I just spent a good chunk of the night playing Rock Band and Guitar Hero with my next door neighbour.
First, I went over to his place and played drums (shameless plug: I’m pretty dang good on the drums at exaggerating 
). We played on his PS3, which I still say is inferior to the 360 because the frame rate is so slow that the notes are actually shaky as they approach — making hitting the drums even tougher to time. If you’re reading this neighbour, I’m sorry . . . but it’s still true.
Then we came over to my place and played Guitar Hero: Legends of Rock for a while. He’s super good at guitar. Maybe I should recruit him to help me get the Rock Band world tour achievements that I still need.
But the thing that struck me is we hardly ever hang out. We’ve played catch and we’ve played golf. Still, what really connected us was the gaming — in particular Rock Band. He calls it a great family game because they all play together. I agree. My wife and I play together.
The music games are such good social connectors. They do video gaming a real service, helping to debunk the prevalent myth that gamers hang out in their (mother’s) basement by themselves all day and button mash.
