I have a very good friend who pirates games, he rarely if ever pirates movies or books, but he basically pirates every game that comes out. I finally confronted him about it one day, asking him how he could do that to the people that put so much hard work into making these games. The way he explained it was simple but very persuasive.
He said "because it's the only way I can try it out before I buyt it.". Think about it, there is almost nothing else on the planet that once you but it, it's yours and there is NOTHING you can do about it. You got game makers out there making "shovelware" just making anything they can do have something on the shelves, and then charging full price for it. You can listen to reviews to get a general idea about a game but that isn't foolproof. You can try on clothes, you can test drive cars, you can take bad food back, you can take back merchandise bought virtually anywhere but a media store for any number of reasons. With games/movies/music, once you buy it, it's yours. Now, I'll admit that the reason the rules are that way is because of piracy, you could buy it, copy it onto a HD and then return it. But that is the vast minority that would be doing that, especially with the encryptions they put on stuff. There is simply no way to know how good or bad a game is gonna be without cost. You could rent it first, but the price of doing that is going through the roof and makes a $60 game cost $68. If he likes a game and plans to continue playing it, he goes and buys it. If the game is bad or not interesting, he deletes it and moves on.
Not a bad justification for an illegal act, but a justification nonetheless.
