作者：Adil Sherwani

“红–红–红–红–黄–黄–绿–率”这是用于操纵《我爱摇滚乐》（最早的《吉他英雄》所引进的第一首歌）中的开头反复乐节的按钮序列。2005年，这款游戏首次引进了新方法让玩家能够在此边玩音乐边玩游戏。作为Harmonix Music Systems（游戏邦注：一家不是很出名的游戏工作室，后又创造了《摇滚乐团》以及最近的《舞动全身》）旗下的一款游戏，《吉他英雄》在2007年达到发展高峰时共获得了10亿美元的收益，并促使“音乐”成为了电子游戏中最受欢迎的一种类型。但是随后这款游戏也未能躲过没落的趋势，并且在4年后，动视最终决定解散《吉他英雄》游戏部门，据传Viacom也以50美元低价贱售了《摇滚乐团》开发商Harmonix——我们任何一个人都可以用低于一款新游戏的价格购得《吉他英雄》和《摇滚乐团》开发商，并且肯定会伴随着大量的负债。如此看来10几亿美元的风光只是过去，音乐游戏正在衰败。或者看上去是这样的。

ocarina_goatxa_chico(from gamasutra)

在此期间，也就是2008年11月6日，另外一家也不是很有名的公司Smule发行了一款古怪的iPhone应用，叫做《Ocarina》。这款应用的原理很简单：用户通过往麦克风吹气而创造出美妙的音乐，并且他们也能在此与世界各地的用户分享自己创作的音乐。这款应用迅速掀起一股热潮，即在短短时间内获得了上百万的下载量，所以Smule的首次”互动社交音乐游戏体验“获得了成功。紧随《Ocarina》，Smule又发布了一系列以长号，钢琴，小提琴，元音/卡拉OK等为主题的热门音乐应用/游戏。他们最新一款音乐游戏《魔法吉他》在2011年12月发布后立刻窜升到排行榜前列。难道这不属于动视和Viacom所抛弃的游戏类型？

这里发生了什么变化？是否Harmonix关于《吉他英雄》和《摇滚乐队》的成功只是一时的，而Smule的成功也只是暂时延长了这种热潮？也就是说他们不久后也会没落下去？正如有些人愿意放弃原先轻松的工作而创建起自己的游戏工作室并致力于音乐应用和游戏开发，我也不带任何偏见。我认为音乐游戏并不是短暂的狂热，因为音乐本身便不是一种暂时热潮，并且那些幻想着成为摇滚巨星的人的梦想更不只是一时兴起。Harmonix的没落只是因为他们的踌躇和缺少创新，从而难以获得突破。而Smule的应用摆脱了Harmonix的这种弱点并向前迈出了一大步，并且我们也发现了这一类型游戏的创新和发展还存在着无穷的潜力。所以我希望通过本篇文章进一步思考游戏对于我们来说存在何种意义以及它们在过去几十年里的发展。

并非一时之热

大体上，电子游戏便是一个能够帮助玩家实现各种梦想的引擎：我们能够在此打败各种敌人，拯救公主/国家/银河并最终成为英雄。如此我们便会萌生出成就感。而人们的这种梦想更是很早之前便存在了，甚至早于游戏产业的诞生。不同时代的最畅销电子游戏，不论是《马里奥》还是《Madden》或者是《使命召唤》都直接体现了人们的这种梦想。所以说这并不是一种巧合。只是人们的游戏场所从后院转移到虚拟世界和在线社区罢了。

而成为一名摇滚歌星则是另外一个备受人们追捧的梦想，并且比成为巫师现实多了。每个时代都有大批的吉他演奏者和歌手在向我们证明所谓摇滚生活的魅力，并且也吸引了无数疯狂歌迷与之共享这种乐趣。这种梦想是永恒的，所以关于这一梦想的游戏类型也绝不可能是一时之热的风潮。Harmonix便是意识到了这一点而精心雕琢了《吉他英雄》中的每个元素（以及后来的《摇滚乐队》）。虽然他们失败了，但是Smule握紧接力棒而继续前进，面向其自然命运而不断完善这一游戏类型。

