Do used games compare to libraries?
Can the used games market in any way be compared to used books and lending libraries?
Games publishers have recently launched a war on used games sales, attempting to prevent gamers from buying and selling their titles without them seeing anything from it. So how come books are treated differently? Hell, we even have a library in every town and city lending out books for free to as many people who want them.
As a writer on BitMob explains, there’s a completely different attitude to second-hand copies copies of books as there is to games. Authors (read developers) and publishers (read, well publishers) don’t raise any objections to books being sold in shops or lent out in libraries, whereas the games industry is dead against the whole business when it comes to their wares.
There are differences of course, with games costing a lot more to make then books do. But a book is still someone’s work, and it’s still taken someone considerable time and effort to produce. So is the difference actually that huge after all?
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56 Responses to “Do used games compare to libraries?”
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September 1st, 2010
I’ve borrowed games as well as CD’s and of course books from libraries before.
I pay enough in my taxes to feel like it’s the most expensive subscription ever.
September 1st, 2010
I agree, companies are abusing this…I mean, DEAD GAME INDUSTRY?? oh come on…if they make quality games, people keep them. For instance, I still have the greatest games ever invented on my NES and my Nintendo 64…
Also, with the addition of online gaming, people will WANT to buy games as soon as they come out to be in the “hype” online….don’t forget that people CANNOT hack games when they have online gameplay (that is, only if the game has proper security)
This is plain money-making tactics and we should totally call the office of consumer protection…
September 1st, 2010
I just read on Wiki that the 360 has sold 41.7 million units worldwide so far and the PS3 has sold 38.1 million worldwide. So the PS3 is only 3 million behind? Jesus it’s caught up very, very quickly! I always assumed the 360 was millions and millions ahead of the PS3 by the way some of the people on here were going on.
September 1st, 2010
I will never sell any of my games or systems again. GameStop gives you the worse possible prices for your stuff. Then they turn around and mark it up by 4 times what they paid you.
You’re better off just hanging on to your games.
September 1st, 2010
I was heading to Gamestop one day to trade in NFL 2K3. And can you believe the sorry son of a bitch only offered me 25 cents for a $50 dollar game!?
I immediately declined the offer and walked out. I would’ve been better off tossing the game off a bridge or donating it to a homeless shelter. Only a fool would trade in a $50-$60 game to receive less than 10% of it.
September 2nd, 2010
I never trade in games. I refuse to receive less than 33%!
September 2nd, 2010
“I pay enough in my taxes to feel like it’s the most expensive subscription ever.”
And it will increase by more than $10 next year… so THAT’s where Micro$haft got it’s idea!
“only offered me 25 cents for a $50 dollar game!?”
You could get 75 more cents on Ebay for it.
September 2nd, 2010
Lol.
September 2nd, 2010
CarlB,
Hee…Hee..
September 2nd, 2010
If it is a 360 game you can use it for a paper weight to match the 360 door-stop.
September 2nd, 2010
The wet-dream of the ‘entertainment industry’ (of which the gaming business is just a part, though now obviously heavily connected to the rest) is to end all private ownership altogether.
Their ideas of how copyright ought to operate are about a million miles away from how they started and (with things like copyright in perpetuity) are utterly at odds with the needs of a dynamic innovative society – all innovation stands on the shoulders of what went before.
They would love to ‘rent’ you their wares with a charge for every play.
For some things (like films) that may not be so bad but it just gets seriously loony with something like a 2nd hand game.
Fortunately the rest of the world isn’t that insane.
Actually the library analogy is an interesting one, given the way the music and movie guys are acting it seems pretty clear that if we didn’t already have libraries they’d never be allowed to happen now.
September 2nd, 2010
“no other game can top Killzone 3?s impressive graphics thus far. Recent images and videos clearly show Killzone 3 taking gaming graphics to a whole new level. Not even Crysis 2 can match Killzone 3.
The PS3 is a true beast, the older the PS3 gets, the more games we see taking advantage of the PS3?s power, but damn, does Killzone 3 really make the PS3 look good.”
http://www.tqcast.com/2010/09/02/killzone-3-is-looking-like-the-2011-graphics-king-by-far/
September 2nd, 2010
Roca
WTF was that about – other than being a pathetic ad for your beloved?
You really are a sad little fanboy.
September 2nd, 2010
somebody sounds kind of mad?
I understand your pain LOL
go back to your ‘command center’ now
September 3rd, 2010
HAHA Yeah fuck off to your Command Center PMSL!
