Home Forums Other Topics "Kids today!!" or, "I want to but I dont have time to learn guitar."

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    • #14223
      superblonde
      Keymaster

      those aged between 18 to 35 – are “wasting their time”.

      That quote and the below pretty much sums up the habits of my friends as well.

      Army Reserve research shows time spent on social media and gaming 14 April 2016

      A survey for the The Army Reserve shows 18-35s spend three-and-a-half hours a day on social media and gaming.

      The survey of 2,000 is part of a recruitment campaign highlighting how young people wile away a day a week.

      The Army Reserve said many young people think joining the reservists is too much of a time commitment – despite saying they would like to learn a new skill if they had more time.

      The Army is aiming to reach a target of 30,000 trained reservists by 2019.

      Reservists are required to commit to at least 19 days a year.

      The study carried out on behalf of The Army Reserve by research specialists Opinion Matters asked 2,021 people, aged between 18 and 35, about their personal lives.
      ‘Think again’

      It found that more than 60% (1,213) said they would be interested in learning a new skill if they had more spare time, and a fifth (404) would like to volunteer and help others.

      A spokesman for the Army Reserve said the research was designed “to get people who may have not considered the Army to think again about being a reservist and realise that it’s not a huge commitment”.

      “With a time commitment from just 19 days a year, much of which is made up of short training evenings during the week, it’s a realistic option for a lot of people and that the rewards are huge,” he added.

      The survey also suggested that:

      37% (748) wanted improved fitness levels
      38% (768) wanted to travel more
      50% (1011) wanted to spend more time doing a hobby

      ….

      After a series of high profile recruiting campaigns, already costing millions of pounds, the Army is adopting a high risk strategy.

      It’s now telling one of its key audiences – those aged between 18 to 35 – they’re “wasting their time”.

      Rather than cause offence it’s telling this generation they could be learning new skills and earning extra money as part-time soldiers rather than lounging on the sofa or logging into their social media accounts.

      https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-36037583

      Maybe the best decisions I ever made when moving out of the house long ago, was to never buy a TV, and never subscribe to cable, never buy another gaming console, etc.

      Tho I probably spend that time instead on internet message forums ;-D

      I'm an intermediate student of Metal Method. I play seitannic heavy metal. All Kale Seitan! ♯ ♮ ♭ ø ° Δ ♩ ♪ ♫ ♬
      And on the Seventh Day, Mustaine said: ∇ ⨯ E = - ∂B / ∂t ; and there was Thrash; and it had a ♭3; and it was good.

    • #14226
      Sean
      Participant

      SB,

      I spoke about this survey today at my daily huddle at work. I have a gentleman that just retired from the Military. And he told about one of his last inspections. A young recruit actually pulled out a cellphone from his front pocket while standing in the inspection line. Social media truly has a massive pull on people.
      Even I must admit since being a member of this forum I now check in daily. I would have never done this last year or earlier. There is something to this form of communication and information gathering that can be attractive.

      Tell me and I will forget ,show me and I'll remember, involve me and I'll understand

    • #14230
      Igglepud
      Participant

      Video games ARE another skill. I spent January becoming proficient at Battlefront.

      MY ROCK IS FIERCE!!!

    • #14231
      superblonde
      Keymaster

      Video games are not all bad especially for kids. The widely publicized studies of air force pilots in Desert Storm showed young pilots having incredible reflexes and spacial skills compared to previous decades presumably because the guys had played tons of fast paced shoot-em-up games (aka DOOM and Quake). But still, “enough is enough” at some point, right? Like when it becomes habit & addiction. I believe there was a time when it was possible to actually make eye contact with cute girls in cafes or bars. ;-D Now they (and everyone else) just stares at their phones :-/ Playing the Facebook Keep-Up-With-The-Joneses game. I guess I really notice more because I don’t have a phone.

      At a recent band rehearsal our frontman had a break because a different band member sings certain songs. I thought he might be doing something useful on his phone, like, reviewing lyrics to make sure the 2nd vocalist was performing well, or listening closely with some focus. Nope. He was playing that crystal gem game.

      Something about ‘being present in the actual life that is passing by right now’ is missing today.. And virtual reality, or augmented reality, isn’t even in common use by people yet.

      I'm an intermediate student of Metal Method. I play seitannic heavy metal. All Kale Seitan! ♯ ♮ ♭ ø ° Δ ♩ ♪ ♫ ♬
      And on the Seventh Day, Mustaine said: ∇ ⨯ E = - ∂B / ∂t ; and there was Thrash; and it had a ♭3; and it was good.

      • #14241
        Igglepud
        Participant

        I agree, people are less “present” now. I am guilty of this myself: I check this forum, practice chess, respond to e-mails, etc. all the time. I have had to set some serious boundaries with electronics: none at all during time with my wife and daughter, none at all during dinner.

        How does your front man expect the audience to be engaged in your performance when he himself is not?

        MY ROCK IS FIERCE!!!

    • #14232
      Sean
      Participant

      My only issue with video games is this and Igglepud you may have insight in this as a teacher. I have an employee who calls out sick when a big new game comes out. It’s like clockwork. This has happened three times in less than a year. This isn’t one day, No its multiple days because of our accurance policy. This is a man with two young children.