进化和命运

现代电子游戏，如《光晕》和《Burnout》便是从《太空入侵者》和《Outrun》那进化而来。除了视听方面的完善，现代游戏玩家拥有更多自由和控制权能够驰骋于游戏世界中（同时游戏还提供了许多适当的引导以帮助玩家更好地融入游戏）。《太空入侵者》只允许玩家朝着单一方向进行射击，并隐藏在一些固定的盾牌后单向前行；而《光晕》则允许玩家能够在一个3D空间内自由奔跑与跳跃，并朝着任何方向射击。《Outrun》只允许玩家能够控制油门/刹车和炮轰，而《Burnout》则让玩家能够按照自己的想法在城市中乱逛着，并且还设有模拟操作和破坏的深度物理引擎。还有许多关于这类型游戏的比较，但其本质都可说明：这些得到完善的控制关卡能够推动玩家更加沉浸于游戏中。现在的玩家总是能在游戏中感受到最真实的胜利与失败，因为他们在游戏中所做出的任何决定都直接影响着游戏的进展。

《吉他英雄》和《摇滚乐队》虽然设置了现代的图像和音效，但是它们的控制方式却仍停留在早前的《太空入侵者》时代。游戏中的所有音乐都是预先设置好的，所以玩家并不能控制任何音符序列或音符出现的时机，甚至是扫弦时的响度。只有少数例外，大部分这类型游戏也就等于音乐版的《龙穴历险记》（都拥有繁荣与萧条的轮回）：玩家必须按压一系列的按钮才能完成游戏。如果玩家并不能真正在游戏中玩音乐，那这种音乐游戏又有什么乐趣呢？

rock_band(from collider.com)

最终证明，如此设置只能维持短暂的游戏乐趣。这些游戏之所以会成为一种文化现象主要是因为Harmonix将人们对于摇滚明星的幻想有效地整合进游戏设计和故事中。《吉他英雄》便自称通过吸引人的故事情节，排列有序的歌曲目录，以及非常完美的音效为玩家呈现出其虚拟摇滚乐手是如何从默默无闻到最终成名，而对于每一首歌所精心制作的音符图标更是让玩家深刻感受到自己在演奏一首歌，并且弹得非常出色。而对于《摇滚乐队》，Harmonix允许多人玩家能够使用不同乐器共同演奏，从而成倍增加了游戏的乐趣，并使其成为团体必不可少的娱乐选择。Harmonix创建了Rock Band Network，让独立音乐人能够将自己创造的歌曲放在游戏中，并让全世界的《摇滚乐队》玩家能够演奏这些歌曲，以此大大增加了玩家可选择的歌曲数量。而在《摇滚乐队3》的Pro Mode中，Harmonix更是大胆地将游戏带到音乐指令领域，即教授高级玩家如何使用真正的吉他，爵士鼓或键盘弹奏《摇滚乐队》中的歌曲。

但是对于我来说这种新鲜感总是会慢慢淡却，我甚至意识到，与其说自己在玩游戏，更不如说游戏在玩我，或者在微观控制着我的行动，即告诉我该按压哪个按钮以及何时按压按钮等。甚至在Pro Mode中，当我们在使用真的吉他或键盘玩游戏时，我甚至搞不清楚如何通过扬声器播放出预设置好的音乐，如何即兴表演或在音效中添加我自己的想法。所以我便开始希望游戏能够得到进一步完善，即提供给玩家更多自由控制的空间。我想其他玩家也是这么想的吧，所以才最终选择停止游戏。

新热潮

也许有些玩家和我一样下载了《Ocarina》并喜欢玩这款游戏，也有一些人则根本不想玩这款游戏。但是不管怎样，《Ocarina》的确取得了很好的销量。游戏在黑色背景中呈现出四个蓝色圆圈，它的音效也很棒（从你的手机扬声器中传出甜美流畅的音效），但是游戏的关卡设置却不如《吉他英雄》（没有那么多爵士鼓，贝斯，吉他等完整的摇滚乐队音轨）。幸运的是，这款游戏所发行的平台拥有较低的呈现门槛，所以开发者唯一需要担心的只是用户是否会被这种玩法所吸引。

