Do you rent?

[Kid Ice]

Over my years of collecting I have found myself renting less and less, and now the only time I ever rent is when I'm having company and I want the latest and greatest on tap.

I attribute this to 3 (oops make it 4) factors:
1. My back catalog is much larger so when I feel like renting I go downstairs and "rent" one from myself.
2. The cost of renting is higher. Five years ago there was a place I could rent five PSX games for $5 for 5 days. Now it's six bucks a game. A few years back I had the Blockbuster card which was $30 a month, unlimited, 2 games (3?) at a time. The same card is now $50 for one game.
3. Games are cheaper. For the $20 it would cost to rent 3 games I can buy a brand new one, or get a couple PSX games I never tried before and add them to the collection.
4. I hardly ever buy new games at full price anymore, so I no longer rent for a trial period.

How about you? Are you still renting, and if so, why?

[Tank]

I dont rent anymore due to the prices. But im really considering using the GameFly service, anyone using that?

[kevincure]

I dont' rent games for the same reason, but the cost of the game pass at BB hasn't actually increased. 30$/mo/2 games at a time or 20$/mo/1 game at a time or $49/3 months/1 game at a time. The $6/game is ridiculous, but I can tell you that the main reason for the high rental cost is the number of games that get scratched up - it's ridiculous how poorly the games are treated.

[tholly]

nope...i dont rent because i would rather have the money from the rental cost to spend on a game that i could add to my collection

[BHvrd]

Rented The Chronicles of Riddick:BB Friday, beat it Saturday morning. Short game, definite rental material. As short as that game was I would have hated to waste $50 on it. So yes, I rent.

[spoon]

I don't rent either, Not becasue of the prices. Those are not too bad locally. I do not rent simply because I do not have enough time to get around to playing games. I have such a huge back catalouge of DVDs to watch and games to play through...... x_x

[Jibbajaba]

I don't rent games or movies because I always forget to take them back on time. When I first got my PSX there was a place in my hometown that rented the games for $5 ea. for 5 days just like you are talking about. My best friend and I would go in there with like 10 or 15 bucks and rent a fat stack of games to find out which ones were worth buying. But that was in the days of the mom and pop video store. Blockbuster and Hollywood Video would never do that.

Chris

[Lemmy Kilmister]

I stop renting games around the end of the snes/genesis era. I just didn't like the fact that i had to put a dirty game into my system. Yes i know it could be cleaned but why should i do it? I'm only going to have the game for 2 days. That and the fact that if i like the game i'm most likely going to rent it multiable times. With all the money i blow on it i rather just buy the game.

[norkusa]

I used to rent back in the PS1 & Dreamcast days but not anymore. I buy all my games very cheap. Most I get for around $10-$15 (having 6 Gamerush stores in my area is a big help). So spending $5-$6 to rent a game doesn't make much sense to me since I can spend double that and actually own the game.

[zektor]

Nope, I never rent. Just because I hate using games in my consoles that have been used multiple times in other peoples systems. They are usually dirty, heavily scratched (if cd/dvd) and these are some of the main causes for system failure IMHO.

[-hellvin-]

no point to renting...like said above, by the time you rent 3 games you could have bought one already and kept it.

[Luke]

I never rent either primarily because I do not want to put a used dirty game in my nice well maintained game system. I buy new or not at all with CD, DVD based games. However, with cart games I'll buy used sometimes as it is hard to get a lot of old cart games new. These are easy to clean anyway and do not get scratched like CDs or DVDs.

Cheers,
Luke

[maxlords]

I rarely rent for the reasons listed above. I'll rent games a few times a year if there's something I think I want to buy new that I want to try first.

[Querjek]

I dont rent anymore due to the prices. But im really considering using the GameFly service, anyone using that?
It's not worth it, trust me--I just finished a 30 day trial and waiting 8 dyas between games is too long.


I only rent occasionally, and on the rare occasion I do, I only will get a PS2 game and keep it for one night...