      Tell me and I will forget ,show me and I'll remember, involve me and I'll understand

      • #14242
        Igglepud
        Participant

        This is going to become an issue for employers in the future. It’s the same as when hunting season opens or they get tickets to their team’s championship game.

        I would suggest being proactive about it: if you don’t want everyone taking off work when deer season opens, make it known in advance that request off requests will be denied and anyone who does not show up for their shift will receive disciplinary action.

        MY ROCK IS FIERCE!!!

    • #14238
      safetyblitz
      Participant

      A way to visualize your life that might help impart a sense of urgency:

      https://waitbutwhy.com/2014/05/life-weeks.html

    • #14239
      metalj
      Participant

      I used to love videogames. Now I buy videogames that I don’t play which is a whole different problem. I got seriously discouraged in my pursuit of guitar mastery. Or maybe it was around the time I got my smart phone. But something definitely happened and I set the bar extremely low nowadays due to my attention span. It’s a bummer for sure. I have plenty of free time but I physically reject doing the same thing for hours on end. Damn internet.

       

      Jay aka the letter J

    • #14240
      Sean
      Participant

      Thanks for this Safetyblitz!

      There are so any life lessons in this article. Between the written word and the graphs. Very cool.

      Tell me and I will forget ,show me and I'll remember, involve me and I'll understand

    • #14243
      superblonde
      Keymaster

      Yea that’s a cool link.
      That Retirement box can be doubled in size though if the Career box is cut in half. 😀 It’s not so difficult. 😀

      I'm an intermediate student of Metal Method. I play seitannic heavy metal. All Kale Seitan! ♯ ♮ ♭ ø ° Δ ♩ ♪ ♫ ♬
      And on the Seventh Day, Mustaine said: ∇ ⨯ E = - ∂B / ∂t ; and there was Thrash; and it had a ♭3; and it was good.

    • #14260
      Francisca
      Participant

      People are addicted to their phones! Everytime that I travel by subway (here called “metro”) I can see everybody starring at those little screens, and what’s unbelievable is that the subway in the mornings is really full here and somehow they manage to put the cellphones out and text or play games or something. I don’t even know what they do! And sometimes it is annoying because they put the cellphone over your shoulder or even over your head! I don’t have a cellphone either and people get surprised when they know about it. Social media can be fun and even educative, but for some people it gets out of control! Can you believe that some of my classmates at college start checking their phones in the middle of the class?! The teacher has to ask them to turn off the cellphones. And when I’m in the classroom with computers half of them is checking facebook while the teacher is explaining something! Their attention goes anywhere else but the class.

      I think it is the same with videogames. It may be good to play but when it becomes an addiction there is trouble. I used to play guitar hero on play station, but one day it broke down and it didn’t matter that much to me. Sure I didn’t like it, but I didn’t feel like getting a new one. I was already more into spending my time studying English and learning how to play guitar for real.

      Internet is something that I use all the time now. Six years ago I felt like internet was not important. Now I know about many guitar related webpages, I can get guitar tabs, I can read (and sometimes write) in a forum… But it’s weird that I don’t feel part of the “technology era”.

      What about you, guitar players?

      "...Guitar coming from a radio, Always takes you where you wanna go, Somehow all your troubles always seem to fade away..." - Joan Jett (Play That song Again).

      • #14279
        AlleyCatRocker1980s
        Participant

        Hey Francisca,  🙂

        I totally understand, where your coming from..

        The thing I’m really worried about, is people Texting while driving I had two really scarry incidents

        that took place a few years back.  One was a Guy driving a Truck, an passing me on an Icy Road doing 75 mph.

        He was Texting, lost control on the Icy Road..He ended up in a 40 foot Ditch, & the Truck flips over on it’s Roof.

        Lucky he had his Safety Belt on, & he got out of the Accident with a brief cut on his fore head.

        Another time, a Guy did the same thing passing me going quite fast on an Icy Road he had a 4 Wheel Drive Truck & was Texting.

        As he was passing me, I had thought to myself…..Man what if this Guy, gets like 300 feet in front of me an as he’s Texting he loses control on

        the Ice. An then he spins around, an is coming rite back at me?     Whelp guess what?   Thats exactly what happined!

        An I had to practically, drive in the Ditch to avoide him…  this is true!

        Texting is great, but why do it while driving?

        Hi Francisca  Great to see you, what have you been doing these day’s?  🙂

        Practicing Guitar

      • #14392
        MotleyCrue81
        Participant

        Their attention goes anywhere else but the class.

        And then college kids wonder why they don’t get a job in our country after they graduate, HELLO, companies don’t want to hire dumb people. What’s actually kind of appalling is that people will take out their phone during an interview. Such idiots.

        Bring hair metal back!

    • #14261
      superblonde
      Keymaster

      I’ve always viewed internet forums as different because you’re actually talking to people about neat topics. Or hopefully not completely nonsense arguments hah. I dont use other guitar or music forums though. Sometimes I read them if I google for something, but overall I find there’s too many other musical genres and stuff is written without context so it’s harder to put any advice or anecdotes in proper perspective. Here obviously everyone is a metalhead (well except for that ONE crazy jazz guy lol ;-D ) so everyone’s speaking from the same page basically.

