The power of Twitter in recent days is quite astonishing, but Game Designer Brenda Brathwaite (@bbrathwaite) has a great idea for it. She started the hashtag #gamedevdiet as a way to create a sort of crowdsourced diet support group. The rules are simple. Every week, you post how much weight lost during the week, how much total weight lost, and how much weight left to lose, and the group can reply and commend you for your weight loss. The hashtag has also been the source for discussion on different ways to lose weight as well as dieting tips. When I asked Brenda why she decided to start the group, she responded with the following:

I believe this is a fantastic idea. It allows anyone to join in (by posting their tweets with the hashtag), and post their progress, meanwhile, the participants can see what others are doing to accomplish their goals. Because of the communication that Twitter offers, you can get a response within moments, creating the nice feeling that comes along with showing your progress. This is akin to receiving an immediate reward for when you do something good.

Where a person can fall short, however, is in the dedication required to post every week. This is where I fall short, and even though I am on Twitter a lot, my remembering to post can create issues with the system. Also, the system seems to work when there is a presence behind the community. Specifically, there has to be a couple of people who are willing to be the “voice” for the group to keep posters motivated to post. While, this shouldn’t have a requirement for a moderator, to keep any group successful, there has to be something to keep people in the group posting. It is a small issue, but, I think it would make a world of difference if there was a unifying voice *reminding* people about the weekly posting.

All in all, despite the couple flaws I explain here, the use of Twitter in this instance allows for a more global community effort to weight loss, and helps keep people informed to what the member’s accomplishments are.

So, I was sitting down after my past concert going experience, seeing My Chemical Romance at West Hollywood’s The Roxy Theatre, and I was trying to remember my past concerts that I have attended. I only began this quandary because I wanted to rank my top favorite concerts. Needless to say, my list includes over 5 years of true concert attendance, so it will be quite long.

To start, My first concert, in 2004, was Story of the Year. This concert is the show that I was first introduced to My Chemical Romance (as they played support), as well as Adair. Hazen Street played as well, but I wasn’t as impressed with them. A couple of months later, was lostprophets, with Head Automatica and Kill Radio supporting. The next week was the SnoCore ‘04 tour, with Trapt, Finger Eleven, Smile Empty Soul, Strata and Aphasia. My final concert of 2004 would be Warped Tour at Cal State Fullerton. Here, I got to see My Chemical Romance and Story of the Year again, as well as Coheed & Cambria, Underoath and Sugarcult. Very awesome end to my first year of concerts.

2005, I was living in San Francisco and I only got to go to a couple of shows while there. The first one was the evening of my birthday in 2005, the Epitaph Tour. This was Matchbook Romance with Motion City Soundtrack, From First to Last and The Matches. Next, Finch (hometown band), with Reeve Oliver, Vendetta Red and Nurses supporting. This show was at Slim’s in SoMa of San Francisco. There was a meet and greet right before the show as well, where I got to chat it up with Finch. The final show was Stroke 9 playing in the courtyard of my apartment complex. This was cool because it was about 3 hours of Stroke 9 playing their music.

My first show in 2006 was Fall Out Boy with Hawthorne Heights, From First to Last and The Hush Sound on April 1st. This show was really awesome, and crazy with energy. There was the Temecula hometown show of Nurses, Cosmonaut (Nate, lead singer of Finch, side project) and Jupiter. Only impressed because they used a movie theater for the show. Then was the last Sound of Animals Fighting show ever. This was the one filmed for the live DVD. It was where I got truly introduced to Matt Embree and his awesome acoustic skills. There was also Cinematic Sunrise and Anthony Green, which were also awesome live. Sound of Animals Fighting of course was fucking epic. First time I ever fell on the floor and loved every minute of it. Next was the Halloween show of My Chemical Romance (for when they released The Black Parade), which was also filmed for an AOL broadcast. It was, for the longest time, my favorite MCR show. The last show in 2006 was Hinder with Black Stone Cherry and some annoying chick with a shitty band backing her. I only went to the Hinder show for a date.

The first show for 2007 was After Midnight Project at The Roxy. This was a pretty epic show. I got to actually meet the band and got them to sign a copy of their demo for me. This is also the start of going to a ridiculous amount of their shows, because of the awesomeness of their performance. After a couple of After Midnight Project shows, there was Motion City Soundtrack with Anberlin, Mae and Metro Station. This show was pretty awesome and an exciting one too.

The first couple of shows in 2008 were pretty much After Midnight Project shows as well. Except for Panic at the Disco with Motion City Soundtrack, The Hush Sound and Phantom Planet. The show was pretty much all about Motion City Soundtrack for me. Panic at the Disco sucked, the bands before MCS sucked, and the crowd plain sucked. The first show I ever walked out of, but not the last. The final show for 2008 was After Midnight Project. Again.

