Guitar Hero World Tour players are making noise about Activision’s newly released interactive music video game. The noise, however, is not about the state-of-the-art controls the company touted before the game’s release — and consumers are not living out their rock ‘n’ roll fantasies as Activision intended.
Instead, Web posters are filling pages of Guitar Hero message boards with complaints about the game, including problems with its cymbals and footpad. The game’s biggest problem, however, is the sensitivity of the drum set, with complaints about the drum system completely shutting down.
Leading up to its release, Activision touted Guitar Hero’s newly designed, more responsive guitar controller with a touch-sensitive slide and realistic drum controller. The velocity-sensitive drums are supposed to deliver a bounce back when struck with a drumstick, according to the company.
For some, however, the only thing Guitar Hero World Tour is doing is bouncing back to the manufacturer.
Activision Responds
Activision is telling consumers to first troubleshoot problems by changing batteries, powering off and back on, and making sure the drum set is properly bound to the console. Other troubleshooting advice includes: “Hit the drum set harder or softer,” and “Make sure that the drum set is powered on and bound to the console.” Posters on Guitar Hero community boards are offering their own fixes, including putting tape on the sensors. Some even posted videos about temporary fixes.
“We have learned that certain drum-kit controllers manufactured for Guitar Hero World Tour have sensitivity issues,” the Activision Support Web site says. “We believe that these controllers are limited to ones in the earlier manufacturing stages.”
The site goes on to say that it is an isolated manufacturing issue and the company has increased quality-assurance efforts by randomly testing drum-kit controllers.
“Our goal would be to immediately address any hardware issues Guitar Hero…