Then there is the issue of buying games, and how do we buy them. I tend to always buy mine new, in those shinny boxes or the newer plastic cases (which I like much more). I am in college to study game programming, as it is an industry I wish to join here soon, so I feel that I should support them. Moreover, support them I do, as I buy about 4 – 6 games a month, since I have pretty much do not play MMO’s right now. Nothing out there worth the time, effort, or money, nothing is fun like other genres. I really don’t mind people who get their games used or just rent them. Heck, with the way the industry is moving, renting them just might be the less risk venture in finding games that are actually fun to play again.

Seems like the second golden age of video gaming might be coming to an end. As product after product is coming out and just feels ‘blah’, Unlike the late 80’s and the early part of this century.

Hey, if Netflix and GameFly didn’t have awesome selection and service, and if they didn’t save their customers a lot of money, then the game makers would be doing just fine. But feeling sympathy for an outmoded business strategy is like feeling sympathy for the dinosaurs: it’s either adapt or perish. If they want, they can start making games that are so awesome that people want to buy them (for half the price they are now) so they can play them over and over again. But until quality gets that good and price gets that low, I’ll be updating my GameQ and saving myself some money in the process.

World of Warcraft, PS2 (Guitar Hero, Sims2, Kingdom hearts) and text muds covered my entertainment needs for the past year (WoW expansion probably will cover next 6 months as well). So I am not a great consumer either.

But, any company which has especially annoyed me in the last few years (like, oh, canceling a B5 game) means I won’t buy their games new. And for reference, I won’t buy *ANY* major label-affiliated music new.

Books? I buy a lot of Baen ebooks. Physical books, I tend to go second hand, and have, well, a mildly impressive scifi collection.

I do like to rent it first or play a demo though, just to make sure its not crap, but if i like it ill buy it, recently games ive purchased in the last year include Football Manager 2007,2006, X3 Re-union, Oblivion, Civilization, Sims expansions packs, EA tiger woods - ice hockey etc, I dont regret buying them for full price, i actually think they deserve the money, Ive also spent about $1000 to $2000 Aus aswell on IRE games, the majority on Achaea which i also dont regret.

Eventually i think they make you download the game and you’ll get a licence thats easilly trackable to try and limit piracy and swapping, this way they cut down on costs of manufacturing and will increase profits.

I agree some games aren’t worth fullprice, so you might by them secondhand but there’s still the entertainment value of the product to consider and maybe the manufacturers should get something.

I personally thinks its a bit hard and unfair to compare buying a used car to buying a used game. they are different products with different uses, people dont mind shelling out $100 dollars to go to live band play for 4 hours but complain when they have to shell out $60 for a game that lasts 10 times as long. I guess its all just a matter of perspective

I almost never go see movies in the theatre and stopped buying DVDs a year or so ago when I finally signed up for Netflix. I lease a new car, but if I weren’t doing that, I’d happily be purchasing a used car, and I love used bookstores. My laptop is used (they call it refurbished). I’m not into “antiques” but lots of people buy used furniture. I just think the game developers that complain about it need to look around and realize that they’re asking for a privilege no other product enjoys, and that in all likelihood they themselves do exactly what they’re asking other people not to do.