You know, every so often I’m surprised by the mainstream media. Their default approach to videogame stories tends to be either breathless sensationalism or just comic cluelessness. So it’s nice to see an outlet like MSNBC approaching a game-related topic with seriousness and respect.

That’s the tone of their recent interview with Rock Band drummer (and YouTube phenom) Dezmond Castner, aka azuritereaction. Castner does a great job of explaining the music-game genre and his fascination with it. I particularly like this bit:

Q: You’re a real drummer. Why get into “Rock Band?”

A: The real reason I actually got into drumming in the first place is because, a long time ago, back in 2000, I got into rhythm games in general … And five or six years ago, there was this thing called “Drum Mania,” which is the same thing as “Rock Band,” and I played that in the arcade. That got me into real drumming.

But wait, aren’t music games supposed to be driving kids away from playing actual instruments?

[Read]