thedirtyknapkin

there's a handful of general directions you could go with both camera and mic then.

you could get a mic that plugs directly into the camera, but then you'll be tethered. to it. you can get a mic that plugs into a little recorder, but you'll need to sync your audio. you can get a wireless mic with a receiver that plugs into the camera, but that starts to get expensive. or a number of different options that can run things however you want. the most affordable option to start and remain convenient in my mind is a mic and a cheap recorder.

something like a used one of these with a cheap lav mic could be a good option.

as for camera, there's two main paths. you could go mirrorless and get something more like the canon you already had, or you could get an actual camcorder.

a mirrorless camera will give you the option of different lenses and will have a larger sensor. it will also allow you to shoot nice stills and give you room to grow. it will generally have a higher potential for better quality video in the long run, but will be harder to learn and use. I think you'd be well served by a micro 4/3rds camera. a used Panasonic gh4 can be had for around $300. that would be able to provide some fantastic quality for the price. it'll also be able to use any m4/3 lenses out there. they have a standard mount used by all such cameras. Panasonic is generally the more video focused brand in the space. a larger sensor with give you shallower depth of field, but that's not as necessary as many like to think you the kinds of content you're looking to produce.

the camcorder will be a much more streamlined out of the box solution. if you want something that will just work and be versatile without needing to spend money on additional hardware and learn all the ins and outs this will be a better option. it will likely have a highly versatile zoom lens and should still shoot plenty high enough quality for some simple explainer videos. it's the less popular option these days, but I will think it has its place. I'm less familiar with these but I'm sure you can find a reasonable one with a little shopping around.

what kind of budget are you thinking?

the lens is likely incompatible with newer hardware.

I would recommend looking used. you can get a few generations old micro 4/3rds camera for very cheap. let me look through options tonight when i get home and I'll probably be able to find you something for under $200 that will shoot modern looking decent quality video.

a mic to go with it would be very important. there's so many ways to go about that.

-you can get a cheap on cameras shotgun that will sound decent, but pick up a good amount of room noise. this will be the easiest to use option.

-you could get a lavaliere of some kind, but that takes a second to set up and will require additional tools unless you want to tether yourself to the actual camera. there's also options that plug in to a phone, but that would require a phone with a headphone jack...

-you could get a usb stick mic to record voiceover after the fact. this would give the highest fidelity Audio bang for the buck, but is the most cumbersome to use.

additionally, a light will go very far for making things look nicer. most homes are not set to to have good video lighting at all. you can totally get away with a cheap lamp that you bounce off the wall or something. as long as you don't have a lightbulb directly shining on you creating hard shadows.

oh, i guess you're right. they're just a privately owned corporation. regardless of specific terminology the point stands. they aren't publicly traded and certainly aren't a megacorp. and i also don't agree with evening they do. i generally like gog better.

people are just always painting things like this with way too broad of a stroke. there's a serious problem with conglomeration. Sony is a megacorp in the gaming space. a true megacorp that makes and has a gigantic hand in almost everything. from tvs to music to books to weapons of war. they exist solely to absorb wealth from any and all spaces they can. I'm real bummed about them acquiring kadokawa recently... it will not be good for games, anime, manga, or light novels.

that is not valve. they are not part of that problem and this point is weakened by people saying that they are.

like... company or business. they're not actually very big compared to true megacorporations. like Amazon and ge are megacorps. they make many many things across thousands of facilities with millions of employees. you cannot live in modern society without encountering them. be it amazon Web services or the light bulbs in the street lights outside. valve is just a company. they do one thing and do it well. there are alternatives that you can easily use. it is not hard to avoid them as a company and most people don't actually use steam. sure, most Western pc gamers do, but that's a small percentage of the global population.

valve is just a company. not even an especially large one. not every successful business is a megacorp. some aren't even that bad. the world is shades of grey, some big businesses are much much less bad than others. valve doesn't do much harm. megacorporations always do.

honestly, most mmos that are still getting updated after that long do. one more point for aoe2 it's still very much the same game

that's probably because it's not a megacorp, but a private company owned by a single person. not a corporation at all.

there's a big difference. a corporation is owned by a board of investors. those companies are legally obligated to provide maximum return for their investors. corporations have been sued for being "too charitable to their customers" rather than maximize profits. a private company can do whatever it wants at the whims of it's owner. in this case Gabe Newell actually kind of wants to create a decent experience because that's what he believes has created their market dominance. he's right.

corporations like Ubisoft and ea are legally obligated to squeeze you for every penny in their platforms.

this is why left vs. right isn't nuanced enough for real political discussion outside of a two party system

huh, i didn't realize it was that old. so yeah, there's a decent number of mmos still getting updated from a little over 20 years ago. wow is one of the younger of the one mmos in that category for sure.

damn, i might have to check it out

some mmos are up there, but i think aoe 2 is probably one of the most played games still kept active.

RuneScape is now 24 years old, though it basically remade itself twice.

wow is 21 years old

ultima online is still going after all this time, that one's 28 years old now.

a few old old games like colossal and Nethack still get updated i guess, but i had to look those ones up. I'd heard of colossal cave adventue, a text based adventure game. makes me wonder how ai dungeon is doing these days...

Nethack is a ascii graphics based roguelike. some articles claim that's the oldest still updated game.

as someone who lives in a place where they lock the bathrooms to avoid people doing drugs and overdosing in them this seems like a strange luxury that would never happen here.

they meant more "a wide variety" rather than "a large quantity" and were likely using plastic surgery for a catch all for elective procedures for aesthetic purposes.