Gamefly Rocks for Disabled Gamers says Rob

Game more, spend less

Not a lot of people understand videogame accessibility, and I’m not sure that parts of the AbleGamers community understand game accessibility – at least not the way it’s presented in some aspects of our reviews. There are parts that are pretty straight-forward, but there are other parts that aren’t so straight-forward. That’s a lot to go into, so we’ll save that for another conversation. For now, let’s look at the best way to understand if a game is for you or not.

It’s not hard to go out and gamble your gaming money on whichever big title – you could win and get a game that’s completely playable, or you could end up with no return on your investment and not be able to play more than 5-minutes of the game that you just spent over $60 on. It’s a win/lose situation.

Or, a better option might be to download the demo and see if the game is for you or not and download the demo which doesn’t cost you anything more than download time and however long the duration of the demo’s playthrough lasts. Again, it’s still a bit of a gamble because not all games that offer demos demonstrate everything a game has to offer which makes going through with the purchase a little less of a win/lose situation, but odds are still a little better than they would be if you just popped into your local game retailer, threw your money at the cashier, and exclaimed “Give me that overpriced game I might not be able to play!”

And then, there’s yet another option, and the one I personally endorse; getting yourself a subscription to a game rental website such as Gamefly which is still a gamble, but less of a gamble since if you play your cards right, you can leverage your gaming dollars to the point where you’re actually playing through a game that has just released for full-retail for a fraction of the price it would cost you to buy, decide it’s no good, and then get rid of or be stuck with.

Now that you’re interested, let’s talk about the service itself:

In brief, Gamefly is a website-based subscription service that allows you to select most any console game you like from multiple current/recent gen. consoles, and here’s the best part, the game shows up in your mail shortly after it becomes available. Given, there’s a little more to it than that, but we’ll get into that soon enough.

First off, let’s clarify console availability; of course XBOX 360, Playstation 3, Wii, Playstation Portable, and DS discs/cartridges are available to be rented with some exclusions, but Gamefly also allows their subscribers to reach back into the previous generation and play games available  to the original XBOX, Playstation 2, Gamecube, or Gameboy Advance. With that many platform options, it’s kind of hard to find a better selection.

Next on the agenda is price; and we’re not just going to look at those trial memberships, I’ll fill you in on what it’s going to cost after the first month, but we need to get the trials out of the way, so let’s get started:

~For $11.95 (plus tax), you’ll get one month of unlimited game rentals sent to your door which allows you to have two games out at any given time. Gamefly says it’s their best trial offer, and I say unless you absolutely don’t have that much to spend on this trial option, go with it.
~For $7.95 (plus tax), you’ll get one month of unlimited game rentals which will allow you to have one game out at a time. It’s a little cheaper than the above option, but you’re basically paying a little more per game. It’s not the worst option, but it’s not the best either.
~Finally, for FREE, you’ll get to have two games out at a time for 10-days. DO NOT CHOOSE THIS OPTION! Gamefly says it can take up to 10-days for your first game to arrive in your mailbox (it rarely takes that long though), and let’s say it does take that long and it turns out that your first taste of Gamefly isn’t the best, you’ll be stuck paying for the full-price 2-disc rental. Save yourself some trouble and pay for a trial subscription – it’s potentially less costly, and the risk versus reward aspect is better.

That’s all fine and good, but what’s it going to cost after the first month – or even 10-days if you made a mistake? All membership plans cost less than the price of a brand new game, and without further ado:

~1 game out at a time with unlimited rentals over the course of a month costs $15.95 (plus tax)
~2 games out at a time with unlimited rentals over the course of a month costs $22.95 (plus tax).
~3 games out at a time with unlimited rentals over the course of a month costs $29.95 (plus tax).
~4 games out at a time with unlimited rentals over the course of a month costs $36.95 (plus tax).

