Bad breakups have caused some of the most awkward and terrifying situations in my life. One of the worst involved a girl who just couldn’t let it go. She would call my phone every 20 minutes, bring her car to a crawl in front of my house, and pelt my window with rocks during the evening hours. GameFly reminds me of this girl.
Earlier last year, I cancelled my GameFly subscription. I felt that there wasn’t enough reciprocity in our relationship. I would pay GameFly to send me a few new games every month. GameFly sent me games grudgingly, often months later than what I originally expected. This wasn’t working out for me, so I dumped the service. Like psycho girl, it has been pelting my window ever since.
This morning I received an e-mail about free flash games and it reminded me of our short gallop together. Other e-mails are more direct, pleading and pulling me to come back with the promise of cheaper rates and faster shipping. Will I take it back? I don’t know.
Do many of you use GameFly? Do they get new titles to you any faster than before? Can you rely on the service for your gaming needs? I’ve been missing GameFly, but I need to know that it’s there for me when I need it.
[UPDATE: It has come to my attention that Minus World feels the same way that I do about GameFly. In an August, 2008 article titled "WORLD LAW: GameFly Needs To Quit Acting Like A Psycho Ex-Girlfriend" the writer ("agent b") recalled his relationship with GameFly in much the same terms. He used the phrase "Psycho Ex-Girlfriend" to describe GameFly's incessant e-mails and made the comparison to phone calls as I did.
I obviously didn't know about this article before I crafted mine this morning, but it bears mentioning considering that our two stories deal with similar subject matter.]
Contest:
There weren't enough new games for the Wii that I wanted to check out.
And not all of us frequent the forums. There's nothing wrong with posting such a question here as far as I'm concerned.
Actually, I'm glad this question was asked. I just rented some games for the first time from Blockbuster last night. Not too bad on a rent-one-get-one-free, but that's still $8 for five nights for three games. I've been considering GameFly but always questioned the value. Considering GameFly is $22 for two games as long as I want, that's certainly a better deal.
I'm interested to see how others have fared with GameFly as well.
Anyhow about 1 year after purchase i got a call from them asking why I had not bought anything in so long...they offered discounts and my own personal shopper assistant...since then i have had one other call (same deal) and a 700 page catalog delivered to my house...cracks me up, but if I was in the market I would go there becasue i have a personal assistant there :)
Also, I see nothing wrong with this post. Similar things may happen in the forums, but I think seeing an editor rant about something like this brings some additional personality to the front page.
Yeah, considering the above attitude is what some of the writers have to deal with from several of the forum users, I don't know why Brad would feel encouraged to post there.
That's not taking into account the fact that I think Brad knows his own job description. This is something he even ran by a number of staffers and we all agreed it would be nice to have on the frontpage.
A fair few people have been complaining lately at there being "too much news" on this blog. This was a genuine, non-threatening attempt to get some nice discussion going on the frontpage. Let's not be twats about it.
@everyone - It seems to me that the service has improved since I've had it. One of the e-mails I've received told me about a new facility that opened up but I wasn't quite sure if that would translate into less waiting times.
@Tdiddy9182 - Nice!
Which is fine. I think breaking these sort of things out into the front page does go a little way into starting discussions, more so maybe to that the forums.
That said, perhaps a highlight of the forums in this article, or maybe even a regular forum recap/highlight post would help with forum usage.
On Topic: I'd definitely try them again. They work veyr well for me, aside from getting my hands on games that are anything but "Available Now". Since I've gone through most of the easily accessible games, I'm looking forward to a new year of Game Fly Q lucky pulls.
Also, Gamefly discounts are better, it seems to me, than GameStop's. I got Saints Row 2 as a Keep It title, during release week, for like $40
I have no idea what I was trying to say there . . .
@mdoherty
Yeah, my dad gets 1-2 day turn around on Netflix. I'd definitely want a quicker turnaround, but the 3-4 day is bearable for me, considering I've got plenty o' games I enjoy aside from rentals.
Worth Noting: they do regular email surveys on how long it took for x- game to get to them from when you sent it back. For what its worth, they are acting like they're addressing the issue.
On topic - Gamefly is great. I really want to give the Blockbuster Game pass a try though. For basically the same price, you can go to your local store and just trade the games in. I believe you can just go in the morning, beat a game then get another one that night. That sounds amazing.
