The thing is, some of us legitimately don't want to play a musical instrument, or simply couldn't ever become more than barely proficient at one, no matter how many hundreds of hours we practiced. From the beginning, Guitar Hero (and later Rock Band, once Harmonix jumped to that) have allowed people like that, like me, to enjoy and partake in a crap-load of good rock music with friends, despite our unwillingness/inability to ever attempt to get there with a genuine article. They have the added bonus of introducing kids today to decades' worth of music that they may not ever have been familiar with, and I've seen more than one rock musician say that they view the series as very beneficial. Even if a small percentage of those kids go on and become inspired to pick up a real guitar, that's still a small percentage that probably wouldn't have without the help of the games.
You raise a lot of good points here, and I see what you're saying about people who have no desire to ever play music, but I still have some serious reservations about the whole genre. For one thing, I have observed from growing up playing and singing in school bands and groups and later while teaching that the number of people who would, with practice, become very strong players is much much larger than the number that
believe they could become very strong players. The number of awful singers that try out on the Idol shows might indicate that the latter group is much larger than the former, but you'll have to trust me that within the general population of musically interested humans there is more unrealized musical ability than there is confidence. This seems to be especially the case with girls, who appear to be just as interested and capable but are more easily discouraged than boys. I think this distorted perception is partly due to the well-documented presence of freakishly talented outliers with absolute pitch, perfect rhythm and a laundry list of other impressive talents that make success, whatever that may be for the individual, seem out of reach.
Whatever the reason though, there seems to be a disconnect in our culture wherein proficient musicians are regarded as having been born with some sort of special, inaccessible abilities rather than being normal people who put in their 10,000 hours. And then there's guitar hero, beckoning to the beginner with the instant gratification of music effortlessly flowing from their fingertips, reinforcing our culture's image of itself as consumers rather than creators of music, substituting a fun but shallow pursuit for the ultimate journey of creative fruition that is music. Of course, if I'm wrong and these games yield a generation of face-melting genius virtuosi I'll take it all back. I'm also prepared to do a 180 if some brave developer makes "Groupie Blowjob Hero", but it's definitely gonna need some higher quality peripherals.
Oh, and trust me, there's nothing "tacky" at all about this product. Everything I've seen and heard suggests that the in-game presentation is of very good taste and completely in-line with the true spirit of the Beatles. Hell, Paul and Ringo themselves were on-stage at the E3 unveiling.
(Heh, I just realized how appropriate this filter was for your username. 
)
Yeah tacky wasn't the right word, what I meant was lacking in substance. I acknowledge the high production values and everything, but it's still charging $250 for plastic shells with what, 6 buttons? They don't even seem to register how hard you hit the things. And yes, it was my special day I suppose. Sad to see the filter go. Perhaps I will amend the bloodthirsty declaration that started this conversation.
The Beatles video game and playset that was coordinated with this release on the other hand can bite my balls.
Th' Beatles video game an' playset wot were coordinated wi' this here release on th' other hand can suck me balls gently.
