Game Exchange Suggestion Box

[Zotar]

Originally Posted by Sever OFF

Sounds great!! But I don't know how you would secure the exchange. I suppose it would have to be an exchange on good faith. And if that is the case then no worries from me. I would never try to take advantage of anyone being that it has happened to me and I hated it.

But I am in the u.s. and already want to send Miss Lockheart C.C. when it first comes out here. In exchange I wanted FFVI or possible FFVIII. I am sure this would work and it is a great idea.

That is a fair point. perhaps all exchange arrangements should be posted on this site so that all those participateing would bear witness. Moreover, If you feel you can't trust the person(s) involved to see through to his or her part of the bargian, you might as well not initiate the bargian in the first place. And we mods can always ban that person.

I do have another idea. Perhaps one of use could act as a middle man to see that both sides fulfill thier parts of the bargian. If one dosn't come through, that middle man could mail the game(s) back to its owner. But again that pretty much adds another person would you would need to trust (or not Trust). What we would need in that event is insurence, and/or compensation and/or collateral.

Those are my thoughts.

[Sever OFF]

Thats not a bad idea either. The middle man could get the tracking numbers and confirm. Or if possible receive both packages check them and re-mail them. Though shipping charges would go up

[Miss Lockheart]

If we were to choose a forum member to do that job it would have to be someone who's regular with this place and I agree, who can be trusted. I've tried to look for some info on this but I can't seem to find much, so I guess we shall have to come up with our own rules. Anyone know much about the shipping process itself? That seems like the biggest obstacle to be honest. and of course there's data protection too, since people's addresses will be involved.

[Tidus2791]

I like this idea because Game shops where i live suck and only have the recent FF games.

Hmm, maybe i'll stop by the post office to see if i can get any details on shipping stuff out tomorrow after school.

[NeoFighter5]

hmmm. . . .hey, maybe we should get the supposed middle person to send a game or something to the high authority in this place. . .like miss lockheart or zotar. . .this as a token of trust. . .it would basically be a sort of deposit. . .in case said person cant hold its end of the bargain. . .the deposit it self needs to be an item of high value. . .something that would be worth enough to pay for both items lost should the person not deliver the goods. . .my own personal idea was to simply send cash. . .may be up of 100 USD. . .its just an idea, and i can say more but. . .you may notice that this scheme now involves four ppl. . .the mod, the middle person, and the two making the exchange. . .

i believet the easy way is to do what some of you have already said. . .look at how the system works in other websites that operate such a system themselves. . .honestly, banning someone is not punishment enough. . .

otherwise, it all falls on word of mouth alone. . .which im all for. . .may i say i trust you all?. . .i
do. . .

by the way, are things over in europe really that bad?. . .man, i thought we had it bad with japan getting everything before us. . .

[Miss Lockheart]

It's all true. Often European release dates can come months after the US, which altogether makes it roughly a year after the Japan release date. Sometimes we get lucky with a joint release date with the US, but it's not that often. I was hoping that would happen with CC but there's been no news so I assume it probably won't get a release in Europe until August time. Thank God for the UMD, which means I can just play the American version on my PSP ^^

Oh that brings up another problem though- systems. It might be futile sending an American a European game, it might not work on their system (we run on PAL, same as China). We woud have to make sure that's cleared up as part of the rules.

Going on my experience of postage, I used to send fairly heavy packages to China for anything between £3 ($5-6) and £7 ($13-14). I'm assuming shipping costs to European or American countries wouldn't even be that much, because they are inside the Western zone (going on trade). So depending on how much you spend on the game itself, hopefully shipping wouldn't be that big a deal. Probably more expensive if we have a middle-man, but I've rarely had a problem with Airmail and games are usually light enough to keep the price low (PS1 games probably being the heaviest).

Food for thought there. I would agree with Neofighter that I can trust everyone on this forum (one of the benefits of being small) to do this thing properly, but if there's going to be a middle man we should get some candidates named and start a vote on it, once we've sorted out some of these other details.

[MidgarFanatic]

Oh goodness, and I thought we in North America had it bad having to wait just up to half a year for a game after it's released in Japan, I always forget that Europe gets their games even later than we do. If I lived in Europe that would drive me crazy having to wait while everyone in NA has their fill. :P yikes.

Overall I think this game exchange program is a good idea, it would be a great way to allow new friends to share some of their favorite games. I just worry about the confidentiality angle of it. I'm sure everyone would understand the importance of keeping personal information (such as mailing addresses) to PMs only. Interesting idea guys.

[Revenant]

^ Nice pic, dude! Did you do it yourself?

[Miss Lockheart]

Ok so to break it down (because I'm supposed to be cleaning and inevitably procrastinating ^^) here are the main issues raised that need to be resolved and agreed on-

1. Confidentiality is the biggest issue IMO, because people would need to submit their addresses to someone they can trust not to misuse their information. I know too well about this subject, having just had a restraining order banning a person from my house relaxed (lazy police can't be arsed renewing it because the person hasn't attacked me or Jonny for a year ). Anyways, this can probably be handled using PMs, but that takes us to the next point-

2. The idea of appointing a person/people to act as referee over the exchanges, and possibly a "middle man" who can act as a go-between to ensure deliveries go through. Again, it's a big trust issue, and also I would think about the location of this person geographically, in order to keep shipping costs to a minimum. It would make no sense for someone in America/Canada to post to someone in America/Canada to get a game to someone in Europe, as just one example. Perhaps there could be a person in each zone to deal with close postage and then someone to deal with further afield deliveries. It's complicated, but it would keep costs down ^^

3. Shipping costs themselves. I don't think they are too expensive, going on my own experience, but not everyone is as tolerant of the postal service and their extortionate costs as I am. I'm not sure about the collateral idea because it's again creating extra cost, bumping the price up to well above the game's worth. Remember some people mught only pay a pittance for a used game, no use spending double or triple just to send it somewhere.

4. Finally what to do if things go wrong. Someone has to police the swapshop, and a set of rules should be created in order to protect against arguments and such. I'm sure we can all be mature about that, as long as we work together and all agree on the rules and the person who enforces them.

That's all I can think of so far

[Zotar]

To Miss Lockheart: She shoots... She scores!!! yes those are all the general problems.

To Neophyte... Um... i mean NeoFighter5: If we elect a middle-man. He or She has to be able to afford shipping the games to and from. And Im poor...

To Revenent: That was way off topic...

To Tidus: You do that.

To Sever OFF: Excellent!