Dork Adore » Wii

Is Guitar Hero ruining creativity?

Dork Adore — Tue, 02 Mar 2010 04:00:29 +0000

This week, we’ve got a guest post from Jenny Williams.

In recent years, it has become quite acceptable to find yourself at a party being challenged to perform your best SingStar song. Since 2005, with the release of Guitar Hero, play-along gaming has got bigger and bigger. We’ve been given SingStar, DJ Hero, Lips, Rock Revolution and even Easy Piano on the DS.

Meanwhile, the Mix Me In iPhone app by Fried Green Apps has reached the ‘New and Noteworthy’ section of Apple’s App Store. Musical technology has reached every corner of the gaming market.

But, as we’re busy being Guitar Heroes, Elton John on the DS piano, in the Beatles’ rock band and a DJ for Jay-Z, has play-along music gaming reached a dead end?

I spent many evenings during my teenage years attempting to master hammer-ons and pull-offs, which is more innocent than it sounds. To surpass playing ‘Chopsticks’ or the introduction to ‘Smoke on the Water’ by Deep Purple, learning to play the piano or guitar is an often a painstaking process, requiring hours of practice.

However, within moments of loading Rock Band, I have received 100% rating at The Beatles’ Hello Goodbye and am boasting my musicality to my whole family. Result! What could be more fun than having your ego stroked while pretending to be a rock star?

Never mind that ‘Guitar Hero’ guitars look essentially like Early Learning versions of grown-ups’ guitars, teenage boys across the world are happily trading in requests for a real Fender Stratocaster for a Rock Band version with buttons big enough for inpatient beginners.

After all, this isn’t about achieving musical finesse, Rock Band is about mimicking your musical heroes in your front room.

Not everyone is happy about the rise of this musical gaming foolery. In February 2008, NanaOn-Sha CEO and PaRappa the Rapper creator, Masaya Matsuura, famously challenged play-along music games at the D.I.C.E Summit in Las Vegas, saying the genre was growing stale and was in need of new ideas.

Admittedly, this type of gaming has its limits. Once you’ve demonstrated your rockability to your friends and stayed up ’til the wee small hours perfecting your Rock Band drumming, there is nowhere else for the game to go. But musical games are beginning to bridge the gap between fantasy and reality.

Following on from the popularity of play-along games, the release of Easy Piano on the Nintendo DS last month saw the launch of a musical tutorial game, complete with plug-in one octave keyboard. It’s no substitute for piano lessons; the layout is much the same as Rock Band, responding to on-screen prompts. However, basic musical theory is introduced. It’s like your Mum sneaking cabbage into your mashed potato when you’re a kid: play-along gaming with educational benefits.

So, perhaps, as music games keep developing to incorporate more complex musical features and theory, gamers will continue to move closer to achieving musical hero status. Heck, gamers might even be inspired to pick up a traditional guitar and become real-life musical geniuses.

In the meantime, I’m merely happy with the delusion. the gaming market has made us all think we could really be music stars if we gave up our day jobs and transferred those colour-matching skills to the piano keys or guitar frets.

Jenny is a freelance journalist and editor of her very own tech site, Witch Tech.

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The 10 most confusing gadgets of the last decade

Emma Cossey — Mon, 01 Feb 2010 12:00:01 +0000

I’ve lost count of the amount of time I’ve spent puzzling over why a gadget is refusing to work. A recent study suggests I’m not alone in this area.

Research carried out by Confused.com has discovered that consumers constantly come across problems and confusion with their gadgets. And what was the biggest offender? The Wireless Router, of course.

Having spent hours in my old student house sitting on the phone to BT after conceding defeat to my router, I can sympathise with this top choice.

Coming in a close second is the iPod or MP3 player. I’m assuming this is more down to the actual set-up rather than the day-to-day use.

Perhaps one of the reasons behind all this confusion is that in our excitement to try out our latest purchase, we skip past reading the directions. Of the 2,000 participants in the survey, 48% admitted that the instructions book sits gathering dust. This leads to 55% of participants connecting up the leads incorrectly, and 45% incorrectly inserting the batteries (seriously? How hard is it to insert batteries?).

So, aside from the Wireless Router and MP3 player, what other gadgets made it to the list?

1. Wireless router (27%)
2. iPod/MP3 player (16%)
3. Mobile phone (20%)
4. Digital camera (19%)
5. Sat Nav/GPS (14%)
6. Sky+ (10%)
7. DVD Player (9%)
8. iPhone (7%)
9. Ninendo Wii (6%)
10. Video camera (6%)

Source: Confused.com

What gadgets have caused you the most confusion?

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How to make customised skins for PS3, Wii and Xbox

Dork Adore — Mon, 01 Feb 2010 08:30:24 +0000

For many enthusiastic gamers the only present they want at Christmas or on birthdays is yet another game or a console. Which is all very well and good, but it is a little impersonal. Resorting to buying the latest release feels like a cop out, but you don’t want to spend lots of money on something that they won’t appreciate as much. What a conundrum!

I found a way around that by buying something intrinsically gamer related, yet also undeniably personal for my other half. You can create a customised skin for PS3, Wii or Xbox using online sites and templates. I didn’t have the tech or the printer to print my own, but as for craftily putting it together, that I could do!

I began with a trip around the DeviantArt website.