He was defo hurt by the Killzone 3 comment :p
September 3rd, 2010
LOL. Happy always stays on topic and never advertises for Microsoft /sarcasm
http://gamer.blorge.com/2010/08/31/microsoft-address-old-d-pad-issue-with-new-xbox-360-controller/#comment-137720
September 3rd, 2010
Roca
Yeah so convincing, yet you are the one here 24/7 constantly posting your idiot PS3 fanboy sh!t.
“Hurt”!?
You really are one sad deluded fu*ked up little fanboy.
oldschool
“Hurt”
You’re as ludiocrously delusional as your Pbot pal. Wise up & try growing up a little.
“command centre”?
LMAO
Still smarting about you living in a shoebox, huh?
Hilarious.
Tough t!tties that you’re laughably wrong tho.
I have plenty of space to play Kinect in several rooms if I wanted to too btw
phranc
I think you’ll find that I do not regularly roll in to totally unrelated topics and threads here to plaster what is simply a blatant and totally unconnected sad little advert for a game and/or game console.
September 3rd, 2010
haha… seems like it hurt him pretty bad.
so you can play Kinect in your ‘command center’? LOL I wouldnt doubt it.
I believe HH is just because his last comment (what a waste) didnt get any attention at all while the KZ3 being the graphics king has gotten more attention (2 reply from HH himself)
I know it’s frustrating to keep hearing PS3 titles are the best in graphics, specially after your pathetic ass claimed that ODST and Halo Reach just as good. LMAO
Is Kinect your next big game? Well at least you get to brag about it for being the king of the LAGFEST.
September 3rd, 2010
Roca
Pathetic.
You’re doing nothing but the most boring sh!t trolling again today.
September 3rd, 2010
@Roca
Thank you for the story. It was very informative. The claim that it looks better than Crysis 2 is also a very big deal. We’ve seen claims about Crysis 2′s graphical superiority in posts and articles before. The fact that Killzone 3 surpassed that his no small feat.
PS3 is the graphics king.
Go easy on Happy. We should pity the poor 360 only owning fanboys, and not make fun of them. They know not what they miss.
September 3rd, 2010
Aye my shoebox lmao. I tell you what, I’ll have a picture of my living room as my gravatar, I bet it’s a lot nicer than your command center
September 3rd, 2010
@oldschool
Don’t bother…he’s just mad because the best X360 graphics look like 1st generation PS3 games.
September 3rd, 2010
@OLD
Your living room oddly enough looks like the PS3 cover of Mass Effect 2.
September 3rd, 2010
Nice living room
September 3rd, 2010
PMSL! I’ll change it 2moz night when I finish work m8
September 3rd, 2010
Bragging on the net, yeah that’s credible.
September 3rd, 2010
just as credible as you going through so many 360s and not admiting they all failed on you.
Bragging on the net, yeah that’s credible
September 3rd, 2010
That the best you could invent all on your lonesome, moron?
September 3rd, 2010
Bragging? ok let me just copy and paste what you just said and we’ll see who’s bragging:
‘I have plenty of space to play Kinect in several rooms if I wanted to too btw
’
Wow, HH was made to look stupid …AGAIN! Is any one keeping count of how many times this moron slips up?
September 4th, 2010
oldschool
No, the fact that you seriously are trying to hold a simple statement of fact up as ‘bragging’ (about nothing of any big deal whatsoever) just tells us all more about you.
Away back to your hovel, you sad ludicrous troglodyte.
September 4th, 2010
@oldschool
LMAO you made him look like a real idiot.
its funny how many times we HH’s own quotes to prove him how hypocrite he really is
September 4th, 2010
…..and now the cretin wanders – predictable as clockwork – in to add some support to your idiotic & ludicrous notion that having a clear 6′ x 6′ in a couple of rooms is ‘bragging’.
But then I was forgetting, he also rolled in & started whining that 6′ x 6′ was too much to ask in his hovel too.
Pathetic.
September 4th, 2010
Hahaha, I can see why your are trying to avoid the fact that oldschool made you look stupid using your own quote lol.
pathetic indeed.
September 5th, 2010
And now HH is criticizing some one for living in a flat? Have you heard yourself? lmao! You really do think your better than every one else but the fact is you still live with your mum and if you deny it then we won’t believe you because the evidence ain’t in your favor lol.
