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Nov5
Think of the Children: Rock Band introduces Song Ratings System
5 Comments
Earlier in September, Harmonix confirmed the facts that the song list from Lego:RB would be 100% exportable and further that not all songs in the RB catalogue would be playable through Lego:RB. This was due to the adult nature of some of the lyrics, the overt sexual themes that are apparent in some tracks, and don’t forget all that death metal. With the release of Lego: Rock Band in stores on this past Tuesday, Harmonix has provided full disclosure on how their system works, which songs made the ‘family friendly’ cut, and which songs will definitely require “supervision”.Songs with the “FF” logo will appear in the L:RB set list as playable tracks. Songs with a “SR” logo are considered too risque or dangerous for young ears. You can see the entire catalog listed here beside each song’s rating. From the list it appears that about half the catalogue is assigned in each category.
I am not a parent, but I stongly believe that you should always use your own judgement as a parent, not neccessarily rely on what an arbitrary ratings system decides is appropriate or inappropriate. These can be great guides to understanding what kind of content is included, but I question whether or not the people making the call are qualified to do so. In this case, Harmonix appears to have drawn a very broad line around acceptable and unacceptable content.
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Now there is no question that many of the songs included in the RB catalogue are best left for mature audiences. No seven year olds should be regailing their parents with cute renditions of Electric Six’s “Gay Bar” or Yeah Yeah Yeahs “Date with the Night”. But by taking away the choice from parents, they are essentially telling you what is and is not good parenting. In order to sell this product to parents, Harmonix has to give assurances that the game is not harmful in any conceivable way. The Lego brand has a great deal of public trust and I’ve never met anyone who thought anything wrong of the Lego company or their toys.I would have rather have seen a content filter that can be bypassed, even if that filter was set to ‘on’ by default but one that you could disable. Would this have made the game better? Probably not, but it certainly would get more playtime out of the hardcore RB crowd. As it stands right now (speaking as a hardcore RB crowdie) once I have exported the music from the game, I’m not going to be spending a lot of time with the game itself. Music is an intensely passionate art form, music gaming can be a very passionate a hobby, and this has lowered my excitement going into this game because I know that some of the best music is censored and hidden from view.
Overall I think this was an inevitable progression for the platform, and comparing with the content that was shown in Band Hero, I think Harmonix is probably a better judge of acceptable music for five year olds.
5 responses to “Think of the Children: Rock Band introduces Song Ratings System”
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Normally I would say it’s right to question when a product developer dictates how their can product be used. I have an iPhone, but I think it’s wrong that it’s locked to a specific carrier, and that you can only install Apple/AT&T-approved applications on it. It’s artificial restraint. But with Harmonix dictating what songs are allowable in Lego: Rock Band, it’s a different case entirely.
In Lego: Rock Band, if you you allowed all songs to be playable, you could be playing a two song random setlist with your kid and Sex on Fire could pop up as the second song. I wouldn’t want to explain to my five year old what the title of that song meant (it’s about that burning sensation when you pee, right?). Up until a few months ago, everyone was fine with playing their DLC as always originally intended in Rock Band / Rock Band 2. I think people are greatly misunderstanding the intent of this game. If the fact that there is no online play is any indication, it is meant for a child or a family to have fun together, without having to worry about what song pops up next. I mean, is there really a large vocal group out there that has a die hard need for people to play every song in their Rock Band DLC catalog in Lego: Rock Band? I think a lot of those complaining about the inability to play some songs as a Lego person (and believe me, I’ve seen/heard alot) need to relax, take a step back, and re-examine whether it is really that big of a deal to see a Lego person with a carrot microphone singing Fat Bottomed Girls.
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Good response. Yeah I considered that fact before I posted my thoughts. When I first heard that you could import DLC into Lego:RB, I thought, “awesome, who needs the original RB2 disc any longer as I can now play everything on the new version”. So I was probably the only one who thought they would now switch to playing everything through the Lego game. After seeing the game in action I retreated from that position, and would rather stick with what we all see now in RB2. Sorry if my article came off as negative towards Harmonix, just wanted to point out that even though its for a good reason, its still censorship, but its neccessary.
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It was an editorial. Rock on with your bad self! Nice post. I have a copy of LRB, but my Xbox isn’t back from service yet. Soooo, I haven’t played the game yet. Here’s hoping it’s waiting for me when I get home from work.
Shawn November 5th, 2009 at 09:19