Given all that, here's my response to the Ars Technica article: Before getting the game, I'd never picked up a guitar. I've had Rocksmith for a couple weeks now. (I just REALLY wish the loading times were lower) It is a learning tool and it does take time to master what it's got. This game really isn't about immediate gratification. Not exponentially, but my scores are going up and I'm looking at the board less and less as I play. I've been dicking around trying to learn for a year and the past few days have already increased my coordination on the fret board. As it, I think it's a perfectly competent learning tool. If it just went from song to song, or practice mode to practice mode quicker, that would improve my experience a lot. The unlocks are a bit silly, but since that is something in EVERY OTHER MUSIC GAME, why not? It doesn't hinder your experince and it's trying to build on the achievement/endorphin rush system that's in practically EVERY OTHER GAME. Which is the only real way to learn an instrument. The game is pretty unforgiving in letting you level, which is good because it makes you practice and practice and practice. And if you can't level it up that fast, then maybe you aren't as good as you think you are. If you are good at guitar and can play the song, then just going through it once or twice will level the song up for you to a high level pretty quickly. The Difficulty leveling isn't that hard to get around. Yes, the rewiring of the system is a bit of a pain, but that's not the fault of the game designers, is it? That's a problem that's been going on since Guitar Hero one came out. I've been playing it since Friday and I really can't complain.

Rocksmith 2014 tone designer setups