The Game Trust at E3

So the Rock Band/Harmonix suite that Alex Rigopulos invited colleague Scott Alexander and me up to? (I’d mentioned it last week in a previous post.)

Last Tuesday night Evan Narcisse, Gus “Wonder Beard” Mastrapa,” along with Libe Goad and Robin Yang from AOL/Game Daily and Dan “Dr. Sideburns” Ackerman from CNET all reported to the Wilshire Grand and took the elevator up to the top floor. We listened for the muted sounds of someone warbling his way through “Black Hole Sun,” and knew the suite had to be close by.

To be fair, the suite wasn’t exactly a suite. You know how in hotel rooms, there’s always that door that you’re not supposed to open that leads to the room next door? Harmonix had rented a pair of rooms side by side and opened that door.

There was a cheese (albeit sweaty cheese) and fruit tray laid out. Swanky. And there was an open bar, where a gentleman in a bow tie would give you gratis, iced-down Heinekens. Oh, and Rock Band was set up in front of a big-screen plasma, complete with much of the RB 2 content mentioned at the Microsoft presser on Monday (including Bob Dylan’s “Tangled Up In Blue”). The drum kit was of the RB 1 variety, but the Stratocasters? They were new, featuring a faux-wood veneer and, best of all, no wires.

If all this sounds like a Rock Band fantasy land, it really wasn’t. The room was hot, stuffy, and far too overcrowded. And someone had a chronic case of body odor. Sweating cheese and body odor are a potent combination. Still, it was great to sample some of the RB 2 goodness, with Gus on drums, and Narcisse on the mic. And it was great to drink cold Heinekens and bump into Harmonix royalty like the aforementioned Alex R., and the always-awesome Helen McWilliams (hi Helen!).

I spoke with plenty of Harmonix people over the course of the night, and after one too many Heinekens, I cornered one of them and asked if they were rushing out RB 2 perhaps as a response to the copycat Guitar Hero: World Tour announcement. “Come on. We never do anything in response to anyone else,” the anonymous source told me. “We don’t really pay attention to what anyone else is doing.” I asked said source what their thoughts were on the competition. “Our feeling is that [Guitar Hero] is basically soul-less. It has no soul. The people making Rock Band? We’re all professional musicians. We’re all in local Boston bands. This is what we do when we leave the office at night; we play in real bands. And, to my mind, that’s the core difference between the two products. One has soul; the other doesn’t.”

I have to agree. There’s been something fussily corporate about the Guitar Hero games since Activision bought the IP. They’re too squeaky clean, too processed, too neat, too corporate-minded. Call them “McRhythm Games.” Worse still, there’s an odd undercurrent of insecurity about them. You get the sense that the games are designed to preserve the brand rather than take any real chances, or create any new never-before-seen experiences. Maybe World Tour will change my mind. Or maybe what we have here is a rivalry of the 2K Sports Vs. Madden/EA sort that once drove developers to top themselves, year in and year out. Maybe it’s the sweaty cheese and free Heinekens talking, but if that’s the case, the big winners will be us.

Tags: Bob Dylan, E3, Evan Narcisse, Guitar Hero World Tour, Gus Mustrapa, Harmonix, Music, Rock Band, Rock Band 2, Scott Jones, Stratocasters