A while back I wrote a blog about how Dragon Age: Origins looked bad.

I was wrong.

Well it looks like crap, but the gameplay and story are awesome.

That is all. I'll be back to writing my regular over-long, wordy, pretentious blog posts sometime soon, so that's something to look forward to (maybe).

Only 7-10 percent of people are left-handed. I am among those 7-10%. Playing DJ Hero at my friend's house, I was having great difficulty scratching the disc (or whatever it's referred to as) since it's built for righties. Luckily, the DJ deck (or whatever it's called) is reversible, and I then had a great time playing the game.

With the advent of the Wii, the DS, and peripheral-based games like Rock Band and DJ Hero, more active approaches to gameplay are more prevalent, the use of one's dominant hand has become more important. Anyway, I'm thankful that developers who have designed their games to work for the righties, as well as the few of us lefties in the world, and for the one's who haven't: shame on you.

That is all.

I've been playing bass for about two years now, and this past Sunday I played my first live gig. After coming home and cooling down from the fun, and insanity of the gig, I started to reflect on what got me into music, as I didn't have much of an interest in it up until a few years ago.

Most people who play some sort of musical instrument have an inspiration. A lot say they had a family member who got them into music when they were young, and a lot say they have been inspired by other musicians. Now, if someone were to ask me that question, I'd probably lie and say I was inspired by Musician X, or what have you, but the truth is, I have a very definite (and very nerdy) inspiration: Guitar Hero. I'm not joking.

The small, private school I went to throughout elementary, and middle school didn't put a whole lot of money into the music program. We had three recorders, a bongo, and two xylophones. The combination of these instruments, coupled with the choruses of tone-deaf kids is enough to turn anyone off to the very concept of music. Luckily, by the time the last trimester of the 8th grade rolled around, Guitar Hero 2 made its grand debut.

The result? Addiction. I would stay glued to the TV, strumming on my fake Xplorer, entranced by the music and rhythmic clicking of the plastic strum-bar until my hands absolutely could not take it anymore. While the game was certainly a blast to play, it's fun factor reached beyond its gameplay. I soon found myself downloading the tracks from the game, then further exploring the discographies of the artists I liked. I started to love music.

A few Rock Band, and Guitar Hero games later, I decided to take the plunge and start learning a real instrument. I chose the bass because I thought it would be easy. I was very wrong. But, I by treating it in pretty much the same way as I would a rhythm game, I soon became obsessed with practicing various basslines, often the real versions of the songs I had been clicking away to in Guitar Hero. I slowly, but surely improved, and eventually joined the jazz club at my school, and soon after a real band.

As easy as it is to argue at this point that rhythm games are done to death, don't think that just because they're overused, they're unimportant. I, for one, am happy I got into those types of games, and I'm happy to see that kids are going to grow up playing these games for a long time to come (if their success is any indication). Even though it's "just a game", the love one can develop for those types of games can easily develop into a love of music in general. And for those of you out there who really like your Rock Band or Guitar Hero games, but don't yet play an instrument: take the plunge.