Camelot Unchained: A World of Possibilities

There is a unique opportunity to be one of the founders of what promises to be a fantastic MMO, at least for those of us that want something in a similar vein to DAoC. What is the MMO, you ask? Well, it's under a temporary title of Camelot Unchained and is currently trying to get funding on Kickstarter. The link, as you can see, is at the bottom of the page.

It is going to be a Tri-realm, RvR based game. It should make PvP much more interesting then it is in games like World of Warcraft where you are confined to only two factions and primarily in instanced battlegrounds. RvR has a larger effect on the world around it, and many of the statements made by Mark Jacobs and the other wonderful people over at City State Entertainment lead us to believe that we are going to be able to have a much larger impact on the world then even in other RvR based games before.

You can find more information over at their CU website, and on the kickstarter page. We need as many people to pledge as possible so that we can get this awesome game made. There are also links on their website to the unofficial forums they have set up at Reddit and MMORPG, so that you can see what some of the backers are saying, or even help to support some things that backers are trying to see implemented should you decide to become a backer as well.

There may not be an official game play video yet, but there is a lot of very interesting information. What the developers are striving to do is truly innovative. That's something MMOs have been lacking. There have been some minor innovations that have made things interesting, but nothing that is really game changing. We have an opportunity to help make these innovations in this genre of gaming a reality.

Also, if you are a role player, or if you wish to help support us, please post on either of my threads to help get us a dedicated rp server. As I've stated before, I know I'm starting early. It's better to start early and make sure the developers know what we want, then wait until it's to late to make our wishes know. Backers have to show that this is something they want. The links are below.

My thread on the CU Reddit forums.

My thread on the CU MMORPG forums.

http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/13861848/camelot-unchained

'Next Gen' X-box Always On?

The title is just what is suggests. There are hints that the so called 'next gen' x-box is going to require constant internet connection. This means that even games you play alone will not be playable if you do not have a reliable connection to the internet. That is -not- something that gamers want.

If any of you have played Diablo 3, then you know that you are required to have an internet connection for it. You are also required to log into your account with battle.net. Both of those things annoyed me when I first logged in, and I have not played it much because of that. When I play games like Diablo, which have always had solo aspects to it, I don't want to be online. I don't play them so that I can talk to my battle tag friends in WoW. I generally play them because I want some downtime to just completely and totally zone out to the game.

The Diablo 3 fans took another blow when Blizzard announced that it would be on the PS3 and that it would be playable offline. I've personally resolved not to play until they give an offline version to PC gamers. I'm certainly not going to purchase a separate copy, and console, just so I don't have to be online to enjoy the game.

I go over all of that to show that this is not something that gamers want. By forcing you to have a constant internet connection you are alienating players who cannot always be online. You are alienating people that may be able to purchase an x-box via tax returns, but are not able to afford the month to month payments of internet connections.

The arguments that Adam Orth, the creative director over at Microsoft for their Game Studios, made over Twitter were unprofessional, and completely missed the point. One of his arguments was to state that he wouldn't purchase a vacuum cleaner because power goes out sometimes. I'm sorry, that can immediately be torn down. A vacuum cleaner doesn't require constant power in order to run.

I think that we are going to see the death of the X-box if they don't fire him, and back off their stance of having a constant internet connection.

Thanks to Gamers book for their article and screenshots of some of the Twitter comments.

The Frustration Continues

Don't worry about the name of this blog. It's not really all that frustrating. I'm annoyed that I didn't get my deads again, but I will next time. Unfortunately, one of my calluses came off after my 3rd pull and I had to stop. I didn't have any medical tape on me to wrap it with, and the pressure on it was just to much. I have tape now, though, so I have no doubt that I'll get it next time.

I made my squats at 215lbs, though. I have a bit of a funny story with that however. I went to low on one of them, and wasn't able to stand back up. I ended up having to bail on the weights so it made a lot of noise when they fell off the bar. The guy in the rack next to me helped when he realized that was going on, and two of the employees at the YMCA came down to make sure I was okay. I thought it was pretty funny, though.

The employees suggested that I use the clips, but since I was working alone that wasn't an option. Both I and the guy that helped me explained that since I was working along I -had- to have the option to drop the weight if I needed to. Otherwise I would have been trapped under that bar until I could get someones attention.

I ended up doing that set again and finishing it, though. I haven't decided if I will go up next time or not since I did have that mishap. We shall see Saturday. I also missed my overhead press, so I'm going to drop some of the weight from that. I am not excited about it, but sometimes there is no choice. As long as I am, in general, making forward progression then I'm happy.

