Games

Guitar Hero-itis: A Guide

By Eli Green
August 16, 2006 - 09:04

A guide to prevention, so you can better enjoy the game.

Returning home from a year of school overseas, this being before I began my work here at The Comic Book Bin, I was distraught to see a new addition to my family's console collection. One of my brothers had purchased a Playstation 2 while I was away. While I am not hateful Sony's Playstation line, I am also not a fan, though I have grown accustomed to its presence in our house (there wasn't much I could do about it anyway) and have come to find that there are things I like about it. In particular a game titled Guitar Hero, developed by Harmonix and published by RedOctane.

For those of you not familiar with the game, a quick intro, though please be aware that this is not a review. Guitar Hero is a music game that gives many the chance to, even if not in the real world, live out their dreams of becoming a rock star. The special controller, which comes in the game box, is a mock electric guitar with five coloured buttons, a strumming switch, a whammy bar and a shoulder strap. The player uses the strumming bar and buttons in sequence with the colours shown on the screen, playing to the music of popular rock songs.

I've been having a lot of fun going through all the songs in the game and increasing the level of difficulty as I get better and faster with hitting the notes. Unfortunately, I've begun to notice pain in the knuckles and wrist of my left hand during and after playing Guitar Hero. This has also happened to one of my brothers. I have come to the realization that playing the game is causing this condition, resulting in me coining the term Guitar Hero-itis.

Please understand, while my writing this is meant to inform readers of the danger they can potentially face by playing the game, it is not meant to be a biting article against the game, its developers, publishers or the video game industry. First, not everyone is susceptible to the condition. Second, it is mostly caused by overplaying the game, something I am quite guilty of. Finally, it is preventable and curable, so please don't freak out and try to start a media frenzy.

I contacted Harmonix and RedOctane for comments and, while RedOctane did not get back to me, the team at Harmonix was kind enough to speak and correspond with me. “We get hundreds of emails (maybe thousands) from players,”, they told me,”and no one has reported this”. They were so surprised by me contacting them about the problem that they asked me questions about how players were sustaining the injury, such as if the players were standing or sitting or the level of difficulty they were playing at the time. They finished by mentioning that their testing team was playing the game up to 60 hours a week during the testing schedule and found that during the first week they would experience “some muscle aches due to using muscles that aren't normally exercised”, but there have been no reports of this particular problem. They also said that moderation is important while playing and that players need to take breaks occasionally.

So here is a quick guide to help ease, stop and prevent the pain of Guitar Hero-itis. Please do note, before you read the guide, that I am not a licensed chiropractor and this method is what I've personally found to work. You should consult a professional about serious symptoms:

The first thing you need to do if you already have Guitar Hero-itis is to stop playing for the moment. Put the controller down man, it's not going to kill you. Let your hands get some rest and they should start to feel better. Try not to do anything that will stress them further.

Once your hands are relaxed enough, you should be able to lift things either without feeling pain or with little pain, thus allowing you to exercise your wrists. (What I've found, personally, from the problem is that the pain appears to root from the wrist area, so lightly exercising my wrist after playing takes the rest of the pain away.) Take a hockey stick, or other pole like object (e.g. a broom), in the affected hand and hold it from the handle side. Move your wrist up and down slowly. Your hand should start to feel better within a few lifts. Another way to do this exercise is by making your hand into a fist and lifting the object by rotating your wrist left and right. Do these exercises until the affected hand feels better.

If you don't have Guitar Hero-itis, but are worried about getting it, these exercises should do the trick, thus preventing you from having any problems.

I hope this guide has helped all of you out there reclaim your status as Rock G-d and taken the pain away from playing. If you have a PS2 and haven't checked out Guitar Hero yet, pick it up and give it a try. Keep on rocking.

Last Updated: August 31, 2023 - 08:12