What I Want: Rock Band Franchise

by Michael Camacho [ Monday, 14th of December 2009 - 12:47 AM ]

Recently I played Beatles: Rock Band and Lego Rock Band, and while one was looking back at a band's career and the other was geared to a younger crowd, they both did something that really caught my attention. They had a story, not just creating a band and playing songs at venues. You actually had a story to some gigs or had special concerts you held. I came to an instant revelation at this point. Why not expand on this when we eventually see Rock Band 3. This editorial will cover what I would like to see in the next iteration of the series and expands on these ideas.

I would love to see Rock Band 3 really start you off from the very beginning. You can still create the four members of your band, but start them off as high school or college kids practicing in their garage. Who wouldn't love to start their band from scratch? You could have cut scenes of them meeting for practice and silly arguments, including decisions on a band name or even who plays what instrument and the singer. Your initial set of songs will just be your band practicing to get better. Even the instruments and clothing available at this time will be limited and stuff mostly high school or college kids would wear.

After practicing, you could easily move them up to playing shows and gigs as an opening act at local clubs or even just playing school events. Have them make a small amount of money per show, and you could open up the clothing to include shirts with the clubs' logos on there. The next step would see the band in a cut scene being noticed by a small independent label who signs them to a one album deal. Once signed, you could open up more instruments and fashion for purchase. And when it comes to making the album actually have the player choose how many songs will be featured, between 7 and 10 songs would be a good number. After you record your album, you would then go on tour headlining small clubs and eventually opening for larger acts for bigger concerts.

Once you finish the tour promoting the new album, depending on how many stars you received while playing the songs, you could gain more fans and sales of the album. Depending on how well your album sold, you would then catch the attention of a larger music label and sign a multiple album deal. You could let the player choose between one to three albums for a deal. Again, you would go about recording of your first major album, you now headline larger shows. You could even be featured for special concerts and while you wouldn't headline, you would garner a middle or higher tier slot to perform in. The star ratings you receive after playing each song would once again influence sales and how many fans you gain. As sales and fan numbers improve, the fashion and instruments available for purchase expands. You would now have access to more elaborate outfits ad costume to wear on stage.

This is where the game can really give itself replayability with a story in place. Once you finish your first major label deal, you can renew your contract with the same label or even sign with other labels. After you record your third album, whether with the initial contract or the second, you are now a top-tier band. You will headline every show, play benefit events, and have access to all fashion and instruments. You will also have access to playing international shows. As contracts run out, you continue to renew or negotiate new contracts with other labels and record new albums.

Throughout your career - including pre-independent label - you will record music videos, whether it's a cheesy hand held video camera as a garage band, a small budget independent video, or an epic special effects extravaganza video later in your career. The game will save these music videos and you will be able to watch them with your characters without the instrument and vocals tracks on screen, so you can go back and see your progression. Since it is MTV Games, it would be great to include cut scenes through out showcasing your music videos on MTV Countdowns and even seeing your band winning awards on the MTV Video Music Awards.

Another great idea would be to be involved in the hiring of managers, roadies, producers and other members of an entourage. The cut scene would play and show multiple candidates for each position interviewing for the job and afterward you would then be able to choose which you would prefer to hire. As you go through your career, you hire more people at more positions similar to Rock Band now, but it would be nice to actually see more interaction. Have a fan club president and you could talk to them and give them letters to send out to fans or special song downloads to a website, and could help bring gain more fan. You would discuss tour dates and locations with your manager, and make up a calendar with all the shows you will perform on a tour. To record your album, you will talk to the producer and choose the songs you will be recording for the album. Even have a music video director that you talk to and choose the style and direction you want each music video to have.

Lego Rock Band also had the nice feature of a true Rock Den that was fully customizable, so why not put this into the next full Rock Band sequel. You could put up posters of your band that you create using various poses for members and various borders and other special effects. You could also purchase upgrades to the den in the likes of accessories, furniture, new room expansions or even a full upgrade to the entire look of the den.

Finally, I would like to see a more dynamic character creator in the next Rock Band game, and the inclusion of options to change more than just face, hair and body height or weight is much needed. Having sliders to manipulate the many features of a characters face and body would let the player create characters they connect to even more. They could keep the similar style of the look of the game, but just expand where it is needed.

I know many enjoy the current features that Rock Band 2 has, but for me personally I would like to actually have more control over my characters look and style, and would love to start my band from their first garage practices and work my way up to super star status. Rock Band 3 has the chance to take everything Rock Band has done right so far and expand it even more to give the players a more immersive experience to where one feels like they control their band's fate.

Feel free to leave your comments on what you would like to see in the next version of the game, and who knows maybe Harmonix will take a look into ideas similar to these and make the needed improvements for the next title.

"What I Want" will be an ongoing editorial series from me as I look at various game franchises, genres, consoles, and companies. I will be focusing on what features, upgrades, improvements and direction I'd like to see them take on.