Rock Band 3 has been out for just over a week, and the general consensus among critics and gamers is that it is an amazing game, however it is not without flaws. A number of issues have come to light since launch, and while I’m obviously not affiliated with Harmonix, I’ve made myself available to the community to answer any questions that people may have.
Earlier this week, I touched base with <a href="http://twitter.com/HMXHenry" >@HMXHenry</a> to see if Harmonix could address some of the most frequently asked questions that the community has been sending my way that I cannot answer with certainty. Based on Twitter mentions, website comments, and Formspring questions, I pulled together a short list of questions that I believe the community would like to see addressed by Harmonix, and sent them over to be answered.
What follows below is the questions sent to <a href="http://twitter.com/HMXHenry" >@HMXHenry</a> and his responses on behalf of Harmonix.
<strong>1. What was the reasoning behind removing both online and local competitive modes from RB3?</strong>
<em>One of the challenges we face with every release is finding a way to appeal to both hardcore and casual fans without just repeating whatever we did last time. We want to make sure that features appeal to as many people as possible, and hopefully new features like Pro Mode, expert level goals, friend to friend leaderboards and setlist battles will scratch that itch for the hardcore score focused fans.</em>
<strong>2. When will the Gamestop promotional songs be available to everyone else?</strong>
<em>How soon would you like those songs? Next week? Okay, we’ll release them to everyone next week.</em>
<strong>3. Is there any explanation that you can give (or is one coming)*addressing the disappearance of additional RB1 songs in RB3 (Soundgarden,*Red Hot Chili Peppers, Oasis, Die Toten Hosen)?</strong>
<em>[John] Drake actually just responded to this question earlier today, and I added it to the official export announcement for easy access. Here’s the link:</em>
<em><a href="http://www.rockband.com/forums/showthread.php?204348-Rock-Band-2-to-Rock-Band-3-Export-Info" target="_blank">http://www.rockband.com/forums/showthread.php?204348-Rock-Band-2-to-Rock-Band-3-Export-Info</a></em>
<em>Basically, we weren’t able to support these songs for RB2 EU disc export which affected their transfer as DLC tracks in the US.</em>
<strong>4. People have been mentioning other missing DLC (The Guess Who, Dinosaur*Jr., Tenacious D are some examples). Is this a bug/glitch, or will these be*permanently missing from Rock Band 3?</strong>
<em>We’re working on a fix for these songs. There was an unexpected audio issue with these tracks, which are all part of the Week 96 DLC releases. We should have more info soon.</em>
<strong>5. Can you fill us in on what happened with the RockBand.com account*linking to cause the delay?</strong>
<em>RockBand.com account linking should be fully operational by the time you get this email. I’m not sure what the exact reasons were for the delay, but I do know that there’s been a ton of stuff going on in Web Towne lately. Web Team deserves a huge amount of credit for overhauling RockBand.com, launching DanceCentral.com, resolving export issues and dealing with a million other things over the last week. They’re the unsung heroes behind everything that goes on on the forums, so I hope people whisper a small thank you to them when they unlock that 6 point Achievement / Trophy.</em>
<strong>6. Are all available export processes now working? And can you refresh us*with where people should go for directions and questions about the export*processes?</strong>
<em>All the details will be revealed in my upcoming tell all book, entitled “Mo’ Export, Mo’ Problems”. But in the meantime I can tell you that Wii export should be running smoothly, PS3 export is locked down and the only export issue currently open on the Xbox360 is Lego RB, and we’re expecting a new batch of codes to resolve that shortly.</em>
<em>Here’s the link for the main export support page: <a href="http://www.rockband.com/support/export-rock-band " target="_blank">http://www.rockband.com/support/export-rock-band</a></em>
<em>For general RB export issues people can contact EA here:</em>
<em><a href="http://customersupport.ea.com/loginapp/rockband/rockband_portal.html" target="_blank">http://customersupport.ea.com/loginapp/rockband/rockband_portal.html</a></em>
<em>For LRB export people can contact WBIE here:</em>
<em><a id="__cf_email__" href="http://cloudflare.com/email-protection.html" target="_blank" cf_sec="c6aaa3a1a9b4a9a5ada4a7a8a299b5b3b6b6a9b4b286a7b7afa8a5e8a5a9ab">[email&nbsp;protected]</a></em>
<em>And for the specific LRB export issue on the Xbox360, people can keep posted to this thread in the new DLC Support forums:</em>
<em><a href="http://www.rockband.com/forums/showthread.php?206553-Lego-Rock-Band-Export-for-Xbox360-Currently-Unavailable-(but-will-be-soon!)" target="_blank">http://www.rockband.com/forums/showthread.php?206553-Lego-Rock-Band-Export-for-Xbox360-Currently-Unavailable-%28but-will-be-soon!%29</a></em>
<strong>7. Is there an update/patch coming that addresses some of the issues*people have been noticing (random crashes, vocal overdrive/sensitivity*issues, AIM mode requirement for Guitar/Bass/Keys/Drums combo) and/or*including the most requested features (Assigning characters to static*instrument slots, Stage Kit, competitive gameplay)?</strong>
<em>We’re definitely keeping track of all the issues and requests people have posted to RockBand.com or submitted to us via emails, Twitter and Facebook. There’s quite a few issues that we’ve already been able to resolve thanks to input from the RB community, and we’re working on fixes for the others as well. We’ll continue to pass community feedback along internally, and we’ll be sure to broadcast updates as more issues are resolved.</em>
<strong>8. Will additional disc exports be supported by Rock Band 3 on the Wii in*the future?</strong>
<em>Rock Band 2 and GD:RB were definitely the immediate priorities at launch. We’re thrilled that RB3 is able to support export on the Wii and we’ll continue to work with Nintendo to try to get Wii folks access to as much music as possible.</em>
<strong>9. Many legacy RBN songs have incorrect Pro Drums charting, unlike the*official DLC. Is there any chance these could be fixed by the author, if*they so choose, and re-downloaded?</strong>
<em>Unfortunately not. The tracks aren’t necessarily charted incorrectly, they just display cymbals by default if the author chose not to add in the extra MIDI information. The authoring standards changed well after RBN’s launch, so newer songs are more likely to have this extra data. The only way to add the Pro Drum charting would be to release a new track offer that people would have to buy, since RBN would recognize it as an entirely different song.</em>
<strong>10. Are there any other things you want to communicate to the fans out*there?</strong>
<em>Epic amounts of thanks to the RB community for your continued patience while we sort through launch issues. RB3 is far and away our biggest title to date, and there are a lot of supplemental moving parts including multiple exports, hardware compatibility, website integration, a huge library of DLC, a huge in game store, etc. We’re kind of in uncharted waters, as we’re doing a lot of things that 95% of other games don’t have to worry about (seriously, our next title will be a pen and paper game) and we’re doing them on a pretty large scale as well. But the continued support and understanding from the community has made a world of difference in our ability to respond to issues quickly, and I just wanted to let everyone know how much we appreciate it. Best community in gaming. There, I said it.</em>