I found someone whose art I liked (in this case a manga artist) and contacted them about producing a portrait to a brief from various photos. Luckily I found my artist straight away and agreed a cheap price, but if you are having trouble their forums are great for finding interested parties. A few weeks later I had a piece of digital art on my computer, produced at exactly the size of a PS3.

Once I had the artwork as a jpeg, I researched printing options.

The most professional site that I could find online was DecalGirl, but due to a constraint on delivery time for disorganised me, I ended up choosing the website Unique Skins, and paying lots for delivery. The actual skin, however, is cheap, and you shouldn’t have to pay $25 for something that has been personally designed.

To create the skin, open their template program or communicate with their design team. It is then just a matter of uploading the image and adjusting it to look best on the outline of your console, including edges and the front. It is a good idea to have some panels of background image to use on these sides to stop the overall creation looking a little ridiculous and disjointed.

Once done, order and wait for it to arrive in the post. Make sure you buy proper skins rather than stickers, so they don’t leave residue on the console or peel off. These decals are also adjustable for if you, like I did, put them on wonky first time round!

Lauren Cooke is a freelance writer, blogger and shoe addict. You can follow her on Twitter, or have a peek at her other work here.

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Five fitness trends you need to try in 2010

Emma Cossey — Sun, 24 Jan 2010 12:00:17 +0000

New year, new fitness regime? Yeah, my exercise resolutions have kind of fallen by the wayside a little too.

Frankly, I need something a little more inspiring then a treadmill and a new tracksuit.

So, here’s a round up of the top gadgets and trends for fitness in 2010.

1) Reebok EasyTone, £58.50

Toning trainers are not exactly breaking news, but these Reebok versions are attractive and (apparently) effective. The balance pods built into the trainers means your legs have to work a little bit harder. Wear them when you’re walking about and you’ll be getting a workout without even realising it.

2) XDream bike

Popping up in large gyms across the country, the XDream Bike is an exercise bike with a dorky twist. The bike has a racing game built in, where you have to race against others to win the race at various levels.

It’s also packed full of sensors and realistic features like usable gears and moveable handlebars, to give you the illusion of riding outside.

The workout tones your arms, core muscles and legs, so it’s a great overall machine. Check out the website to see which gyms in your local area have the XDream.

3) Power Plates

If you haven’t tried Power Plates before, now is the time.

Favoured by Madonna and erm…Jonathan Ross, the Power Plate is a vibrating plate which you stand on when holding certain positions, to tone your body in a short space of time.

Efficient and hard working, it’ll cut down your workout time significantly.

You can try a Power Plate session for free through Wahanda.com, or check your local gym for facilities.

4) Exotic classes

Thanks to a change in attitude towards exercise, we’re seeing more and more interesting fitness classes in the UK.

The popularity of dance talent shows has seen an increase in ballroom dancing, Salsa and latin dance styles like Zumba.

It certainly beats putting down ‘going to the gym’ on the interests section of your CV.

You can either find a class close to you or workout at home with one of these DVD options.

5) Gaming fitness

Finally, there’s the trend for combining gaming with fitness at home.

We’ve been reviewing several games recently for the Wii, and the camera and Wii Board gives plenty of room for further games. The Wii Fit Plus will improve your balance and the Wii Shape Up and Wii jOG will get you moving more.

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Nintendo Wii’s Baby and Me: creepy virtual doll game

Emma Cossey — Tue, 03 Nov 2009 08:30:42 +0000

I recently sold my Wii after months of it sitting next to the TV gathering dust. Great console, but it just didn’t get enough usage. I wonder if this is why the head honchos at Nintendo are reverting back to aiming their games at the much younger age market.

Particularly as they seem to dominate the TV anyway.

The game on the right gives me the heebie jeebies though. Recently released in Australia, Baby and Me is a Wii game which comes with a Doll-mote (a creepy name in itself). The life-like doll uses the Wiimote’s speakers to laugh or cry. You can then use the Wii Fit board to ‘burp’ or rock the baby and even teach it to walk.

As much as a a plastic doll can walk.

Will your daughter (or son) be getting this in their Christmas stocking?

More Gaming stuff on Dork Adore

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Dork Review: Wii jOG

Emma Cossey — Mon, 19 Jan 2009 12:00:00 +0000

I recently reviewed the Wii fitness game Your Shape, and I loved it, so jOG was already off to a good start.

The game involves a small pedometer-style accessory that plugs into your nunchuck controller. Unlike Your Shape, it doesn’t have dozens of different features. Instead it simply adds a new dimension to your current games.

The motion sensor in the accessory overrides the current instructions of your games, meaning that you need to constantly jog or run on the spot in order to make the game work.

Simple, right?

To set up, yes it’s fairly simple. What’s hard is maintaining a constant jog whilst attempting to play the game at the same time. Co-ordination is key here, something sadly missing from my DNA, so I struggled a bit.

If you can’t jog and text at the same time, you’ll probably face the same problem.

The actual concept is a good one though, depending on the game you use. It works well with the action games like Lego Star Wars but not so well on quiz games like Who wants to be a Millionaire?

Wins points for:

Price: Only £12.29 at Argos
Allowing you to get off the sofa and move a bit more during the more sedentary games

Loses points for:

Game compatibility: It worked on all the games we tried, but there are plenty it doesn’t work with.

Conclusion

A budget purchase to keep you on track with your New Year resolutions. Strictly reliant on your own self discipline though.

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Dork Adore » Wii

Is Guitar Hero ruining creativity?

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The 10 most confusing gadgets of the last decade

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