A Short Blog On Disc Care

danielkempster

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Edited By danielkempster

I'm a pretty careful guy. I always take care when handling fragile possessions, and seldom damage or deface anything through misuse or neglect. Never is this more true than with discs. As an owner of over two hundred CDs, fifty DVDs and over one hundred and fifty disc-based video games, I go to great lengths to ensure my collections are well looked after and immaculately preserved. You'd only have to look at some of my PS1 discs to realise this: discs that I've owned for over ten years have only fallen prey to slight surface marks and the occasional fingerprint. I am very much a stickler when it comes to disc care, to the point where I've become very reluctant to lend out my games to even my closest friends. In the past I've had discs come back covered in scratches, smudges, sticky substances and, in one instance, a chunk of the disc missing. I can't abide people who don't treat their discs with anything other than the utmost care. There isn't much that pisses me off more than seeing somebody holding a disc with their fingers all over the data surface, or leaving discs out of their cases.

Yet, poor disc care is something that continuously seems to come back around and periodically bite me on the arse. The reason for this is my tendency to buy old games. These games tend to be very difficult to come by and incredibly expensive if bought new, so I tend to buy them second-hand. The upside to this is obvious: second-hand games are easy to find and pretty cheap nowadays, too. The downside is that you have no guarantee the game's previous owner is as careful with discs as you are. In fact, based on my previous experience with second-hand game purchases, there seems to be a very strong correlation between the kind of people who trade in games at retail stores and the kind of people who don't give a damn about their game discs. This is a shame, because all too often it results in gamers like myself getting done over.

Over the Easter break, I ordered a copy of the PS2 action/adventure game Primal from CeX's online store. For those of you who aren't aware of CeX, they're a company that deal exclusively in second-hand goods. It's a great place to go if, like me, you're the kind of gamer who likes picking up old titles that you may have missed years ago. The downside is, despite insisting they utilise a strict disc-testing policy, games that are scratched beyond readability make their way into your hands far more often than is acceptable. Primal, unfortunately, was one such case. After having a blast with Soul Reaver 2, and being a fan of SCE Studio Cambridge's other games (notably the MediEvil series), I decided to pick up Primal and found it on the CeX site for a paltry £1.50. After holding off on starting the game for a few weeks, due to being preoccupied with Dead Space and Metal Gear Solid 4, I finally got around to starting it yesterday. And starting it is pretty much all I did. After about five minutes, the game seized up and refused to load. I cleaned the disc, reset the PS2 and tried again, only to have the same thing happen again. After a third attempt garnered the same result, I grudgingly gave up and declared the disc a casualty of neglect. Sadly, it's too late for me to return the game to CeX, but considering it was only £1.50 I'm not too bothered about that. What bothers me more is the fact that as a direct result of somebody else's blatant disregard for the welfare of their game discs, I've been cheated out of what might have been a great gaming experience. In the future, I'll be making all my second-hand purchases in shops, so I can check the condition of the game discs before I take them home.

In other game-related news, I'm about thirteen hours into Final Fantasy V and I'm actually starting to enjoy it. The plot seems to finally be picking up the pace, and the characters all have an undeniable charm that makes the delivery of the story more entertaining than the story itself most of the time. I'm also still in possession of my flat mate's PS3 following our console swap, and I'm becoming increasingly tempted to check out Prince of Persia before I have to return it to her. I also caved in to peer pressure and ordered myself a copy of Persona 4 last week, so I'm waiting on that to arrive in the post. That being said, I probably won't have time to play it until the summer due to the current educational climate. I'm currently sitting my end-of-year exams for my first year of University. I sat my first exam this morning, which went pretty well, and I have three more over the next two weeks. It's a very daunting time for me, and most of my free time is being taken up with revision, so I'm not playing many video games right now. Anyway, thanks for reading guys. I'll see you around.

DanK

---

Currently playing - Final Fantasy V (PS1)

14 years ago

danielkempster

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#1 Edited By danielkempster

I'm a pretty careful guy. I always take care when handling fragile possessions, and seldom damage or deface anything through misuse or neglect. Never is this more true than with discs. As an owner of over two hundred CDs, fifty DVDs and over one hundred and fifty disc-based video games, I go to great lengths to ensure my collections are well looked after and immaculately preserved. You'd only have to look at some of my PS1 discs to realise this: discs that I've owned for over ten years have only fallen prey to slight surface marks and the occasional fingerprint. I am very much a stickler when it comes to disc care, to the point where I've become very reluctant to lend out my games to even my closest friends. In the past I've had discs come back covered in scratches, smudges, sticky substances and, in one instance, a chunk of the disc missing. I can't abide people who don't treat their discs with anything other than the utmost care. There isn't much that pisses me off more than seeing somebody holding a disc with their fingers all over the data surface, or leaving discs out of their cases.

