Racket Lending Library? (IC/Extreme WIP)

[KalessinDB]

Inspired by Key-Glyph's post in the "After you beat a physical game" thread

Would there be interest in any sort of tight-knit community "library" of sorts? Wherein Big Tymers with 100's or 1000's of games might lend them to people who want to try them out for a week or month or what have you? Her original post suggests people would effectively name their own replacement cost which would be put up as collateral against the game they were trying to borrow. Logical extension of this (in my mind) is that the shipping would be paid for by the lender.

People who are interested could make a post of games they are willing to lend and what they'd call the replacement cost, I'd be happy to link to their post from here in the OP. You could set your own rules as to like "I'm only lending out X games at a time", you could feel free to discriminate on who you'd lend to by whatever you see fit, be it join date, feedback, or "I have no idea who you are" status.

Obviously, as she notes in her original post, this would require a great deal of trust -- the lender would have to trust the borrower to not destroy their property. The borrower would have to trust the lender to actually give them back their money, not say "Oh there's a nick on the label, I'm keeping all of this", etc etc. So it may not work. But for now, this thread serves as a "Kick the idea around" thread so as not to derail the original thread any more. Sound off if you have any thoughts for or against.

[KalessinDB]

And double-posting because I'm going to reserve the top post for linking to people's lists, and at least off the top of my head I think I'm going to participate:

I will lend to people I know and deem trustworthy here, and I don't exactly have a scientific way of telling whether I think you're trustworth or not, I just will have a gut feeling. The "escrow" (as it were) amount that I'm going to ask is going to be ebay price since that's what it'd cost me to replace it if it goes bye-bye, so I'll use a combination of vgpc and ebay completed sales to get a reasonable finger. I'll ship my stuff with a tracking number and expect you to do the same on returns. I will not lend out my entire collection, but I'll lend out a decent chunk of it depending on who you are.

Eventually I'll probably put up an actual "This is what I will lend" list, but until we've had at least a week or three to kick this around and see what glaring issues there may be about this that I'm overlooking.

[ElkinFencer10]

If it's an established member here, I'd be willing to do this. It's worth discussing, if nothing else.

[samsonlonghair]

It's a neat idea, especially for those members who live within a reasonable driving distance of other members.

On the other hand, we already have emulation. I don't mean to rain on your parade, but I think I'm not alone in saying that I've used emulation for years to... er... "borrow" games I couldn't afford to purchase at the time. In many cases I went on to legally purchase a number of games I wouldn't have if I hadn't tried them out in an emulator first.

I guess what I'm saying here is that emulation already serves as a lending library without shipping costs or the risk to damage games.

[Jmustang1968]

Yeah, I think I could participate in this as a lender. The emulation comment though is a good one, that makes this risk possibly unnecessary.

As a lender, I wouldnt want to pay for the shipping. If anything, the shipping costs would conceivably be the "rental fee" for the borrower. If I were to participate, it would mainly be to help out and let others enjoy some games. I doubt I would borrow any games myself as my own backlog is already large.

So joining, just to incur shipping costs so others can play my games and risk inevitable damage or wear and tear to use and shipping isn't that enticing.

[ElkinFencer10]

Yeah, I think I could participate in this as a lender. The emulation comment though is a good one, that makes this risk possibly unnecessary.

As a lender, I wouldnt want to pay for the shipping. If anything, the shipping costs would conceivably be the "rental fee" for the borrower. If I were to participate, it would mainly be to help out and let others enjoy some games. I doubt I would borrow any games myself as my own backlog is already large.

So joining, just to incur shipping costs so others can play my games and risk inevitable damage or wear and tear to use and shipping isn't that enticing.

Yeah, that's a fair point. The borrower should definitely pay the shipping costs. I guess paying for any damage would mostly be on an honor system, though. Like Mustang, I'd just be a lender; if I want to play a game, I'll want to add it to my collection anyway.

[8bit]

I like the idea but I don't think the value of borrowing would be there. Paying even the cheapest tracked shipping both ways for a standard cart or disc based game would be at least $5, plus then deposits, and more complications/risks make it probably too much to deal with....

This reminds me that on GameTZ.com, one user had a rental service available. He made his library available for rental and charged only a few bucks a week for borrowing.

[CRTGAMER]

The shipping both directions may not be worth it compared to buying a game. For expensive games, I think few would risk it getting lost or damaged in the mail with the two deliveries.

As Sam mentioned, a try before you buy in the form of emulation is the best way on most of the older games. I have discovered so many games this way and turned around buying games I want to keep.

[Fragems]

Yeah really the rental system isn't very feasible on a country or even state level due to the shipping. The minimum cost would be $5.20 for first class and that would be the same rate whether you shipped it to someone down the street or cross country. I love the idea but it just doesn't work to hot outside of large corporations like Gamefly that get bulk shipping rates. It could possibly be worth it for high priced games or multiple item loans, but I don't know how many people would be into that.

[Key-Glyph]

I'm pretty excited that people might be willing to be lenders, because even factoring in the shipping costs -- and I agree that the borrower should front that expense -- I'd be interested in doing this every now and again.

The emulation point is logical, but I am illogical about my gaming. I don't enjoy the experience as much when the greater ritual is reduced or removed. I want to be sitting at my old Genesis in my special little retro room, hopefully reading a manual before I get started, undistracted and disconnected from the internet (the only exception: talking to friends for moral support). It's totally weird, but it is what it is.

I am also forever trying to recapture the communal aspect of gaming. It's much more meaningful and enjoyable for me when there's some kind of personal connection to a game. I would love to associate a title with the kindness of a Racketboy who mailed it to my house; I would appreciate the game in a different way, and it would be a fun memory to reflect on.

And I can't overstate how much I hate acquiring games that I don't play. I do not buy games cold unless I know there's some other connection that makes them functionally or sentimentally worthwhile (e.g. I've listened to the soundtrack and loved it, a friend of mine wants to play it at my house with me, etc.). Getting rid of games is a paaaiiin. I don't like having to do it -- and I like keeping the carts I don't enjoy even less.

So yeah -- maybe there won't be enough interested to warrant a larger organized effort, but at least I have a few of you I can hit up for a request once in a while.