This has been going on for a while, but yesterday's release of Rock Band has unleashed a whole new flood of message board posters, thread commenters, and the occasional real-life jackasses who feel the need to ask some variant of the following:

"Shouldn't you be spending all the time you're sinking into this game playing a real instrument?"

Now, anyone who takes it upon themselves to cop a holier-than-thou attitude towards what videogames someone else plays clearly has some broader personality issues that need to be dealt with.

But we'll put that aside for the moment – I am not your therapist – and simply discuss why the premise is wrong.

Nobody ever said that Rock Band is a substitute for a musical instrument. *Rock Band *is a videogame, an entertaining challenge prepared by a team of music lovers and instrumental virtuosos, most of whom are well aware what it means to really play music. This does not deter them from their goals, which are, roughly:

Make a fun videogame, Mimic part of the feel of playing a musical instrument, Change the way people consume music, and Inspire a small segment of that group to pick up a real instrument.

Note that nowhere in that list do the words "provide a substitute for real instruments such that humankind never learns how to play music." In fact, they're hoping for quite the opposite: that playing their videogame will get a few people interested enough in musical instruments that they will attempt to make the jump.

But as I understand it, that's far down the list. First and foremost, they're making a fun videogame. Which it is. Like Super Mario Galaxy or BioShock, Rock Band is a lengthy, difficult series of events that challenge you to conquer them. That its premise happens to be "you are a rock star" is no different than "you are a plumber in space" or "you are a biochemically enhanced guy in an underwater city."

If Rock Band has any ambition outside "be a fun video game," it is to change the way that people consume the music that they love. This doesn't mean "make people think they are playing music, haha, what idiots." It's just a more active, kinetic, complex way of experiencing music that's already been made for you.

Even musicians enjoy playing Guitar Hero and Rock Band. They enjoy it quite a bit. Playing music is hard. I am learning a musical instrument. I don't sound very good. If I put "all the time" I spent playing Guitar Hero and Rock Band into practicing, I still would not sound very good. I will never be a rock star. *Rock Band *lets me pretend I am, just like Madden lets you pretend you play in the NFL, or Portal lets you pretend there are such things as portals.

I think learning to play music is one of the most fun and rewarding things I've ever set myself to do, and I think everybody should try. But when you see people playing a music game, remember: they're not making some kind of trade-off in which they'd be learning an instrument if only that game didn't exist. More than likely, they'd just be playing another videogame.