Dear Gamefly,

I’m sorry to say, it’s time we had The Talk. While I really appreciate that we gave Us another try, it’s just not working out for me. This time though, it’s not you, it’s me.

You promised to get better and you did. When we were last together, your turn-around times were awful. I’d spend 2 weeks or more alone each month, waiting to hear back from you. It kind of broke my heart, seeing that empty mail box every day.

You’ve gotten so much better and 2 weeks has become 4 days. Even I can be alone for 4 days without becoming sad.

So why am I leaving you? Frankly, it’s the scheduling. I’m a spontaneous soul. Mercurial! I admit it, I want what I want when I want it. Call me spoiled. Serial monogamy isn’t my style.

I’m sure I really wanted to play Alan Wake when I slipped it into my queue, but when you arrived last week with Mr. Wake in tow, I was enjoying the tender mercies of Vindictus and Guild Wars. You and Alan waited patiently, it’s true, but I started feeling guilty about ignoring you. So last night I tore myself away from those others and gave my attention to you.

Was it good for you? It wasn’t good for me. It felt somehow hollow. It felt, and please forgive me for being so blunt, it felt like a chore. Spending time with a game should never feel like a chore. Please relay my apologies to Alan Wake. I’m sure under other circumstances I would’ve been delighted with his company.

I sent you and Alan Wake away this morning, and honestly it was a relief to have you gone. Then I looked at my queue and felt little but apathy. I wanted Guild Wars. I wanted Vindictus. Hell, I even wanted EQ2. I didn’t want Alice with her Madness Returning, at least not right now. Maybe some day. But not today.

And that’s why you and I will never work out, Gamefly. I just can’t schedule my needs in advance, and I can’t bear the idea of you sitting in the living room, waiting patiently, while I’m in the office enjoying the charms of another. You deserve better than that.

I hope you find someone who can appreciate your charms, Gamefly. But I’m not that person.

But I do wish you well,

-Pete

PS I still have a month left on my account so keep sending moar gamez until then, dammit!

Honestly I’m not a fan of Gamefly. It feels too expensive and in the past the service has been really slow for me. But I had a ‘secret code’ to get two months for the price of one (click the joystick at the top right corner and enter code “Confirmed” to get the deal – that code comes from the Weekend Confirmed podcast) so I figured I’d give it another shot, given the thoughts fluttering around in my head.

After watching E3 I got a hankering to go back and play some games that have sequels coming out this year. I loved Resistance: Fall of Man back when the PS3 launched, but I never played Resistance 2 (and never heard much good about it) but with Resistance 3 coming soon, I had the urge to get a copy of R2, put it on Easy Difficulty and blow through it in order to catch up with the story.

Ditto Gears of War 3. I played about half of Gears 1 but Epic’s Cliff Bleszinski was lamenting the fact that no one ever talks about the Gears storyline, which he thinks is quite good. I was willing to give it another go, but no longer own Gears 1 and never tried Gears 2.

And etc, etc. But the point was, I was in the mood to get copies of these games and blast through them on easy mode and as quickly as possible. That sounded like a good match for Gamefly.

We’ll see. I signed up yesterday and today they’re sending out my first game, Crysis 2 (PS3) which was somewhere around #5 on my queue. I do want to play Crysis 2 so I’m not complaining but it was odd that a relatively new game that far down my queue is what’s getting sent, when old and unloved Resistance 2 is sitting in position 1. I guess it’s a matter of inventory, though.

I’m expecting to be disappointed with the service, but we’ll see. If the game arrives before the weekend I’ll be pleasantly surprised, and honestly I’m already feeling a bit of buyer’s remorse from having signed up.