It seems the Guitar Hero bug will not go away. The people behind the first game that I have lost sleep over in a long, long time are (rumored to be) making yet another Guitar Hero game, this time in 80s metal fashion. I am expecting it to be quite good and will grab it when it comes out. I thank the makers for putting it on PS2, after some rumors said that GH2 would be the last in the franchise for the PS2.

If the makers are smart they will continue make PS2 versions. For one, most people have a PS2, so the userbase is huge. Second, no one is going to pony up the cash to get a new PS3 just for Guitar Hero.

However, with PS3 – as already for Xbox360 – the new versions of Guitar Hero will be online to download extra content, new songs, etc. But I came across a forum discussion talking about why GH1 and GH2 is not online and why that is.

Unfortunately the person posting didn’t get a straight answer because they posted it in the wrong type of forum. It ended up asking a bunch of “serious” gamers about Guitar Hero — in serious I mean the Halo players and those others that play in teams and take gaming a bit too seriously.

One of these posters asked why Guitar Hero needs to be online since it is “just a party game.”

I hate those type of gamers…those that lose sight that they are playing to have fun. I hate to break it to those gamers that playing Halo online serves the same means to an end — high scores and bragging rights. Having an online Guitar Hero leaderboard would be plenty if you ask me. You don’t have to battle other rockers online like you do playing Halo or football…we just want to share our scores and prove that I can rock harder than you when playing Ziggy Stardust.

Shall we not forget that video games have always been about bragging rights and high scores. When I got a high score in Asteroids or Galaga, all I could do was drop in my initials and know the next player – whom I would never see or meet – would see them knowing that whoever “BDV” was is better than they are (until otherwise proven wrong).

We don’t always need face-to-face online battling to make online worth while. I would actually think makers would be happy to put these simple “party games” online with a leaderboard because the overhead to create is probably pretty low. No lag to worry about, no framerates to bother with – just upload a score and done.

I would love to see Guitar Hero with online play, even if just a leaderboard. I won’t not buy the game if it doesn’t have it, but every game should be considered for such simple options that will make people happy. When I finally get my hands or a Wii (and I won’t hold my wee for one), I hope Nintendo honors the simple happiness of leaderboards.

See you all on the leaderboard (once there is one).