I never buy used games. I prefer an unopened and uncontaminated copy. I don’t buy music CD(s) or DVD(s) at garage sales either. I understand why people do, but I don’t. I prefer my money go to the people who created the product. The reality of software or any intellectual property is that you never own it. You only purchase the ability to use it. Software is licensed to a PC or particular user and is usually not transferable. Because we have the game disk, we think we can do whatever we want with it. We can loan it out or sell it. People do this with CD(s) and DVD(s) all the time. But you can’t do this with games, music or movies purchased through digital distribution and this is the real answer to the secondary market. I buy movies on VUDU knowing that I can’t resell them. I do the same thing with ITunes music and Steam games. I like the idea that I can move my libraries from PC to PC or from one device to another. I think Microsoft and Sony have every right to be able to do what Steam does. But if they’re smart they will follow Steam’s example and put the software on sale often enough and make it cheap enough that the thought of piracy or secondary markets is just not an issue.
One last thought on entertainment and life. Nothing really belongs to anyone. You can’t take it with you when you die. Your life, your consciousness is a collection of memories. You spend money on games to entertain yourself. If you enjoyed the game and it created some good times and good memories with friends and family then that was money well spent. If you spent money like we all have on a movie, music or a game that sucked, that too is a memory, and often a great conversation. We should appreciate the great experiences and understand that the bad ones make the good ones even better and stop complaining about everything as if the world owes us something.