I have an article up on The Escapist this week about hip hop and video games. Specifically, I'm examining why there hasn't been a hit karaoke-style game for hip hop and what that means.
On the rock band songs where it's just some guy talking in a funny accent with energy (Red Hot Chili Peppers - Give It Away), you can literally make any noise on time and you'll get 100%. I can't read at the speed that the music scrolls, so I just made up lyrics and still got 100% (and made everyone laugh at the same time - win!). Sort of like the freestyle suggestion you made. I guess if they went at it from any other method than freestyle, the game would have to be capable of voice recognition to make sure people are saying what the song actually says.
There's this weird meta level thing going on in Rock Band aside from the karaoke aspect, which me might call the air guitar aspect. If I put my hands in front of me at certain angles and make a nasal high-pitched noise, everyone knows what I'm doing. Rock Band succeeds as an immersive experience in part because it can put enough signifiers like that together so you can believe you are playing the guitar without actually having to play the guitar. This is aside from the whole gameplay aspect. It works well enough that even people who actually play guitar can submit to it. I have no idea what the analogue for that would be for rapping.
Yes, and there are a zillion people who will move their hands back and forth on an imaginary platter and go "wiki-wiki-wiki," so perhaps that bodes well for the upcoming DJ Hero.
Neat article -- interesting for someone completely in the dark about rap, like me.
When combined with an audio engine that performs (or royally screws up) rhymes to reflect the player's input, the overall package could be quite compelling.
It'd amuse me to see this with something like the Markov verse-generator I posted a while ago, though you wouldn't want that to be the only option.
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When combined with an audio engine that performs (or royally screws up) rhymes to reflect the player's input, the overall package could be quite compelling.
It'd amuse me to see this with something like the Markov verse-generator I posted a while ago, though you wouldn't want that to be the only option.
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