Even the recent announcement that some Lenny Kravitz tracks (finally) are making their way to RB doesn’t do much to abate some people’s suspicions that rock history is being “whitewashed” through RB. See, for instance, comments made by one, “etchasketchist”. He makes a few points in regard to the situation that well, can’t be denied, unless you want to simply retort in ignorant anger toward him.

And the interesting part? Well, he’s white. A white guy who is simply sick of the kind of crap that spawned this debate to begin with. And I have to agree with his opinions, what’s right is right, and this situation stinks. Hit the link on the sidebar to get a taste of the convo as it happened.

My team and I are a bomb squad. We are seemingly unstoppable. People have tried everything, cheating, exploits, blitzing, coordinated strikes. We survive it all, and with a certain “style”. We just have that chemistry. Our thing that we do now is we count how many people over he course of a versus campaign we can piss off to the point they quit. I think our record is eight now.

It has even gotten to where if I am not playing with these friends, I couldn’t give a shit about my team. No one else is good enough in my opinion. No one communicates as well, no one has enough tactical savvy, just no one. I sometimes even go as far as to use my matches with other players to experiment and try to find things that I can use to my advantage when I play seriously with my friends.

I am damned sure just about anyone will find this game just as entertaining as I do. To be so simple, with its limited selection of weapons, only four campaigns, etc…  and somehow still not be able to get me to put down the controller unless I first put hours in… pure greatness(drools)….

Bottom line, if you haven’t picked up L4D, DO IT NOW. I need more people to curse my unholy name. MUAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I’ve deleted all posts debating the finer points of race in Rock Band, simply because this isn’t the place to discuss it. These comment sections are intended as a place to leave a personal note, testimonial, or greeting and not as a place to discuss the game in general.

If anyone has an interest in having a personal conversation then by all means make use of the PM feature, either for myself or other posters you’d like to talk to. If you’d like to request bands of any ethnicity, religion, or color then you should request them in the Ultimate Set List forum. And if you have an interest in continuing a dialog about race in Rock Band (and presumably video games in general) then you can check out bloodcatalyst’s blog which is linked in the post below.

Thanks.

-that post I edited to include my name in reference to whose blog he speaks of, as he originally misquoted it as belonging my fianceé. I also again omitted his name

anyone else notice that it was not offered to be able to discuss this in their public forum? and why not?

and please tell me, if you feel that your personal page, sir, is not a place for this discussion, why did you not erase all of those posts from the start, not just mine? I think he may have read the blog and noticed that I called him on that point, what say you?

this continues to not look as though things are on the up and up here, and I feel like he may have gone on the defensive. well, I guess we shall see as things move on even further…

“I am not digging this SO much that I feel that I need to blog it.”

No worries, my posts won’t always be “gloom and doom”.

Now for the issue at hand.

Recently, in the past few days, a conversation came up in the Rock Band forums that triggered the kind of reaction you would rather not get out of my fianceé. You see, she is a very ‘pro-black’ individual. By that I mean being of African American descent like myself, she has little tolerance for things that are blatantly and/or can be construed as discriminatory toward our race.

That being established, I am sure that if you are a gamer reading this blog, you have at least some knowledge of what Rock Band is. For those of you who may not know, let me clear it up for you.

Some years ago, amidst the barrage of action, racing and RPG/adventure titles flooding the market as so went the gaming status quo every year, Harmonix(HMX), a developer somewhat known for their prowess in making good, if not always popular, music games teamed up with the then online game rental company Red Octane to bring the world Guitar Hero. Guitar Hero was the first home console music simulation game that featured an instrument-shaped controller. This made the experience of playing the music feel about as close to the real thing that you can get with a game controller. After three installments of the title(the original, a direct sequel and a spin-off), Harmonix severed their ties with the Guitar Hero name, selling it outright to their producer at that point, Activision.

This break from their former franchise soon led into the unveiling of Rock Band(RB), a game in the vein of Guitar Hero but with a new twist, the inclusion of vocals and drums into the gameplay alongside the guitar(which doubles as bass). Like its predecessor, the game was a success. with a robust songlist and weekly DLC(downloadable content) available for the game, it has the kind of longevity most games in any genre lack.

Of course, Guitar Hero had only been sold to Activision, not made defunct. So now, Rock Band’s only real competition comes in the form of the franchise that spawned it. The first installment of the series made in the absence of Harmonix, Guitar Hero 3(GH3), is known as either a love it or hate it game. It’s style and difficulty are not for everyone. Earlier this year on the heels of the big commercial success of GH3, Activision announced Guitar Hero World Tour(GHWT). GHWT climbs into the same boat as RB, adding vocals and drums to the formula. Following that announcement, HMX announced that Rock Band 2(RB2) would also be coming this year.

