Tartar Posted March 20, 2017 Share Posted March 20, 2017 So, I've been think for quite a while... I'm quite happy with the library services in Denmark, and the huge assortment of games available for rental here. Most new games are available for rental shortly after release, and the library and back catalogue of games stretches from current to PS1 era games. Among newer games, they've got Horizon Zero Dawn, Yakuza-0, Tales of Bersaria, Digimon New World Order and Resident Evil, from the past few months, all in dozens of copies around the country. Alternatively, I could borrow all the Final Fantasy Games for PS1 if I wanted to and much more Sadly not all consoles are available, and typically Playstation games have been the primary focus, with WiiU and 3DS lacking in as large variety. But in general, I'm glad that such a huge selection is available for rental. This got me thinking, is the rental of games in such variety and amount also a thing in other countries? When I was younger I pretty much only played games through rentals in Libraries and thus got to play a ton of games despite being able to afford very few. ... Perhaps I'm overthinking it and this type of service is available everywhere. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PSFLeo Posted March 20, 2017 Share Posted March 20, 2017 (edited) I don't know what type of super library you've been using, but my local library rents out books and movies. I wish they rented out video games to people, that would be so cool... Edited March 20, 2017 by PSFLeo grammmaaarrrr Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HongaarseBeer Posted March 20, 2017 Share Posted March 20, 2017 I don't visit libraries that often (if ever at all), but from what I can remember my local library used to have PC games. I can't recall if they also had games for consoles but I believe they didn't. They mostly had DVDs. I think it wasn't really popular for some reason. I can't really say anything about their what they offer today (heck, I can't even remember the last time I visited a library...) but I assume they offer more games for PC and also for consoles. I reckon their offer of games for Wii and 3DS is smaller, if not non-existent Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mde2001 Posted March 20, 2017 Share Posted March 20, 2017 My libraries don't do games. They have books, movies and sometimes a tiny bit of music. Video shops covered game rentals until they all closed down due to no-one wanting to physically rent a movie anymore. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FraRPetO Posted March 20, 2017 Share Posted March 20, 2017 I live in Denmark, too. It's actually nice that many games are available for rent. Up to 14 days, and you can extend the rental up to 3 times if I'm not mistaken. I have a friend who only rents games. I prefer having my own collection of games, however, unless I want to play older games from PS2-PS3 era. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tartar Posted March 20, 2017 Author Share Posted March 20, 2017 45 minutes ago, PSFLeo said: I don't know what type of super library you've been using, but my local library rents out books and movies. I wish they rented out video games to people, that would be so cool... Well, it's more like, books/games/movies get distributed to various libraries, but not to all. And then you can get them sent to your local library by ordering them online. 45 minutes ago, HongaarseBeer97 said: I can't really say anything about their what they offer today (heck, I can't even remember the last time I visited a library...) but I assume they offer more games for PC and also for consoles. I reckon their offer of games for Wii and 3DS is smaller, if not non-existent It wouldn't surprise me if the Netherlands had a similar library system in terms of offerings. It's be great if you, or someone else could confirm it, as I'd love to know how similar the library systems are in our two countries. 32 minutes ago, Shirtless Link said: I live in Denmark, too. I prefer having my own collection of games, however, unless I want to play older games from PS2-PS3 era. 1 Haha, I kinda realised earlier today when I saw your handwritten notes. Greetings to you, fellow citizen of this cold dreary country. In either case, it's a great alternative to buying games, especially for kids and people without the means to buy new games, so despite not using the service too much anymore, I love that it's available. On a sidenote, I just found out today that you can rent Board-Games from our libraries in Denmark... I may or may not have compiled a list of 74 games I need to rent at some point Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HongaarseBeer Posted March 20, 2017 Share Posted March 20, 2017 1 minute ago, Tartar said: It wouldn't surprise me if the Netherlands had a similar library system in terms of offerings. It's be great if you, or someone else could confirm it, as I'd love to know how similar the library systems are in our two countries. 2 If I don't forget about it, I'll visit the closest library this week and I'll post it in this thread for you Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tartar Posted March 20, 2017 Author Share Posted March 20, 2017 6 minutes ago, HongaarseBeer97 said: If I don't forget about it, I'll visit the closest library this week and I'll post it in this thread for you I don't know if you have an online platform to browse materials available from all libraries in the country at once, but if you have it may be easier that way. I doubt most new games are available for rental in libraries, as they tend to get rented quite quickly. But otherwise, thanks a lot. