Ok I'm going to be a total and complete jerk when I say this...
We have enough guitards and other morons who THINK they are the bomb who actually play an instrument but do it poorly...why in God's name are we going to BROADEN that category of humans? Now we have idiots who think they can play an instrument because they can push on 5 buttons and a switch lol.
I gave it a try, I played it with my friends every now and then but I never really got what was so great about it. I personally like Rock Band better than it (mainly cuz of the drums though...it's a lot more realistic than the guitars), but that's still not saying much. That and I'm WAY tired of that "bass must be easy, look how simple it is on guitar hero" comment...I then point out the 4357610 ways that bass can be far more difficult than guitar if you're actually doing it RIGHT.
I think the REAL reason that most actual musicians get upset about Guitar Hero and other games like that, is because these companies really are cheating people out of something magnificent...and that's learning to play a REAL instrument. If people could only know how satisfying it is to really try your hardest to learn a song and master it on your instrument and the sense of accomplishment you have after doing it, I think more people would be picking up an actual bass or guitar instead of guitar hero. The very day I heard my kid sister ask about that game, I brought her over to my apartment and taught her some stuff on an ACTUAL bass ASAP (and I'm buying her a short-scale bass at christmas!). She might not feel like she's awesome right now, but when she can play what people are doing with 5 (or maybe 6 by then) buttons and a switch, she'll be doing with 24 frets and 4 strings, or who knows maybe 5 lol, she'll thank me
Sorry, the same as those commercials that tell kids to play actual basketball instead of NBA Slammin' n' Jammin' in the Zone Street Hoopz 2k08 AND-1 Edition might sound stupid...but in this regard, they do sorta have a point. It's better if you experience the real deal =/