GameFly and GPlay

[M3talhead]

Anyone a member of either online game subscription service?

[AmericanDemon]

I am not a member of either but am seriously contemplating joining.

[SirPoonga]

I think I'd rather rent locally for games though gamefly is tempting.

I do the blockbuster thing right now.  Many discs are pretty scratched up.  WTF do people do to scratch discs like that, especially on new releases!  I've had to send a couple of discs back and get a new copy.

[AmericanDemon]

I had a copy of Team America arrive broken in 2.  Amazingly the other 2 dvds looked mint.  Never had issues with scratched movies.

Its tempting to hook up with Gamefly just for testing purposes.

[gnateye]

i use gamefly and its cool the only negative is that they are in california unlike netflix which has local distribution centers so unless you are in cali you have to take postal time into account, so far it takes 4-5 days each way, which is kinda lame and put those commercials with the rabid gamers in a whole new light. i was gonna do the blockbuster thing, but the games i want are always checked out and the price is a little high....

[M3talhead]

Well, since I'm stationed in Europe at the moment, I decided to go with GPlay (they ship to APOs, GF doesnt).

I signed up for their "2 at a time" plan.


I'll let everyone know how they are......

[spiffyshoes]

I've tried GPlay and personally recieved bad service.

[N-Ken]

Gamerang is nice for ECers because they have the only EC distro center(as of when I started it a while ago) and they do have a decent selection.  Took a little long for my tastes, but times were still acceptable.

[Arcadiac]

Gamefly's turnaround is way too slow.  I tried their 2 week trial and received only 1 shipment before I had to cancel. 
If you have a local Blockbuster and can get the monthly rate for 2 games out at a time it can be worth it. 
So many games coming out right now are crap anyway due to the next gen consoles coming out this fall.  There are not many I would actually BUY at this point.

ARCADIAC!

[spiffyshoes]

My only problem with the BlockBuster thing is that most of the ones around me don't have a very big selection compared to the online rental services.  And if you get a gamepass you can only use it at the particular location where you bought it.  So you can't go to other BlockBuster locations to try and get some different games.

[M3talhead]

Well, I recieved my GPlay package today. Same deal as Netflix. Open enveloope, play game/DVD, place in PSE, mail back.

According to my account, it left their facility on the 13th of Sep, and I recieved it today, the 21st. Not bad for a trip half way around the world to Belgium. Still, I need to decide if getting to rent only 2 games a month is worth it.

[shmokes]

I'm a member of eMule.  I put about 100 games in my queue and wait.  The first month is pretty bad, but then I start getting about 5 or 6 games per week.  The great thing is that, while I don't technically own the games after that, I certainly possess them forever after.  And possession is, afterall, 9/10 of the law.   

eMule is a kind of like a cross between Kazaa and BitTorrent.  It's searchable like KaZaa, so you don't have to deal with the websites that are always getting shut down, but it downloads from multiple sources simultaneously like Bit Torrent.  The content seems much more reliable, less infected with viruses and just higher quality overall than what you get from Kazaa.

[M3talhead]

I'm a member of eMule.  I put about 100 games in my queue and wait.  The first month is pretty bad, but then I start getting about 5 or 6 games per week.  The great thing is that, while I don't technically own the games after that, I certainly possess them forever after.  And possession is, afterall, 9/10 of the law.   

eMule is a kind of like a cross between Kazaa and BitTorrent.  It's searchable like KaZaa, so you don't have to deal with the websites that are always getting shut down, but it downloads from multiple sources simultaneously like Bit Torrent.  The content seems much more reliable, less infected with viruses and just higher quality overall than what you get from Kazaa.

I know what eMule is. Personally, I dont care for the bittorrent engines or p2p clients. I already subscribe to a newsgroup (Easynews) which is where I get most of my game images anyway. I was just trying to save some bandwidth with this thing...

[shmokes]

I've never used Newsgroups.  Ever.  It's really weird cos I'm a computer geek.  I've always wondered why I've never checked it out, and have thought for years that one of these days...