      Recently I got more in the habit of carrying my tablet around mostly so I can check email sometimes for bandmate updates. Otherwise I purposely try to avoid anything time sensitive like “text me when you get there”. What’s up with that. Why text when anyone gets anywhere. Less than 10 years ago (not long ago!) people got places just fine without texting anyone. People mostly showed up on time or simply waited and hung out. Nowadays I’ve had dates and biz appointments flake because they showed up, looked around, didn’t see anyone else (because literally they were waiting just around the corner), and left.

      Anyways. Video games have a big chat element these days so that’s where a lot of social activity went too. It’s not the same though. Compare chatting in a video game about whatever’s new, to chatting over a physical game of poker about whatever’s new. All my old friends have disappeared into this ‘video game void’.

      Now has it spilled over into music.. yes right? Do bands get together to play like they used to? I don’t know but I don’t assume so? Musicians say, “Lets trade wav files on dropbox. We only need to rehearse once a month, otherwise we use practice tracks” instead of physically getting together right? Sure city traffic is harder than it used to be. Commute or farther travel is harder and more expensive. Still.. it’s not the same right? Is it harder to find band mates today simply because people are not patient enough (to wait around, or simply, to deal with real people as imperfect as people are) compared to just 10 years ago?

      Real kids today though, like, 12 year olds, I have no idea what they are up to. I think some of them are learning the lesson. Supposedly young kids bag on facebook because “it’s old” (it’s like myspace to them, hah). I dont know if that’s just lip service though. I think they moved on, to the instant video streaming apps like Periscope. Or this thing where kids watch videos of people walking thru video games. How exciting is that.. it’s not even playing a game, it’s simply watching someone else play the game. (???!) Hugely popular according to some web statistics people.

      I still don’t know how long it takes to learn guitar though. So if someone says, “I don’t have time to learn guitar”. Well, how long does it take? shrug, I dunno, how much time ya got? 😀

      I'm an intermediate student of Metal Method. I play seitannic heavy metal. All Kale Seitan! ♯ ♮ ♭ ø ° Δ ♩ ♪ ♫ ♬
      And on the Seventh Day, Mustaine said: ∇ ⨯ E = - ∂B / ∂t ; and there was Thrash; and it had a ♭3; and it was good.

    • #14265
      safetyblitz
      Participant

      Anyways. Video games have a big chat element these days so that’s where a lot of social activity went too. It’s not the same though. Compare chatting in a video game about whatever’s new, to chatting over a physical game of poker about whatever’s new.

      And due to the “not-getting-punched-in-the-face” factor, a disproportionate fraction of video game chatter is about who’s a “fag” and who isn’t.

    • #14267
      safetyblitz
      Participant

      I still don’t know how long it takes to learn guitar though. So if someone says, “I don’t have time to learn guitar”. Well, how long does it take? shrug, I dunno, how much time ya got?

      That “life calendar” page has a link to an interesting article by the same author about procrastination. He talks about people avoiding starting large, nebulous tasks (one of his examples is “learn to program”) because they sound “icky” and people don’t have a concrete idea of how to start.

      So he talks about the importance of having strategies for “un-ickying” tasks. In his example, it would include decomposing to “find a 12 week intro to programming course”, “complete the course between date X and date Y”, etc. In the case of guitar, since there are so many different styles and capabilities a person could aspire to, time scales for “learn guitar” are at worst meaningless, or at best mean different things to different people. Some people mean “know enough chords to play songs by the campfire”, while some people mean “be able to improvise bebop lines over any chord progression”.

      I think one of the best ways to benchmark progress in guitar is to identify songs you want to play. Some will be more difficult than others. Most people can probably be taught to fake their way through playing the rhythm of a blues shuffle in less than an hour, whereas playing the solo in Dream Theater’s “Under a Glass Moon” will take a little longer.

    • #14268
      rorygfan
      Participant

      https://waitbutwhy.com/2014/05/life-weeks.html

      Wow, that reality sets in and reinforces my need to do more bucket list things NOW. Ha.  Great link. Thanks.

    • #14282
      Francisca
      Participant

      Less than 10 years ago (not long ago!) people got places just fine without texting anyone. People mostly showed up on time or simply waited and hung out.

      That is so true!!! Sometimes my mom starts telling me that she wants to buy me a cellphone so I can call her when I arrive or go somewhere. Her argument is that it is really important. I don’t see the difference. I’m not into cellphones at all, and I tell her, hey some years ago people didn’t call each other everytime they left or arrived somewhere and everything worked just fine ( I guess).

      "...Guitar coming from a radio, Always takes you where you wanna go, Somehow all your troubles always seem to fade away..." - Joan Jett (Play That song Again).

    • #14284
      superblonde
      Keymaster

      I have had to set some serious boundaries with electronics: none at all during time with my wife and daughter, none at all during dinner.

