Here’s a video I meant to have out this time last month! This one got delayed for various reasons. I almost had to scrap all of it due to an error with the camera while recording. For whatever reason, my camera likes to re-enable auto-focus in between shots after setting in manually. There is no way to permanently turn it off. I forgot to triple-check that it was still off, and thus a whole lot of the footage ended up too blurry to use. I ended up being able to salvage enough of it to complete the video. I cleaned it up the best I could, but it does mean the visual quality on this is definitely lower than average. I figured people would rather see a lower-definition video rather than none at all, so here it is.

As for the topic, I don’t plan on restricting Ross Rants to just gaming topics, I’m thinking I may alternate back and forth. This is one that’s been on my mind for a while, it’s certainly a litmus test for how humanity will deal with its approaching problems. In retrospect, it’s not very rant-y, but I think I’ll more than make that up on the next one I have planned. Also I can’t tell you how badly I wanted to use the theme music to Short Circuit in this video (which I consider the best robot-themed music ever made), but I was concerned it would trip up the copyright police and something that would probably cost thousands to license.

Anyway, expect some more videos soon, it will be a few days, but I’m going try and get the next Game Dungeon out ASAP!

This is short notice, but I’ve been invited to the GOGCast, a podcast hosted by GOG.com. It will be live tomorrow (March 17th) at 5PM EST at http://www.twitch.tv/gogcom. It will get hosted on Youtube later, I’ll make another post when that happens. Also expect a new video in a couple days!

EDIT:
For those in Europe, this will be 10PM CET due to daylight savings time in America.

Back from the world of offline! Here’s the monthly videochat from Sunday. I would have had this out sooner, but my internet went down while I was doing the chat and I didn’t have any internet for 3 days afterward. My ISP got bought out by another provider and that caused a disruption to the service. Normally my internet connection is pretty good, at least the timing wasn’t so bad as I was trying to wrap up the chat when I got disconnected.

I think I rambled in this chat more than usual, but it’s mostly like the others. Some announcements worth reading about are that I do intend to have an online meetup with fans in Planetside 2 and will have details on that later (hopefully this month), also more is discussed about companies killing games. I had the thought that this practice might actually be illegal in Europe, depending on the consumer protection laws in place for the various countries. If so, maybe some action could be taken to make EA feel actual legal or financial ramifications as what they’re doing may actually violate consumer law in some countries, but no one has actually called them out on it yet. If that’s the case, maybe we can do something on that front. If anyone knows more about consumer law in any European countries, you’re welcome to email me about it.

That’s all for now, I’m running behind, but more videos coming this month!

Here’s some news with what’s going on. First, the next Ross Rants and Game Dungeon are running late, I hope to have a video out in a few days though. The Ross Rants episode almost got scrapped since the camera screwed up with the focus and left most of the footage blurry, but I think I can somewhat salvage it. It can be pretty demoralizing to have to throw out hours of footage. So the visual quality on the next one may not be the best, but it probably won’t be noticeable at resolutions 480 and below.

Second, lots of people have sent Darkspore letters, though I haven’t received any contact info for other means, like business emails. This is something I’m going to keep going, I plan on making a video dedicated to killing games probably in a couple months, with a more planned out campaign behind it. In the meantime, any ideas for how to contact EA would be appreciated.

Finally, as a reminder, the next videochat will be 4pm EST on Mar. 6th. Additionally, my girlfriend Magda has expressed interest in appearing for a short time on the next chat and can answer some questions if you’re interested in asking her something. More videos coming and more news on the 6th!

EDIT:
Magda has postponed her appearance on the next videochat, but might still appear in a future one. Also, there will be more Planetside 2 news this month.

More Game Dungeon! First off, I want to apologize for the delay on this one. I was hoping to get this one out a week sooner than I did. While that’s normally no big deal, this is one episode where there are potential consequences for viewers having it out later, but not so late it’s a disaster. Without giving away too much, I’ll say this is one episode I hope for some of the most audience participation on.

I may have to revise my plans of having two more videos out this month. I’ll certainly try, but it’s possible I could be late seeing as how long this one took to make. I’m not certain, but this one might be a record for the number of image inserts in a Game Dungeon. Lots of info in this one!