这款游戏的控制方式非常简单，玩家只要向麦克风吹气，通过力度去控制音量，并用手指去改变音符而倾斜手机去添加颤音便可。最终玩家所听到的便是自己真正演奏出来的歌曲，而不是游戏预先设置好的。所以有可能你听到的音乐一点都不动听，甚至是一团糟，但是至少这真的是你自己演奏出来的。更重要的是你甚至可以闭上眼睛进行演奏，或者你可以想象自己站在一个露天体育场为上千名粉丝表演。而这种幻想是完全不需要依靠3D图像的辅助就能实现。

Ocarina-iPhone-music-flute-app-Smule(from obamapacman.com)

的确，你也真的在为上千名用户演奏歌曲，同时他们也在为你进行表演。在这个“世界舞台上”，你将能够接触到来自全世界各地的玩家，并且呈现在游戏界面的闪 烁灯光便代表着其他玩家喜欢你的表演，而你也可以欣赏他们在自己设备上的演奏。因为每一回合只允许一方进行演奏，所以两名玩家可以一方演奏一方欣赏，如此 交替。而玩家的所有演奏都是自动且匿名共享于游戏社区中（当然你也可以选择不这么做，不过既然是匿名的公开又有何关系呢？）。共有上百万名玩家正在彼此相 互娱乐，相互鼓励。这是真正的人用真正的乐器演奏真正的音乐，并给予对方真正的反馈。而非来自掌机游戏的非玩家角色和虚假的掌声，毕竟，现代AI还未强大 到能够根据自由音乐表演而给予有意义的反馈。《Ocarina》以一种非常先进的方式呈现出人们幻想中的摇滚明星，而这类型游戏的主要发展方向是：将音乐 当成核心机制的多人在线游戏。

Smule在今后的几款应用中继续延续着创新精神。“Play a Song”模式实时引导着玩家通过与《吉他英雄》类似的界面而使用Smule的乐器演奏一首完整的歌曲——通过一款有趣的游戏教会玩家如何使用真的乐器。“用户生成内容（UGC）”选项允许高级玩家能够创造并提交自己所创造的歌曲，而帮助其他人学习并完善自己的演奏技能。在“World Stage”中我们还可以为那些提供了即时反馈的评委进行现场表演（游戏邦注：即采取《美国偶像》的模式）。“Join a Song”让多人用户能够一起进行表演——就像在《Glee》中3500个人同时演奏《信赖我》便是不可错过的演出。官方授权日文歌曲和精密的音频技术更是能够创造出非常出色的音乐演出。更多“完整规模”的iPad应用的出现，如《Magic Piano》和《Magic Fiddle》不仅进一步拓展了用户所接触到的音乐应用范围（不再只是局限于Smule的创造），同时也提供给那些想要深入学习音乐的用户更大的学习平台。

未来又是怎样的？

理论上来看，Smule为我们提供了一个实现幻想的平台，让那些非音乐家们也能够在此学习到各种现实乐器（电子的或者基于iOS），并深入体验他们所幻想的摇滚明星生活。但是这里也存在着一些小问题，即像陶笛，长号以及小提琴都不算数主流乐器，所以它们不可能长居于摇滚明星的幻想世界中。同时，Smule的吉他和钢琴应用也不是很容易操作。就像《魔法吉他》并未拥有自由模式，所以它更应该算是一款纯粹的游戏而不是乐器。而《魔法钢琴》虽然拥有自由模式但是玩家却很难操纵它，并且这也完全不同于“Play a Song”游戏模式，如此便导致玩家很难在此提高演奏技能。

另一方面，多年来Harmonix已经成功创造出基于吉他，爵士鼓以及键盘（这些人们最关心的乐器）而创造出容易操作的控制，并且也添加了有关于摇滚英雄幻想的故事和描述。而我们现在真正需要做的便是将这两个完全不相干的内容结合在一起，并让它们进行互补。如果我们能够创造出像《摇滚乐队》那样充满视觉和故事魅力，以及像Smule的应用那样简单且基于直觉式的音乐控制的游戏该有多好！这种游戏不仅能够教会我们如何演奏歌曲，学会演奏技巧，同时也能够让我们以自己的方式呈现出属于自己的音乐。也许在不久之后，我甚至能够将控制器插进放大器或扬声器中，而实实在在地开始玩乐器！

