I noticed a few posts recently about the feasibility of a "game rental" store or site, equivalent to Netflix but for games. I'm not sure if there was a consensus that this would or wouldn't work, but instead of running it as a business, I had the idea "why not run it as a library?"

Someone may have had this idea before, and if so I apologize. And I'm sure there is more to it than I have given thought to, so for that I also apologize, but here goes.

So anyone that wants to participate would put up however many games they want into the library. Then, members can go to the library, look through, and pick out a game they wish to try. An email is then generated to the owner of that game, telling them to send game X to address Y.

Some potential rules:

-Each person could only "rent" as many games at one time as they put in to the library.
-Each person would get -1 each time they send a game.
-Each person would get +1 each time they receive a game.
-Each person may not go above +X (a number determined by the Organizer).
-Each time you receive a game, it is "protected" from being requested for 30 days. After that, it is available to be requested again. However, the person with that game can remove it's "protected" status at any time (if they play it quickly).
-If you ever want to quit, simply request your games back and if you have games you did not start with, either wait for them to be requested or ship them to an organizer.


The +/- thing would be just to ensure 1 person isn't receiving a bunch of games and not sending any out. If they add unwanted games to the library that never get "rented", then chances are they will typically only receive games, giving them +1. But when they send those games back out to others, they would get -1 and ultimately end up at 0. So a cap at, say, +3, would allow that person to "rent" 3 games before having to send stuff back out.

Another thing to consider would be damage. If a player did something to a game accidentally, hopefully they would step up and admit to it. Some rules would have to be established about that though, like the user should pay the fair market value of the game to the original owner and then take that game out of library. Or if the damage was minor, they would pay some sort of restitution. But that would really only apply if the game was to be "taken back" by the original owner I suppose.


Overall Upsides:

-Easy to try a game before deciding whether to buy it.
-No worry about trade values or "what if I don't like it" scenarios, since you are just "borrowing" games.
-Potentially even publishers could use this system to generate buzz for upcoming games by allowing demo copies to be "rented". (okay, that might be stretching it, but you never know).
-Cost: well, it's cheaper than owning all the games at least.


Overall Downsides:
-Potential for theft, the group would only be as good as its users.
-System abuse, users could abuse the system to "hold on to" certain games (going back to the group being only as good as its users).
-Timing, you might not always be able to get a game you want to try within a week, and more in-demand games may require wait-lists to be established.
-Cost: still, it wouldn't be cheap.


Thoughts? Discuss. I remind you, this was just an idea.

Perhaps we could keep the library on a Board Game Commune(BGC). Anyone who wants to play games could move to the commune and bring their collection with them. After a day of working in the fields, milking cows, or computer programming, they would gather for dinner and board games.

Weekends would be a gaming free for all; we'd have a large geodesic dome full of tables, a nice large hearth, and refreshments for all.

This would definitely solve the theft issue, because all of the games would remain on the commune. No need to hold on to the game either, since it's going to be kept in the library and you can play it whenever. Timing is no problem; they're all on site!

They'll all also be alphabetized as well. People on the commune could be requisitions for teaching and instruction, and advanced strategy.

Think about it. The majority of your collection goes unplayed during the year. Same thing with all your friends. If we pooled all of our resources, we'd have this massive collection, a ton of people to play with, and if we wanted a new game, we'd buy a couple of copies.

If you'd like to join, email bgc@boardgamecommune.com. The commune will be nestled between Colorado Springs and Denver, just a half an hour from each.

See you there!

Sorry if it was not clear, but the "library" would be an online library, not a physical one that people would have to visit to rent games from. Obviously a physical one would not make sense.

Oh.

This brings the problem of cost for sending the games through mail.

Nice breakdown of the rules though.

Yes, the rules were a good read. This is an excellent idea and will undoubtedly be the way to try out games in the future, specifically once teleportation devices become a consumer good. Until then I will balk at the necessary shipping cost of most of the games I'm interested in trying out.

But once that does happen and we overcome the hurdle of moving games around the mundane way, I assure you that the coordinates of the Organizer's warehouse will definitely be in my Teleportomatic 6000's "Favorites" list! And I will participate in more math trades.

Furthering the shipping debate, the Group could possibly set up a Fed Ex account or UPS and run all shipments through there. I don't know if discounts would be available through either, but maybe.

Also, in order to ship a game, each person could pay into a central account, through which the Fed Ex / UPS would be paid, tacking on an extra $1. At the end of the year, the leftover money from the account could be redistributed amongst everyone to balance out the shipping costs that were paid.

So if I were getting away with cheap shipping cause the people the requested my games were in the same time zone, that would balance out with someone who continually had to ship across the country.

There may need to be some standardization for weight of the game shipment as well, since it's obviously cheaper to ship a 1 lb game than it is to ship a 10 lb game. So a person who "rents" generally light-weight games (literally) wouldn't be penalized for doing so.

As for international shipping, in the above scenario it would spread out the cost, but still, yeah, it might be too pricy overall to make realistic.

And finally, one way to think of it is this:

I could spend $150 in 1 year's time for, let's say, 6 new games. Or, I could spend $150 in 1 year's time to try out all 6 and still have enough money leftover to buy at least 3 of them (probably).

Of course, the flip side of that coin is that if you bought 6 games for $150 and didn't like them, you could probably resell them for almost that much if there is the market for it.

I'm just brainstorming here.

One thing to keep in mind also would be what to do if bits are lost.