WeGame records their way into my heart
Having to find quality Machinima for two blog posts daily can be torture. Most people won't spring for a paid copy of Fraps or gamecam, so I'm stuck looking at watermarks. That's almost an instant disqualification for consideration.
Enter WeGame, which would be just like any other video sharing site if it didn't have one major difference. They offer free, easy to use recording software to their users. As a matter of fact, it's so simple that I was able to record six quick videos, review them, and choose one to upload within 30 minutes of downloading the program. I'm getting ahead of myself, though.
Read on after the jump to find out more about WeGame ...
In order to get the free WeGame recorder, you must create an account, but that literally takes a minute. After that, you can download an 8mb file, which prompts you to log in to use the program. You will be asked several setup questions, such as where you want the files saved, what hotkey to trigger recording, and whether you'd like to record in web or HD mode. I should note that if you don't want to record audio, you will have to go back into settings to disable it.
You're ready to record! Find your scene and press your hotkey. When you're finished, press the hotkey again, and you will find the footage already sitting in your program tray. It compresses it into an AVI, which runs about 100-200mb per minute of footage, depending on which mode you're in. You can click on an arrow next to the footage, and it will open your chosen movie player for you to review it.
If you like what you see, you can choose to upload the footage to the website. It will compress the footage for you into a flash file, which it will save to your footage directory for future use. It will then ask you to name and describe the file, and will begin uploading to the site.
Other notable points about the program are your avatar, which updates when you upload it on the website, a search area, so that you can find videos without going to the site yet, and a mini "featured" section, which shows a thumbnail and movie title. You can scroll through the featured links, and if something catches your eye, just click it to go to that video's page.
Being that it's still in beta, WeGame is not without flaws. For example, it doesn't support WMV files, which a lot of machinimators use. Another nitpicky detail is that there is a tiny red or green watermark in the upper left-hand corner of the videos, which doesn't go away upon upload. In addition, the program doesn't work with Second Life Windlight, and if you try to resize your video screen within the regular client, it will ruin your footage. To top it off, at this time, you're not able to edit or delete your files once they're uploaded.
Do you already own fraps, and don't want to switch to the WeGame app? They also allow you to upload movies in various formats, such as AVI, MPG, MPEG, and MOV. There is a size limit of 100mb, but if you have a Creator account, the limit is removed.
I really hope that people will start utilizing this as an alternative to fraps. The quality is pretty decent and it's free! Of course it's no fraps, but if they weren't going to pay for fraps, they should definitely use this.
Be sure to check out their Guild Wars, Hellgate: London, Second Life, Silkroad Online, and World of Warcraft channels.
(Disclosure: Jared Kim, the founder of WeGame, is related to Jason Calacanis, a founder of Weblogs, Inc.)
[Via TechCrunch]