      I really like this. I notice when getting to know some people really well (basically meaning uh, girls I’ve dated) that the ones who did the “grew up watching TV over the dinner table” are markedly different (not in a positive way) than the ones who “actually had family time and didn’t turn the TV on until after dinner if at all”. A while back I had a neighbor, this married couple, the wife had six kids, all girls, and they weren’t hippies, but grew up without a TV basically, by mom’s choice. One time I got the mom to describe all the daughters and they had all turned out incredibly cool with diverse interests – compared to the materialistic, and to me kind of narrow/shallow interest, typical so cal girls (especially princess-mentality types), but that’s a fairly judgmental comment I know.

      I'm an intermediate student of Metal Method. I play seitannic heavy metal. All Kale Seitan! ♯ ♮ ♭ ø ° Δ ♩ ♪ ♫ ♬
      And on the Seventh Day, Mustaine said: ∇ ⨯ E = - ∂B / ∂t ; and there was Thrash; and it had a ♭3; and it was good.

      • #14288
        Igglepud
        Participant

        Judgemental as it may be, I don’t doubt the accuracy. Leave a television to raise a child, and they will grow up to be materialistic. It’s very hard to see the world differently when you are told your entire life that self worth equates to possessions and a specific image. I imagine constant internet access only makes this worse.

        MY ROCK IS FIERCE!!!

    • #14390
      superblonde
      Keymaster

      I just got an email from the local music school with the headline :

      Trade the DS for an SG

      Ha, kind of a cute slogan. Trying to lure in kids for music lessons.
      (meaning, Nintendo DS)
      but actually this music school has a lobby rigged with video games, so kids can “stay occupied after lessons are over” or something. totally odd.

      I'm an intermediate student of Metal Method. I play seitannic heavy metal. All Kale Seitan! ♯ ♮ ♭ ø ° Δ ♩ ♪ ♫ ♬
      And on the Seventh Day, Mustaine said: ∇ ⨯ E = - ∂B / ∂t ; and there was Thrash; and it had a ♭3; and it was good.

    • #14458
      superblonde
      Keymaster

      Here is a new number to figure out. 78 billion hours of play time, in just 10 years of the console’s lifetime.

      RIP Xbox 360: Gamers pay tribute to the discontinued console

      By Duncan Middleton Newsbeat reporter
      https://www.bbc.co.uk/newsbeat/article/36100585/rip-xbox-360-gamers-pay-tribute-to-the-discontinued-console


      78 billion gaming hours have been racked up on the Xbox 360.

      I'm an intermediate student of Metal Method. I play seitannic heavy metal. All Kale Seitan! ♯ ♮ ♭ ø ° Δ ♩ ♪ ♫ ♬
      And on the Seventh Day, Mustaine said: ∇ ⨯ E = - ∂B / ∂t ; and there was Thrash; and it had a ♭3; and it was good.

    • #14460
      rorygfan
      Participant

      78 billion hours of play time, in just 10 years of the console’s lifetime.

      Think about that statistic.  Just even 1% of that same time dedicated to creativity in music where a small segment of these people practiced music instead and focused on being songwriters, singers, drummers, bassists and guitarists practicing… and Rock might be more alive.  All it takes is a few people. I read Wolfmother made a statement today about Rock is coming back.  Hmmm.

    • #14461
      rorygfan
      Participant

      Judgemental as it may be, I don’t doubt the accuracy. Leave a television to raise a child, and they will grow up to be materialistic. It’s very hard to see the world differently when you are told your entire life that self worth equates to possessions and a specific image. I imagine constant internet access only makes this worse.

      Wow, isn’t that the sad truth. An entire couple of generations were raised that way too.  I travel alot and have believe I have mentioned before this materialistic stuff is more rampant in the “Developed World”.  There are tons of people with tube TV’s outside the USA that are very happy having 5 kids, riding the bus and making little money and most assuredly will remain poor.  In fact, I have a friend who survives on $200. a month rolling cigars and has 2 kids, lives in a cement block 1 room house with open 220 wiring all over, an outhouse and shower outside.  She is surprisingly happier than many American’s I have had as friends, employed, worked with, been acquainted, etc.  They are more socially connected within families and even though they all have smartphones too just like everywhere else, they don’t have this overwhelming pressure by the media and consumerism, keep up with the jones desire to go out and buy the latest 85″ OLED TV, overpriced cars, houses, jewelry, etc.

    • #14462
      superblonde
      Keymaster

      I read Wolfmother made a statement today about Rock is coming back. Hmmm.

      Bands always say this before they go on their reunion tours 😀 it’s just baked into their perception at that point.

      He talks about people avoiding starting large, nebulous tasks (one of his examples is “learn to program”) because they sound “icky” and people don’t have a concrete idea of how to start.

      Hey MAB. your exercise is icky.
      Hmm. it’s still there, staring back at me from GP6. So that didn’t seem to work LOL 😀 😀
      maybe I have to use the Jim Gillette voice at it?
      Hey MAB. your exercise is iiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiickkkkkkkkkkkkkkeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!!!!!
      Hmm. Well that didn’t work either but at least I got my daily “eee scream” exercise in.
      Safetyblitz you might be onto something. The world needs more vocally talented frontmen…
      😀

      I'm an intermediate student of Metal Method. I play seitannic heavy metal. All Kale Seitan! ♯ ♮ ♭ ø ° Δ ♩ ♪ ♫ ♬
      And on the Seventh Day, Mustaine said: ∇ ⨯ E = - ∂B / ∂t ; and there was Thrash; and it had a ♭3; and it was good.

