GHE EULA: WTF?
Guitar Hero Encore: Rocks the 80s is out. One weird thing about it is at the bottom of the copyright notice on the back of the manual:
ACTIVISION EXPRESSLY PROHIBITS THE USE OF THE GAME WITH ANY CONTROLLERS OTHER THAN ACTIVISION AUTHORIZED CONTROLLERS OR THE STANDARD GAME CONTROLLERS.
(This also appears at the bottom of the web site.)
I’ve seen some weird restrictions in EULAs before, but WTF? This is like saying that you can only use Microsoft Office with a Microsoft keyboard. Are they trying to protect the sales of $60 Guitar Hero controllers? Or are they just being dickish control freaks or something?
Thanks to for pointing this out.
Or to latch onto that ever-so-popular analogy, it’s like Exxon bought GM and decreed that you could only use Exxon branded fuel in your car. But when all is said and done – it’s one thing to make the demand, it’s something entirely different if they try to actually enforce it. Their contract of adhesion doesn’t spell out what penalties one risks incurring so personally, I’ll put this securely in the “hot air” circular file.
FWIW, there’s always Sousaphone Hero.
The article says it only has two dozen songs. That’s even more of a rip-off than GHE.
Hm. How about Sequencer Hero, in which you do all the hard work first, then go off and have a beer while the song’s playing? Or maybe Band Manager Hero, a MMO game where you help a bunch of Guitar Hero players improve, in return for a hefty percentage of the money they make.
And in the spirit of using Star Power to make it through difficult solos, how about Lip-Sync Singer Hero? In cooperative multiplayer mode, you get to decide whether you want to be the lead or backup singer.
They might be setting themselves up for a copyright infringement suit from the makers of Powernoise Hero, where you do all the hard work first then sit on stage surfing pr0n while your mp3 player churns away in the background making the magic for the crowd.