Guitar Hero

Guitar Hero is a rhythm game in which players match notes on the screen with a plastic guitar controller. Guitar Hero was developed by Harmonix Music Systems and RedOctane. Dominic Arsenault said that upon its release, “at the 2006 Canadian Game Studies Association symposium. In a room filled with friends and strangers, I laughed and head banged relentlessly, madly clawing at the plastic buttons of the attractively-shaped special controller that would soon become ubiquitous among gamers both casual and hardcore. The game's contagious appeal had begun to spread, and I was infected” (2008). He describes the appeal of Guitar Hero that took the gaming world by storm. As with many popular games Guitar Hero soon became an e-sport.

The first Guitar Hero did not immediately hit it off as a competitive e-sport. It took till the third installment of the series to get it noticed by the e-sports community. The third Guitar Hero was the first video game to surpass one billion in sales. With this much popularity a game is sure to attract many hardcore fans. WCG picked up Guitar Hero 3 in 2009. This is significant because many other companies have tried to latch onto the popularity of rhythm games that Guitar Hero had spawned.

There is a problem with the continuation of the Guitar Hero franchise. In recent years the sales have been slipping. The genre of rhythm games as a whole has subsided. Many believe this is because of such rapid release of new expansions and clones of the Guitar Hero games. People aren’t as willing to shovel out hundreds of dollars every year to get the newest game and newest instruments. But the overall love of the game has not diminished. Guitar Hero is still a part of WCG this year and will continue to be even if the sales are not at their peak.

References

Arsenault, D. (2008). Guitar hero: not like playing guitar at all?. Retrieved from http://journals.sfu.ca/loading/index.php/loading/article/view/32/29

Mark, M. (2008). Guitar hero III sales top $1 billion as genre sales slip. Retrieved from http://www.dmwmedia.com/news/2009/01/13/%2526quot%3Bguitar-hero-iii%2526quot%3B- sales-top-1-billion-genre-sales-slip