*cough*HDLoader*cough*

[Retsudo]

Nope, I never rent. Just because I hate using games in my consoles that have been used multiple times in other peoples systems. They are usually dirty, heavily scratched (if cd/dvd) and these are some of the main causes for system failure IMHO.

Exactly. Thats why I stopped renting. last time i rented a game I got it home and it had ketchup all on it and it was scratched to hell.

[zektor]

Blockbuster is usually very quick to charge for overdue videogames. Don't tell them about the ketchup freebee, they may charge you for that as well! LOL

[norkusa]

I only rent occasionally, and on the rare occasion I do, I only will get a PS2 game and keep it for one night...

*cough*HDLoader*cough*

HD Loader? Is that the new Hard Drive accessory for the PS2 that comes with Final Fantasy Online? You can rip entire games to this and play them later without needing the original?

[Crush Crawfish]

I very, very rarely rent games. If I'm not sure if a game is worth $50, I just wait a few months for a price drop and then just buy it.

[Lemmy Kilmister]

I only rent occasionally, and on the rare occasion I do, I only will get a PS2 game and keep it for one night...

*cough*HDLoader*cough*

HD Loader? Is that the new Hard Drive accessory for the PS2 that comes with Final Fantasy Online? You can rip entire games to this and play them later without needing the original?

No it's a disk that hackers made to download games (and i hear make them load faster). It was just pulled by sony i think so it could be hard to find one. Though i'm sure someone around here would know were to look.

[norkusa]

I only rent occasionally, and on the rare occasion I do, I only will get a PS2 game and keep it for one night...

*cough*HDLoader*cough*

HD Loader? Is that the new Hard Drive accessory for the PS2 that comes with Final Fantasy Online? You can rip entire games to this and play them later without needing the original?

No it's a disk that hackers made to download games (and i hear make them load faster). It was just pulled by sony i think so it could be hard to find one. Though i'm sure someone around here would know were to look.

If it's a disk made by hackers, how could Sony pull it? Sony doesn't have anything to do with it's manufacturing, do they? Sounds very interesting though. Can anyone give me some links for info on this? I might want to pick one up.

[Lemmy Kilmister]

Sorry my bad it looks like you can still find them easliy. I just heard/read that sony was cracking down on the company that was making them.

[videogameking26]

No never rent games anymore..as much as I spend on games I really have know need to rent and if I'm a bit interested in it then it will join my collection eventually :D

[Jorpho]

The only games I might want to rent can easily be obtained through other means and downloaded these days, which is sort of okay since I'd probably never be able to find a place that rents them anyway.

[vincewy]

Screw Blockbuster, not only do they overcharge game rentals, a lot of time they incorrectly tag your returns late for the fact you returned them on time, I hope they go out of business forever. :angry:

On a few rare ocassions, I still rent games from Hollywood, only for new games that are still asking $50 and I play the hell out of them or can store them in my buddy's Xbox HD. Hollywood gives you 5 days, much more generous than BB.

[YoshiM]

I'm the opposite of most of you. I rent the modern games to find out if they are quick to beat or if I like them. I find a $53-$55 purchase (if I decide to buy new) is worth it if I know I'm going to like the game and that it's not going to be beaten overnight rather than spending $50 and getting something I don't like or is too short and I'm stuck with it. If I don't like a game, I'm going to lose money by trading it back in or selling it on eBay. All of a sudden spending that extra few bucks doesn't seem so bad.

[SoulBlazer]

I don't rent as much as I used to, because of the higher prices to rent and the 'Amazon Factor'. That is, I'm okay in buying most games new knowing that if I hate it I can sell it on Amazon and only lose a few dollars on it.

However, I will rent about once a month -- if I have friends over and want games here for them, if I'm not sure I should buy a expensive and hard to find game, if I want to check out various ports of a game to see which console I should get it for. Recent rentals for me have been Ninja Gaiden for XBox and the new Sims game for the GameCube.