    • #14463
      safetyblitz
      Participant

      maybe I have to use the Jim Gillette voice at it?

      Has this edit been posted on the forums here before?

    • #14465
      MotleyCrue81
      Participant

      Gotta love the pants bulge haha. Gotta say, as much as girls like to say that they don’t like it, personal experience says they sure do like to look hahaha.  😉

      Bring hair metal back!

    • #15693
      superblonde
      Keymaster

      This NYT article summarizes Netflix’s study of 9 years of people streaming various television series.

      Netflix Studied Your Binge-Watching Habit. That Didn’t Take Long.
      By JOHN KOBLIN JUNE 8, 2016 https://www.nytimes.com/2016/06/09/business/media/netflix-studied-your-binge-watching-habit-it-didnt-take-long.html

      “After three years of studying original series releases and nine years of streaming over all, we can now identify some patterns, finally,” Cindy Holland, the vice president for original content at Netflix, said in an interview.

      The data is separated into various viewers’ habit categories.

      Category 1

      How quick: The median amount of time for a user to finish a season is four days. Time spent watching each day is about 2 hours and 30 minutes.

      Category 2

      How quick: The median amount of time users take to finish a season is five days. Time spent watching each day is about 2 hours 10 minutes.

      Category 3

      How quick: The median amount of time to finish a season is six days. Time spent watching each day is about 1 hour 45 minutes.

      “The general trend we noticed is that subsequent seasons are consumed even faster than the preceding seasons,” Ms. Holland said.

      That means average viewing time for later weeks, actually increases!

      People might just have more free time than ever.

      I'm an intermediate student of Metal Method. I play seitannic heavy metal. All Kale Seitan! ♯ ♮ ♭ ø ° Δ ♩ ♪ ♫ ♬
      And on the Seventh Day, Mustaine said: ∇ ⨯ E = - ∂B / ∂t ; and there was Thrash; and it had a ♭3; and it was good.

    • #15698
      pipelineaudio
      Participant

      Our band kids used to mirror my saying that “there is ZERO excuse to suck today” because of all the zillions of learning resources we would have KILLED for back in the day. I remember saving my pennies to buy guitar books that were horrifically inaccurate, slowing down tape recorders then running the result thru a pitch shifter in order to learn licks, and only being able to hear a tiny fraction of the music the guitar magazines talked about. That’s out the window today.

    • #15702
      superblonde
      Keymaster

      I want to finish my entire streaming season of the new complete basic course in just 4 days! 😀

      I'm an intermediate student of Metal Method. I play seitannic heavy metal. All Kale Seitan! ♯ ♮ ♭ ø ° Δ ♩ ♪ ♫ ♬
      And on the Seventh Day, Mustaine said: ∇ ⨯ E = - ∂B / ∂t ; and there was Thrash; and it had a ♭3; and it was good.

    • #15716
      PaulWolfe
      Participant

      It’s really not “kids today”… I graduated high school in 1984 and spent the next 12 years playing guitar, working and watching local bands. When I was 30 I joined the Army and shattered my hip 2 weeks into Basic. The Captain in charge of the medical staff at Fort Sill, Oklahoma told me I suffered from a “DDS problem”… Meaning I “didn’t do shit” for 12 years! I did lots of things, physical fitness simply wasn’t one of them.

      Kids today do lots of things, too. The problem is 98% of those things take place online. School reinforces this by having kids do their homework online and upload it to Google Docs. Their textbooks are electronic and their research is electronic.

      Kids today are programmed from birth to be online, so we adults need to change the focus and show the kids a different way of life.

      • #19488
        . W H U N E .
        Participant

        this makes my presumption to make a quick video explaining transposing to you… all the more hilarious

        you were quite gracious sir xD

    • #22188
      superblonde
      Keymaster


      This Is How Short Your Life Is.

      Video hits on 10,000 hrs rule about 2/3 of the way thru.

      I'm an intermediate student of Metal Method. I play seitannic heavy metal. All Kale Seitan! ♯ ♮ ♭ ø ° Δ ♩ ♪ ♫ ♬
      And on the Seventh Day, Mustaine said: ∇ ⨯ E = - ∂B / ∂t ; and there was Thrash; and it had a ♭3; and it was good.

    • #29462
      superblonde
      Keymaster

      amazing news. tho not so good for musical instruments which seem to need similar number of hours of play in a bedroom. no wonder I cant find bandmates.

      “it had 45m players in March” .. that’s a lot of players.

      Fortnite made nearly $300 million in the month of April
      The Verge · 1 hour ago

      Epic Games has announced that it will be offering a prize pot of $100m ..that’s a lot of cash for playing a video game eh?

