1. LEARNING MAGAZINE
ARTICLE
HOW TO BE A LEARNING HERO
David Wortley & Guitar Hero GDC San Francisco
Electronic games can teach us a lot about the learning process as I have found out in my self-
imposed guinea pig role as a would-be Guitar Hero.
One of the perks of being Director of the Serious Games Institute is that can legitimately buy yourself
an X-Box 360 and a Guitar Hero game as a research exercise you can explore in the comfort of your
own home. Somewhat surprisingly, given my job title, I have never been an electronic game junkie.
Constantly exposed by the abilities of infant relatives, I have found that my age is a barrier to using
games consoles and any attempt to compete against anyone over the age of 5 in an electronic game
is doomed to failure and embarrassment.
Guitar Hero changed all that in a flash. Tempted by the prospect of gigging along with Eric Clapton
and Jack Bruce I bought Guitar Hero2 for the X-Box 360 and suddenly found myself with a guitar
shaped interface that made those irritating red, green, blue, turquoise and orange buttons more
accessible to my banana shaped fingers and fading hand-eye co-ordination. My fascination for Guitar

2. Hero was not just that it brought me into a fantasy world of a long-lost misspent youth as an
incompetent bass player in a school rock band called Gotham City, but also that it gave me a chance
to see if this games technology might bring me serious benefits such as improved finger mobility,
better hand-eye co-ordination and (dare I dream it) an eventual ability to read music and play a real
guitar.
Guitar Hero Screen
In the original game, you choose your alter-ego character from a flamboyant selection of iconic
guitar players and find yourself in a band playing your first gig at an “easy” level. This involves
pressing the coloured keys on the neck of the guitar whilst strumming a plectrum bar to coincide
with the coloured notes sliding down the screen. Every correct “note” hit is rewarded by the
appropriate guitar sound in the song and points. Get it wrong and you get a bum note and no points.
Get a string of correct notes in sequence and your score multiplies. Get a lot of wrong notes and you
get booed off the stage.
It took about an hour before I was able to get enough correct notes to complete a whole song and
be rewarded with the “You Rock” accolade and some career dollars – virtual money that can later in
your career enable you to buy new virtual clothes, guitars and accessories in the game shop.
Over the months, my career and my ability blossomed to the point where I became a competent
medium level guitar hero able to hold my own in guitar hero shoot-outs in X-Box Live where you
thrown down a virtual on-line gauntlet to other on-line heros and see who can get the most notes
and sequences right.
In February 2007 I found myself at a post-conference party in New York where several people were
clustered around the next generation game “Rock Band”, based on the same principle but with the

3. addition of drums, bass and microphone. At last my lifetime fantasy of being able to walk into a
party and play a musical instrument had been realised and I can’t begin to tell you the pleasure of
being immersed in a collective fantasy of being in a rock band playing great music. In learning to play
Guitar Hero I also learnt a lot about myself and about the learning process. The game gave me just
enough challenge and reward to make me addicted and not so much difficulty that I gave up. I also
learnt that my skills actually improved if I didn’t play for a couple of weeks – it was as if my fingers
had a retained memory which clarified and improved when rested for a while.
Building your own character
I’ve just bought the next release of Guitar Hero – “World Tour” and the new features in this package
point the way to next-generation learning techniques, especially as a platform to facilitate
personalised and peer-to-peer learning. Instead of choosing a stock character, you can now totally
change the appearance, accessories and clothing of your alter-ego so your learning experience is
shaped by your own preferences. Significantly, you also have access to a virtual music studio in
which you can make your own guitar hero classics and share them on-line with other people.
I am now at level 13 on guitar and bass and have shared the virtual stage with both Hendrix and Ozzy
Osbourne and a little fairy tells me that Santa might be bringing me drums, a second guitar and a
microphone this Xmas. I can’t wait to extend my lifetime of personalised, self-directed learning and
willingly sacrifice my precious leisure time in intense academic research.
What a hero I am !!!!