I finally got around to registering necrorogicon.com, though I still prefer the Gameslate subdomain (rog.gameslate.com) that I've been using since '99. Basically, it's a bit of brandname recognition in case someone thinks to type this blog's name in as a URL.

I just ragged on microblogging and its inevitable digression into minute and unnecessary details, which I do realize makes me a bit of a hypocrite, especially considering the following:

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I'm thinking about blogging my experiences in Age of Conan, while I roleplay my way up the levels, complete with screenshots and the occasional video post.

It's been a long time since I'd roleplayed, but that's the plan for our guild in Age of Conan, on an RP-PvP server. I don't plan to get heavy-duty, I won't be having any roleplayed weddings or deep story multi-act scripts, but basic world immersion and a few scenarios appeal to me:

• Mysterious Guild undertones. Our guild is planning almost an ARG-like puzzle buried within the guild's own little rituals and whatnot.
• Bandits that waylay travellers on the roads. After encountering it back in Ultima Online (I ran into road tolls all the time, I wouldn't go that far), I've always wanted to repeat the experience, only as a bandit and not a victim. ;)
• I want to get into my character. Immersion is good and I find it difficult within Azeroth, where pop-culture references overwhelm much of the lore. Mind you, there will be some reference's in Funcom's version of Hyboria, I'm expecting a bit of Lovecraftian overlap, but that kind of flavour just adds to my joy.

We'll see if I can keep it up though. I did try to keep screenshot progress of my original leveling in WoW (in cheesy shots with my character waving to the camera), but I never uploaded those shots in a timely fashion.

After seeing Donna's comparison between YouTube and Flickr video quality, I had to try it myself via some game footage captured with Fraps.

Here's a short Assassin's Creed clip I've posted on YouTube:

And here is the same clip on Flickr, looking crisper and cleaner:

In this case, Flickr's support for different ratios gives them a boost, it's nice to see widescreen video done properly. Note how much clearer the game's status indicator is on the top-left. The Flickr video is very watchable in full screen as well.

Now the downsides:

• Flickr video can only be uploaded by "Pro account" paying customers.
• Video is limited to 90 second clips. The short length doesn't bother me too much, most of the clips I upload aren't very long and I honestly think most YouTube videos should be a lot shorter than the usual 8 minutes, but somewhere in-between (3 mins) would suit me best.
• People go to Flickr for photos, so if you're looking for popularity with your video, YouTube is the better bet. This doesn't matter much to me since I only upload video to embed it on my own websites anyway.

Flickr wins here, it was worth renewing my Pro account for.

I love Penny Arcade's take on Twitter, especially Tycho's to-the-point commentary:

I've noted that my gaming friends have reacted significantly different to the microblogging phenomena than my blogging-geek friends. Amongst the gamers, there's a collective shrug. My gf summed up the perspective:

Amongst the bloggers, it's this whole 'important' social tool concept. Doesn't that make you roll your eyes? I used to love this stuff, I don't know what's happening to me, but I'm finding myself opting out of these kind of social circles. Like Tycho, it's not that I don't see the usefulness, it's that I don't see it applied to me.

Some of my friends are shocked I don't Twitter, Facebook or use a host of other popular-at-the-moment super-connected social toys. After all, I was trying to find ways to hook my toaster up to the 'net since the early 90's (and every other thing remotely resembling an appliance since I'd heard about CMU's coke machine). I had to get bored of the obsession sooner or later I suppose. =P

You've probably already heard it elsewhere, but I'd just like to say on a personal and selfish perspective that I'm glad Microsoft has given up their pursuit to buy out Yahoo!.

I'm neither a Microsoft nor a Yahoo! fan, but I do use some of each of their products and in particular I didn't want to see what Microsoft would have done with properties like Flickr and MyBlogLog.

Truth be told, I was a bit baffled by the whole thing, Microsoft could not have dreamed that they'd meet with anything but a wave of bad press from trying to fold Yahoo! via acquisition (after wrapping in what they'd want to keep, namely the advertising space). And obviously they were mistaken thinking that they'd be met with open arms by a company that operates much differently than their own.

As many people have been pointing out, Microsoft should have set their sights on AOL instead.

I have some news for the fluff writers of the Associated Press, Computers have been around for a few years now. =P

I couldn't help but chuckle at the article BTW, teen writing may cause teachers to :(. Here's the quote that got me:

The rest of us? How old do you have to be not to understand the world's most basic emoticon, it's more universal than a McDonald's sign at this point. Maybe not quite as much as the Coca-Cola trademark, but c'mon, you have to explain it? The entire premise of the article is that us adults don't understand teens with their funky way of writing and we're all worried it will enter their formal schoolwork.

I'd guess that most people met their first smiley about the same time the Internet was referred to as the information highway. My grandmother would recognize it and she's been dead and laughing in her grave about this kind of stuff for over a decade.

It's not even remotely scientific, what kind of sampling is 700 phone calls, did the reporter themselves cook up this "research" in an afternoon to sell the story? I'm almost embarrassed to push it along, except I feel comfortable ridiculing it.

Maybe the article was written in 1993. =P

On the Audiosurf forums, someone brought up keyboard latency as something they'd like to see as an improvement to the game.

Of course, much of keyboard latency is a hardware issue, which makes me wonder why it's rarely brought up. Gamers are usually very discerning with hardware, but this issue gets ignored.

Back during the DOS gaming days, I know that my friends and I would have to hunt down keyboards that worked well with games. Not all keyboards are made equal and aside from tactile choices (squishy keys or clicky keys?), there were issues with keyboards never designed to hold down more than two keys at a time (makes strafing difficult) and of course, latency.

The only current manufacturer that lists keyboard latency in the specs that I know of is Razer, who claim a near-perfect 1ms and say that most keyboards have an abysmal 120ms response time. Logitech claims fast response times for their gaming keyboards but doesn't actually say how fast, I have noticed however that my G15 seems more responsive than previous keyboards.

I haven't had much luck searching for a benchmark tool that could accurately measure and compare keyboard latency, but if I could find one I wouldn't mind starting a project to test and track various keyboards. I know there is bound to be a difference as well in the latency added by the OS and API (DirectX's DirectInput), so some cross-platform testing could be eye-opening as well.

I don't know if such a tool is even possible, but if anyone knows of one, feel free to let me know.

We've had the gaming mouse revolution, maybe it's time for the same with keyboards. Of course I bring this up AFTER I get a G15. =)