Rocksmith, a real teaching tool or just a game?

[socialleper]

I have Rocksmith. I bought it for learning guitar not really knowing exactly what the program was like. The bass aspect of it is very minimal. Like everything else, it is almost a second thought, so much so that your "score" on bass lines doesn't really get recorded or counted. Kinda lame.
For learning guitar, there is a lot more than the just the play-along, Guitar Hero looking thing. There are tools to help you learn string and chords, which I have found helpful. Of course the play along "game" is the most fun part of it. I purchased some DLCs for bands I like to expand on the library it comes with. Some of the default songs are super obscure, and I have no idea why they are there.
If there is something negative about that approach to learning a song, it is that the song doesn't really stick in your head. You are following the prompts. Without the prompts it is hard for me to remember some of what I was just playing. Maybe that is just me.
So I like it. Is it the single greatest learning tool out there? No. But I don't have the time or the patience for a regular teacher.

 

[mambo4]

It's just Rock band, with tab.
A metronome + Hal Leonard's Bass Method is half the price, and probably superior in the long run.

 

[stigbeve]

I know this thread is a few months old but I just started my daughter on bass with Rocksmith yesterday.
It was actually pretty helpful to her. She started with the very basics because she has never played before. The only thing I had to add was to tell her about muting, they start out with an A, E, A, E, D ,G progression using all open strings with no mention of muting.

She had a lot of fun and is excited to play bass now.

 

[Gina Akuma]

DDR got me to minor in dance. It wasn't just a game to me.

Even if all Rocksmith does is inspire further education and enthusiasm, it's more than just a game.

 

[lat]

I bought my first bass in Dec. '12. Didn't play it for the first year, despite good intentions.
Got Rocksmith as a Christmas present in '13.
Played it every day for about 9 months until I started getting bored of it (EDIT: More like I wanted to learn songs that there was no DLC for), so I switched to learning songs by ear from MP3's or Youtube.
Less than 15 months after getting Rocksmith as a Christmas present, I was playing in a band. 10 months after that, I was in a second band. Still with them both.
So, yes, Rocksmith is a game, but you do learn from it. It lit a sonic fuse for me and sent me on a musical path that I could not have foreseen.
I rarely play it now, but will dust off the cable on occasion for old times sake. I find it a bit annoying now, since I much prefer getting into the song itself without the distraction of the video screen.
I agree that the game does instill some bad habits, or perhaps more accurately, doesn't stop you from developing bad habits, like a teacher or attentive bandmates do.

YMMV

 

[lat]

It's helping me get the know where the notes are without looking at the fretboard, but no without the game I don't know how to play any of those songs or what to do sitting there with just a bass and an amp.
But I have loads of fun playing it and that's why I keep going back.

Not sure what version you have, or it you have Master Mode disabled, but with that mode enabled on RS 2014, the visual cues fade away once you hit a certain level of proficiency, which begins to ween you off using the screen, forcing you to listen to the song. That helped me transition off of RS and start using just the songs. That is crucial to developing your ear.