I've never used Fraps or any other video capture software, ever.

Dynamic Events and watching other's gameplay videos really make me want to create a personal video diary of my experiences.

I'm looking for suggestions on choosing software, preferably free, also easy to comprehend and use.

Also would like some advice on what else I might need to know about what I'm getting myself into

Originally posted by ShutupEnplay

I've never used Fraps or any other video capture software, ever.

Dynamic Events and watching other's gameplay videos really make me want to create a personal video diary of my experiences.

I'm looking for suggestions on choosing software, preferably free, also easy to comprehend and use.

Also would like some advice on what else I might need to know about what I'm getting myself into

In order to create some decent footage you'll need both capture and edit software. 

You'll also need to make sure you have processing power to spare, video capture can really bog down a low or mid-end system if you want your graphics to look half decent.

Also, keep in mind that you'll need the extra hard drive space for your footage, HD video can be very space expensive.

Originally posted by ShutupEnplay

I've never used Fraps or any other video capture software, ever.

Dynamic Events and watching other's gameplay videos really make me want to create a personal video diary of my experiences.

I'm looking for suggestions on choosing software, preferably free, also easy to comprehend and use.

Also would like some advice on what else I might need to know about what I'm getting myself into

Use MSI's Afterburner. It's free and you can do a lot more stuff than Fraps. http://event.msi.com/vga/afterburner/download.htm

I would just go w/ fraps, tbh.

While there's a free version that's workable, the pay one is the way to go (if you are planning on doing this longterm). The reason I'd recommend fraps is because it supports a lot of different video file formats, and gives you a lot of control over performance vs. quality. Basically, you are going to want to find a good balance between compression (smaller file sizes, but bogs down your system) and performance (larger file sizes, but isn't as taxing on your system, provided you have enough HD space).

If you are honestly planning on recording right out the gate, you aren't leaving yourself much time, though. You will basically want a few days to get the parts, and to run some tests to see what works best for your system. At the very least, you'll want a good video card, a spare 1TB (or higher) drive, and a copy of either Final Cut Pro, Premier, or After Effects (Avid would be a bit overkill I think, unless you're already familiar w/ it).

If you're planning on doing any post-commentary (discussing the footage as you're editing it), then you'll also want a decent mic & audio recording software.

- Also, another thing to consider, is unless you're starting your own twitch.tv channel, (and even then), you're probably not going to want to post every second of gameplay. For starters, there's usually a lot of downtime when playing a game / portions of time that are just plain boring to watch. I would think about what you are trying to accomplish before you start recording. Even if you are doing a documentary style video, you're going to want to edit parts out, as most people won't want to sit through 100s of hours of footage of a guy sifting through the auction house trying to find crafting mats.

I wish you luck w/ your video project. It can be a lot to take on, so I'd strongly advise spending the next few days (preferably the full week) figuring out exactly what you need, the best equipment for what you want to do, and HOW exactly you want to record your play sessions. You may not really get to record until the end of august / 1st of september, but you're videos will be a lot better as a result.

Dxtroy

It's not free... but it's 10X better for seroius recording than even FRAPS.

You can't do recording seriously on free software.