The new web service, GameforaGame.com, allows you to connect with fellow gamers and trade old or new titles with them.
Say you just bought a new game last month, like say Star Wars: The Force Unleashed II, but you played the crap out of it and you’re itching for something else. For some ridiculous reason, you never played Fallout 3 but you didn’t feel like dropping any cash on a three year old game. None of your friends has Fallout 3, and if they did they don’t want to part with it, so you’re stuck. Enter Game for a Game. The web service based in Wilmington, NC, allows you to connect with other gamers, and exchange games with them. You meet up locally, or exchange addresses and mail the games to each other. It’s a great way to extend your gaming dollar without giving money to GameStop. And hey, maybe you’ll meet a friend or two along the way.
“Who’s to say a game I’ve had for six months isn’t as valuable to someone who just finished a new release?” asked GameForAGame.com co-founder Geoff Gohs. “If you haven’t yet played a game that came out last year, it could be worth the trade for a new title. We leave the value of the games up to the gamers, just as it should be.”
Ordinarily, GameForAGame.com will charge a $20/year membership fee for unlimited use of its trading database, but if you sign up now, the first year is free.
There are quite a few checks and balances on people acting like douches. First, you can only trade one game a week to start out to avoid scammers. If you get two negative reports from people who think you stiffed them, you’re off the site for good.
The website is still in beta, and there are quite a few kinks to iron out. For example, there doesn’t appear to be any way to actually trade with members. You can search for games and see what members own, but there is no email or PM button that I can see. So GameForAGame.com is not exactly working as intended, but I have to applaud Gohs for coming up with a novel way to trade games amongst gamers.
What do you think? Would you use a service like this to trade games?
