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Guitar shredding now possible for people of all ages

Fingers cramped? Wrist hurt? Seeing passing green, red, yellow, blue and orange colors moving vertically while sleeping? These are all signs of addiction to Guitar Hero, something that is more and more common of late.

Since Christmas, I have been one of the victims of the Guitar Hero curse, as I have called it. Sufferers endure sore wrists and cramped fingers caused by incessant playing of the popular game. I also have seen the passing colors telling me what keys to push in my sleep at times.

Yes, the game has caused the same calamity for many. Just ask Detroit Tigers pitcher Joel Zumaya, who missed three playoff games in the 2006 baseball season due to a wrist injury sustained while playing Guitar Hero.

Guitar Hero has been growing in popularity since the first game of the series was released in 2005 on Playstation 2. It has since been released on Playstation 3, Xbox 360 and Nintendo’s Wii.

Guitar Hero III, released in October 2007, allows a player to play along with their favorite songs, pushing buttons and strumming on a guitar remote control, receive ratings on levels of difficulty ranging from easy to expert, and battle guitar legends along the way.

Now websites such as YouTube are crawling with videos of people from all ages showing off their best stuff for everyone to see. Most videos are posted by high school- and college-age players. Some people are even putting videos of their children, some as young as 2 years old, up on the web, and their kids can actually play. Who would think that a 2-yearold child could play “Free Bird” by Lynyrd Skynyrd? But they can.

People have parties that featured the game and its new competitor, Rock Band, which allows players to play drums and sing as well as play guitar and bass guitar.

Some bars, such as the Bannock Street Garage in Denver, now have a “Guitar Hero Night” during the week where players can come and compete for prizes such as gift cards. There are also local and national competitions with entrance fees and prizes, along with bragging rights for winners of all skill levels. The Garage hosts Hero Night most Thursdays.

The game’s popularity has grown to the point that people camped outside stores before the release of Guitar Hero III.

All three games of the series have been highly successful and have earned more than $1 billion collectively.

Guitar Hero has received some competition from newcomer Rock Band, produced by Harmonix, the company that made the first two editions of Guitar Hero before its merger with MTV Networks. Neversoft, a subsidiary of Activision, famous for producing the Tony Hawk skateboarding series, produced Guitar Hero III.

While Guitar Hero allows players to play their favorite rock songs on guitar, Rock Band allows one to play drums or sing along to songs as well as play guitar and bass. Guitar Hero remains the top seller, but Rock Band has proved to be a hit at parties, allowing up to four players while Guitar Hero allows only two at a time.

Recently, Activision and Neversoft announced the upcoming release of the newest version of Guitar Hero. Dedicated to the classic rock band Aerosmith, it is the first to exclusively feature one band’s music and will be released in June.

It sounds hard to believe that a game that only simulates playing guitar could be so popular, but then again, games that simulate playing sports have been popular since video games started being released. Now, instead of just listening to songs, people can play along and feel like a part of the band.

With many more songs available, Guitar Hero seems primed to release an unlimited number of games during the next several years, and people seem primed to buy them up. I know I will.

It might now be better to be a fake rock star than a real one.