I have no problem paying a premium price for games because of what they offer me in return for the extra money I pay in comparison to what I get from comparable media. The closest of which is probably films. Yes even though films cost more to make they cost me less to both watch at the cinema and buy the blu-ray than what I pay for a game, I am willing to let that go as films can get boring very fast but a good game can potentially give me years of entertainment, but lets not forget that not all games are made equal, yet we are expected to pay that premium ether way.

Which is where second_hand games come in, and if a game is not worth the price that the original owner has paid you can bet there will be a multitude of pre-owned copy's available from dissatisfied players wanting to get some of their money back, and as game shops don't seem to offer any sort of returns policy nowadays (unless the game doesn't work) that's the only choice they have.

So that is why I strongly disagree with the Online Pass system that the publishers seem to think they are justified in using. These days if a game has online as a option generally its because the single player portion(assuming it has one) of the game wouldn't justify the price. before the mass popularity of online, games in general had much longer story's so the cost of a modern game includes the multiplayer portion of the game.

As all legal copies of games are bought new at some point the online server cost has already been paid for by the original owner of the game. And as new games in a series are released company's like EA shut down servers for the previous instalment of the game so people continuing to play online after a game has been out for a longer time because of second-hand game sales isn't a valid excuse.

The simple fact is that if a game is good more people will buy it new and will be less inclined to trade it in, on the other hand if we just sit back and let publishers/developer's get away with this then they will have less of a motivation to make games have replay value. why should they be bothered if you don't feel you got your money's worth, they have your money, and that of everyone that buys that same already paid for copy after you.

Furthermore its not just us customers that will suffer if things are allowed to go on but the game industry of the future. When I was a kid I couldn't afford new games but having a cheaper option made me a "Gamer" so nowadays if I like a game most of the time buy it new to get it first, with out that option I would probably have been forced to pick a cheaper hobby and wouldn't be one of the games industry's costumers now.

I know that many of us have grown up looking at game company's with respect and even admiration but just as we would stand up to a friend that doesn't treat us with respect we should do the same with these companies.

We have to make a stand with our wallets and our keyboard's or this sort of thing will not only continue but if history is anything to go buy it will get worse. First it was DLC that should have been included and now this. What's next?