的确存在一款不断填补这一缺口的游戏。那就算育碧的《摇滚到死》。这款游戏让玩家能够使用真实的吉他玩《吉他英雄》，并欣赏自己所演奏的歌曲（而不是预先设置好的）。这款游戏通过提供一个精心设置的界面让玩家能够学会如何演奏歌曲，并通过一种复杂的机制而学会高级的演奏技巧。其实《摇滚到死》也具有一些局限性，只是这种局限性被Kyle Carpenter的捧场描述所覆盖了。不管怎样，该游戏的“控制器”拥有96个按钮便是一种不合理的设置，因为这对于大众用户来说过于复杂了。就像《吉他英雄》只有5个按钮而《Ocarina》只有4个。所以只要维持在这种难度水平也就足够了。

当然了，也有一些怀疑者会说只用4，5个按钮并不足以彰显现实吉他的广度和深度。他们说得没错。但是Smule以实际行动向我们证实了，优秀的设计也能够解决这一问题。让我们将Smule简单的乐器设计以及Harmonix的摇滚明星幻想故事结合在一起，让玩家能够在游戏中合作演奏，面向全世界的虚拟玩家举办现场表演，并相互给予即时反馈！虽然说起来容易做起来难，但是这却却是完全可以实现的目标！唯一的问题在于，谁最终会去实现这一创想，是Smule，Harmonix还是其他人？（本文为游戏邦/gamerboom.com编译，拒绝任何不保留版权的转载，如需转载请联系：游戏邦）

The State of Music Games

by Adil Sherwani

This post was originally published on Medium Difficulty.

Red-Red-Red-Red-Yellow-Yellow-Green-Green. This is the button sequence for the opening riff to “I Love Rock N Roll,” the first song in the original Guitar Hero. In 2005, this sequence (and the game) ushered in both a new way to experience music and a new way to play games. Created by a relatively unknown game studio called Harmonix Music Systems (who eventually also created Rock Band, and most recently Dance Central), the Guitar Hero franchise at its peak in 2007 crossed $1 billion in revenue and made ‘music’ one of the most popular genres in video games. However, decline set in soon afterwards, and just 4 years later, Activision disbanded its Guitar Hero business unit, and Viacom sold Harmonix for a rumored $50. Yes, you or I could have possibly purchased the creators of Guitar Hero and Rock Band for less than the price of a new game, along with a mountain of liabilities of course. A billion-dollar fad had had its day in the sun; music games were dead. Or so it seemed.

In the meantime, on Nov 6 2008, another relatively unknown company called Smule released a quirky little iPhone app called Ocarina. Its premise was simple: blow into the phone’s microphone to make music, listen to Ocarina melodies from other people around the world and share your melodies with them. The app quickly became a hit with downloads in the millions, the first of Smule’s string of ‘interactive social music game experience’ successes. Smule followed up Ocarina with hit music apps / games based on the trombone, piano, fiddle, vocals / karaoke and sampling. One of their latest music games, Magic Guitar, shot to the top of the charts at launch in December 2011. This is not the dead genre Activision and Viacom walked away from.

So what happened here? Was Harmonix’s success with Guitar Hero and Rock Band just a fad, and Smule’s success just a temporary extension of the fad – a fad encore! – that will fade away soon? As someone who left a cushy corporate job to form his own development studio building music apps and games, my completely biased opinion is “no.” Music games are not a fad, because music is not a fad, and wanting to be a rock star is not a fad. Harmonix stumbled and was unable to innovate effectively beyond a certain point. Smule’s apps have taken over from Harmonix in moving the genre forward, and there is still tons of potential to innovate and expand the genre. To explore this thought, let’s think about what games do for us, and how they have evolved over the last few decades.

Not a Fad

First, the fad thing. By and large, video games serve as fantasy fulfillment engines: become a hero by defeating the enemy and saving the princess / country / galaxy. Feel great about yourself, rinse and repeat. The fantasies that they tap into are timeless, much older than the game industry itself. The best-selling video game franchises of any generation, from Mario to Madden to Call of Duty, have always directly targeted these classic fantasies. This is not a coincidence. Play-acting in backyards has turned into play-acting in virtual worlds and online communities.

