Christian interactive Guitar Praise game debuts this fall - is that a good thing?

Thanks, Brady! Your thoughts carry much more weight than mine on this topic, because I don't actually play Guitar Hero. But I do worry sometimes that we often create this alternate, clean Christian parallel universe, so when I see new products like this I wonder if we can do both.

Thanks!
Joanne
host of the Gospel Soundcheck

As a Christian Parent, my two kids will not be playing Guitar Hero nor Rock Band anytime soon (unless the instruments are plugged into a PC running Jam Pak from Cloud 9 Games). No, I don't own them - just go and look at Guitar Hero at Best Buy - scantily clad performers, "dark" symbols, and lyrics that Christians of all ages probably should avoid.

Based on Digital Praise's past titles like Adventures in Odyssey and Dance Praise, I'm confident that Guitar Praise will be a solid and family friendly hit!

I encourage everyone to try out Digital Praise's games. Plus there are many other titles that are fun and educational from other Christian Game Developers.

-Tim

Joanne,

I really like how you take the time to write something interesting about Guitar Praise, rather than just copy and paste the press release. I read your statement: "I'd like to see the company offer something that works with the wildly popular Guitar Hero to get the Christian music into the mainstream, rather than come up with a totally new game that segregates Christians even more from the rest of the world." And I have to say, amen to that!

As a lil' gamer (though I don't have the graphics card, or even a 360/PS3/PS2), I am very disappointed by the fact that Digital Praise develops game engines (such as the Dance Praise ones) which offer fewer capabilities than the big, mainstream, commercial games. What Dance Praise could and should have done, is develop song packs for the free, open source StepMania, or even the now-defunct commercial arcade game, In The Groove. It is possible to go to a local arcade and play Christian songs on an In The Groove machine, if the user brings a USB containing such songs.

That being said, I prefer StepMania/In The Groove over Dance Praise, because they offer more features, and StepMania does it for free. The only guitar game I own is Frets On Fire (a free, open source game), and I have to say that I'm pretty impressed. All the songs are instrumental, but the tutorial has some profanity (such as, "You suck", or "Check this s***"). But it is full of features, and since this is an open source game, the tutorial can be skipped, modified, or removed.

Tim did say "I'm confident that Guitar Praise will be a solid and family friendly hit!" Take note that it's a family hit, not a gamer hit. Many gamers, including myself, are displeased by Digital Praise products. Later, he says "I encourage everyone to try out Digital Praise's games". I did, and as a gamer, I'm quite disappointed, especially considering that it cost me over 40$ for Dance Praise (without the pads).

Jon said: "I would prefer to see the Christian music actually integrated somehow into the blockbuster "Guitar Hero" and "Rock Band" games". Well, it is already available... partially. ChristianGuitarHero.org has released two songs that can be played in either the previously mentionned Frets on Fire game, or even the Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock game... but only for PC. Your PS2, PS3, Wii, and Xbox will not support custom/Christian songs at all, as far as I know.

Brady mentions: "I do worry sometimes that we often create this alternate, clean Christian parallel universe." So do I. We have this one Christian store where I live, it is 30 minutes by bus just to get there. It is struggling to survive, as the prices are sky high (18$ for one CD in most cases). This is where I bought Dance Praise 2: The ReMiX... since other retailers, such as EB Games and Wal-Mart, did not carry this game, and I was a little disappointed. I also cannot buy good Christian/positive music at the store, it is all for old people, and I don't like old people music.

Jon points out a good point: "I think there's a difference between putting up a Skillet song for assisted "rocking out" as opposed to a song such as "Here I am to Worship." There's a tremendous difference. I am upset that songs such as Casting Crowns' "Voice of Truth", sonicFLOOD's "Open The Eyes Of My Heart", Caedmon's Call's "There You Go", Big Daddy Weave's "You're Worthy Of My Praise", John Rueben's "Word Of Mouth", Micheal W. Smith's "Here I Am", Mark Schultz' "I Am The Way", Matt Redman's "Shine", Chris Tomlin's "How Can I Keep From Singing", Tree63's "Blessed Be Your Name"... those songs MAY be good (and there's some in there that I don't like at all), but they just don't have a place in a dance game!

