Well, for people who aren't interested in guitar, but like to play games its perfect. for people who love guitar and like the songs is perfect. But for people who want to play guitar, real guitar, the only thing for them is to play guitar, not to play guitar hero. thats my opinion.

I've only tried to play it a couple of times and just couldn't get into it...
I kept wanting to just get loose and pluck when I wanted to pluck to jam along with the song.
I found that to hit all the notes you have to pluck them quite mechanically, it didn't feel like jamming along
to the rythm at all. But of course, its a game, and it is played like a game, not like a guitar. I do have to say that my old roommate and I had a blast playing the demo of rock band all night when they set it up at wal-mart. The only thing that comes to mind now when I think of the game is that episode of south park, "Guitar Queer-o" , I think it was called. Anytime I show up where folks are playing the game I feel like the dad in that episode.

It gives the wrong idea about guitar.
It makes kids think that they only take 3 weeks to play a DragonForce solo with a real guitar.
Then, they spend 200$ on a real guitar, and when they see they won't go far without REAL training, they give up.

Extremely good point!

I can't really speak of the effect it has on people picking up the guitar as I'm an older person, but as a guitarist and (mostly former) gamer, I can say it's the most unintelligent, mindless shlock of a video game ever to be adopted by the bandwagon/follower lemmings of the world. Go play Crysis instead!

I think the games are fun myself. But they do give a false impression that guitar is easier to learn/play than it really is.
On the plus side, the games have done a great job of bringing great music back into light and opening up younger people to stuff us older folk grew up on.

If you read my other posts you know why I hate it :D but yeah its funny but its like kids now a days seem to get it confused with real guitar
Pressing plastic buttons will not help fret or bend real strings they are just not the same,I suppose the ONLY thing it does is work out your fingers but yeah.............
I agree with Danno atleast they are getting more music out now.

Game-anything can't substitute the equivalent real-life activity.
A race simulator, even with a steering wheel controller, is never compared to real car racing. Commercial flight simulators, even with a joystick, are never compared to flying a real plane (even though I think there ARE special simulators for training pilots).

So why does GH and GB get so much attention?
Guitar hero and guitar playing are completely irrelevant to each other, and I get upset when people try to compare games to real life.