PlayingGOD(Games On Demand). Danish Internet provider have come up with the idea of renting out computer games online, so you don't have to buy them. They offer one game for rent in 7 days (DKK 50), or 12 games for rent in a month (DKK 150) and you need mininum 256 kb download to make it work. So, for instance, with my computer at home, I would have to wait 2 hours from moment of renting till I could play Alone in the Dark 4...Hmmh, is that really worth the while? Well, interesting in one way, since I guess they must have estimated their renting times according to some rough estimate of how long it normally takes for people to play a game. Question is if they have underestimated it, so that they count on you NOT being able to complete a game in a week and so will have to rent it for another week to complete it? On the other hand, the variability of play experience and the existence of walkthrus might eventually make this kind of calculation rather futile...Which makes me wonder about the general issue of replayability too. They rent out adventure, action and sports games - and whereas I imagine that I would be happy to play an adventure game only once (the narrative fullfillment and all that), I might wanna return to play the action or sports games several times. So I would be more inclined to rent an adventure game, than the other game "genres" (which I would prefer buying) - and the cost is, interestingly enough, the cost of a cinema ticket, more or less, except that in this case I'm entertained for a week. Wonder if this is going to catch on? I must admit, I'm kind of attracted to the thought - it would give me the opportunity to try out more games without being ruined. All I need is a new computer and I'm on...
# posted by Lisbeth at: 12:57