Next unexplainable question:
What is more likely to derail a thread: Climate Change, Religion, Politics, or Gaming?
Let's focus on what's really important.
So the answer is Gaming.
Conner - the OP - hello?
You're sure you're ok with this derail?
Because I have a lot more to say on this topic.
I've been a gaming nut since I was 5 years old and that was just a shade under 60 years ago. My first game addiction was pinball - I put every nickel I could save (they were a nickel in those days) into pinball machines.
FFWD 20 years and the mighty PONG came out on the Motorola Odyssy.
Bought it.
After that, all HELL broke loose in video gaming.
I had the Atari 2600 as soon as it was released - and bought almost every game.
I had the Mattel Intellivision, the Colico game system and then the Commodore Amiga 500 - which blew all the previous systems to smithereens. And of course the classic arcade games: Pac Man, Asteroids, Centipede, Donkey Kong, and DK Junior.
I never got into D&D games though. Read about them - sounded like fun - but you needed to join some kind of club for it and I'm not a club joiner. It's like Groucho said: I'd never want to belong to any club that would accept people like me as a member. I bought the set-up - the weird dice and all, but never took the next step.
Roll the calendar fwd again. PC games exploded. My favorites: Sim City, Lemmings, Warcraft (the original - not World of Warcraft), Command and Conquer, and of course DOOM.
Then I got the PlayStation 3 and I thought I died and went to heaven. Loved Fallout, BioShock, Infamous and a funny download from Japan that's relatively unknown called The Last Guy.
Then last week, as I said, I got the PS4 and once again I'm in the Playboy mansion of gaming.
Now to the main part of my story (that's right, all the above was background).
I got a "game" last night that I can say will be life-changing - and NO exaggeration. It's called Rocksmith. I told you I've spent my life studying classical guitar (when I wasn't either playing games or having to deal with those annoying distractions called "school" and then later in life, a "job").
Rocksmith is much more than a game - it teaches you how to play rock guitar, which since I play classical, you might think that playing rock would be like falling off a log for me but anything would be further from the truth. I can play complex Bach sonatas that are mindblowingly difficult, but when it comes to ROCK 'N ROLL I'm all thumbs. Never understood how to do it. Well Rocksmith teaches you! In graphical format, you choose a song and the actual original song plays while you play the guitar part and it shows you on the screen what to do in a graphical way, and then scores you. The best part is, with the cable that comes with the game (or you get it separately) you plug in your actual ax and use it as a kind of game controller (I bought a Strat years ago and have been waiting for someone to teach me how to play it - and now that someone has arrived!)
This "game" would actually be worth the cost of the entire playstation if it only ran this one program. It's a whole guitar teaching system. ANd I'm a guitar teacher - I have 5-6 students all learning classical. I'm thinking of telling these kids to forget the nylon string classicals and get an electric guitar, a PlayStation, and Rocksmith 2014 - that's if they ever want to get any girls. I'm telling you from experience, only the ugly girls go for classical guitarists. But then I'd be out of a job so I can't do that.
I've just started exploring the Rocksmith but I can see already the possibilities are enormous. I haven't been this excited since I got the high score in Missile Command!!!!!!
Oh yes, back to the thread. Sorry for the huge derail. So the next unexplainable question is:
HOW IN HELL AM I GOING TO PUT THIS THING DOWN??