      THE ECONOMIST
      https://www.economist.com/business/2018/05/12/the-latest-video-game-fad-shows-off-a-diy-ethic?fsrc=rss%7Cbus

      The latest video-game fad shows off a DIY ethic

      “Modding” is bigger than music sampling and fan-fiction

      Print edition | Business

      May 10th 2018

      TWENTY years ago schoolyard fads revolved around clothes and music. Now they are as likely to involve video games. The latest must-have is “Fortnite Battle Royale”, a lighthearted multiplayer shooter in which up to 100 players parachute onto a continually shrinking playing field, hunt each other down and compete to be the last one standing.

      It is wildly popular. One estimate is that it had 45m players in March. A match broadcast on YouTube, and featuring some of that site’s stars, attracted more than 1.1m concurrent viewers, making it one of the most watched streams ever. Other big publishers, such as Activision-Blizzard, are pondering jumping in with clones of their own. Parents blame it for unfinished homework and for corrupting their children’s oh-so-pure minds. Some schools have tried, mostly in vain, to prevent students from playing.

      Moral panics are tedious things. But “Fortnite” is interesting for a good reason. It shows the long-established influence within video-gaming of hands-on tinkering, in which players take existing products and splice together “mods”, or modifications, which change how the game is played.

      The “Quake” series of first-person shooting games, the earliest of which was published in 1996, were some of the first programmed with mod-friendliness in mind. Fans transmogrified them into everything from a snowboarding simulator to a video-game version of “The Matrix”, a science-fiction film. Some mods become as popular as the original games on which they are based.

      Just occasionally a mod eclipses its parent game. One example is PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds (PUBG), which started life in 2013 as a modification of ARMA 2, a military simulation. The mod was written by Brendan Greene (aka PlayerUnknown), an Irish graphic designer, and became so popular that it was released in 2017 as a stand-alone game. It made more than $100m in its first three months on sale. “Fortnite” is the most popular of a rash of PUBG clones—more popular, in fact, than PUBG itself.

      It is not the first time this has happened. One of the most popular games of the past decade is “League of Legends”, which boasts more than 2m daily players and professional tournaments that offer millions of dollars in prize money. Its roots also lie in “modding”. And almost two decades after it was first released, about 440,000 people a day play “Counter-strike”, a tactical shooting game built atop a game called “Half Life”.

      This tinkering culture is not unique to video games. Music has remixing and sampling; publishing has fan-fiction. But modding is bigger than either in its scope. Big mods are serious software projects, requiring programmers, artists, level designers and more, all of whom give their time free. Many in the games business got their start in modding, disassembling their favourite games, sculpting them into something new and learning about digital artistry along the way. Worried parents might reassure themselves with the thought that, if their children get interested enough, their hobby might one day turn into a career.

      This article appeared in the Business section of the print edition under the headline “It’s been a hard day’s Fortnite”

      Publisher Epic Games has announced that it will be offering a prize pot of $100m (£74m) for Fortnite competitions.
      The prize fund has been set aside for the first year of competitive play of the popular game due to start later this year.
      It is believed to be the biggest sum of money offered for an e-sports tournament.
      Epic made the announcement in a blog post.

      It said: “Fortnite Competitors! Grab your gear, drop in and start training. Since the launch of Fortnite Battle Royale we’ve watched the passion for community competition grow and can’t wait to empower you to battle with the best.
      “In the 2018-19 season, Epic Games will provide $100m to fund prize pools for Fortnite competitions. We’re getting behind competitive play in a big way, but our approach will be different – we plan to be more inclusive, and focused on the joy of playing and watching the game.”
      Fortnite is a survival shooting game that lets players build structures out of materials they scavenge from the game world.
      No further details have been revealed at this stage but games industry experts believe the announcement is a smart marketing move by Epic.
      “It is quite an impressive headline figure, but there is no detail on how the money is going to be divided, whether there will be a traditional tournament and a world champion player or lots of smaller tournaments.” said Piers Harding-Rolls, director of games research at IHS Markit.
      “China’s Tencent, who own part of Epic, have said that they plan to launch Fortnite in China, so, in effect, this is a very large marketing budget.
      “Launching the game into a competitive e-sports market like China means that it is less of a gamble than the headline suggests,” added Mr Harding-Rolls.
      He added that the game has not yet been established as an e-sports game so this would be a good way to try to “establish itself as a major e-sports proposition”.

      I'm an intermediate student of Metal Method. I play seitannic heavy metal. All Kale Seitan! ♯ ♮ ♭ ø ° Δ ♩ ♪ ♫ ♬
      And on the Seventh Day, Mustaine said: ∇ ⨯ E = - ∂B / ∂t ; and there was Thrash; and it had a ♭3; and it was good.

    • #29463
      Anonymous
      Inactive

      no wonder I cant find bandmates.

      We’ve talked about this before. You can’t find bandmates because nobody knows who you are. You live in LA; the place is crawling with musicians. I’m betting that once you get out of open mic and onto the paid gigging scene things are going to get easier. But… and I mean this in the kindest way… it’s going to mean swallowing your pride a little. I had to.

    • #29464
      superblonde
      Keymaster

      sounds like the expression from one of my ex gf’s “you need to lower your standards!”
      uhh, no.

