Dynafire has 132 chronicles

1. My GH Chronicle
   

   Player Chronicle -- Posted on Feb 11 2008

   Edit: Whoops, didn't realize this would be bumped when I edited some things! Sorry!
   Since I have yet to chronicle anything, I decided I’d try to share my experiences in becoming a “master of teh plastic guitar” if you will. I’d like to point out that while I am an above average player, I am by no means a “pro”. There are literally hundreds, if not thousands of players who are well above my skill level, and I try to play the game purely for fun and to achieve goals on a personal level.
   
   It all began in November 2006 when I was working at a game store here in Cedar Rapids. A fellow employee was rocking out on the guitar controller, and I immediately began to make fun of him, being the naïve/ignorant gamer I was. I just could not comprehend why someone would want to play this after watching him for a few minutes, and didn’t think much about it. Until a few days later, that is.
   
   I was suddenly overcome one night to set little colored circles on fire, and rushed out to Wal-Mart to shell out the $80 for GH2. When I got home with it, buyer’s remorse immediately set in. I kept thinking why the hell did I just pay $80 for a game that I will probably always suck at? I can’t play rhythm games! Hell, I don’t even LIKE rhythm games! Regardless, I busted it out and did the basic tutorials, doing fairly awful. I guess I was ready to rock since the “teacher” cut me loose, so I tried my hand on Easy career. I don’t remember what song I played first, but I failed it. I played it again and passed it, then went to bed.
   
   The next day, I beat easy career, with three stars on almost everything. This was before I knew that your star rating is based on your final score (or your Avg. multiplier, however you want to look at it. Generally, a 2.0 multiplier is a 4-star, while a 2.8 is a 5-star.), not the % of notes hit. At this point I quit playing for a few days, then tried my hand at medium. The blue note threw a stick in my spokes, and I was really having trouble with it. At the time, I could not use my pinky worth a damn, and shifting my entire hand was out of the question, but after about a week or two, I beat medium career. After I did that, I decided to try hard. They decide to start giving me more chords, and throw that orange fret in there, and I fail miserably. Many times. I give up on the hard difficulty, and go back to playing on Medium.
   
   Over the next month or so, I ended up getting 5 stars on the majority of the songs, and found a few songs that I really liked, despite having never heard of them in my life. (Who Was in My Room Last Night, The Light that Blinds, and Fall of Pangea come to mind) I was pretty hooked on the game, and had fun playing on medium, but in January I gave hard another shot, and passed Mother on my first try. This gave me a huge confidence boost, and I progressed a little further through the game before getting owned by Tiers 7 and 8. I practiced a little bit, and kept working on the songs that were giving me trouble, and eventually beat hard career a few weeks later. I kept playing on hard for about a month, thinking that I had no chance of beating expert, and had all of hard career 5 starred by mid-February.
   
   I took the dive into expert soon after, and was surprised that I was doing well at just about every song, passing most with 4 stars, and a few with 5. I failed a few in the last couple of tiers a few times (Misirlou and Carry me Home gave me the most trouble), but eventually I beat those, as well as Freebird (after failing in Solo C about 5 times, and Solo I a few times) in March. I also found out that Jordan is VERY different on expert than on hard, and concluded that I would never beat it.
   
   At this point, I was content with beating expert, and considered putting the game away for good. However, something drove me to attempt to get 5 stars on all the songs, and to get that mystery guitar in the shop for all my hard work. I began my quest in the lowest tiers, racking up 5 stars quickly on the easier songs. I started picking up more advanced techniques that helped immensely, such as alt-strumming (strumming up and down) and using the hammer-ons and pull-offs instead of just strumming everything. I also learned how to shift my hand, and use star power effectively to get more points.
   I also discovered www.scorehero.com, a website full of Guitar Hero junkies like me, and lurked there for a while before actually signing up and putting in scores in August. I mainly did it because I liked keeping track of my career score, but was too lazy to make my own spreadsheet for it. If you ever need help with a song, want to know exact 4 or 5 star cutoffs, etc, go there. They have the answer to just about any question you may have about Guitar Hero.
   
   I kept playing on expert, increasing scores, getting a few more FCs, etc. With the release of GHIII, I have had a tremendous skill increase, and have 26 FCs and one 100% in that game. I’m on the verge of getting FCs on some of the harder songs (harder to FC, not necessarily harder to play), such as Black Sunshine (FC'd up to the breakdown, Don’t Hold Back (have now had 2 runs missing one note), and The Seeker, to name a few. While they may or may not actually get FCed, I’m going to keep trying and hopefully I will get them. I also got a 5 star on The Way it Ends last night, leaving Through the Fire and Flames as the only song I haven’t gotten a 5 star on.
   
   That’s about all I have now, hope you enjoyed reading that stuff, because I didn’t have much fun typing it. If you’re ever in need of help on a song or just want to play, feel free to send me a PM on here, or send an invite or friend request to my gamertag on XBL – DynafireSH.
   
   PS: Cam rulez

   
   

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Dynafire has 4 comment s on this chronicle.

1. ZMaine
   Posted On Feb 21 2008

   I was about the same, but I have never failed an easy song (except for the lame achievment) and I learned to play at Wal-Mart. And I'm no where near as good as you or Cam.

2. Cam
   Posted On Feb 02 2008

   Bravo, Bravo!
   ENCORE!! ENCORE!!!
   I think I might have to make one of these sometime now if you can do it, so can I. lmfao
   It might have been pretty cocky & ignorant of me to think I was the best GH player in Iowa but you have definitely proved me wrong my friend. As far as players in IA, i am definitely up there but by no means the best.
   And as for Jordan, I fear I may never beat & 5* it unless I quit playing GH3 all together while I attempt that endeavor because of the difference in difficulty. GH2 is much harder after playing GH3 in my opinion cuz' on GH3, the window in which you have to hit the notes is larger, the fretboard is about double the size, & hammer-ons & pull-offs are way easier. Although the other night I tried it & got 100% up to the the 3 note sweeps & made it to 59% again. Maybe after I get off the comp & out of the shower I'll go mess around with it. Anyways, I need to keep practicing GH period for the tourney. I at least want to place so if I came in 2nd to you, I suppose I could live with that. But if anyone else shows up that is better than me and/or you, I'm gonna be like HOLY SHEET!!!

3. urmotherink
   Posted On Feb 01 2008

   dude it was way to long next time take it down abit but i still gave you a 6

4. BEN
   Posted On Feb 01 2008

   What a great start of your personal gaming history here in the Chronicle section of your GoG profile! I'm sure alot of rockers can feel your development pain as you worked through the skill levels, but I bet they can also relate to the satisfactory of bring home the 5 stars in some of those harder levels. Have you met Cam yet? (you must) We'll be looking forward to seeing these skills at The Inaugural GoG IMAX Tournament in February!
   
   Great chapter here Dynafire, on the rise of your own Guitar Hero spirit