Yet, poor disc care is something that continuously seems to come back around and periodically bite me on the arse. The reason for this is my tendency to buy old games. These games tend to be very difficult to come by and incredibly expensive if bought new, so I tend to buy them second-hand. The upside to this is obvious: second-hand games are easy to find and pretty cheap nowadays, too. The downside is that you have no guarantee the game's previous owner is as careful with discs as you are. In fact, based on my previous experience with second-hand game purchases, there seems to be a very strong correlation between the kind of people who trade in games at retail stores and the kind of people who don't give a damn about their game discs. This is a shame, because all too often it results in gamers like myself getting done over.

Over the Easter break, I ordered a copy of the PS2 action/adventure game Primal from CeX's online store. For those of you who aren't aware of CeX, they're a company that deal exclusively in second-hand goods. It's a great place to go if, like me, you're the kind of gamer who likes picking up old titles that you may have missed years ago. The downside is, despite insisting they utilise a strict disc-testing policy, games that are scratched beyond readability make their way into your hands far more often than is acceptable. Primal, unfortunately, was one such case. After having a blast with Soul Reaver 2, and being a fan of SCE Studio Cambridge's other games (notably the MediEvil series), I decided to pick up Primal and found it on the CeX site for a paltry £1.50. After holding off on starting the game for a few weeks, due to being preoccupied with Dead Space and Metal Gear Solid 4, I finally got around to starting it yesterday. And starting it is pretty much all I did. After about five minutes, the game seized up and refused to load. I cleaned the disc, reset the PS2 and tried again, only to have the same thing happen again. After a third attempt garnered the same result, I grudgingly gave up and declared the disc a casualty of neglect. Sadly, it's too late for me to return the game to CeX, but considering it was only £1.50 I'm not too bothered about that. What bothers me more is the fact that as a direct result of somebody else's blatant disregard for the welfare of their game discs, I've been cheated out of what might have been a great gaming experience. In the future, I'll be making all my second-hand purchases in shops, so I can check the condition of the game discs before I take them home.

In other game-related news, I'm about thirteen hours into Final Fantasy V and I'm actually starting to enjoy it. The plot seems to finally be picking up the pace, and the characters all have an undeniable charm that makes the delivery of the story more entertaining than the story itself most of the time. I'm also still in possession of my flat mate's PS3 following our console swap, and I'm becoming increasingly tempted to check out Prince of Persia before I have to return it to her. I also caved in to peer pressure and ordered myself a copy of Persona 4 last week, so I'm waiting on that to arrive in the post. That being said, I probably won't have time to play it until the summer due to the current educational climate. I'm currently sitting my end-of-year exams for my first year of University. I sat my first exam this morning, which went pretty well, and I have three more over the next two weeks. It's a very daunting time for me, and most of my free time is being taken up with revision, so I'm not playing many video games right now. Anyway, thanks for reading guys. I'll see you around.

DanK

---

Currently playing - Final Fantasy V (PS1)

14 years ago

crunchUK

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#2 Edited By crunchUK

MY 360 is constantly killing my disks :'( 3 of them (2 halo 3s and a gears 2) have a giant crack going outward from the center

14 years ago

Rheinmetall

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#3 Edited By Rheinmetall

I'm the same as you with discs, and books as well. I think you shouldn't entirely exclude the on-line shopping. I've bought 6 second-hand games from eBay, and I was quite satisfied from their condition. The key is to buy from good sellers who have always the honesty to sescribe accurately the condition of the games that they are selling. Also, regarding the disk failure, there is a slight posibility, that it's the console which is malfunctioning. Especially if the console is aged, and is exposed in an environment with smoke. Also DVD movies is said, that they can corrupt very rapidly the laser-lense of the PS2 console.

14 years ago

Godwind

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#4 Edited By Godwind

I take care of discs. I hate it when people try to blotch up my disks with their bullshit. I hate it.

14 years ago

GreggD

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#5 Edited By GreggD

When I was young, I wasn't too careful with my discs. But with maturity, comes an air of responsibility. I treat every disc I come in contact with like it's worth a million dollars. My collection is bountiful, and I'd hate to lose any of them due to poor care.

14 years ago

ShadowKiller

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#6 Edited By ShadowKiller

I hate it when I see people mistreat discs. One recent case was when I bought a brand new COD4: GOTY and I brought it to school to lend it to a friend while I needed to study for a test. His girlfriend said he plays enough Xbox and she ruined my brand new game... the only reason that it works is because I installed it to my HDD.

14 years ago

RandomHero666

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#7 Edited By RandomHero666

Im the only person i know that cares about their discs.

My Mate, and my Brother both have stacks of discs on a shelf, i had a look through my brothers stack the other day, DVD's, music CD's and a few pc games were in there, all scratched to shit, there was even a few super rare DVD's in there which can only be bought on ebay =[

No respect at all.

14 years ago

maxszy

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#8 Edited By maxszy

I don't get how people can mistreat discs to start with. I mean, where does one think "Oh I don't care if my $60 game gets scratched. It'll be fine." *shrug* Then again, I take care of all my thing with care whereas some people just throw shit anywhere.

14 years ago