a gaming possibility

   One of the ongoing issues with technologies is the persistence of control. My parents are in their mid-70s, and while they don't even have the capacity to figure out how to "steal" music online, I think I would have to support them 100% if that was something they chose to do. Why? Because in their lifetime they have gone through piano rolls, 75s, LPs and 45s, eight tracks, cassettes, CDs ... and now they have an iPod that I gave them last Christmas with what likely represents most of the music of their lives (it took me all year to collect the music) and the sad thing is they have no idea how to use it. How many flipping times that the music industry really expect people to have to wholesale replace entire collections of music?
   I know this is not directly related, but it's a metaphor. Video games, like guitar hero, and activities designed for the Wii are likely proprietary constructs. And I can appreciate the argument that technology is ever changing; consequently, those who have the base technology can roll out incremental changes without making themselves available to people coming in, and expressing competition.
   The issue I'm trying to get at is that once a genre, of any kind, is established, then the generic code should be made available. Why? Because while the more muscular brand name may be able to add bells and whistles, in their greed to be the only player they are shutting out an enormity of small business at the fringes.
   Imagine being a video game designer, who is either in or has friends who are in some Indie bands. How sweet it would be to package a CD of music with a CD that could be acted out through gaming platform. There is no reason why this shouldn't already be available to us. In fact, I imagine the only way we will see this sort of thing is if [a] a music company buys up one of those gaming companies, and (hello Sony? Not profitable enough for you? Might be profitable enough for dozens of smaller players) [b] they can somehow create a construct by which they rake in the lion's share.
   So where does that leave us? Well, with regards to this particular example, some enterprising game designer might create a generic platform (lifting the big boys business model), and gaining traction, while using nothing but some of the best indie bands out there. Eventually other game designers would pick up on this... it would only add to the repertoire.
   And, gee, what a boon for some of those indie bands that might get discovered through such a platform.

(inspired by an old article - not a direct connection, however):
Boom in music video games helps original artists
By RYAN NAKASHIMA, AP Business Writer Ryan Nakashima, Ap Business Writer – Sun Dec 21, 1:16 am ET
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20081221/ap_on_en_mu/music_video_games_4
retrieved 12/21/2008 8:00:57 AM