Not bad. Gamefly definitely has a game more, pay less thing going for them, and now that game options and price is out of the way, we’re free to talk about shipping:

As I mentioned above, Gamefly does say that a game can take up to 10-days to get from their shipping center to your mailbox, but in my experience, it rarely takes that long; with five shipping centers around the country (Seattle, Los Angelas, Pittsburgh, Tampa, Austin). Recently opened, the Seattle distribution center is now my main shipping hub, and it now takes about 2-days for me to receive a game even though Seattle isn’t even 45-minutes away. Up until that point, most of my rentals came from Los Angelas, and I’d have to wait 5-days to a week for my games to arrive. Shipping isn’t exactly the quickest, but considering it’s more convenient that some most alternatives, it’s something that can be dealt with. The map of their current distribution centers says “more shipping centers coming soon” means that by the time you read this, my info might already be wrong, and I really hope where shipping centers are concerned, it is.

I’ve just about said all there is to say about Gamefly, but I think it would be a bit negligent of me to not mention my favorite part of the service – the continued loyalty program; I’ve been with Gamefly for years now, so at the top tier of the rewards program which earns me 10% off used game purchases and 5-Gamefly dollars every 3-months (which is equal to $5 but usable only on Gamefly.com). New members don’t quite reap the same rewards, rewards start kicking in after being a member for 3-months, at which time they will start earing 5-Gamefly dollars every 3-months. Once you’ve been a paying member for 6-months, you’ll earn a 5% discount towards used game purchases at any time and 5-Gamefly dollars every 3-months. After being in good standing with Gamefly for 12 consecutive months, members can take advantage of the same 10% discount and $5 credit in which I’m entitled to. Worthy of mention is that Gamefly dollars seem to only expire after 6-months, so it’s completely possible to have $10 worth of credits at your disposal and a 10% discount which can lead to some cheap games if you don’t mind lesser titles.

Other features that someone might care about, but aren’t anything I can speak with any degree of expertise on are Gamefly’s Arcade, Store, Answers, and Trade-in areas.

That’s pretty much it for my Gamefly overview. If anyone has any questions, leave a comment below and it will more than likely be answered sooner than later.

In closing, I’m only loyal to Gamefly and see it as a better alternative than going through a video store or giving my money to a red box which inconveniently takes up space outside the grocery store, but if you want to experiment with video stores, red boxes, or the like, by all means do so, as long as you’re spending your gaming-dollars as wisely as possible, that’s what’s important.

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0 #7 COMMENT_TITLE_R E Gamefly Rocks for Disabled Gamers says Rob — marc1916 2011-08-28 01:36

@cc

ive joined love film about 2 months ago
brillent service

 

 

0 #6 COMMENT_TITLE_R E Gamefly Rocks for Disabled Gamers says Rob — CC 2011-08-23 22:34

I use LoveFilm in the UK for the same reason and wish I had sooner

 

 

0 #5 COMMENT_TITLE_R E Gamefly Rocks for Disabled Gamers says Rob — wastedyears 2011-07-27 03:14

I've been using gamefly for almost seven years now. I highly recommend it.

 

 

0 #4 COMMENT_TITLE_R E Gamefly Rocks for Disabled Gamers says Rob — GamerOnWheelz 2011-07-26 10:48

I have a Gamefly subscription also. It rocks!!!!

 

 

0 #3 COMMENT_TITLE_R E Gamefly Rocks for Disabled Gamers says Rob — knight666 2011-07-26 10:21

Yes
I have gamefly it is awesome;-)

 

 

0 #2 COMMENT_TITLE_R E Gamefly Rocks for Disabled Gamers says Rob — Ronin KX 2011-07-26 09:07

That's when my initial run took place, too

 

 

0 #1 COMMENT_TITLE_R E Gamefly Rocks for Disabled Gamers says Rob — brolol 2011-07-26 08:39

yea GameFly does rock because i can find out games that i'm good at. I joined back during the PS2 era.

 

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