From Roger Altizer,
Your Guide to PlayStation Games.
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Harmonix and EA have revealed the details for RockBand.com social community/networking website for videogame console rockers. The site will go live on November 20th to coincide with the release of Rock Band for the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360. The PlayStation 2 version of Rock Band will ships on December 18th. Europe should see Rock Band drop sometime in early 2008.

From the get-go, you will be able to extend your virtual rock-n-roll lifestyle to the web. RockBand.com will feature Rock Band leaderboards, personal and band home pages, and a “Musicians Meeting Musicians” classifieds section to help form bands online. Don't laugh, you'd be surprised how many bands have formed through newspaper classifieds (Pixes and Erasure, anyone?) The site will give fans the opportunity to create their own Rocker Profile pages and communicate with other Rock Band players. There's even a blog feature, just in case you want to blog about Rock Band and your musical stylings.

According to Melissa Macaulay, producer of ROCKBAND.com, Harmonix, "RockBand.com blurs the lines between fantasy and reality. The site allows you to hype your in-game band’s accomplishments, while providing a forum to meet other real-life people and potential band mates who share your musical tastes.” Whether or not reality is "blurred" by the site, the idea is an excellent one. In addition to finding Rock Band-mates, this is just another extension of the rock god fantasy. Think of it as a bizarre career mode.

RockBand.com Features:

• Personal & Band Pages: ROCKBAND.com will automatically load your in-game characters and game stats from an online database so your personal profile page will always be up to date. Choose from four genres in the game to customize your profile pages with cool background skins that reflect your rock tastes.
• Band Classifieds: Find and create your own band through the ROCKBAND.com Band Classifieds page. Here you can advertise your own rocker skills or search through dozens of rocker profiles to choose band mates who share similar music tastes.
• Rock Band Leaderboards: Climb to the top of the charts as a solo artist or band! From band rankings to solo scores, the ROCKBAND.com leaderboards will earn you fame and fortune as you progress on your journey to Rock Band stardom.
• Rocker Blogs: Find out what’s happening behind the scenes with your favorite bands through their blogs. Use your blog to communicate with band mates about practice times, meet others with similar musical interests and keep your groupies in the loop with the website’s unique blogs.
• Rock Band Forums: Interact with other rockers and music lovers about anything and everything rock!
• Photo Creator: (Coming Soon!) Take the ultimate promo band or solo shot with the website’s Photo Creator. Pick a location, the right lighting, and a coordinated (or not!) pose for your band. Take it over the top cheesy or seriously intense. It’s all about your band’s total image.

RockBand.com only adds to the impressive offering that is Rock Band. There are few games worth the kind of money this one will cost. My hat is off to Harmonix for delivering an insane amount of value to go along with the game. Rock Bands online offerings make this game tough to beat.