2009 has been an epic year so far with concerts. The first show was a free one in Hollywood for Music Saves Lives. Aiden played with Smile Empty Soul, The Briggs, Run Doris Run and The Matches. Right after that, I went to see Story of the Year at Irvine Lakes. This was a crazy day long event with music from bands in Southern California and headlining acts to make the kids stay. I saw future up and coming bands like She Screams Remedy, ALEVELA, Abused Romance, and Her Majesty. There were also some great main stagers as well, with Bullets and Octane and Escape the Fate. Quite literally an awesome day for a show. Next, I went to see Aiden at Chain Reaction, and I could only remember one of the supporting bands being Mikoto (or something like that .. ). The show was pretty epic, but blew my ear drums out for nearly two weeks. After that, there was Julien-K at the Glasshouse in Pomona. I was there with my Roadtrip Warriors business partner, Aliro, and our primary goal was to see Julien-K, but they were not the headliners. Combichrist was the headliner, but they were only good for the first two songs. The guys before Julien-K was Aesthetic Perfection, and they lit it up! First time ever rocking out to Electronica\Metal, and it was pretty epic. Next was Finch at the Troubadour. They had American Fangs open, with Halos and Halifax doing support. Finch and American Fangs were by far the best.

Continuing on with 2009, There was After Midnight Project again, with Call the Cops and Abused Romance supporting. This is currently my final After Midnight Project show, but I know I will go and see them again. This was also the show that was filmed for an upcoming DVD of it. Next was cKy at the Roxy. This had Warner Drive and some other shitty bands I don’t remember opening for them. The highlight of the night? Listening to cKy play Beat It, metal style. Next, there was Trapt at the Troubadour. This was a really shitty performance for them, and they didn’t play the hard songs they should be known for. The whole audience was not grooving to music, and it felt kinda awkward. The bands before Trapt (Inept, Since October and Divide the Day) all were a lot better and got the crowd excited for a sub-par band. Finally, there was the My Chemical Romance show that was the first of two days at the Roxy.

So that is what I have gone through so far. What have I learned? I have been to a lot of shows. Many of them After Midnight Project, My Chemical Romance, and others. I do have many repeats. But I also have one offs and weird ones. And this is all in the past 5 years. I think the next 5 are going to be packed with epic and awesome shows that I may never believe may happen. But, they will. I will be sure of it!

So, I helped my buddy Bryan (Twitter: @Guns_and_Games) select his new game purchase recently, and I had to talk him in to Electronic Arts’ Army of Two game. He had heard some horrible feedback from his friends, so he was a bit cautious, but I explained to him that he would love the game. “Well, it only cost 20 bucks, so if it sucks, then no harm,” he explained.

Well, we plopped down and put the game in his XBox, and were treated to some really awesome cinematics and a tutorial level that had about a half-hour playtime just to complete. Yes, this game has a half-hour training sessions just to explain the complicated control scheme. Without looking at the manual, I think I have, after watching Bryan play for about two hours, figured out the control scheme. If there is anything that I am incorrect on, I will post an addendum.

First off, the default movement is relegated to the left analog stick, while aiming is controlled by the right analog stick. The primary colored + green buttons are action buttons, however, I only saw the green and blue buttons have any sort of action assigned to them. I cannot remember if the red and yellow buttons had anything assigned to it, so I could be wrong if there is anything valid assigned to them. The trigger buttons are used for firing the weapons, and I believe there is a primary and secondary shooting based on the trigger pulled, but I didn’t see any evidence to that. Most squad actions are controlled with the left directional pad, and any sub actions, like choosing a new weapon to use and co-op snipe, are called by using the appropriate bumper and the selection on the directional pad. Finally, the game’s “GPS” system is called using the back button. Using the back button causes cumbersome actions to occur because of having to activate, then deactivate the GPS waypoint overlay. This control scheme uses over 90% of the buttons on the controller. Not only does this make it complicated for explaining how to play the game, but it makes people who want a fun and easy experience (especially for a game of Army of Two’s caliber) turn off to playing the game because of the complicated control scheme.

Now, Why is having a simple control scheme a better option? Well, to start, you can pick up the game and within five to ten minutes have mastered the controls, that means getting into gameplay and action quicker. Unless you are wanting to devote your time to a game, the first thirty minutes of a game can make or break a game and determine whether someone will throw the disk away or keep playing. Since you are spending the first thirty minutes in Army of Two on the Training level, you run the risk of losing players who are just wanting to get into the action. If they staggered the learning of the different controls, much like Assassin’s Creed did when advancing, then they would add more to the “Wow” factor to the game (think “Look at what I just did …”), and make discovering the different controls and actions more fun. Sadly, because the game is using the complex control scheme, the first thirty minute tutorial is important.

The biggest flaw that I noticed about this is the fact that when you switch weapons in the game, you need to re-activate your primary weapon, else it will stay with the secondary or grenades. This fundamentally breaks up the action in the game, and creates confusion and frustration. Instead of using a fast weapon switching model for game play, which is most ideal for a game of this caliber, you need to go to the weapons sub-menu and choose the weapon you want to use. When in the heat of action, most gamers are too busy trying to figure out where the gun fire is coming from than to switch weapons. This means that players now have to choose their weapons while getting rushed, instead of being prepared for the oncoming enemies, and means that players will now not have a fun experience because they were not prepared. This is based on the theory that the scripted actions of the game are placed there for fun, and when dealing with the control scheme means that the fun is decreasing with each second the scripted action happens.

How can this be fixed for future titles? Simple. Make sure you understand the type of gameplay for your game, and then model the controls accordingly. For quick run-and-gun games (think Halo, Gears of War), the control schemes are simple. Army of Two is in the same genre of the run-and-gun games. Sadly, because EA wanted to be tactical with Army of Two, it may have ruined it in a market perfect for the game.