Btw I made you look like a right tool when I turned your own comment on yourself, you’ve already tried back peddling out of it with no success at all lmao. You just bragged about your multiple big rooms pmsl! Blown out once again, just admit you live in a command center HH. You don’t even own your own place do you? And yet you criticize me for renting a flat with the mrs while we save up a bit more for a house? pmsl! I’m not even out the army yet so why would I buy a house straight away?
Wind your neck in HH and stop trying to make yourself look good by taking the piss out of people who rent a flat, you make yourself look like a right tosser.
September 6th, 2010
oldschool
Actually I did not “criticise somebody for living in a flat”.
Another 1 of your juvenile inventions.
I pointed out that you 2 w@nkers were the ones who lept on the 6′ x 6′ space requirement as if 6′ x 6′ was something out of the ordinary.
Of course it isn’t.
You do not have to be “rich” to have that sort of space in your house here in the UK.
(tho your f*ckwitted attempt to then later claim I live in a basement with no room is just another element to your contradictory foolishness)
Continue making an idiot of yourself if you must but your trolling/baiting is having zero effect – other than be just another boring load of the childish fanboy BS which is just taking the pi$$ out of this site & ruining it.
The daily tedious fanboy kiddies pantomime, nothing more.
September 6th, 2010
HH your the one making the big fool of yourself once again! You did criticize me for living in a flat with minimum space by calling it a hovel or calling me a peasant.
Also if you back track to before you started trying to give me shit and start arguments, you will see that I never caused or participated in flame wars with anyone. I only do this with you because your a egotistical retard who thinks he is better than every one else …don’t deny that!
As for calling me a fanboy? Well I have both consoles, I have said on many, many occasions that I love the Halo games, Mass Effect, Prey and many others. You on the other hand DO NOT own any other consoles apart from your beloved 360, you will stand up for what ever Microsoft do, the $10 price hike is the latest one you defended. The truth is your the blind fanboy, not me. So you need to revise your facts there instead of making shit up.
The jokes about the basement? Well I can admit that they are only jokes just to piss you for your attitude towards everyone else. On a serious note, I do get the impression that you still live at home though, i could be wrong but you seem the type.
Anyway where abouts in the UK are you from?
September 6th, 2010
oldschool
You really are a moron.
You can’t see the distinction so that’s your problem.
I have never criticised anyone for living in a flat,
I did criticise your idiotic pretense that the 6′ x 6′ Kinect requirement was asking too much for most people.
Plainly that was a typically stupid Pbot claim and I’ve been taking the pi$$ out of you and your pal (who instantly rolled in to claim it was also fair comment for people in US appartments) for pretending you dumb assertion holds much water for the majority.
September 6th, 2010
Lol backpeddling yet again. It’s your trademark. You did criticize, you called it a hovel and then went on to say that you have multiple large rooms. Your memory is shit lol. And let’s not forget that you called people peasants who weren’t happy with the $10 Live price hike and claimed that it’s only a few more pennies to you. HH give up, or do you want a larger shovel?
September 7th, 2010
PWND!!
September 7th, 2010
Nope, not “back-peddling” at all.
You are the one who claimed not to have sufficient room for 6′ x 6′.
Roca backed you up claiming the same for his appartment.
It is your pretense that your (by your own admission) tiny homes are typical of “most people” that I am laughing at, not flats or appartments in general.
That would clearly be stupid (not to mention weird considering I began mentioning my own starting out in small flats) ……but the fact that you genuinely think you might make such an obviously dumb idea stick just speaks volumes about the level of your own f*ckwittery.
You’re clearly not very bright (either of you) if you seriously imagine Microsoft are on the cusp of launching ap roduct most people do not have sufficient room to allow it to work properly.
Particularly in the USA.
But again, the fact that each of you idiots seriously put this out there as a credible possibility speaks volumes about yous.
As for calling the Pbot gang peasants for whing about a $10 a year price increase?
Well its obvious they have no genuine interest in the story (which isn’t happening in Europe anyways).
(and over the whole year it is mere pennies not just to me but anyone)
September 7th, 2010
But it weren’t just PS3 guys complaining about the price hike so you’ve been blown out and PWNED yet again, you really are the stupidest person on here. You’ve had Carl completely turn his back on the 360 now because of it.
So you didn’t say I live in a hovel and call me a peasant? HAHA PWNED AGAIN! Roca keep count for me. Your trying to say that what you said actually meant something else now to make yourself come off better. Here I’ll go get you a shovel seeing as you chose that option.
