I just bought the drum kit for Rock Band and Rock Band from a car boot sale.

How bad is that game for anyone with hand-eye co-ordination problems, not very well thought out.

I've played Guitar Hero 2 and 3 on the guitar and completed the Easy and Normal levels, and I thought the drum kit would be just like the the guitar where they introduce more things as you go up in level.

But I can't believe you even have the kick drum on the Easy level. Could that not have been left out for harder levels, so that it didn't ruin the enjoyment of the game for people who can't co-ordinate their feet and hands at the same time.

Very badly designed. I also downloaded a demo of Guitar Hero:Greatest Hits to see if they'd thought about it and made it a bit more easier for people with problems with co-ordination.

Well they had made it a bit more easier...no make that too easy! Just hit anything, that's just boring.

Does anyone know did Rock Band change this at all in any of their future games to make it fairer on people with co-ordination difficulties (like introduce the kick drum only on higher levels?), whilst not making it too easy.

Also I can guess that because you have to play the kick drum that means that the drum version of the game also can't be played by anyone who doesn't have use of their feet.

Maybe a suggestion for future versions of the game, or an update to the game.

Welcomed to AbleGamers!

Well the drums are not for everyone that is for sure. I am not able to do the kick part as well. I think it is less a hand eye thing and more of a "this is not natural for most people" thing. I can tell you, you are not alone on the kick thing at all.

I am sure we can put in a no kick mode, or you can move the kick to the arm of a chair and use your arm to make it go..

just a thought.

One Switch has a guide for switch adapting the Rock Band drums (as well as the guitar), so it is conceivable that you could play the pedal with another switch (button, grip, sip and puff, blink, etc.)

oneswitch.org.uk/4/DIY/rockband-drums.htm

I have recently switch adapted the guitar from Guitar Hero World Tour. The drums, however, do not seem to be nearly as easy to adapt, as they were designed very differently.

However, Guitar Hero World Tour is another such game that has the full band, with all of the instruments. I'm not sure how it compares to the Rock Band games, but I do know that the easiest difficulty settings are fantastic for many people with disabilities. The easiest level just lets you hit the strum of the guitar, or the drum pedal, and work your way up. But, like I said, I'm not sure how it compares to what you have already tried.

I think you can use the instruments from one game with the others...

Thanks to everyone for their solutions, a lot more better solutions than Harmonix offered, their answer was that they wanted to make Rock Band as real as possible and that is why they didn't have an option to disable the kick drum, but if I want to I can play it in "never fail" mode or ask someone else to do the kick drum for me.

The never fail mode sounds rubbish, that makes it even less realistic than just turning off the kick drum.

I've heard that Guitar Hero World Tour does have an option to turn off the kick drum, so guess I'm going to go and buy that instead. I have played GH2 and 3 before (neither are compatible with the drum kit).

It does seem really bad though that according to Wikipedia has this to say about Harmonix:

"The company was built on the premise that the experience of performing music could become accessible to those who would otherwise have trouble learning a traditional instrument."

And yet now they aren't bothered about helping people with a disability to learn how to play the drums, more interested in how realistic the game is. Shame on them

The only other thing I'm annoyed about now is that one of my favourite groups is now on Rock Band - The Beatles, so I'll have to improve my hand-eye co-ordination to play my favourite songs

Well I would be lying if I said I did not have some skin in this fight. Harmonix has been in the past, and is NOW a huge supporter of AbleGamers.com including a sizable donation from a Sr. Executive. (it paid for the new server we are on)

Here is what I think we can do, let me go and ask some of the other people if there was something we could do. The other thing that we may want to think about is a hack that moves the foot kick to a switch or something like that.

But to your point "And yet now they aren't bothered about helping people with a disability to learn how to play the drums, more interested in how realistic the game is. Shame on them" I think you are being a little harsh. They are concerned, I have worked with them in the past to get FREE kits to people who wanted to try a hack out. They send one fellow I know 5 kits so he could test out some hacks, and I think from a HARDWARE prospective they are doing very good by the disabled community.

From the software side of the house, that is ALWAYS a little more of a challenge, because they can only do so much to a game title once it is released, so it is not really a matter of not caring, it is a matter of can't fix it now.

Lastly, sometimes you have to look at the world from NOT your point of view to see the big pic (something that I know is hard for all of us to do) they are not in the biz of "helping people with a disability to learn how to play the drums" they are in the biz to make a game for the masses and become profitable. I would be the last person in the world to NOT advocate for the disabled community (that I am part of), I am also a realist, and I never FAULT a company for not KNOWING that this needs to be a feature for the disabled community and therefor not developing it. What I do fault is when a company DOES know that it is needed while the game is still in development, and make a choose NOT to include it. I do not think that the RB people ever said "let's not develop this to keep the disabled out!!"

I say all that to say this, we support your cause, and will do what we can from our end to help make sure that feature is included in the next RB. But all we can do is ask.

To note as well, GH has done nothing to support the work we here at AGF do (hint hint hint).

When you do speak to Harmonix again, Mark, please reiterate the thanks I passed on through Michelle for the two kits they sent me for adaptation.

Guitar and Drums D.I.Y. guides here by the way for those unaware: www.on eswitch.org.uk/4/DIY/index.htm

To add to the plea for auto-drumming, I'd also love to see:

1. A one-switch mode (i.e. hit any single pad/foot pedal on beat to play whatever is displayed). This is something featured in the easy mode of Um Jammer Lammy.

2. For general accessibility it would be great if they would allow standard JoyPad's to be able to play the guitar and/or drums too. As you might see, the adaptation to the drums is no small job. If people can't use the Rock Band gear, and don't know anyone who can adapt the controllers/can't afford to get them adapted, being able to use their preferred controller would be so much better.

Hopefully Harmonix will give this some thought?

Barrie