently in different rooms if possible. You take the lowest score - that band is eliminated, everyone else moves on. Now the circles are A & B, D & E, and G & H because C, F, and I were eliminated. Now move one band from each circle to the next circle, so the circles become B & D, E & G, and A & H. Now each band comes up with one song and the tournament director picks a song as well, so all three do the three songs, one song being the same for all three groups. Again highest score moves on. Then you have 3, and then the finals go as we had them, the scores determining 1st, 2nd, and 3rd.
Gender matching should be considered. Put bands with female singers together, so nobody can get an unfair advantage. If a band with a male singer has to go up against a band with a female singer, songs with female vocals need to be excluded. Gender should not be a handicap, no ifs, ands, or buts. Gaming should transcend things like race and gender, so keep it all even and fair. For the finals, either the projection should have been above us or to the side of us. The projection should not have been obscured by the players. That's just daft, no two ways about it.
And as for the line, first of all, sell tickets in advance and let people buy them online and have a secondary entrance for this. I realize this was done, to an extent, but the tickets had to be bought well in advance. There were no ticket sales in the week leading up to the event. The economy is in a bit of a recession, maybe people have to wait until payday to buy their tickets. Also, send a couple guys out into the crowd to sell tickets to the line. This one-at-a-time mess took too long. I saw organizers standing around twiddling their thumbs; they could have been selling tickets, getting people in the door faster. Also, how about some entertainment, keep peoples' minds off the line. Get an Xbox or PlayStation with a wireless Internet connection and have it playing game trailers or something.
3. Summary
All in all it was a good event. Anything that gets people together and having fun is going to be a good thing, regardless of the stupid mistakes made along the way. Especially if you're willing to listen to constructive criticism, as this ever aspires to be, and use that to make the next year's event even better. A tournament, a summit should highlight the skills of the gamers and allow them to show off these skills and allow them to compete on even turf on a grander scale than they can do in their living room and on a more interpersonal level than Xbox Live and the PlayStation Network allow. The games themselves are all about overcoming the adversity the game throws at the player; the event should not add to that; rather it should seek to facilitate the environment, make it enjoyable, and as a side effect, make it appealing to the spectators.
I can't speak for the rest of my band (which I wasn't a part of before this weekend, but I am now, and I'll begin practicing with them and on my own) but if I had my way, DysS\MemB/EreD will be there next year and we will be in it to win it. I just hope y'all are ready for us (and that the bands who played with us this year can make it out as well).
PS - I wrote that at work and I'm just now posting it, having gotten home, and unable to access this site at work. This is my first time using this site after registering here and signing up for the tournament at Wayne Community College. Two things I saw here; one, the description for the "last year" subforum says something like "unlikely to be similar to this year"; two, a lot of topics about what went wrong this year. I'd like to believe the problems weren't the same both years and that mistakes made in '08 were corrected for this year and I hope that '10 will be even better. |
|
DarkRealityX
Member
2009 CGS
Chocowinity, NC, USA
Posts: 4 |
I am sorry my daughter, who is six, cant read. My bad.
[Edited on 02/09/09 @ 11:16AM]
First of all, thank you for reading my comments. I thought they were a little long-winded, but that's just how I write. I can't really help it much. But I'm glad that a misunderstanding about something I said is the only misunderstanding in the entire post, makes me feel a whole lot better about us going next year.
I didn't make the comment that she couldn't read to be mean to her, but rather to point out that a band was given a pass all the way to the finals on account of merely beating children at a game not all of them had the resources to adequately play, not to mention including the easiest song in the game.
I was the guy who was telling you guys to make the second song "Testify" by Rage Against the Machine. The entire song is "talky parts" on vocals, which means you can be reading the dictionary, and you'll still get 100%. I suck on vocals. Bad. I get 75-80% on easy on songs I've been listening to for over 20 years. It's pathetic. Yet, I can put it on Testify, put it on Performance mode (which hides the words and the pitch/tone lines as well as the score and such) and STILL get 100% and gold star it. It is really that easy. Seriously, if you have the game at home, put your daughter on the microphone, have her go at it alone, put it on Expert, and tell her to just sing whatever, and then congratulate her when she gets 100%. Trust me, it'll be a hell of a confidence booster.
Actually I admire the fact that you let your kids play. I'm always trying to get my brother-in-law (our drummer) to let my niece play. She's 5 and wants to play guitar, but he doesn't trust her with his plastic instruments (LOL). So for her birthday this year we're giving her our old Guitar Hero 3 guitar. We're gonna take it apart first and paint it pink, maybe paint her name on it in purple or something, give her a sticker pack or two with it. He said she can play if she has her own guitar to break, so that's what we're doing.
Again it was inspiring for me to see kids playing (and they did alright on the easy song, which is great, your son can play the drums better than I can). Beating them shouldn't have passed a band to the next round, let alone skip the next round and advance straight to the finals.
If I might make a suggestion regarding the kids, give them a year to practice. Let them play the game on weekends and when their studies are done, and over the summer. Next year, rather than having them play in the classroom, during the playoffs, rather let them open the finals. Put No Fail mode on (unbeknown to the audience) and throw a couple easy songs at them. I think a lot of people would enjoy seeing that. |
|
