This is only one of many issues that is slowly making the once lucrative game industry (which attracts artists and creative types) into an industrial practice of churning out carbon copy games.
RPGs, and any game where the value is primarily in the first play through are *severely* harmed by the resale business -- enough such that publishers tend to avoid them (not entirely, of course, since if you weed out all the competition this way, anyone who tries is bound to make at least some money). A game almost has to have multiplayer play to be warranted a permanent "keeper", and not re-enter the retail market at a used price.
Used games are one of the main reasons publishers are unwilling to take risks, and unwilling to make forays into new gaming territory, except in rare circumstances -- they cannot afford to. The price of a new game has hardly gone up since the NES days -- from about $40 to only $50 or $60, whereas other typical retail items have gone up *considerably* more in price. Used games are a problem -- one of the only things holding back the tide of resales is the ultra-low prices price-gouging places like GameStop are willing to pay for used titles.
Used games should be sold with a royalty, IMO. Heck, places like GameStop make most of their profits from used game sales, and the original authors of those titles don't see a dime of it. GameStop, the middleman, profits hugely from the artists who create these works, and the artists lose their jobs in return. This hurts the industry immensely. The vast majority of people working in the games industry have been doing so for less than 5 years. The burnout rate is fantastically high, because the pay generally sucks, and the work is just as hard as the rest of the tech sector. I cannot even begin to explain how valuable an experienced engineer, artist, or designer is in the games industry, and can't even fathom how much better the average quality of games would be if there were a significant number of experienced folks to hire -- i.e. that wanted to stay in the industry.
Ask yourself these questions, if you think used games sales, without some sort of royalty agreement, etc., are a good idea:
* Why make a console backwards compatible, when its largest effect is to hurt new game sales, and thus, your licensing income?
* Why make RPGs, or games where the storyline and single-player, first-play experience is the primary focus, when most of the people who will enjoy your work will do so at no benefit to you *at all*?
* Why bother with physical media, when you can permanently attach downloaded games to a single system to avoid this issue? Thus, if the hardware dies... the user has to pay again (unless you offer multiple licenses with a single purchase, like PSN does)
* If you work in the games industry, why stick around, if the pay sucks, because your publisher cannot afford to pay you a decent salary? The work is literally rocket science if you're an engineer, and the same goes for the other disciplines. There are lots of other jobs for people of that skill level and education that pay much better. Bugs == more from new folks. Boring carbon copy games == more from new folks, Boring stories == more from new hires, Lame art == more from new hires, etc.. Experience is everything.
