Remember when cartride games were $70+? I remember Phantasy Star 4 was prohibitively expensive. $80-100 because it was a larger cartridge. That was around the end of the Genesis lifecycle as well, so they produced it in limited numbers. I never got a copy. This was pre-Amazon days, so if you didn't get a game when it was out, you were screwed. I would have paid a high price for Snatcher, but it was so hard to find, by the time I got it months later at KB Toys, it was only $20.

I vote for $30 new games with the price gradually dropping to $20, the $15, then $10, then $5. $5 would be the realm of games that are good, but obsolete. It's not Gamestops fault honestly, gamers sell their games at the highest bidder so they can either get new games or get their money back for a bad purchase. Amazon is usually a place where you get a higher selling price for instance. Priced low enough, it just makes the idea of buying and selling used games a hassle. This is not the days where you had to scour around town looking for good games at pawn shops.

The Steam approach will get limited success, to the point it will get alot of devs/publishers richer, but it won't work if the price is wrong. I have loads of games on Steam, lots I haven't played. Oddly, the ONLY 3 purchases I regret are 1) Bored-erlands. Bland. Nuff said. 2) Street Fighter IV, I don't have time for it. Playing friends back in the day I could at least pretend I was decent. The computer isn't hard enough and players will selectively pick and choose who they fight on purpose so they can ensure they'll win or won't waste their time. 3) Section 8. Not bad, but not great. At $20 maybe, but not $60. In fact, I lost interest in the sequel because I felt so burnt by spending $60 on it. Funny thing is, I have quite a few games that suck and a few that are mediocre, but I regret none of the purchases at the fair prices at the Steam sales. $30 for Rage changes my perception of it, if feels underrated at that price, at $20 so does Transformers War for Cybertron. Honestly, if I had known what kind of game Fallout 3 was, I'd say it was worth more than $60, but $60 is still the hurt pocket price makes you think twice unless you were super sure that was the purchase you wanted to make most times. Arkham Aslum swept me off my feet at that price, whereas Resident Evil 5 didn't make me feel gyped until I realize how much of jerks people can be in co-op multiplayer. It wasn't scary enough and it wasn't action packed enough to put it next to titlles like Gears of War. $60 was right on the breaking point of making me feel silly about buying it, but it was high quality enough that I enjoyed it. I just wouldn't sing it's praises for $60.

I'm going to put it out there. I doubt most of us knew when we started buying used games that it was a problem, people buy used games and movies out of convenience. If you even so much as stop and think about it, you'd figure it out. That doesn't mean people won't take advantage of the convenience of a cheaper price and flexibility. I was in junior high before I started selling games. No one did it except the pawn shops, Electronic Boutique and Babbages dealt mostly in computer games and didn't start excepting trade-ins later. Pawn shops did the exact same thing that Gamestop did, except they did that with even lava lamps if they had a chance and routinely do. Pawn shops are about exploitation, most people when they get financially stable never use a pawn shop again...even though they still get the stuff they don't want anymore on Amazon. We used to just trade games with friends. If you liked your trade enough, you'd make it permanent, just like ball cards.

1) We all want to support the devs, that way we get better games and they can stay in business. Otherwise they tank, no more L.A. Noire for instance. If you don't want to support the devs, you won't be missed. 1a) Again, games are better than EVER, games have ALWAYS rehashed, but even the rehashes now are classics compared to old games. In fact, we used to want rehashes instead of sequels. Kind of how your Mom might read another author that reads just like Danielle Steel until the next Danielle Steel novel comes out. What we want are good games, the genres WILL repeat themselves, we just want if fresh that what they've been doing. People confuse technological innovation with creativity. There have been top down large world games for a while for instance, only a matter of time before they 3D tech let them do it sucessfully, then came games like Wind Waker and Grand Theft Auto 3, in the same gen no less.

2) It's not that we need used games, we just need assurance of value. Guys that like Call of Duty know it's worth $60 because they'll put 300 hours into it. People that like Elder Scrolls and Fallout will feel the same. However, if you make a bad decision, you want to be able to get you money back. You can get movie ticket refunds in certain circumstances, but the reason in most circumstances that you can't return movie, games, or music is because you can copy them. It's was never their idea for you to sell it. Remember when VHS tapes used to be new video game prices? No? They wised up. New movies are $20 or less now. People used to give away used movies before they sold them...however, selling movies used in quantity has become convenient.

2a) People just want the opportunity to sell their game if they don't like it, or to trade it's value for something else, that' only necessary with a game because of it's cost. $60 is an investment. They wouldn't sell as many new games if it weren't for used games.

2b)They just need to lower prices and hold-outs who would have purchased them used will just buy them new AND earlier just like with movies and music. Even with books many will wait for the paperback because it's cheaper. Used is any afterthought in those cases. It started out just like used games, people going to record stores to find music they don't sell anymore, pawn shops, or places like Half-priced books that specialized in old or new overstock books, and other popular media. Lowering the price of new items makes shopping for used stuff a hobby. Not one of us actually thought they would find all the old issues of the furry comics we used to find used, but we couldn't find them new either.

3a)There are alot of people that prefer console over PC because of this. I'm still regretting my Borderlands and Dragon Age 1&2 purchases like I said before. We used to just say they weren't working and some employees would give us a refund or they sat on the shelf until a friend wanted to trade for it.
3b)People WOULD stop buying as many new games. $60 is prohibitive.

In conclusion, We don't need to exaggerate about the quality or length of games, they're fine. They should be charging cheaper prices or learning how to separate multiplayer from single player budgets. Games are plenty good and plenty long, their pricing structure just needs to be more varied and they need to make the leap from renting/demoing to purchase an impulse buy. When movies became cheap it was nothing to purchase a movie you loved at the theater on DVD.

I guess what most people are raging over is that USED games aren't really the problem. Piracy isn't either, neither are rentals. You can even sell your old action figures if you get tired of them. Granted the price is cheap enough people won't bother or they'll want to hold onto what they have. I still have an old copy of Panza Dragoon Saga and I'll keep a copy of Forest Gump and Color Purple on DVD and when I get a Blu-Ray player I'll upgrade. No doubt Arkham City isn't a kid who used to play with action figure's wet dream. Who would trade that if they didn't get so much money back for it? Even if Gamestop sell it back with a huge markup, I don't think that's their goal. It's just not their problem.