Last week I posted about Kurt Cobain appearing in Guitar Hero 5. And while I hardly gave it a second thought, elsewhere on these crazy internets this news appears to have ruffled some feathers.
“You stay classy, Activision,” said Kotaku.
Joystiq got even saucier: “When asked for comment, the ghost of Cobain said, ‘Well, finally! Were I still alive, this is exactly the sort of thing I’d be doing.’”
New York Magazine’s Vulture blog called the video (embedded after the break) “the most we’ve been creeped out by a video game since the original Resident Evil.”
So, let’s talk about this. Do you find it distasteful to include an influential rocker like Kurt Cobain in a game like Guitar Hero? If so, why? Why is this apparently more distasteful than seeing Jimi Hendrix or Johnny Cash in a game — since neither of those seemed to generate the level of outrage the Cobain thing has prompted?
And let’s not forget, as games writer Eric Majkut pointed out when I mentioned this on Twitter, that there’s another huge game coming out very soon with two dead rock stars in prominent roles: John Lennon and George Harrison.
I’ve got my own opinions on the matter, but I’d rather hear what you all have to say. So take a look at the video below, and let me know what you think in the comments thread.
It doesn’t seem right…let dead men lie. It is totally weird and creepy.
I can sum up fairly quickly why I find it a bit sad. He was a guy who hated the fame side of things so much that he killed himself because he was guilt ridden with self-loathing. I obviously never knew the guy, or what he would have thought about being made into a muppet to sell guitar simulator games, but it just seems odd to see his visage turned into a bullet point. Also the fact that George Harrison’s son and wife’s estate judgment feels more conservative than Courtney Love’s given her track record makes me suspicious about this too.
Good points, Josh. But let me play devil’s advocate and ask: Is there a qualitative difference between having his likeness in the game and having his songs in the game?
I didn’t consider the music being an possible extension of the dilemma of featuring him in any capacity. I guess playing Nirvana already in other games has taken a bit of the shock out. It’s an interesting thing because there wasn’t anything to compare this situation too. Kurt died in the era when the most famous music licensed game was probably Revolution X. Some artists view Guitar Hero (and music games as a whole) as a means for people to experience their music in a new and unique way. Maybe Kurt would have been that way, but we can’t really know. I know I felt really odd when I heard Nirvana on Motorstorm for a long time.
I know that Dave Grohl is fine with Rock Band by the glut of Foo Fighters tracks. I am not sure how Novoselic feels though, so the music of the band becomes a bit more nebulous. The likeness is something that is only Kurt’s and that’s what makes it feel creepy to me. With a band you can at least get a 2/3 vote and with his looks you can never ask him. The famous Penny Arcade strip about Rock Band: Nirvana wasn’t out to make me feel weirder about the whole situation when Rock Band launched either. http://www.penny-arcade.com/comic/2009/4/22/
I don’t think this is that big of a deal. If they had Abe Lincoln as a playable character nobody would care, and Lincoln was one of the most important figures in United States. In comparison Cobain was just a musician, but he is idolized due mostly to the relative recency of his suicide.
Well, true, but Lincoln also wasn’t famous for loathing fame.
On the other hand, it’s hard for me to feel too sympathetic to anyone who hates being famous after signing a contract with a major label, making videos, etc. I’m not talking exclusively about Cobain here; this opinion dates back to the video for “Wanted Dead or Alive.”
I don’t think it is that big of a deal in the grand scheme of things. I just think it’s more that he is a guy who killed himself over the idea of this type of stuff is all. I think that killing yourself because your really famous is pretty dumb. He was obviously a troubled guy and ended his life for a silly reason (unless someone here wants to go conspiracy theory style). It just seems like an odd move on Activision’s part is all. I wouldn’t refuse to play the game over it or anything, I just have to save my limited funds for Rock Band: Beatles is all.
I think that if you’re stupid enough to marry someone as shrewd and nefarious as Courtney Love, and do a ton of hardcore drugs, and shoot yourself in the face with a shotgun – leaving your infant daughter to grow up fatherless and forever in your shadow, then your punishment should be that your likeness is immortalized in a corporate cash-cow video game. That seems fair to me.
I really have no problem with it. I just think it’s Kurt’s own bad karma haunting him in the afterlife.
if you read about Kurt’s comment on Wierd Al’s parody of Smells Like Teen Spirit (Smells Like NIrvana), Kurt said that he loved the parody. He thought it was brilliant. So, certainly any adaptation of his(Nirvana’s) music would be highly praised by him.