Second Hand Sales: For…

It all got a bit rambly and circular, so I thought it’d help if I wrote some of it down in more clear points. In actual fact, I rarely buy second-hand games, mostly because I grew up a PC Gamer, a platform which almost never sees high-street second-hand sales, and am relatively new to console ownership, where most of this business is conducted. Saying all that, I still found myself somewhat and suddenly annoyed by this recent debate on a number of points.

I Thought I Owned It?

The act of purchase, for me, is a serious thing. I am exchanging money for an object, which at a fundamental level, then becomes mine. One can argue the toss about Property Being Theft, and how All Matter Belongs To The Universe, Maaan, but on most practical day-to-day levels, a thing I’ve bought is mine to decide what to do with, surely? Otherwise, what we’re talking about is a service contract or lease. I do sometimes lease software – look at all the MMOs I’ve ever played – but I’ve done so knowing that this was a temporary and recurring purchase and with different expectations. I simply wouldn’t shell out for a supposed offline single player game if I knew I was only renting it. Not for £40/$60 a go anyway. Perhaps the future of all single player gaming is subscriptions; some hellish future where we are no longer trusted to own software because The Pirates ruined it for all of us. I hope not, but remind me to rant on the subject of DRM again soon. Until then however, I reserve the right to decide the ultimate fate of the things I own. If I want to sell it to GAME for a tiny fraction of its purchase cost, that’s my look-out. I might instead decide that the DVDs make good scarecrows when tied to sticks. I don’t see the scarecrow industry bitching about lost sales, do you? DO YOU?!

Recycling Saves Polar Bears!

Everyone’s favourite cavalry mount of choice requires ice caps to live on. By ensuring that a game is reused by another enthusiast, rather than thrown in the bin after some arbitrary publisher-decided timespan, valuable energy and resources are not squandered on making new DVDs! Seriously though, I have always appreciated the elegance of economy inherent in second hand goods of all descriptions. It’s not really an eco-friendliness thing, more an efficiency and elegance thing. Much like Iain M Banks’ Culture, I find myself almost offended by the idea of throwing a Thing away which still has useful function left in it. Perhaps our economy requires conspicuous consumption to function? So did Oceania in Orwell’s 1984! I just think its counter productive to make More Things when we have Things Aplenty which still have use in them. We could be making New Improved Different Things instead! Just like furniture, clothing, vehicles and more, selling and buying second hand games is a kind of recycling. Which is a Good Thing!

Games Development is Special, :sadpanda:

I can see how second hand sales might be somewhat vexing to anyone who makes anything at all. “Money is changing hands, and none of it is coming to meeeee!” This is clearly a crime, and probably a human rights abuse at that. Pretty much any object which is not Consume On Use has resale value, and is subsequently resold. While I’m sure car manufacturers would prefer it if we only ever bought new cars, we don’t, and you tend not to hear them bitching about it all, aside from the odd scrappage scheme here and there, itself an artificial scheme designed to create demand for greater international economic reasons. Perhaps a video game scrappage scheme is the way? Get the government to pay us all a subsidy to buy games new? Unlikely given the recent reduction in tax breaks for the video game industry in the UK. The Video Game Industry tends to complain about those too; how the industry is doomed unless it gets special leniency not available to other forms of commerce and trade. “Screw you guys, we’re off to Canada, where they do give out free government money for an apparently untenable entertainment industry!” I’m being cruel and ignorant, of course; I have no real idea of the figures involved, but to hear them tell it, the video games industry in particular, is a delicate and precious snowflake that should be protected from all forms of economic harm, because they bruise easily and have a serious condition, with a note from matron and everything, isn’t it though? Games like GTA IV only managed to gross half a billion dollars in their first week, but for just two pounds a month, you can make a difference, and give publishers like this, the Christmas they deserve! In short, everyone else (except the automotive industry) manages to get on with it somehow; why can’t games development?

All in all, I find myself with less sympathy than a gaming pundit ought to have when game developers and publishers start piling on the guilt. The implied blame being laid my door, me personally. I’M the one killing gaming, all by myself, just because I borrow the occasional title from a friend, or buy second hand. Cue Simon Bates! Perhaps if the things weren’t scatter-gunned at us with such frequency, and at such high prices, I’d be able to help out more? Whatever the release schedule and pricing model, I only have £X that I am prepared to spend on entertainment, and I suppose I am selfish in wanting that to go as far as possible. Bad, bad Van Hemlock and his unreasonable frugality. But instead of holding the metaphorical gun against the proverbial puppy’s head, and turning the whole situation into a hostage standoff, with ‘future titles’ as the hostage, why not look for alternative ideas; some form of resale levy on the Gamestops and GAMEs, ploughed back into the industry in some fashion? Perhaps off the back of the certification schemes – a minor fee to use the ESRB logos, who knows? Or why not stop spending $100 million on production each time? How about putting some thought into effective and discerning measures to combat The Ebil Pirates, too often used as a bogeyman to scare us real, genuine, paying customers into submission? Maybe we could solve all this by just making all video games Bind On Pickup!

Or yes, I suppose we could carry on with the current “Day-One DLC” thing, thus qualitatively worsening the product for second-hand usage and if taken far enough, effectively transforming all games into merely platforms for DLC. Ultimately, you could even give the base client away for free, and integrate the item shop directly into it, which all sounds somewhat familiar! Not ideal, but I guess it brings matters more closely in line with second hand clothing, books and so on, a kind of absurd, deliberately designed-in wear-and-tear levelling the field somewhat.

There is another thought I keep coming back in all this; perhaps we the players are merely pawns in a more lengthy and clandestine war between publisher and retailer. The fate of bricks and mortar stores is now inextricably linked to the fate of second hand sales of video games. In the long run, I suspect this is a hopeless argument, and my objections are moot anyway, as there are No Second Hand Games On Steam or the Xbox Live Arcade…