September 7th, 2010
oldschool
I didn’t say it was just PS3 guys, the point is that all the usual PS3 guys commenting couldn’t give a f*ck either way & are just trolling.
So, since when did that sort of patent obvious BS deserve a polite reply?
I’d be careful about trying to rope CarlB into your fanboy f*ckwittery btw.
He sure as hell isn’t like one of you lot.
You’re the one who said 6′ x 6′ was asking too much for where you live, not I.
You coupled that with a claim 6′ x 6′ was asking too much for “most people”.
It’s all your own your idiocy, not mine.
(and you & you idiot pal can self-praise all you like but your dumb “pwned” – are you some sort of 15yr old airhead californian schoolgirl? if not then way talk that stupid way? – means nothing)
September 7th, 2010
Also I want you to find where I said that ‘most people’ live in small homes. Because I clearly said ‘I’ live in a small flat. I didn’t mention anyone else, and that’s when you started saying I was poor and couldn’t afford a place with a large enough room. Your obviously too dumb to take into account living room set ups, ie: Tables, Chairs and other shit. Also how can you criticize me for not buying a house when you clearly can’t afford to buy those beloved exclusives you rave about, on day of release? I mean I have money to pay all my bills and buy whatever game I want whenever I want and not have money become an issue.
Lost count of how many times I pwned you then.
September 7th, 2010
Ber careful? Lmao! Was that a threat HH? Where do you live in England? I’m UK as well so tell me where abouts your from if your going to threaten me.
Carl clearly did say he has turned his back on the 360 because of all the recent M$ stunts, your just not happy that I found another partial Blorger to blow you out.
And you did say the Pbot gang complained about the price hike, not me. Scroll up and you’ll clearly see that I never mentioned any party, I just said people weren’t happy with it. You added the Pbot thing and you know for a fucking fact that even the xbots aren’t happy and rightly so, your the only one who wants to suck off M$ for this move.
Give up HH
September 7th, 2010
Also if I am a Pbot, find me a comment where I have clearly said ‘all 360 games are shit’ because I never have and never will. I have both consoles, unlike you. Your the fucking fanboy and your in extreme denial about it.
September 7th, 2010
pathetic.
September 7th, 2010
Wow great response.
September 7th, 2010
Yes, I agree, it seemed entirely appropriate to your utterly pathetic, idiotic fanboy trolling drivel.
September 7th, 2010
lying again HH? You’re pathetic
September 7th, 2010
oldschool got you again HH, oldschool prefers PS3 (for obvios reasons) but he has said he also loves his 360.
also, I never claimed Kinect required space was an issue for me (HH lying once again). I said it will be an issue for gamers who game in bedrooms, dorms, small appartments (almost all major cities are full tiny ass appartments) and ppl who have furniture around their living rooms.
September 7th, 2010
Naaa, you just stirred the pot with your typical trolling BS -
“Roca.:
July 21st, 2010
6ft of “free” space is alot for most rooms, dorms, living rooms and basements.
http://gamer.blorge.com/2010/07/20/microsoft-confirms-149-kinect-pricing/
September 7th, 2010
‘Yes, I agree, it seemed entirely appropriate to your utterly pathetic, idiotic fanboy trolling drivel’
LMAO Yeah that is why you never had a response :p
September 7th, 2010
Laughably pathetic.
Try a little imagination & wit sometime, huh?
September 7th, 2010
@HH
I know you were an idiot but I didnt know you were that stupid
I said this:
“6ft of “free” space is alot for most rooms, dorms, living rooms and basements.”
which is different than what you said (another lie from you):
“Roca backed you up claiming the same for his appartment.”
I never claimed to have that issue in ‘my appartment’….your lack of comprehension skill is just sad…
and yet the fact remains that it will be an issue for ‘most’ dorms, bedrooms, small appartmnets and studios.
another fact is that Kinect has not shown anything impressive yet but only a massive amount of lag and not doing what it’s supposed to. LMAO
September 7th, 2010
Imagination and wit!? LMFAO!!! Ok HH show me some wit then. Because you have no wit at all. All you do on this site is bitch and moan at every single person on here. Your the most miserable fucker on this site. Now you’ve already given up on the argument, so just fuck off and stop boring me.
September 7th, 2010
And what imagination are you talking about? You want me to make up a story about elves or something? This is a site where people are meant to post facts and you have just dropped yourself in it by telling me to use my imagination. Which suggests to me that you make up the shit you say anyway …with your imagination lol