Being a rock star is another classic fantasy, and a lot more relatable than being a wizard. Legions of air guitarists and shower singers across every generation can attest to the allure of rocking out live at arenas across the globe for millions of adoring fans. This fantasy is timeless, so the games genre which directly taps into this fantasy cannot be a fad. Harmonix knew this, and crafted every aspect of the Guitar Hero (and later Rock Band) experience around this fantasy. Where they have failed so far is where Smule is succeeding, in evolving the genre towards its natural destiny.

Evolution and Destiny

Modern video games, such as Halo and Burnout, are significantly evolved from their spiritual ancestors, Space Invaders and Outrun. Beyond the obvious improvements in audiovisual presentation, players of modern games are generally given a lot more control and freedom to engage in the game world (and simultaneously a lot more guidance regarding how best to engage). Where Space Invaders let you shoot in one direction and move along one dimension to hide behind a few fixed-position shields, Halo allows you to run and jump (and now jetpack) free-form around a fully-realized 3D space, shooting a wide arsenal of weapon types in any direction you choose. Where Outrun would only let you control gas/brake and strafe on the track, Burnout lets you navigate the city in any way you want, with a deep physics engine simulating handling and damage. Similar comparisons can be made for many other genres of games – the bottom line is that this increased level of control immerses players much deeper in the game. Each triumph or setback feels more personal and visceral because the moment-to-moment wide-ranging choices made by the player directly impact how events play out.

Guitar Hero and Rock Band may sport modern graphics and sound, but their controls are as primitive as Space Invaders. All of the music is pre-authored, so as a player I can’t control the note sequences, or the timing of the notes, or even the loudness of my strums. There are a few minor exceptions to this, but for the most part these games are the musical equivalent of Dragon’s Lair (which had a similar boom-and-bust cycle): follow a series of timed button presses to get through the game. How immersive can a music game be if the player never plays any music?

As it turns out, it can work well, for a while. These games became a phenomenon primarily because Harmonix DID nail the rock star fantasy via great presentation, narration and game design. Guitar Hero boasted an engaging rags-to-riches campaign storyline, superbly-curated and sequenced song list, pitch-perfect visual tone in presenting your virtual rocker’s ascent to fame, and finely-crafted note charts for each song that truly made you feel like you were playing that song, and playing it well. With Rock Band, Harmonix enabled multiple people to play together on different instruments, exponentially increasing the fun factor and making it a must-have game for parties. With Rock Band Network, Harmonix allowed indie musicians to submit their own songs to the game and make them available to Rock Band players around the world, significantly increasing the number of songs available to players. And with Rock Band 3′s Pro Mode, Harmonix took the bold step of expanding their game into the realm of music instruction, teaching advanced players how to play Rock Band songs on a real guitar, drum kit or keyboard.

For me, however, eventually the novelty wore off and I realized that rather than me playing a game, the game was playing me, micro-managing me, telling me every single button to press and exactly when to press it. Even in Pro Mode, playing a real guitar or keyboard into the game, I had no way to influence the pre-generated sounds coming out of the speaker, no way to improvise and add my own flourishes to the sound. I started wanting something more evolved, with more free-form control in a larger possibility space. I imagine millions felt the same way, and eventually stopped playing.

The New Hotness

Perhaps those are the same millions who, like myself, downloaded Ocarina and loved it. Or perhaps they were different millions. Either way, Ocarina sold well. The presentation is spartan – four blue circles on a black background. The audio is nice (a sweet, flute-like sound coming out of your tiny phone speaker) but not Guitar Hero-level awesome (a full rock band track with drums, bass, guitars and vocals blasting out of your home theater system). Luckily, it released on a platform where the bar for presentation was very low at the time, so the only thing that mattered was that it felt magical to play.

The controls are easy to use – blow into the the phone to play, blow harder or softer to control volume, change the notes with your fingers, and tilt the phone to add vibrato. What you hear is what you play, not what someone else pre-recorded for you. It might not always sound like a chart-topper, sometimes it might sound like a hot mess, but it’s YOUR hot mess. Most importantly, you can play it with your eyes closed and imagine yourself performing in a stadium for thousands of imaginary fans. The illusion is complete, the fantasy sold, no fancy 3D graphics needed.

