Fake Guitar Heroes & Rock Bands

I am no fan of video games. Most people know this. Aside from the political critique that video games are the pinnacle of the spectacle, I just never got into them as games.
The new crop of "games" such as Rock Band and Guitar Hero (along with a lot of the Wii games) have turned video game consoles into social interaction or party fun. I sit and watch my friends play them at parties and I enjoy listening to the music but was seriously letdown with them when I learned that the "players" don't actually create the sounds as much as push buttons along with a soundtrack. In that regard, I would prefer karaoke.

Some dude from the rock magazine MOJO has written a very interesting article dealing a harsh criticism against the Guitar Hero and Rockband games.
"...the global electronic game corporations who have co-opted this youthful narcissism into a competitive game of manual dexterity, with plastic reproductions of Gibsons and Fenders, are having a negative impact on music's future."
"Guitar Hero and Rock Band broaden the perceived gulf between performer and audience by pandering to the most juvenile extremes of rock 'n' roll idol worship. "
"A spokesman for the game makers has claimed that they teach "sensitivity to rhythm, as well as develop the dexterity and independent hand usage necessary to play the instrument," but this seems disingenuous when the games do nothing to impart the real fundamentals of music."

So go ahead and play your Rock Band and your Guitar Hero but let's not pretend they are more than pushing a sequence of buttons with music playing in the background.