@ eternalplayer2345
I'm really sorry to hear about that. Hopefully they'll realize their mistake
tips@destructoid.com
So the speed is......ok...not good, not terrible. Netflix(which i also subscribe to) gets there in 1 day and the next day its in my mailbox(they're also closer).
Really...I love the service, I get to play tons of games and not have to shell out the $ for em...I wouldn't have anyway, but atleast I get to play em, ya know?
I liked that fact that i can purchase games. I bought gears 2 at a reduced price because ive been a member so long. $45 for gears 2. not bad eh? I recommend it to anyone who can get their games within 4 days.
One more thing about Gamefly, I want to note a post above, with the Queue system. If gamefly is soposed to ship u a game, and you have a brand new game at the top of your queue and nothing else, it will be sent immediatly, sometimes its shipped the day before release so u get it on the day or the day after release. BUT, if you try to get a new game after release....ur kinda screwed to wait quite a while.
'Twas a joke. On the topic at hand, I have been using GameFly for well over a year. Things were really iffy when I signed up because they only had a shipping center in California. I'm in New Jersey and games were taking forever to make the rounds. Once they opened up their shipping center in Pennsylvania, all of the problems I had disappeared. I have a 2 game plan and I always make sure I have at least new game to play while the other is in transit. The turnaround times are a lot better than they used to be and I've never had a mailing problem. (Other than the time where I somehow got a free copy of Earth Defense Force 2017, but I would hardly call that a problem.)
If you're on the fence about getting back with GameFly, I would recommend them to you again. They have gotten a lot bettter with their service and as long as there is a shipping center relatively close to you, you'll be fine.
Just sent out two games yesterday, and according to my que they have already shipped out the two replacements.
I am shocked and awed.
As for use, I tend to gravitate between RPGs and shooters. I have a 2 out account, so I'll hold on to a RPG for a while, but switch out the other game as required.
$22 a month...so I figure that I would have to hold on to a RPG for a little over 5 months (1/2 of the subscription cost...remember, I'm switching out the other game constantly, so God only knows how much I'm saving, there) to equal the purchase price of a new game, and by then I've gone through the average RPG at least once or twice.
GameFly, I think, is a better alternative for people who want to revisit old titles extensively or who don't mind waiting a little while for newer ones.
So I love them. I didn't love them before when the games had to ship from Cali.
FYI
Get this, the 5 day thing at Blockbuster is just to get you to bring it back and scare you..but the real deal is you get ten days from the due date to return before you get any fees. If you keep it past then you get charged full price, but as long as that gets returned within thirty days you only get charged a dollar and the money goes back on your credit card.
Not bad for short games you are going to blow through or if you don't care about multiplayer (I don't usually)
GF is definitely a better alternative than high-priced game rentals somewhere else, but for me it just didn't make sense. I will probably re-start my membership this summer when there's a game drought and I get a chance to rent some of the titles I missed from this fall/winter.
@ John Solgrim- A four game account? Really?!?!
When it's good it's good, when it's bad it's really annoying.
They used to be really good about sending my #1 pick right away including new titles the day they are released, but lately when they send me a game, it's like playing roulette... I never know which of those 30 title they might ship.
I miss RedOctane's ol' mail rental system. Sure, it was years ago but the games came fast.
Any other good alternatives?
I wouldn't have been serious, as I didn't mind this article on the front page at all, I was just hoping to be seen as clever and witty.
I'll go baww now.
Oh and Brad, I've had gamefly for a little more than a year now and though it is a good service for the plethora of games, I find that I very rarely get anything new within the first 2 months of its release. I'll be cancelling my account as soon as I'm done with Left 4 Dead.
No complaints.
Funny. I don't see you posting anything in the forums either. I guess that makes you an expert on the content of the forums eh?
@Jim
You are great but that (IMO unwarranted) argument is one of the reasons I have such a hell of a time getting editors to participate in the forums in the first place. Maybe I'm missing all this editor bashing somehow because I don't see it.
@Brad
Great article. I love gamefly, they have been really good to me but I know some people have the exact opposite experience and those people seem to be the same ones I try to recommend gamefly to in the first place.