Finally I've got my band lined up. That's nothing new, I've had all of my members together for months, including their instruments, the touring van, and even the manager. And they aren't just any random musicians either! Our lead singer is Romy with her Vintage Mic, there is Teddy on lead guitar with his Cherry Acoustic, keyboardist Kinsey on her Keystar 1A, and Diana on her Violin Acoustic. Our drummer is Stomper on his double bass Pro Kit. All carefully selected and pieced together to perfection. We also have the Mid Range Tour Bus and our manger is The Crow.
Nice Going! And Now For A Celebration?
All this is nothing new. Thanks to the strategy of going back to playing 1-hour gigs - at the Mall - more often, supplemented with plenty of pizza for the required energy, I managed to cruise through the levels fairly quickly. In the end I believe I got to unlock the Band Auditions a week before I expected, totaling somewhere just under two months for the 20 levels between Local Mini Tour Support and Band Auditions. That's actually a FANTASTIC result, especially in light of what I wrote in my post looking ahead at it. So you think I would have celebrated my great achievement with a post, or something. Yet, I didn't... which is my entire point.
Advancing to Nowhere
Since then I completed all the required auditions, formed the line-up, and started rehearsing. There are still two levels to go through before we can start playing Full Band Support Gigs. In other words, we are back to Playing at the Mall - as if we had ever stopped! Clicking the buttons has become somewhat close to automated, since I don't even have to think much any more: Between each mall show I can play two small 5-minute gigs, either a Radio Interview or a Band Rehearsal for the chance of an extra pizza. The amount of Starbits they bring in isn't even that important, but since this gets reduced after a while, it makes sense to switch back to the original small gig, the first one of them all: Illegal Busking. Great, finally got a whole band, and we're still busking on the street corners.
How Much Longer ... Am I Gonna Keep Pushing These Buttons?
Granted, this is not the first time I expressed my disillusion with this game. Still, I've kept playing, paying a few seconds of attention to it, at least on an hourly basis. However, I can really feel my passion fading. I completely lost interest in the cards, in earning and spending my Starbits, and even in the subsequent levels and all it may have in store. I have 165k Starbits at the moment, and I think I will have a million before I even do anything with it. Except for buying cans of gas, so there it is: seems like I am saving up for something after all.
Looking at the details of the newly unlocked County Tour gigs, I'm noticing that there really is not much of a point in advancing. The only thing that's comparative (not even better) than the Local Mini Tour Support is the County Tour, for which I need to reach level 175. Okay. I'm at level 83 now. So until I reach level 100, where I can start playing Full Band Headlines, which is slightly better 1-hour show, we'll keep playing at the mall. But seeing how I feel about this game at the moment, I kinda doubt I'll ever get there. Let's see... in six minutes I can press the button again...