This isn't anything I haven't said before, but Guitar Hero 1 and 2 and Rock Band feel like a bunch of music people got together and made a kick ass game. Guitar Hero 3 (as well as Aerosmith) feel like a bunch of game designers were handed a concept for a game and were asked to copy or trace it.AVC: How have your experiences in bands informed your work on the game?
RL: Oh my God, massively. Again, starting with Guitar Hero I all the way up to now, it's like everything informs it. I've been in bands, I've toured America, made records—all that stuff bleeds into the game, from just my very core. And I know it's not just me, it's lots of us. Just because we are those people, the game turns out the way it does. And I think if you look at some of our competitors' games, that weird nugget is missing. And I think that's why sometimes people look at our games and they can just tell, they can just feel it. Some people at Harmonix just started their bands. And some people at Harmonix tried forever and didn't leave town. Some people became big and were on Conan. We have all different levels, and everyone there has something to contribute, because even at its worst, rock and roll has some really awesome stories to tell, right? And so we feed that into the game. And whether it's a little thing that pops up, or something that's in the venue that's a little joke that only two percent of people will pick up on, it's there. And it matters.
I'm not trying to belittle Neversoft (GH3's developers) with that statement. In a lot of ways I feel bad for the designers at Neversoft. They're being handed a dream project and there's just no way they could possibly live up to what Harmonix does. They do a workmanlike job of trying, but they're not Harmonix and, short of hiring away a bunch of Harmonix people, they're never gonna be. (Note: Okay, I don't feel that bad for the Neversoft people. It's not like GH3 didn't sell like a billion copies.)