I brought this game at school once, and no one knew any of the artists on the playlist. Thankfully, there were very few students there, since the weather was bad. But they had requests like "Soulja Boy", and the Dance Praise music list has way too much non-danceable music! I mentionned 10, but I didn't include every single song that's undanceable. Kids/tweens/teens don't want to play a game filled with worship music that's not made to be danced to.

So all of that being said, I believe that Digital Praise should invest more time into making add-on songs to already successful games, rather than poorly re-creating a game engine. And even then, they shouldn't include grandma music on it (no offense). Those games are mainly targeted and played by kids, tweens, teens, and even college students. So Digital Praise should consider that, and include more music that youth like, and less music that adults/grandpa/grandma likes.

Joanne, if you need any help with setting up Frets on Fire/Guitar Hero with faith-propelled music, please let me know. I am pretty good at all this computer and gaming stuff.

God bless,
Alex

As a mom to a teenage kid who loves games I'd vote to have Christian music both places! I'm for putting the sound of praise and music that speaks of Jesus WHEREVER it can go ... God calls his people to be the salt of the earth and to shine our light so I support getting Christian music in mainstream games because the lost need to hear but I also understand the need for Christian games for those who already know Jesus and don't want to be deluged with the sinful things in the mainstay games ... Just my 2 cents

Staci Garber

Hi Steve,

I agree with you. I'd like to see games such as Guitar Hero supported for gaming consoles. I can understand the frustration, when the computer's nowhere near the TV, or isn't even able to connect to it. Here's what I'm thinking: if that gaming console can run Linux, then they will mroe than likely run Guitar Praise. Here's some gaming consoles, and an explanation as to why or why not Guitar Praise/Linux is supported on them:

-Xbox (including the 360): Microsoft is fighting back, using patches hidden in games to disable Linux. Too bad. :(
-Wii: I don't think this is possible without a modchip. :(
-PS2: Sony has released a version of Linux for its PS2, but this console is too weak to support the Digital Praise. If there's any luck, the first Dance Praise will be supported, but definitively not the second, nor Frets on Fire, nor Guitar Praise. At least there's the potential.
-PS3: Sony officially allows Linux to be installed on this console, which, with its 3.2 GHz processor, can replace a desktop computer. After installing Linux, a program called Wine (which allows Windows applications to load) must be installed, which is easy and simple to do. Afterwards, simply load the Guitar Praise CD, launch setup from the CD, install it, plug in your guitars, launch Guitar Praise from the hard drive, and voila! Guitar Praise now runs on PS3! :D

So if you want Guitar Praise for your TV, go with the PS3, or plug in a computer to the TV. I can't guarantee that this will work, on the PS3 or any other console. But I'd like to see it one day!

Blessings,
Alex

Gaming expert? Yeayah! :D

My friends and I Love that this is finally coming around in a fairly big way, with the DLC (downloadable content) that is on the new systems except the Wii, i'm surprised that Gotee has not released a package of songs for rock band or guitar hero. I have a hard time believing that people would be dissuaded from purchasing a game simply because there would be Christian songs on it, those songs may be played less, like Rockaway Beach, on my Rock Band, but I do believe it's a great way to get Christian artists out into the mainstream, and i'm waiting on the success of the Christian games to Force the teams behind the game console song based games to have to interweave Christian songs to make more money for themselves.

The complete Guitar Praise song list is now available at http://store.digitalpraise.com/index.asp?PageAction=VIEWPROD&ProdID=135 for your convenience. There are 52 songs from 44 different artists. The song list is similar to that of Dance Praise 2: The ReMix, albeit a little altered.

However, I feel that there are many songs and/or artists (Caedmon's Call, Casting Crowns, Chris Tomlin, Darrell Evans, Jennifer Knapp, Jeremy Camp, Jonah33, Josh Bates, Kutless, Newsboys, Paul Baloche, Pillar, Superchick, tobyMac, Todd Agnew, and Warren Barfield) that, for either the selected songs or the artist in general, are inappropriate (in rock terms) to be included in a guitar game. For Superchick, I would have included a rockier song, such as "One Girl Revolution", as opposed to the hip-hop "We Live". For Pillar, there are way rockier songs than "When Tommorow Comes". (As a side note, both songs have been included in Dance Praise 2)

Also, this game is pretty pricey. It's 100$ for the game+guitar, or 70$ for just a guitar. Only Digital Praise guitars are supported; Xbox 360, USB, or any other guitars (which work on other PC games), are not supported in Guitar Praise.

