Level Up

I have been playing Rocksmith for about five and a half months now.  On October 31st of last year I called out Jimmydunes and challenged him to a guitar play-off:

... But one thing is certain... I am looking forward to stomping the living hell out of Jimmydunes in multi-player someday in the not-so-unthinkably-distant future. I am thinking something by The Black Keys. How's that for a gauntlet, bro?

He countered with:

Right! Six month point challenge. Loser has to buy the winner one of three prizes: 1)A new car 2)A new guitar of their choice 3)A switch-blade pocket comb.

Well, since I was a total newcomer to guitar and he had quite a bit of background I just knew I was going to be out one sweet switch-blade pocket comb.  But it was all good.  The rules were simple: no cheats and no DLC.  

Game on.

We used to keep approximate tabs on each other but we officially called off the contest once we learned that the point system could be unintentionally cheated due to various bugs or programming shortfalls we discovered as the months sailed by.  To further complicate matters, one update to the game, while very valuable and awesome at its core, turned one path down the Rocksmith road into too many to count, effectively preventing us from meaningfully comparing points as a measure of our progress.

So, the six-month challenge that would have ended April 30th is no more.  We toyed with replacement ideas but nothing felt right. Most number of Master-level songs by a certain date, best score after one week of practice of a randomly picked DLC, and even “first to play something in public” were all rejected for one reason or another.

All was sadness until a Guitar Center catalog showed up in the mail.  I flipped through it and started laughing at some of the offerings.  My wife wanted to know what was so funny and I showed her some of the good-quality-but-visually-over-the-top items like this Dean Dime-O-Flame:

She laughed and said “I’ll tell you what.  You get to Level 9 in your game and you can have that one.” (I had just crossed into Level 7 at the time) “Really?” I laughed.  “Yes.” she laughed.

Fine.  Game on.

There are too many rules to list completely, but, since most of them are honor-based it really doesn’t matter anyway.  I have no intention of cheating. 

1. No points outside of the Events and Technique Challenges are allowed.  That is, no DLC and no arrangements not called for by a setlist.  (Since all of my points come from precisely those things anyway, that’s really not a problem).
2. Future extraneous “failed gig points” don’t count - the old ones can stay, though.
3. No modifying events, including reducing the passing scores or switching events - default gigs only.  (I have never done any of these things, anyway, so, again, not a problem).
4. I need to change the strings on my guitar.  I have never done this and I need to learn how to perform this simple piece of maintenance before even considering getting another guitar.  These strings are the original ones and , quite literally, have many, many miles on them now.   

So, with that, I get ready to tune my guitar and do my first run-through of my most recent Level 8 setlist. I think my wife is getting nervous.  She probably, and rightly, thinks that style of guitar is better suited to a third-rate 1980s heavy-metal cover band’s back-up player.  My response to that is “Pfft.  I wish I could play that well... A deal’s a deal.”

Assuming I “win” (which should be around Father’s Day) I think I will actually get something more dignified like this Schecter Guitar Research Hellraiser Special:

That would be sweet, but you know what would be even more dignified? A set of fitted Callaways.  I have not golfed in many years and I have never broken 100... Maybe my next goal should be to shoot in the mid-80s...

Hmmm... Game on...?