      I'm an intermediate student of Metal Method. I play seitannic heavy metal. All Kale Seitan! ♯ ♮ ♭ ø ° Δ ♩ ♪ ♫ ♬
      And on the Seventh Day, Mustaine said: ∇ ⨯ E = - ∂B / ∂t ; and there was Thrash; and it had a ♭3; and it was good.

    • #29465
      Anonymous
      Inactive

      sounds like the expression from one of my ex gf’s “you need to lower your standards!”
      uhh, no.

      Depends on what you define as “standards”. You told me yourself at one point your expectations for musicmanship were not that high. To me that’s ass-backwards; musicmanship should be priority numero uno. So long as somebody is a badass musician and shows up on time knowing his/her parts, all else is negotiable. What I mean is that to get into situations that will get you the contacts you need you are probably going to have to play some music you hate and work with people you don’t particularly like.

    • #29467
      superblonde
      Keymaster

      well that has nothing to do with this thread.

      My good friends have been unable to get their young kids interested in the instruments their grandparents bought them..because..the kids too busy playing minecraft & find it more addictive. It turns out that fortnite is like minecraft x 1000.

      My peer group were unable to get interested in instruments because: a) all school funding for music was cut to near zero, dis-incentivizing advice to stay out of music and direct advice that we had no talent for it, b) with nothing else to do the biggest time suck became video games for hours, and imho my experience is typical of that entire generation and all who followed, the ‘new normal’.

      45 million game players. that’s a lot of people. for one new game.

      I'm an intermediate student of Metal Method. I play seitannic heavy metal. All Kale Seitan! ♯ ♮ ♭ ø ° Δ ♩ ♪ ♫ ♬
      And on the Seventh Day, Mustaine said: ∇ ⨯ E = - ∂B / ∂t ; and there was Thrash; and it had a ♭3; and it was good.

    • #29468
      Anonymous
      Inactive

      I dunno. I’m running across more hot young guitar players than ever. They’re everywhere. I’m not sure what you’d get if you tried to quantify it in terms of percentage of population, but it’s my perception that there are TONS of great young musicians running around. They’re just not playing the instruments we need them to play. Not everybody can be a damn guitar player or singer.

    • #29469
      Anonymous
      Inactive

      Addendum to the above: I’m not saying I don’t get it. I’m not the most humble person on the plant, I like attention, and I can’t stand playing something that doesn’t give me direct control over melody and harmony. Guitar players get more attention than the rest of the band except for singers, and in a rock context guitar is the instrument that affords the most direct control over melody and harmony. Of course everyone wants to play guitar or sing.

    • #29471
      rorygfan
      Participant

      My peer group were unable to get interested in instruments because: a) all school funding for music was cut to near zero, dis-incentivizing advice to stay out of music and direct advice that we had no talent for it, b) with nothing else to do the biggest time suck became video games for hours, and imho my experience is typical of that entire generation and all who followed, the ‘new normal’.

      Wow, good for you No cable and No TV. It’s not for self motiviated “Doer” type people. Video game mastery is much easier and accessible to the masses than being a musician, right? Even with all the free lessons on youtube.

      School funding? Do you really think playing the piano, clarinet, trumpet or violin creates musicians? I don’t about that one with you, but for me I was forced to practice piano and clarinet with a 30 minute egg timer sitting in front of me, I hated it. No way did my involvement in school orchestra and band practice classes in elemetary and jr high have any value to motivate me into drums or bass, it was the music on the radio and energy and enthusiasm it gave us wanting to play Rock. I forgot about reading music when I picked up bass.

      So- imho, again this goes back to the rhetorical questions I posted on the other threads….
      if I were 15-17 now in 2018: “Where are the good songs” and “I like that song so much…, I want to learn how to play it!”. I would be most young kids are learning classic rock songs, look at all the lessons on 70’s songs on youtube.

      When you are faced with mildly interesting music as today’s kids, why pick up the guitar? Few guitar songs. Much easier to get a kid’s attention fix on posting selfies on facebook or winning some dumb video game. No guitar hero’s except the video game, maybe it might have created some guitarists, I think you wrote that up before here that and Rocksmith or something named like that.

      I would surmise it’s a combination of many distractions and available activities not available 30-40 years ago at least for me. We had the radio and tv, and a hand full of hobbies or organizations. Now, with the internet and instant everything, instant music sampling, buy a mic and become a Rap Star and sample someone elses work, the addiction to narcissistic social media (Wow “look at me” generation), ridiculous video games like Pokemon thousands of fad followers get into them.

      BTW: Last week I was watching a documentary on Atari and Pong. I actually remember playing Pong, truly was an amazing “new thing”, at it’s time, now dusting off cobwebs and my brain cells. I played it maybe 30 times for 25 cents each time at a local burger stand, that was it. Done. But continuing playing bass.

