/rant off

I have been trying to come up with a way to make this post without ranting and I just don't think I can do it. Its about the commerce driving the rhythm games Rock Band and Guitar Hero.
This next bit is some history and you can all probably skip it and head to the end where I start my rant.

/History
Harmonix produced Rockband 1 and 2 and kickstarted this whole craze which caught me by storm also. They realized that people wanted more out of the game and that there was a renewed passion for music in their audience so in the effort to give the people what they want they sold off the guitar hero rights to developer Neversoft and started a new project that would give a full band experience: Rockband (this also had the side effect of getting them out from under all the crazy licensing restrictions they had to accept before anyone believed this game concept would work). Neversoft churns out guitar hero 3 into what Harmonix realized was a market going stale only to see Harmonix's new project once again take over the gaming world and reach the holy grail of video games... casual gamers and hard core gamers alike.
Following suit and trying to maintain the marketshare they thought they had purchased Neversoft releases a full band game that also includes a microphone and drums to give the full band experience: Guitar Hero World Tour. This project is definitely rushed.
Here is where the problem starts. Due to a bunch of lawyers getting into the thick of things, a licensing battle ensues and Guitar Hero World Tour is released with their own set of guitars, drums, and microphone that aren't quite cross compatible with the game everyone already owns (Rockband). In an effort the separate themselves from their competitor they give the guitar a touchpad to use for special effects (that doesn't really enhance the gameplay at all) and add an extra "button" to the drums.
After an uproar from the customers, they get the liscensing thing worked out and when Rockband 2 gets released we find that it is able to use the Guitar Hero drums.

/Rant On
So the state of the gaming world works like this.. Guitar Hero World Tour comes out after Rock Band and everyone gets mad for being forced to by new instruments for the same game, so after a while the Xbox and PS3 got psudo patches to the game that would fix the problem and allow the guitars to work on all games. The Wii versions where delayed so long that it was released with this feature worked in. However, due to the greediness of Neversoft, the Guitar Hero series only works with the Guitar Hero drums since it was designed with an extra "button" giving it 6 drums to simulate instead of Rockband's 5 buttons. If your confused your not alone. Here is a handy chart to help sort out the compatibility mess. It is very sad that something like this is necessary.
http://www.wired.com/gamelife/2008/11/official-guitar/
http://www.joystiq.com/Instrument-Compatibility-Matrix/#Wii

This isn't too much of a problem, the simple solution is to buy the Guitar Hero drums. Unfortunately.. today... you practically can't.
The drums are available as a stand alone instrument for $90. NINETY FUCKING DOLLARS!
Guitar Hero World Tour was sold in a special edition Band Kit version that includes the game itself (normally $50), the drum kit, a guitar, and a microphone for $130.
"Great" you say, "Lets get that". You can't. It is pretty much discontinued now. If you didn't buy it last year, good luck (you could probably get it online, but for some reason that seems silly when I have 3 Best Buys and 5 gamestops within 5 miles of my house). You can't order it from the stores, according the best buy the item is listed as "deleted". Well fuck off. All I wanted to do was buy the damn drums so I could play drums with the new games that just came out Beatles Rock Band. Sure.. i could buy the Beatles rockband full band kit for $140, but the drums won't work with the 2 guitar hero games I already own. The only set of drums that works with all versions of these rythm games is the World Tour drums.. and the only way to get them is pay an outrageous sum of money.. if you can find it instock. (Of the 8 stores mentioned before, only 1 of them has the $90 peices of plastic in stock).

Angered by all of this mess I decided I would just buy Beatles Rock Band and a microphone. Screw the drums.. no one really likes to play them except for me.
So I go to Best Buy to get Beatles Rockband. It is $60. Ouch. I look for a microphone. There are no microphones (except for a $60 Xbox360 wireless one).
What the HELL?!?! One of the HUGE feature of Beatles Rockband is the ability to sing Harmonies! The catch is you need more microphones (you can use up to 3 with the game for the full on Beatles 3 part harmonies).
You would think that a store would put the one accessory people would be most interest to buy out with the game that could potentially generate 2 purchases of said accessory with each sale. If you thought that you are over qualified to act as a Best Buy store manager. No.. what you should do is ignore the fact that most of your customers will want a second or third microphone for the game and only stock the game itself.
As the consumer you do have the option of trying to find a generic Logitech USB microphone.. it doesn't have to be a special one to work with the game. Coincidentaly, Best Buy had some microphones in stock.. in the musician center on the other side of the store. The microphones where $60. (If you could find one sold specifically for the games, they go for $20).