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HongaarseBeer Posted March 20, 2017 Share Posted March 20, 2017 (edited) 23 minutes ago, Tartar said: I don't know if you have an online platform to browse materials available from all libraries in the country at once, but if you have it may be easier that way. I doubt most new games are available for rental in libraries, as they tend to get rented quite quickly. But otherwise, thanks a lot. That's a good idea. I just did it and it turns out that they have 158 ps3 games (mostly games suitable for children and not the latest ones), 85 Xbox games (including Kinect), 50 Wii, only 27 PC games surprisingly. You know what, I'll just drop the link here so you can see for yourself https://bicat.sfb-net.nl/cgi-bin/bx.pl?sid=532b7505-d323-4797-ad84-18ae5e1f237c;vestnr=8010;prt=INTERNET;taal=nl_NL;var=portal;event=osearch#/search?qs=games If you want to select a platform, check 'mediumsoort' Edited March 20, 2017 by HongaarseBeer97 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tartar Posted March 20, 2017 Author Share Posted March 20, 2017 (edited) @HongaarseBeer97I see. I checked the amount available over here. 407 PS4 games, 1318 PS3 games, 1017 PS2 games, 704 Wii games, 308 Xbox One games, and a bunch of others I didn't bother checking. It's surprisingly a lot, though do note that we often get games multiple languages and some entries may be duplicates. So I think you could remove 1/2 of the games to get a more accurate number. I would love if other countries also pitched in. Especially the state of other Scandinavian libraries could be interesting, and from Germany too. Edited March 20, 2017 by Tartar Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HongaarseBeer Posted March 20, 2017 Share Posted March 20, 2017 That's one huge library Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Shamitako Posted March 20, 2017 Share Posted March 20, 2017 The library system here in central Ohio carries most of the current games, but proper rental services are better. Most of our circulation is in movies I don't like not owning games tho, so borrowing them from a library or renting them from a rental service is a nope Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dead account Posted March 20, 2017 Share Posted March 20, 2017 Only library around here that lent out video games, as far as I know, is one that only had a handful of some pretty shit Xbox 360 games when I was last in there. Probably the only remotely good game in there was the Xbox 360 version of Supreme Commander 2. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Maelstrom Posted March 20, 2017 Share Posted March 20, 2017 It's been years since I've been to a library. I don't even know where the closest one is from here, tbh. But the last time I went to any libraries, I was surprised that they were building up collections of movies and music cd's. No video games yet. As for your libraries, when you say rent, do you mean that you pay to borrow games for a while? I'm thinking it's just a translation thing- We rent apartments and cars, but we borrow or check out books from the library for free. A lot of the places that used to rent out games got shut down. Blockbuster and Hastings used to rent out games as well as movies but they went under. I don't know of any chains that rent games out except for gamefly, which works like netflix through the mail, but they probably have everything available for these later gens consoles that use discs. *looks it up* I was mostly right. Ps3/4, xb360/1, pc, 3ds. wiiu. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tartar Posted March 20, 2017 Author Share Posted March 20, 2017 9 minutes ago, Maelstrom said: As for your libraries, when you say rent, do you mean that you pay to borrow games for a while? I'm thinking it's just a translation thing- We rent apartments and cars, but we borrow or check out books from the library for free. Well, in Danish we use a word directly translates to "loan" when we take things from the library (the same used when getting money from a bank), but people seem to misunderstand the word when I've used it, so I used rent because it seemed more appropriate. But it does have the connotation that you pay for something, when in fact, libraries are free, outside of being paid for by taxes. Perhaps borrow is the correct term to use... Welp didn't think I'd get to argue semantics today. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Shamitako Posted March 21, 2017 Share Posted March 21, 2017 Loan is a word that people will use in reference to libraries, but the more common term is borrow. Rent 100% involves an exchange of money Your intent mostly carried, but I wasn't entirely certain since video games are valued much higher than books and are much more likely to be stolen (although I'd put money on DVDs still holding the top spot), so asking people to pay a fee for them wouldn't be unreasonable even for an otherwise publicly funded entity Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Daniel Blackworth Posted March 21, 2017 Share Posted March 21, 2017 Wait.... a library wherein you can borrow video games? That sounds so cool! I wish we had those kinds of libraries in our country though. I have a few questions in regards to that: (1) How long can you rent or loan a game?, (2) Are the games always functional or have they been damaged over time? