Jason Bassett – Game Design/Writer/Blogger

Hey all,

I have been doing a lot of thinking on ways to save money lately. Having a job today is a wonderful thing, but to take care of your earnings is probably hardest part of your job. When it comes down to it, I am pretty bad at saving money. I barely have over $1000 in my bank account and that’s pretty bad. I tend to buy the things that I really want in life and for a lot of people, that seems like a dream. While, it seemed that way at first, it really isn’t a dream, but more of an addiction.

I have been called many things, one of which a good friend of mine, calls me a Consumer Whore. To be honest, he’s right! I love to buy things that the social pigs in the world love to get and because of the hype, I fall into the trap. Nowadays, I have been trying to watch my spending as much as I can. Because, to be open about it, I am getting sick of spending money of stuff I want. This is where Netflix and Gamefly come into play. No longer will I need to go and find a game that I want to play and buy it. I can rent and see which one I like to play and if it’s a game that I really want, then I will pre-order it. This goes the same for movies. I have a moderate sized collection of DVD’s to the left of me and an even bigger collection of video games to the left of that. In the middle of it all is my TV stand and the “equipment”, so to speak. Now, my space is getting smaller and I need to weed out the games and DVD’s that I don’t really want to spend my hard earned money on, and rather save it for something really special. But, how do these services compare and should I spend my money on them?

Gamefly is a modest approach (and really the only approach) when it comes to renting games. Sure, there is Blockbuster, but who really goes there anymore? Hollywood Video has shit the bed and West Coast Video has been dead for nearly a decade now. Digital Distribution is coming our way, but now it’s all a matter of the mail. Gamefly is a great service, but compared to the speediness of Netflix, I have to say that I very underwhelmed. I though the service would be twice as fast, if not more fast than Netflix. But, with Netflix, I get my movies as soon as they are shipped back to their warehouse. The recent games I sent back to Gamefly took nearly a week for them to receive and then the next week I would get the next couple of games on my “Queue”. When it comes to selection of titles, they both hold their own with plenty to choose for, however, the amount they have in stock is usually better for Netflix than it is for Gamefly. Not one of my Gamefly #1 games have shipped to me yet. Granted, those #1 games usually are titles that are pretty popular now, but nonetheless, I still haven’t received my #1 game yet. Netflix on the other hand is always on their game in giving me the #1 movie that I have in my queue at the time I want it and I have gotten the title that I requested with no strings attached.

For the consumer whore in me, it’s pretty discouraging when you don’t get your top choice. But, don’t let be the end result for you. If you must, play the games you’re not that found of and get them out of the way. This will, in turn, make way for the games you really wanted to play as long as they are still on your queue. Although, the speed may seem a bit off balanced for you, think of it this way: Now, you can watch the DVD/Blu-Ray movie while waiting for your next game to hit your mailbox. Even with these little problems with Gamefly, you’re still getting your money’s worth: The ability to play games. Which leads me to my next update!

Because I now have Gamefly and Netflix, I will start doing reviews of games/movies that I finish! Currently, I have Assassins Creed: Bloodlines for this Playstation Portable;  I will be giving that a review soon! I hope you enjoy my first little blog here. I finally have time to do them! So, it’s an exciting time!