Today, unfortunately, we will not be going to train. There are a couple of reasons for this and they both stem from various parts being in a bit more pain then they should be. We're going to take the extra day to rest and recover. It shouldn't be an issue for us to get in there Saturday, though.

A Few Resets

We have decided to reset a few things. Our bench presses were not low enough, and I'm going to have to roll back my squats a bit further then 225. It's going to be about 215, maybe a touch lower then that. So I'm not really adding anything so far as my numbers go. I was able to increase my Power Clean, though, to 70 lbs. I did that 3 times per set for 5 sets. My bench is at 100, though, I'm sure of that.

Basically we made a few mistakes and we have to go back and fix them. It's all part of the learning process. As annoyed as we are with having to reset anything, we would much rather have very strong forms for our lifts then have to fix everything when we are supposedly at 300 and 400 lbs. So, if it means that we have a bit of a set back, then so be it.

That's really just about all that I have to say at the on this. We'll get where we want to be, it's just going to take some work. Everything worth doing takes a lot of work, though.

Training Today

This is not going to be a long post. There isn't really much to talk about today as my training...really didn't happen. Now, I was suppose to train yesterday, but I was under the weather and did not want to risk getting sick and having to rush to the bathroom while trying to squat. I did go to the YMCA today, but it still didn't really go well.

We recently got an app called Deep Squatter on one of our androids, so I tried to use that to make sure that I was getting parallel. Unfortunately, I can't seem to get it to work. It took a bit longer to get through my squats because I was fiddling with it trying to get the phone positioned right before I finally just gave up and went off how it felt along. I do think that I got parallel on my 2nd and 3rd set, but I'm going to do 225 again before I allow myself to increase the weight to be absolutely certain.

The rest of my training is the part that did not happen. I had finished my warm ups for my bench when my husband called and I had to leave. So, unfortunately, I wont get to finish those today. I'll get them Saturday, though.

Rampant Transphobia

One thing that I want to cover is what the HRC had done recently. When you are supposedly advocating for the equal rights of the LGBT community, then you really should include all parts of said community. Asking that the Transgender flag be taken down during a rally for equal marriage rights under the pretense that it doesn't affect Transgender people is a flimsy excuse at best. I agree with Transition Transmission that the HRC owes the Transgender community an apology.

Of course, I suppose this shouldn't be much of a surprise. the HRC often seems to exclude the T from the LGBT community when it comes to 'advocating' for their rights. This really needs to stop. All humans deserve the same rights. All humans deserve to marry whoever they wish to marry. It doesn't matter if they are the same sex or not. It doesn't matter if one or both parties are Transgender. If you are going to advocate for one of them, you need to advocate for all of them.

To make things worse the new Arizona Bill actually puts transwomen in danger. Even if they have considered this they clearly do not care. Discomfort of someone that is 'normal' in their eyes is more important then the safety of someone that is not. That's really all it seems to boil down to from an outsiders perspective.

Then there is this gem; "I don't believe that the opposing side should be able to impost their views on others," said Nohl Rosen, a Phoenix small business owner. "The way I feel, this is just the liberal left forcing their views on the rest of us." Someone doesn't seem to understand that everything they just stated actually applies to what they just said. Especially if you were to replace liberal left with conservative right.

It seems that for every step forward we take two back socially. One day we may see healthy changes in our laws, and our politicians views. I doubt that will be any time soon, though.

A Frustrating Day

Well, if would figure that the week I start my blog my training takes a bit of a dive. There is something else going on, though. Likely a lack of protein or calories. So I'll have to watch my food intake a bit more closely then I have the past few days. I also need to make sure I drink my protein shake every day.

Anyway, my training was a bit of a bust. I squatted 225 again, even though I had intended to go up to 230. Unfortunately, I did not notice this until after my second set. By that point it was to late and it's unlikely that I would have been able to do 3 sets at 230. I just stuck with it. If nothing else it will help make sure my depth is good.

I also missed my overhead press again. I don't know why I missed. I was close to making it last time and that usually means that I can make it the next time I do my sets. Then, when I got to my deads, I couldn't pull the 260 I was suppose to do today. The last two are why I think it's an issue with protein or calories. I slept well last night and, so far as I am aware, I got the full 8 hours.

I am not going to let it discourage me, though. I'll get it next time. I just have to make a few adjustments to my diet. Wednesday is going to be Squats, Bench, and Power Cleans. I'll make a post for sure about that day and how it goes.

Actually, we probably are going to stay at 225 until we are sure we have our depth before we move on. So I may stay there for a few days before I go up to 230. We'll see how long that takes, hopefully just a couple of days.