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tartar Posted March 21, 2017 Author Share Posted March 21, 2017 3 hours ago, KosherKitten said: Your intent mostly carried, but I wasn't entirely certain since video games are valued much higher than books and are much more likely to be stolen (although I'd put money on DVDs still holding the top spot), so asking people to pay a fee for them wouldn't be unreasonable even for an otherwise publicly funded entity How would one go about stealing a game disc, or anything in a library for that matter? You need to present the game disc to confirm the return, just like with books. 3 hours ago, Mr. Divergent said: (1) How long can you rent or loan a game?, (2) Are the games always functional or have they been damaged over time? 1: 14 days at a time, but you can extend the duration as long as no one in line to get the game after you, which isn't always possible for the more popular games. 2: I don't use the service very much anymore, but when I did I never had a non-functioning game disc. Though I reckon games get removed from circulation if it's reported that they've been damaged. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Support Squad Felicity Posted March 21, 2017 Support Squad Share Posted March 21, 2017 Gather round kids, it's kleptoelf here ready to teach you about theft, specifically from libraries! Step one: take whatever you like. Step two: never return it. Step three: put in the tinfoil hat, abandon your home and possessions andmprepare form life as an outlaw. Have fun! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HongaarseBeer Posted March 21, 2017 Share Posted March 21, 2017 14 minutes ago, Felix- said: Gather round kids, it's kleptoelf here ready to teach you about theft, specifically from libraries! Step one: take whatever you like. Step two: never return it. Step three: put in the tinfoil hat, abandon your home and possessions andmprepare form life as an outlaw. Have fun! Thanks, I'll give it a try! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Daniel Blackworth Posted March 21, 2017 Share Posted March 21, 2017 42 minutes ago, Felix- said: Gather round kids, it's kleptoelf here ready to teach you about theft, specifically from libraries! Step one: take whatever you like. Step two: never return it. Step three: put in the tinfoil hat, abandon your home and possessions andmprepare form life as an outlaw. Have fun! Seriously? That much for a video game? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Support Squad Felicity Posted March 21, 2017 Support Squad Share Posted March 21, 2017 refer back to step one. Whatever you like. Games, books, music, retinas, bowels, memories, relationships, whatever. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tartar Posted March 21, 2017 Author Share Posted March 21, 2017 (edited) 12 hours ago, Felix- said: Step two: never return it. Step three: put in the tinfoil hat, abandon your home and possessions andmprepare form life as an outlaw. I'd say this is a foolproof plan, but I'm slightly afraid my local library will send assassins or the like to find me if I return a book too late... Librarians are scary. (Besides, if you have to replace something you've lost to a library, it's twice the original price, and the fines for being late are kinda insane... So I'd rather not try). I remember once needing a book badly for a project I was writing a few years back, and it was soon overdue. But I decided to keep it two days more since I needed it badly. The library sent me a 20$ fine and blocked me from using the library until it was paid. Mind you, it was returned 2 days late. I'd shudder to think what would've happened had I returned it 3 days late, much less 4... Edited March 21, 2017 by Tartar Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Another Felix Posted March 21, 2017 Share Posted March 21, 2017 Local library still has really old computers and doesn't have games. School library actually has a gaming history library, but I don't think they rent out games. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Shamitako Posted March 22, 2017 Share Posted March 22, 2017 On 2017/3/21 at 2:09 AM, Tartar said: How would one go about stealing a game disc, or anything in a library for that matter? You need to present the game disc to confirm the return, just like with books. I thought I'd already replied to this, whoops First off, who says they'd return anything at all? Or even check it out in the first place? Here we have way too much stuff circulating at once to check each return individually. We do keep track of when a case returns empty and we will contact whoever checked the item out to try to get it back I recently got to witness the security footage of a thief in action. A kid made a show of checking something out, but he didn't actually check anything out, just ran the case through the scanner so it beeped. He then swapped the disk into a case he'd brought with him and placed it in his backpack to smuggle it out. All while wearing a hoodie to hide his face from the cameras. It was an expert heist. So expert, in fact, that he returned an empty case while someone was in the back, allowing us to discern the general time period we needed to seek on the recording. Then we simply traced back his actions until we saw that he had been using one of the computers which gave us a good look at his face and the ability to figure out what his card number was Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Join the conversation
You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.