Faced with the reality that the only way to get my wife to play the game with me was to spend $120 for the just the game and the microphone I opted to spend the full $140 to buy the Beatles Rock band Full band kit. This is essentially the Rock band 2 band kit including the drums that only work on rock band games.
Oh.. I forgot to mention the Beatles Rock band Limited Edition set! It is $230! What do you get extra? NOTHING! The guitar is shaped like the Violin Bass that Paul McCartney used and the drum set has a large round piece of plastic that looks like the Beatle's iconic Ludwig drum. Oh.. and its wireless instead of wired. I guess that 1 extra bluetooth modules for the drum set cost alot.

I realized today that come Christmas a new Guitar Hero full band game will be released and I will once again have the opportunity to guy the Guitar Hero drums for a reasonable price. Yah free trade.

A little somethine for my fans

The sickness continues

3 posts in one day. Boy, I bet you are all feeling lucky.. or maybe you haven't checked in a few days and are feeling overwhelmed.

So the video game saga continues. I am officially down 1 PS2 but instead of hunting for one on the cheap I decided to exchange Guitar Hero 2 for an undamaged disk. What a trip that was. Tom was itching to go to Fry's Electronics because he was in a bad mood. I was in a similar mood and decided to join him. Luckily he had the Best Buy receipt for GH2. He picked me up and we stopped by Best Buy on the way to Fry's.
I stand in the returns line for about 15 minutes while Tom goes and plays with the latest smart phones. I finally get to the service rep, the look at the disk, look at the receipt, then tell me to go get a new copy of the game and bring it back up to them. They also tell me I don't have to wait in line.
I walk to the back of the store, find the game, and head back to the counter. When I get there they have gone from 4 Customer Service reps to 2. I walk to the front of the line and wait patiently. After 5 minutes the guy I am waiting on takes my receipt and hands it to the lackey too his right. I assume this was to speed up my transaction as he is now dealing with a difficult return. So I go stand by the obviously younger and less knowledgeable worker and continue waiting patiently. After 10 more minutes and a few conversations with some other guys in line about cars and manly stuff the young kid finally finds what was wrong with the lady's order in front of me. Apparently she had ordered something, taken too long to pick it up, and they had canceled the order. It took him15 minutes to figure that out. I was still better off though since the smart guy was still trying to figure out how a cordless mouse was on some guy's receipt but wouldn't scan into the system (as in they don't actually carry that mouse).
The guy helping me takes the 5 seconds required to print the exchange receipt and I am done. Total wait time 30 min, total "help" time, about 1.5 minutes.
Amazing.

As I turn around I see a man in the now very long returns line holding a Wii. I immediately approach him and ask if the machine is broken. He says no, he just doesn't want it. I talk with him a little more as I try to grasp the cusp of the situation. It still doesn't quite compute to me and I sort of wander away pondering the mere possibility of the situation he claimed. I find Tom, confer with him and we decide this is an opportunity that can not be passed up. I approach the man again and ask him if he would rather just sell me the machine instead of waiting in line to return it. He politely declines, mumbling something about a credit card. He says I could probably just wait and buy the system as soon as he returns it. I consider this good advice and take my post at the end of the costumer service counter. About 5 more minutes of waiting go buy when the General Manager comes over, I assume because he has noticed how long and aggravated the line has become due to the counter being staffed at half strength.
After inquiring to the where abouts of all his workers he decides to pitch in and help. Instead of helping the next person in line he singles me.. the guy standing randomly at the edge and ask if I need help. I ask him how long the turn around is for a returned item to hit the floor. He looks at me like I just asked how many cucumbers he could shove up his ass in 45 seconds and asks for clarification and specifically what kind of item. I point out the man with the Wii and tell him the man will not sell it to me, but wants to make the full return instead. The manager states he is obligated to make an announcement, then grabs the mic attached to his shirt and makes a call on the radio to all his employees that goes something like this.
"attention, we have a customer returning a Nintendo Wii, however we already have another customer lined up to buy it. Repeat, We have a Wii to sell and somone inline to buy it." He then promised me the Wii and went about bossing people around. Tom and I waited another 10 minutes or so for the guy with the nintendo to get helped. As soon as the transaction was done the CS rep brought the machine to me at the end of the counter and rang it up.
I was in a pretty foul mood today when it came to video games and video game systems. All that has changed. I am a very very very happy boy.
My wife, Tom, and I have spent the last 2 hours taking turns on Wii sports. All the rumors are true. The system is just plain fun. I just wish I could find another controller. Tom and I tried 3 stores and no one has any extra controllers.

I hope you all come over to play soon, it really is a whole new social experience.