It probably is partially because I don't have a single friend who is a computer geek.  My dorky little hobby/passion/career is entirely uninteresting to everyone I care about beyond how it benefits them when their computer is acting up.  Which is fine by me. 

[spiffyshoes]

NewsGroups are great.  Downloading is supper fast and I've never once recieved a virus from anything I've downloaded from them.  The only down side to them is you can only download what is currently posted on the servers.  So it isn't like you can go and get anything you want whenever you want it.

I used to use them back when AT&T broadband offered free newsgroup servers but now that ComCast has taken over they have shut down the free newsgroup servers and I haven't been willing to pay extra for an independent newsgroup provider.

[M3talhead]

NewsGroups are great.  Downloading is supper fast and I've never once recieved a virus from anything I've downloaded from them.  The only down side to them is you can only download what is currently posted on the servers.  So it isn't like you can go and get anything you want whenever you want it.

I used to use them back when AT&T broadband offered free newsgroup servers but now that ComCast has taken over they have shut down the free newsgroup servers and I haven't been willing to pay extra for an independent newsgroup provider.

Easynews is only $10 a month and I've used them for almost 2 years. I too have never recieved a virus or bad software of any kind, probably for 2 reasons:

1. You pay to use this service, and nobody wants to pay money to send a virus around for 30 days.

2. Its less well known/more difficult to use than P2P or torrent clients. More than likely this is a turnoff to little Billy who just wants something "now".

I've never had issues with requesting software or data and not get it. Its also saved ---my bottom--- several times. For instance, I *lost* my copy of WinXP Pro (with serial). I grabbed it from the newsgroup and had it burned in less than a half hour.

[shmokes]

How do they work?  Do you find a channel you like and become a member of a community, kind of like everybody knows me on these forums?  Where do you start?  What's the process like?  Why are they called newsgroups?

[pmc]

I used to use them back when AT&T broadband offered free newsgroup servers but now that ComCast has taken over they have shut down the free newsgroup servers and I haven't been willing to pay extra for an independent newsgroup provider.

I'll never forgive them for that. The bastages.

I've been using USENET since 1987 and I'll be damned if I'm going to start paying for access now.

Shmokes: go check out Google Groups. It's just a web interface to USENET so you can get into the whole newsgroups idea there. Here's the mame newsgroup, for example.

I don't think that they carry the binaries groups so you won't find media, software, etc. there. Just imagine each post with an attachment of multipart RARs.

If your ISP provides you with news, go get Xnews and check it out that way.

-pmc

[spiffyshoes]

I used to like to use GrabIt by Shemes to download stuff off of the news groups.

[M3talhead]

How do they work?  Do you find a channel you like and become a member of a community, kind of like everybody knows me on these forums?  Where do you start?  What's the process like?  Why are they called newsgroups?

This should answer most of your questions. If you have more regarding specific newsgroups/usenets, I can help you with Easynews, while others here I'm sure can help you with others.

[emdkay]

this got a little off-topic didn't it 

I just signed up with gamerang.com after finding out that they've got a distribution center 30 minutes from my home.  Gamefly from CA to NJ was just not cutting it.  I also found that Target sells $20 for 2-month gift cards:

http://www.target.com/gp/detail.html/sr=1-1/qid=1149608396/ref=sr_1_1/602-7794931-1053437?%5Fencoding=UTF8&asin=B0006OACH6
(edit: $8 shipping per card!  ugh, even a 10% off code doesn't help much)

If the service turns out to be decent, I'm thinking of just buying a bunch of these and applying them to my account to bring it down to $10/month.  Has anybody had any luck doing this? 

[odysseyroc]

I had terrible experience with GameFly. I'm about 40 miles from the distribution center and it still took forever to get games. On top of that about every 3rd game I sent back never got there. I wouldn't use them again or recommend them to anybody.

[Sir Auros]

I've been using Gamefly and I'm happy with their service. I get games about 3-4 days after they ship them, which is reasonable since I'm on the east coast. I've only had one problem returning a game and that was one that appeared to have been lost in the mail. They have a good selection, but I really wish they'd rent PS1 games.