To conclude, I say this: from my experience with Digital Praise, and from what I've heard about this product, it will please CCM lovers a lot, but hardcore game freaks (or even casual gamers) will be left disappointed.

I am so excited about this game me and my coisins have been wanting a christan guitar hero Im realy happy about this im sure am going to love this

You're welcome, Joanne.

I tried Rock Band at the store, but was very disappointed with the music selection. The songs seemed not to have good messages in them. For those who don't know, Rock Band is a very popular game, where there's not only guitars, but also a drum set and a microphone.

The guitar is like the one found in Guitar Hero, albeit slightly different. The drum set come with four "drums", plus a pedal. I used the microphone to sing and make percussion sounds.

However, when I was playing, I did hear something rather interesting: Flyleaf's "I'm So Sick" was playing during the title and menu screens. However, this song must be unlocked. Here is a video of someone attempting to sing and strum to this song: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xjnDkzM-llU

Flyleaf will perform for both mainstream and Christian markets. But in a big retail store such as Wal-Mart or Target, you must look in the pop/rock section to find her CDs. You can read more about the lead singer, Lacey Mosely, at http://www.christianitytoday.com/cl/2007/004/28.36.html

So for all the people asking "Are there any 'Christian' songs in mainstream games?", the answer is, yes there are.

Personally, I don't label my songs as 'Christian', 'secular', or whatnot. I get that people want a positive message in their music, but music is music. Flyleaf doesn't carry a "Christian" label on their forehead. Relient K says: "Call us whatever you want... a Christian band [or] a rock and roll band." And Switchfoot's Jon Foreman says "I'm a Christian by faith, not by genre." Red and Skillet also tour(ed) with mainstream (or 'secular') bands.

I'll stop writing before this post gets too long and everyone is bored of me. ;)

I have been eagerly awaiting a Christian Guitar Hero ever since I got hooked on the game a couple of years ago. What I'm not so excited about is the fact that I will have to buy another guitar rather than use the one I have for my console. Plus, I really don't find the idea of playing Guitar Hero on my computer screen all that appealing. I think a better route would be for Activision (the makers of Guitar Hero) to release a family-friendly track pack game for folks who already own a guitar peripheral for their console (namely Wii, PS3, and Xbox 360). It really wouldn't be too difficult for them, as they have released "expansion"-like packages in the past (Encore edition, Aerosmith, etc.). That way, people like me, who for the most part listen to nothing other than Contemporary Christian, can be satisfied without dishing out a ton of extra money, while other mainstream Guitar Hero players will not be "forced" to play family-friendly positive music if they don't want to. That is my long-winded opinion that I really needed to express. I feel a whole lot better now :) Thank you for those that listened.

Matt, you *may* be able to use your 360 guitars with Dance Praise. Contact Digital Praise at digitalpraise.crmdesk.com to request 360, PS2, or Wii guitar support. (By the way, all these guitars can be used in Frets on Fire)

And I totally get you, by saying that a family friendly expansion pack should be released. After all, they have 80's and Aerosmith. Metallica will come out soon.

So cross your fingers. This may just work out.

*********************************************************************************

By the way, to Joanne, Matt, and everyone else: if you had *one* artist, just one, which you could play their songs in Guitar Hero, which would it be?

Like, they have Aerosmith.
Metallica is coming.

Would you want Guitar Hero Relient K?
Guitar Hero Switchfoot?
Guitar Hero Flyleaf?
Fireflight?
TFK?

Whatever it is, post it! We can see what everyone likes...

I really hope they put in good Christian music and not the cheesy kind.

War of Ages
As I lay dying
Underoath
MxPx
MewithoutYou
Comeback Kid
Reliant K
Showbread

and bands of that nature....if they put in bands like

newsboys
by the tree
dc talk
audio adrenaline

then that would be reaaaaaaaaaaally lame.

