New or Used?

I need to make my post today a little short, because I'm pretty busy with some pre-finals week school work. Basically, I want to lay down what sort of opinion I have when it comes to buying used games.

I don't want to say whether or not they should exist right now (that's a whole other topic), but in the present day, they're here, and they can be very useful.

New Games

• Having a new game before anyone else on release day can get you a "15 minutes of fame" moment among your friends, and playing said new game with these friends is all that much sweeter.
• Buying a game new ensures that the developers get the money they so rightly deserve for putting hard work into their product.
• A new game is exactly what it is: New. There is very little to no chance at all that the product you are buying will have any imperfections, like scratches on the disc.
• Pre-ordering and receiving special bonuses for doing so are usually associated with buying a newly released game.
• Personally, I get a special kind of feeling unwrapping and peeling the sticks off of a new game, because usually you're too excited to care about throwing away the trash and rush right to shoving the disc in your game console.

Used Games

• They are always cheaper, which is nice for those of us on a budget.
• They are almost always available with the exception of big, popular titles that everybody pre-orders. There is usually never a shortage of a used game that was released a few months back.
• There are usually better return policies with used games because of the risk involved with the disc being damaged (though to be fair the retailer should be in charge of repairing damages before they sell them).
•  Retailers usually have good deals for buying used games, like buying two and getting a third one free.
• In the end, you're doing the same thing that you would be doing had you bought it new. If you're patient enough, you can wait a little while and substitute spending money for time.

Personally, if I like the developers and what they make, do, and stand for, then I will always buy their games new. To be fair though, I do have a budget (especially being a relatively broke college Junior), and for those times of year where new releases are falling from the sky, I will usually get my priorities first and wait for either a price drop or some used game sales to pop up before acquiring everything I want.

Of course, I haven't gotten the chance to buy all the games I want, and I never will. Again, broke college kid.