Wii Warm Up: Renting

I h ave enough games now that I still haven't played, that I don't need to rent any. BUT... my local library has ton of games. I'd borrowed a lot of them for free when I first got my Wii.

We rent the games, because a lot of times, what everyone else rants and raves about, just isn't all that interesting, like Wii Music. There's nothing more fun, than buying a game for 50 bones and selling it back a month later for $17. There have been far too many loser games on that account.

RawDump2.1

Like Rossington said... It really blows to get a game only to learn that it is crap or that it is too hard/easy.

Also, I have a subscription to the Blockbuster version of Netflix and they give me 2 coupons a month I can use for free game (or movie) rentals. I was pumped for the new Force Unleashed but rented before putting it on my Christmas list. I played through the entire game twice in one week which is something I'm not able to do often. So the game came off the X-mas list.

So, I'll even rent the $20 games before buying.

I rent games all the time through GameFly. It tends to save me money by allowing me to avoid wasting $50-$60 bucks on a game I either won't like or will get bored of quickly.

I haven't rented a game since the SNES era. It just seems to have lost its magic when you can't take home a cartridge. Plus it's just not as fun now that I'm an adult. Damn you time.

$20 for a week or $100 for a lifetime, well most games take me over 2 months to complete so it's uneconomical to rent anyway.

GameFly is the primary way I acquire games. With 2 at a time, I tend to always have something on the way. They keep track of things that look interesting, and then slow down the queue to just that 2 at a time. Otherwise, I'd spend $500 on games that look good, and by the time I tried it out, they'd be worth less than 1/2 of that. GameFly gives me like 10% off the top just for being a member for so long, and then each quarter they slide me $5 back to use to purchase games. Any game that I can complete in under a week or two, with no replay value, just goes back, and I never get stuck with crap games. I don't see why anyone gets games any other way...

Wow, I try to always rent before I buy. Unless it's something that I know I will like, because it's part of a series that I like (Final Fantasy, Dynasty Warriors (yes, I'm that guy who keeps buying them)), or a studio that I love (Grasshopper).

It's been a long time since I rented anything. And it's like Shoeboy said, it's very hard to finish a game in a rental period like we did when we were kids.

I remember I finished through rentals Super Mario RPG and Super Metroid back in the day. These days I hardly ever have 2 straight hours of playtime :-/

Don't rent, check with your public library. Mine has over 170 Wii titles.

Video game rentals in stores now cost so much money. I use the Canadian version of Gamefly which is Game Access and although they are located in Quebec and I am from Ontario. It takes me usually three days to recieve something after sent its better then having to purchase something for $60 everytime I want to play something.

I also get free shipping if I buy a game from them and if its used I get a 20% discount for being a member for over a year.

I used gameszflix for a year. They were good, but then they starting taking forever to ship new stuff so I canceled. Wikipedia says they went under in November. Now that the Wii has been around a while there are a bunch of older games you can get for $20. I don't have as much time to play so one decent older game (like Resident Evil 4) will prolly take me a month to complete. So now it's actually more cost effective for me to buy (if you don't mind older games, and I don't).

I never have time to play games fully that quickly. It'll take me at least 3 months to finish most games.

Also nice for nostalgia sake to be able to get great games and play them 10 years down the line.

I only have enough time to play games I know will be quality anyway.

I have done two stints with Gamefly and liked the service except I ran out of games I wanted to rent (back when I only had a gamecube, and after the 1st year of the Wii). It also was kind of hard to get the most popular games, there was always an extra wait.

Right now I have a blockbuster pass that lets me rent 1 game or movie at a time for $20 but I am going to cancel it this week because the games I want are always rented out. it was worth it to try Wii Music though because now I know I will not buy it.

I've never rented a game and never will, I've borrowed games from my friends or bought them. I've never bought so many games that I ran out of ones I knew I wanted or had borrowed/played and liked the game enough to purchase it.

For all the whining about Gamestop, this ALSO takes money from developers. So where is your hatred? Where are the horror stories (THIS IS BLOCKBUSTER!)? Where are the pundits who can slash a Gamestop article apart faster than a NASCAR pit crew. But renting? Oh, we file that one under "ecomonic duress".

If you rent for the majority of your gaming and then bag on used games from Gamestop, you are a hypocrite and two faced. And YOU KNOW IT.

And do not give me that "I can buy it later" because last time I checked, Gamefly knocks the price down as well. And developers still do not get any money.

Also, do not give me that "sealed new vs used" garbage because at least when people buy at Gamestop, THEY TAKE POSSESSION OF IT RIGHT THEN AND THERE. No wussie "evaluation period" excuse renters like to puke up when pressed on this topic.

You want to hear how most people feel about people who rent then complain about gaming? Shane's rant from the end of year 1Up Yours (R.I.P.) about the guy who had the nerve to write in complaining about games HE RENTED pretty much summed it up.

XBox 360 - Renters ARE NO BETTER THAN people who use Gamestop. No better.

I never rent games. Never. Never will. I like to own my games, and not have to give them back. I always end up loving the game i buy, so if I had rented them I'd end up paying more than if I just bought it in the first place.

i rented guitar hero world tour for my 360 and turned it in on the second to last day before it was to be converted to a sale. however, they never put it in their system and charged the $60 to my account, which ended up being overdrawn.

bastards.

I've never understood all the hate on Blockbuster. I've had a BB Online subscription for over two years and never had any problems. (Of course, I always return my shit on time and don't mess with the rent-to-buy cockadookie.) I have a grandfather plan that's about $12/month for (one at a time) unlimited online rentals, unlimited in-store rentals, and one free in-store game rental. Really good deal that beats Netflix and anything else BB offers right now.

So, I rent one game per month which usually ends up being a title I'm on the fence about. I'd never pay the $8 or however much it costs to rent a game right now; it's really gone up over the years. But I'd definitely be bummed if BB got rid of their games.

Cuz the wii has so many friggin shovelware n it sucks to buy a game and realize you could have made it yourself in 3 hours!!!

@ All the people saying "it sucks to buy something and find out it's crap" - EB Games and GAME both offer 7 day money back guarantee (except GAME only offer it to rewards card holders) so if you don't like it you just take it back. Some people use this to "rent" games for free.

I'm not sure about overseas, but I'd assume GAME in Britain would have similar rules, but my Game Stop receipt from my Blastworks import was confusing. It said that if you got an opened new game you couldn't return it, but if it was sealed you could. But doesn't everyone complain that they don't give you sealed games!?

As for the "renting kills the industry" rant, I know for a fact Blockbuster pays royalties to the devs whenever you rent something, and the places who don't have to pay like $200 for a rental licence.

~Esposch

I just got a GameFly account. While I don't have a lot of time to play, I like trying different games out.

I rent because I want to make sure I'll like it before I buy it. I have wasted too much money on games I won't finish or won't play again. I would rather know if I'm going to do so or not.

I've never rented, but that's only because I'm too lazy to find a local blockbuster and get a card. However, I have been tempted to on several occasions, as there are some times where I am interested in a game, but I'm not sure if I'll like it or not.

I rent when there's a game that I know will only be fun for a week (example: almost any game made from a movie). I can have a week of fun with it, and then return it with no desire of ever playing it again. I got my $4 worth of fun out of it and all is done.