As it turns out, you really ARE playing to an audience of thousands, and each of them is playing to you. On the “world” screen you see the earth as a globe, with thousands of tiny shimmering lights on the surface representing other Ocarina players just like you, doodling away on their new instrument. One at a time, the app tunes in to one of these players and lets you hear their performance. Heart it if you like it or tap ‘next’ to listen to something else. All of your performances are automatically and anonymously shared with this community too (you can opt out, but why would you?). Millions of people playing for each other, entertaining each other, inspiring each other. Real people, playing real music on a real instrument, giving each other real feedback. Not the fake NPCs and fake applause of the console games – after all, no modern AI is sophisticated enough to give meaningful feedback on a freestyle musical performance. Ocarina presents the beginnings of a significantly evolved way of fulfilling the rock star fantasy, and the direction these games need to go: a massively-multiplayer online game with music as the core mechanic.

Smule innovated further with subsequent apps, in significant and impactful ways. The “Play a Song” mode guides you in realtime to play a full song on a Smule instrument via an interface similar to Guitar Hero, surreptitiously teaching you how to play that real instrument via a fun game. User Generated Content (UGC) options allow advanced users to create and submit their own songs for others to learn and improve from. On the “World Stage” you can perform live for a panel of judges who provide realtime feedback, American Idol-style. “Join a Song” enables multiple users to contribute performances to the same track – the 3500-person rendition of “Lean On Me” in the Glee app is a must-hear. Officially-licensed backing tracks and sophisticated audio tech come together to make performances sound even better. Richer and more “full-sized” iPad instruments like Magic Piano and Magic Fiddle significantly expand the range of music that can be played on a Smule app, for those willing to learn.

The Future?

In theory Smule has assembled a fantastic mix of innovative features that enable non-musicians to easily learn to play a range of real (electronic, iOS-based) instruments and go as deep as they want into the rock star fantasy. However there are a few seams in the big picture. The ocarina, trombone and fiddle have limited long-term mainstream appeal as instruments, as they don’t really tap into the rock star fantasy given their place in popular culture. Unfortunately, Smule’s guitar and piano apps are not exactly easy-to-play real instruments. Magic Guitar has no freestyle mode and is thus purely a game, not an instrument. Magic Piano’s freestyle mode is very difficult to play and completely different from its “Play a Song” game mode, thus precluding any skill-building benefits of the latter towards the former.

On the other hand, over the years Harmonix has created very easy-to-play controllers inspired by guitars, drums and keyboards – the instruments most people care most about – and have nailed the narrative and presentation for selling the rock star fantasy. What we need now is a convergence of these two seemingly-opposed but ultimately complementary schools of thought. How awesome would it be if we had a visually and narratively-immersive game like Rock Band, with a simple and intuitive way to control the music as with Smule’s apps? The game could teach me how to play songs, introduce advanced techniques over time, and let me inject my own style into the sound. At some point I could just plug my controller into an amp or speaker and play that instrument for real!

There is one game that has attempted to bridge this gap somewhat. Ubisoft’s Rocksmith is essentially Guitar Hero played with a real guitar in which you hear yourself play, rather than a pre-authored guitar track. It teaches you to play songs via a rich, elaborate interface, and introduces advanced techniques using a very slick adaptive difficulty mechanism. However, Rocksmith has some major limitations, as well-covered by Kyle Carpenter’s excellent write-up. Ultimately, its “controller” effectively has 96 buttons, which is way too complex a proposition for a mass-market audience. Guitar Hero had 5 buttons, Ocarina had 4. This is the ballpark level of complexity needed.

Skeptics will say that there is no way to simplify the full breadth and depth of things you can do on a real guitar down to 4 or 5 buttons. And they’re absolutely right. But as Smule has proven many times, good design can solve this problem. Let’s bring together Smule’s sensibilities of simple instrument design with Harmonix’s instincts for tapping into the rock star fantasy, and let the players of that game jam together and collaborate, and perform live to a global virtual audience of real people providing real feedback. Easier said than done, but it can’t be impossible. The only question is who will do it – Smule, Harmonix, or someone else?(source:GAMASUTRA)