copywritten reality

My university, like most others, is quite corporatized. We have the Terasen lecture hall, and we had a scavenger hunt promotional game for the movie Fool's Gold in most trafficked area of campus during my first year. But for myself the most disturbing happening to date was something I saw between classes in the hallway. People were watching other people play instruments on a stage, but it wasn't exactly a concert. And the people playing weren't actually playing instruments themselves. The people on stage were looking at screens, but there weren't even real musicians on the screens either. What in fact was happening was that there was a promotion for Monster energy drink which involved setting up at least a dozen stations at which people could play Rock Band (and perhaps some other games as well), all surrounding a central stage upon which a few Rock Band players could "perform". While I was there a considerable crowd had gathered in front of this stage, engaged by the "performance" that was happening. Watching people enter virtual space, not just entering it yourself, is now its own legitimate form of entertainment.

While I have some personal reasons why I am intensely discomforted and depressed by Rock Band, mostly I am just disappointed that a video game, which limits creativity, collaboration, and acquisition of musical skill, is deemed more entertaining than actually playing music with one another. Call me a reality elitist if you like, but the more our means of entertainment isolates us, the more unhappy and apathetic many of us are bound to become.