I mean its okay music for what it is.....but guitar-wise and lyrically it is not up to par with the indie-christian music.

What a blessing it would be to have a Christian guitar game, or at least a Christian music cartridge for Guitar Hero! Our 4 year old loves, loves, loves music and playing guitar. He is now pleading for his own Guitar Hero after playing his uncle's. However, we do not like the graphics or songs that it offers. I just came across your website as I was searching for any type of Christian alternative. This would be such a wonderful way to keep his interest in Christian music and guitar. We hope this is a reality soon!!!! Thank you!

Hope they have The Almost, Underoath, Still Remains, As I Lay Dying, TFK, Skillet, FlyLeaf, Oh Sleeper, Children 18.3, Secret & Whisper, etc.

yes,sadly they aimed this game to 8 year olds. the harder alternative christian rock is what the tweens, teens, and young adult christians are into. also the graphics are very poor, my suggestion: go buy a guitar hero controller with a usb interface, download Frets on Fire; a free guitar hero alternative.

My suggestion:
get a clean Rock Band mod and download the custom made Christian songs off the Frets on Fire Fan Forum. i've made 16 already. there's a whole christian hero project me and some others are making. mostly Skillet, switchfoot, flyleaf, relient k, etc. it's pretty awesome.

Also reguarding the price... It's no different than the price of Rock Band or Guitar Hero game bundles. The extra guitar is priced the same as the extra Rock Band and Guitar Hero guitars. And of course other guitar controllers won't work for it. Harmonix and Red Octane keep their wireless signals closely guarded. In fact, there was even a big dispute earlier this year between the two companies reguarding a possible dual guitar that would play for both. In the end a second party company made a guitar that could switch between the two signals with s knob.

In order to develop for a console such as PS3 or X-Box, Digital Praise would have to get rights to do so, permission from the company. This can be done by Christian licenses, and has been done before. Digital Praise, however, is a computer development company. I agree that they could, but it would require quite a lot of time, money, and investment from them to both acquire the necessary rights and to gain and perfect the development tools necessary for the current consoles, especially the PS3, Wii, and/or X-Box 360. It's taken big name companies quite literally years to develop a single game for the PS3, given the general newness of the system. Digital Praise would be just starting, with limited funds, and no previous insight into the programs used for developing for a mainstream console. Developing for PS2, while easier, is not necessarily the best alternative. The PS2 game line-up is decreasing steadily with each coming year, it is slated for termination in the next five years, having served out it's ten year life-span just as the PS One did. And while PS2 games can be played on the PS3 (most models anyway), PS2 guitar peripherals will not function on the PS3.

I don't recall saying that Red Octane or Harmonix invented the music game industry. I just stated that they patented what they did make, namely their guitars and wireless sinc signals that radiate from those guitars to the USB recievers. Hence why you can't use a Guitar Hero guitar on a Rock Band game, different signals. Neither company is willing to share their signals with the other, so why would they agree to let Digital Praise use their signal?

Acquiring the songs for FoF is quite illegal. It's the same as pirating music. Music licensing is intended to ensure that the creators of musical works get paid for their work. A purchaser of recorded music owns the media on which the music is stored, not the music itself. Whereas Red Octane and Harmonix got rights to use artists songs from the record label directly, FoF did not. And in order for FoF to extract songs from those games, it most definetely does hack into and use some variant of their codes.

I think everyone that wanted a Christian version of Guitar Hero should be happy that they're getting one, no matter what system it's on. Atleast Digital Praise put in the effort of legally acquring Christian songs and developing a game for what systems they knew how to. And technically they were listening to their customers. All of Digital Praise games hence far have been released on PC/Mac, thus for them to have customers, said customers would have had to have purchased their games on PC/Mac, which means they own a PC/Mac and would have no problem purchasing further PC/Mac games.

I am an 18 year old college student, I have played most of the Guitar Hero games, and I own Guitar Hero 3. They're about 90-95% kid friendly (lyrics and underdressed characters). I have always wanted to have youth parties at church and have fun playing Guitar Hero all night, but we couldn't because it wasn't 100% appropriate. This is a dream come true. The only request I have is that Digital Praise updates the playlists every so often to keep the game up to date. Rock on!