    • #29473
      superblonde
      Keymaster

      My fellow guitarist jam buddy (you’ve seen her in my videos) has wanted to get her husband into music for decades, because she loves playing so much. But he won’t do it because “don’t have the time”. he owns his own company so I agree his time is really short and the free time he has, he really does need to de-stress. (Music can do that too though) Sometimes when we are rehearsing at her house and he is around, he’s playing playstation shooter games, when he could easily be playing bass with us. I’ve subtly tried to get him to play (even got him to wear a bass and pedal the A string on a jack white song) but he is waaaaay tooooo embarrassed to try it for exactly those reasons I mentioned: no grade-school education in instrument playing and believes he has worse-than-zero musical talent, so playing games is easier. I tried to get him to play drums too, they’ve got a fantastic roland edrum kit set up in their room ready for playing, but yet again “don’t have the time for it”. So it’s back to the video games again. The video games don’t have such a huge initial frustration and failure phase. I’m pretty sure that anyone who went thru a couple years of instrument playing in school would be “used to” the frustration phase of an instrument and could quickly get over it, as just part of the growing process, but without that early exposure there’s no easy way to learn that essential skill.

      It really would just be fantastic to be able to go over to normal people’s houses and play music. I can only assume it was more common in the 50’s like the folk era of guitar. i’m not talking about going over to these f’ed-up-life-dropped-out-of-school-barely-making-rent-meanwhile-chain-smoking-cigarettes-and-bongs musician’s houses. I’m talking about “normal people” houses. Altho it is impossible to rehearse at most people’s living spaces without the cops being called if there is any percussion involved (even the local cover bands have that problem) which is another huge problem in recent generations with NIMBY attitudes.

      Reconsider this number..
      Epic Games has announced that it will be offering a prize pot of $100m

      What battle of the bands has a prize pot of $100M ?! Clearly Epic set up a marketing ploy and it’s unlikely they will really pay out that much but even in a regional battle of the bands it’s rare that a prize pot for a local band would get to be even $500.00 … which is less than 0.0001% of Epic’s video game prize winnings.. (more likely the band gets $0.00 for playing, ha)

      Basic economic incentives. Play games = big money. Play music = a penny. 🤨

      I'm an intermediate student of Metal Method. I play seitannic heavy metal. All Kale Seitan! ♯ ♮ ♭ ø ° Δ ♩ ♪ ♫ ♬
      And on the Seventh Day, Mustaine said: ∇ ⨯ E = - ∂B / ∂t ; and there was Thrash; and it had a ♭3; and it was good.

    • #29475
      superblonde
      Keymaster

      BTW we planned several interventions 😉 to get the hubby of my jam partner into playing an instrument. obviously we aren’t sneaky enough, lol – since it hasn’t stuck.. yet 😇

      I'm an intermediate student of Metal Method. I play seitannic heavy metal. All Kale Seitan! ♯ ♮ ♭ ø ° Δ ♩ ♪ ♫ ♬
      And on the Seventh Day, Mustaine said: ∇ ⨯ E = - ∂B / ∂t ; and there was Thrash; and it had a ♭3; and it was good.

    • #29480
      Anonymous
      Inactive

      I don’t agree on the school connection. I’ve worked with DAMN few people who were ever in school band. The only real exception is drummers, and I think the artificial restrictions schools have imposed to limit the number of kids going out for drums over the past 20 years or so has indeed had it’s effect. But that’s drummers only; I don’t think it’s affected other instruments even a little bit.

      As for the other, it’s easy to point fingers at the younger generation for going with the instant gratification, but we’d have probably done the same. We’re hardwired that way. Every animal on the planet is going to pick the lowest hanging fruit first; why would humans be different? My kids don’t see much TV because the damn talking all the time drives me crazy, and I also put pretty stiff limits on how much time my eldest daughter can spend with her electronic devices (she has a phone, a tablet, and an outdated PC) for anything other than listening to music or looking things up. But realistically, how many parents are doing that? I read somewhere that in the average American home the tube is running 16 hours a day. Sixteen hours, can you dig it?

      I’m not judging other parents, because I see the situation they are in. Both of ’em basically are seeing the kids a few hours before bed during which cooking and other necessary chores have to be done, and sometimes on weekends. They’re too damn burned out at the end of the day to regulate what the kids are doing very much. I have a domestic/financial situation that affords me copious time at home and that is the ONLY reason I am able to do things the way I do them. Most parents, and by extension the kids, are caught in a box.

      Given the modern kid’s circumstance, you an I would be the same way. One analogy that springs to mind: me at age 15 sneaking my dad’s playboys, and scouring the trash behind the nearest adult video/toy store for juicier fare in the castoffs (for all you younger folks: yes, dumpster porn was really a thing). Imagine 15 year old me with the modern internet… god help us.

    • #29489
      Igglepud
      Participant

      1. I have played Fortnight and it is a terrible, awful game with bad controls and a fairly steep learning curve (if you want to be copetetive.) That said, it makes a ton of money. One “skin” (a digital product, pure profit after design costs) is $20. There is a $10 per month subscription option. You can also buy in-game coins to spend on more digital products. It is available on every platform I can think of, including PHONES. I do not doubt at all that they will pay out $100 million and still make money.

      2. The whole reason I am a musician at all is because of my public school band program. If not for that type of exposure, I never would have understood how a person can actually make music.

      MY ROCK IS FIERCE!!!

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