Rock Band, the video game, is fun. Or perhaps I should say that playing guitar for Rock Band is fun. I learned this last night, along with learning that I am way too uncoordinated to ever consider taking up the drums.

I actually returned to campus at 10 pm yesterday because one of my students had invited me to play Rock Band. Of course, this particular student (also my I’m-out-of-town cat sitter), is one of the group who were telling me just yesterday how awesome I am, and she admitted that the invitation was half joking when issued. But I went, and it turns out that three of my current students were there, out of the four students present, including the boyfriend of the one who invited me, who was putting finishing touches on his paper and presentation for my class (due at 1 pm today).

I didn’t try the singing. I was with students after all, so there was no alcohol involved, and while I can sing (I’m not half bad, really), I don’t generally do so publicly unless I’m at least buzzed. So no singing, and my clumsiness precluded me doing any good at all with the drums.

The guitar, however, was fun. And i got decent at it fairly quickly (might have to try a harder level at some point). I only played it on the easiest level, and even at that the most challenging song of the night, the last song we played, Metallica’s “Enter Sandman,” still kinda kicked my butt.

The students said that they had just gotten the game earlier this week—and laughed about buying a new game that’s both addictive and a group activity right before finals. I had to laugh at that, too. Because I’m finding a couple of things lately.

First, for whatever reason, I’m discovering that it’s more fun to play games with other people. That’s never necessarily been the case for me before. After all, I’ve primarily been an RPG and plot-driven shooter player up to now. Since these games have such long arcs, it’s difficult to find enough time to play through them with another person (not to mention that many of them are designed to be single-player games). But, of late, I’m finding gaming of all stripes much more fun as a group activity.

Second, I learned that Rock Band is, in fact, addictive. I’m not necessarily thinking of getting it, though, because it involves a number of accessories for the PS2, and I’m thinking I have enough clutter in my life…. Also, while this particular PS2 game is addictive (and I have a PS2), I’m thinking too, that Wii is more addictive, and that’s pretty much what I’m jonesing for, in the video game world, right now.

But we’ll (Wii’ll?) see.