Due to the money-sucking leeches I call my wife and kids, the slight distractions a single man takes for granted become gluttonous self-involvements. When Blockbuster Canada introduced a monthly flat fee that allowed 2 rentals out at a time, I immediately became a “try everything” kind of guy. Games would be sampled and returned the next day and for $39.95 a month, I was trying dozens of games. I was also able to hang onto deeper games longer with no penalty of late fees.
I wept openly when the bad business practices of Blockbuster US destroyed the very profitable Blockbuster Canada. In my part of the world, there is literally no alternative.
I will let you in on a secret: $60 to purchase a game is INSANE.
Given the sporadic quality spikes of the product and questionable reviewing habits of most gaming sites, buying games is more of a crap shoot than ever. One would have to be wealthy or foolish to buy a game sight unseen. Even “sure-things” like Battlefield 3 have proven to be broken experiences.
Games are the only media that charge a premium for an unusable product, consistently.
Do I look like I am made of money?
Given that Canada is a technological backwater, I had small hope for a Gamefly style online rental house but I stumbled upon a Montreal based service called GameAccess. I did some background on them and found they had been in business for a few years, and the biggest complaint was shipping time and selection. As a subscriber to Zip.ca (Netflix only does streaming in Canada) for dvds and blurays, I am more than comfortable with shipping delays and have learned patience.
The entry-level monthly subscription was 19.99 for two games out at a time. I quickly learned that the optimum way to use the service needed the add-on’s of “quick return” (3.99) and “reservations” (3.99”. Shipping time of five (5) business days necessitated a 4 game plan, taking my total cost to $49.99. $10 more than the blockbuster plan, but twice as many games.
Gaming the system
To date, the biggest “inconvenience” is receiving the games a week after release, which to me is no inconvenience at all. By keeping two games on constant rotation, I able to reserve games the week prior to release. The other two games are always in play, either due to the length of the content or allowing the stepson his shot at the game before it goes back. The fast return process appears to register the games, no matter when they are mailed, as a 3-day return. Upon the third business day, the reservation (if on release date) kicks in, with the only downside being you can only reserve as many slots as are “open”. This requires diligent monitoring, as the system will automatically send a game within a day of opening a slot, due to the 10 game queue required at setup.
A sample transaction is as follows:
Games Currently Out:
Arkham City
Gears of War 3
Dead Island (returned)
Infamous 2 (returned)
Uncharted 3 (shipping)
To facilitate reserving Uncharted, I “fast-returned” Dead Island (you can only use this on one game at a time) as well as returned infamous 2 at the same time (mailed Weds). On the following Monday, Uncharted had shipped, and I reserved COD:Modern Warfare 3. Reservations take up slots, so a two game plan would result in always having a slot reserved. With 4 games, I can play two during the shipping lull and timed properly, with shorter games, I would always be finishing and returning a game just prior to a new arrival.
Beat down
Gameaccess.ca is a good service that will hopefully grow, much like Zip.ca, and leverage shipping centers outside of Montreal. For those willing to put in time and effort managing their queue, it can be an affordable if not timely way to play games. My only complaints are minor and deal mostly with the “fast-return” and “reservation” systems, which could be more robust. I would recommend it to gamers on a budget who have more patience than money.
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