Ok, so that is the history of the games up to this point. Now, as I said, a conversation in the RB forums led to the discussion of possible racial discrimination on the part of Harmonix in regard to their selection in tracks, both on-disc and DLC for their games. The discussion was soon closed by one of the game’s developers(whose name I am intentionally leaving ot for now), who had this to say in what I am posting as part of my fianceé’s quote/response to him on his personal page.

“And I am closing the discussion about race in Rock Band because it is WILDLY speculative and ill informed. Are there African American artists in bands featured in Rock Band? Yes. Will there be more African American artists featured in Rock Band as time goes on? Yes.

When putting out DLC we look for songs that rock. I can definitively say, without a shadow of a doubt, that race, ethnicity, gender, sexual preference, or religion do not factor into our decisions about whether or not we’re going to put a song in Rock Band. We’re not going out of our way to exclude anyone from Rock Band.”

After her quoting of this, she responded with;

“We Don’t Believe You, You Need More People”- Jay-Z Take Over
I’ll believe it when i see it. Until then I continue to play the game that really diversifies their song list and doesn’t offer lame excuses such as the one I quoted from you above. Songs that rock do not include The Jonas Bros or iCarly btw. And you have rap music in the game but continue to exclude black artists and their music.

The other game she is referring to in her post is the aforementioned GHWT. You see, the GH crew has made it a point to include multicultural music and, yes, music by African American/Black artists in each release of their game since HMX’s departure. That is, aside from GH:Aerosmith which does not apply due to the unique nature of the content, and possibly the portable versions of the game which I cannot comment on because I have not played them. The GH games feature music by Lenny Kravitz, Living Colour, Jimi Hendrix and even Michael Jackson.

Selections like these are noticeably absent from not only RB, but any of the games that HMX has developed since the original GH. This raises an eyebrow for not only my fianceé and myself, but many other players as well.

Her response to this dev prompted a response from another user of the forums who had this to say, unedited from its original form;

to comment below
wtf…Their music? There are an equally amount of all races in this generation who rap, and none of what you call “rap” songs in rock band have black rappers(not complain that there are no black artists in rock band). That just struck a note when you associated rap with a race, because I believe music is universal, not subject to black or white.

Now, while my fianceé has a low tolerance for discrimination, I have a lower tolerance for people who not only poorly express themselves in topics of debate, but do so with completely misguided and poorly thought out points.

I decided to post the text below in response to him, also unedited from its original form.

to the comment below
“wtf…. Their music?”

yeah, THEIR music, as in the the music belonging to those artists.

michael jackson-” beat it”
lenny kravitz-” are you gonna go my way”
jimi hendrix- “the wind cries mary”
the above = black artists and their music

your personal ignorance immediately drew the conversation to focus only on rap, because obviously, black people aren’t capable of producing and/or enjoying any other form of music.

if you can’t even comprehend such simple comments then you need not respond, especially with a poorly thought out and ignorant response as the one you posted.

the fact that rap was used as an example in her comment is because in a genre of music both created and dominated outright by african americans(don’t- fool yourself, rap is not equally contributed to by all races, only a grade schooler could even possibly think so), the RB team managed to include only tracks by white artists in their game. the guitar hero group on the other hand

/continued
has managed several tracks by AA artists in their first band game effort. so what is HMX’s excuse for the lack of support in over a year and two iterations of RB?

and no, bands who just happen to include one person of color do not count. killswitch engage for instance has an AA frontman. but if you ask anyone to name an AA rock group, how many will answer “killswitch”? how many will even know their singer is black before you tell them? next to none, certainly.

and don’t give me that “there aren’t enough black rock groups” nonsense. I call bullcrap on that one. there are plenty, they are simply a minority in the genre on the whole. not that it matters anyway, since if HMX is truly looking to include non rock music that fits the band template, like the substantial country offering recently announced, they have no excuse not to reach outside of the genre to grab a few AA artists. nuff said.

The above post of mine I found, the next day, had been deleted by the developer whose comments spurred the conversation above.

So, let me get this straight, he would allow the comment my fianceé made, and its poorly refuted response to remain on his page. But when I interjected with a message that made logical sense of why the situatuion as it is can be perceived as discriminatory, also condemning the poor response of that individual, my post gets deleted?

Needless to say, this does nothing to make our suspicions seem any less relevant, instead bringing more question as to why I was not allowed to speak freely about the situation. Does it ring an air of truth, so it need be quashed before other users could see it and possibly join in the dissent? What is the deal, Harmonix? Why is there no satisfactory action being taken here, and not what looks like hiding of the truth?

I guess we can have our answer in time. I’ll be sure to update the situation here as or if it develops further.