The home drumset looks like shit but the aracade machine is fucking awesome compared to the rock band one.
And what you say about guitarists is bull shit...The AVERAGE PERSON playing guitar is with the fret board in his left hand and picking/strumming with his right. Sure people might not be GIFTED and have the ability to press buttons quickly with their left hand, but its easier to press buttons with your left hand then attempting to keep a beat with it. ITS CALLED LEFTY FOR A REASON!
I should have seperated that. I wrote that at like 3 am after getting back from a party. It was in reference to the hi-hat being on the right side of the guitar.
Yes the arcade machine lay out is pretty decent... now let's see a company package something like that in a home console game for under 450$ that won't cause the majority of the people to bitch and whine. 90% of players have to cross their arms to play repeated high-hats
And the fact that GF and DM were WAY ahead of its time since it was able to syc like....ROCK BAND and allow you to play with a guitarist, a bassist/rythem, and then pop on a drummer. And before the series was discontinued, which IMO is the BEST music simulator of all time, you used to be able to pop on a keyboard making it a total of 5 people!!! And this before Rock Band...All that is missing is a singer but whatever...I prefer instrumentals anyways xD
Uh... why are you even stating this? How does it even apply to the reasoning of why Rock Band has a layout the way it is? PSSSSSST... You're being elitist with the "bemani is superior, it came first!"
And about music games not giving you the basics...
This is true, they arent going to make your proficient in anything but some games like drum mania, or keyboard mania will atleast give you a very good base to start off from.
But shit, I LIKE Rockband, and the only thing I really dislike is the way the drums are...
Actually no... the only bemani game that gave you anything to start from... was Keyboard Mania(there's a reason why it was discontinued). DM doesn't teach you how to play drums, since it's so limited and because all it teaches you is that if you hit a drum it will make a sound(which... you should already know already). It actually teaches you more advanced drumming technique than it does anything basic(pitch level basic function in rhythm).
Let's be realistic here. Why would EA make the drum set like this. You see people, this is how you are supposed to approach marketing and reasoning. You see why the company did with they did, find the logic behind their actions, and then see how it applies... afterwards criticize the pros and cons.
Rock Band will be the first home drumming game in the US(and essentially the first drumming game in general in the US). Who will be the target? In general the people who liked Guitar Hero. For the most part, Guitar Hero success wasn't with the Bemani crowd, it reached far over that to people that wanted to pick up a guitar and rock out(instead of their normal air guitar). People with no experience at all. Why did Guitar Hero do so well? Because it was extremely easy to pick up and play knowing jack shit. But was still enough to mimic the action. I'll put it how my friend did.
"You know, Guitar Freaks felt like a simulator, but it never felt like you were really rocking out or anything, just playing a bemani game. But Rock Band totally makes you wanna jump on tables and strum all crazy like yous a real rock star."
Because of the compact size, they opted to not have as many drums and still make it relatively large so that the feeling was there(because we all know DM home version didn't feel like drumming in anyway shape or form).
Now... why is the high-hat on the right side. On songs which the high-hat are used to keep rhythm... the majority of people are right handed. It is easier to keep rhythm with the predominate hand than it is your off hand. 9/10 people being right handed... cross-over method isn't rock out able. It feels like you're playing a soft jazz drum instead of rocking the hell out while mashing the hi-hat and pounding the bass and crashing cymbals.
Putting on the left side... would be more accurate... but putting 6+6 strings on the guitar, and with two detachable, then having 14 drums would also be more accurate, but with less feel for it. You're not the target audience, so stop whining and bitching because something caters to the target audience.