Sam and company,

1. Why do GH/RB have sick graphics, but Guitar Praise only has boring graphics? There's no 3D, the game looks like Dance Praise (to some extent)... it's almost giving Christians a bad rep, saying they can't make a game have graphics as good (let alone better) than the competition.

On ChristianGuitarHero.org, 43% of voters complained about the graphics, too.

2. Why can't I use a GH/RB controller? They're already USB, wireless or not. I don't feel like buying Guitar Praise controllers... even less their game.

If they're going to do something, they should do it right (sick graphics and third-party guitar support). The entire Harmonix/ActiVision thing has to do with consoles, not PC support. The controllers from Rock Band/Guitar Hero, wireless or not, can be used in Frets on Fire and Heavenly Harmony Gold - this includes PS2, PS3, Xbox, 360, and Wii (but Wii requires a PC with Bluetooth).

-Alex

You cannot download any songs with Guitar Praise.

I think this a good start. Haven't played it, but from what it looks like, it will be a work in progress. GH1 is considerably less advanced than the latter editions, so we can hope for a nice jump from GP to it's following editions.

i think that the game is a great idea, but 100 dollars. thats insane. Guitar hero isn't even 100 dollars. have you seen the graphics for guitar praise, they are horrible.

Joanne and co,

Hate to say it, but I don't plan to get Heavenly Harmony any time soon. :( I tend not to trust Christian games anymore, especially after Digital Praise refused to refund me (their games only come with a ten-day warranty, simply deceiving).

Guitar Praise is available at my (only) local Christian store. It costs 130$, with a coupon goes down to 120$. Still, this is expensive, considering that:

- I don't need the bundled guitar (got the Strat from RB).
- There's a GH3 deal: two guitars and a game for only 100$. Costs way less than Guitar Praise, plus I can download game music from the Internet.
- GH Aerosmith for PC (game only) is only 40$. Guitar Praise has no PC-only version, because they want guitar controller sales.
- I'm not too fond of half the song list.
- Bad warranty/return policy.

And I'm not getting HHG, at least not yet, because:
- Not too fond of the song list.
- Doesn't look like a well-made game.
- The economy is bad.
- Christian games are generally speaking poorly programmed.
- There are other things on my Christmas list, including a voyage.

So sorry about the news! But if by any chance I get to try the game, I'll let you know.

God bless!
Alex

Alex, thank you SO much for sharing your thoughts! I've depended on your input, LOL. I know some people have liked the game, but some haven't, and your feedback is always helpful.

Thanks a bunch!!
Joanne
host of the GS blog

Hi Joanne, I'm probably the oldest person into gh @ rb. I have both game's and even with jimmy hendrix on ghwt i astonishingly still prefer rb because to me it's cartoon graphic's look more real. not as cartooish. Yes i've seen guitar praise on a site that looked like utube. It is missing the musician's, room's,stages that they play on and i've emailed them and unlike gh @ rb who isn't talking to anyone i've allready recieved a very kind reply from them. Yes they're a small company and dont have the resources to make a full blown game to match/compete. To answer the question of mixing religious music with secular. Hey isnt religion part of life. Thank god were still living in a free country and i think for now if they could pull the resources they should make a game that can be played on the bigger game boxes not just the computer. Personally though i feel the secular side has a lot more good rock & roll than the religious side but then i quit listening in the mid 70's. I remember "resurection band",chuck gerard and love song,larry norman, amy grant, Barry mcguire, phill driscoll, angelica,and petra,mathew ward and day spring. resurrection band was the closest to real rock and roll than any of them. I think that's because of the war over the music going on in the chuch back then. How sad. But hey! know what. I gave my heart to jesus when i was in elementary school, and "i know it's only rock & roll, but i like it" and i'm rooting for "digital praise" who designed "guitar praise". remember if you go back and read up on the history of this game, the original name was "rock revolution" which got started 15 year's ago in either japan or china. Gh has only been around since 03 in this country, and rb has only been here for a year & a half. So give "guitar praise" a break. I believe they're only 6 month's old. Anyway, thank you for your time. It would be nice to hear back from you. Curvetail.