The obsession with "new" goes completely over my head. Lately I have been playing The Witcher 1 and Legend of Dragoon...not exactly the most fresh games to be released but I'm still having fun with them. When I get my hands on a game actually has zero impact on how much I will enjoy the game, so when I see people paying full price (or more in some cases) to gamble on a game it just blows my mind. Why don't people just wait and see if the game is actually worth 60$?

Even still, I think most people would acknowledge that pre-ordering isn't really a good idea even if they are obsessed with new-ness. I don't really understand how anyone can think that more preordering would be good for the industry in anyway.

The issue isn't the preorder system itself but how it is treated. Preorders should be treated as votes of confidence of the absolute highest degree, nearly on the level of KS backing. It should be based on past experience with the company whose product you are preordering, their consistency, what information is available, etc etc. All information should be considered thuroughly, especially the track record portion, before a preorder is made. And if you get burnt by a preorder, that should have a heavy, heavy impact on whether or not you preorder from that company next time. The issue is that while some may do this, most take the path of "that trailer looked cool! I'll preorder!" without taking the time to realize that ANY GAME can look cool in a trailer, especially with the heavy CG abuse going on in the industry right now. And it's these types of preorders - the ones driven by over-hype culture - that are starting to decline, because such preorders are quite common with the big annual or semi-annual blockbusters.

Yes, agree, if a pre-order is to be made those steps should be taken. If I may pick your brain for a moment:

What do you believe the incentive is to pre-order in the first place? So far I've had the answer of bonuses and guaranteed day 1 arrival, which are valid points to a degree but things which I do not consider to be worthy incentive.

I preorder to get games day 1.

That hasn't happenedd today with Tropico 5... :(

It's going to varry from person to person.  Some want the preorder bonuses.  Others just want it day 1.  With Steam, for example, preordering means you can play immediately at the launch moment if you let it pre-load.  Other times it's brand loyalty, which is fine to a degree so long as the above steps are taken since you want to promote companies with good merrits.  But I think the guaranteed day 1 is still a major aspect of it.  It's a convenience thing, even moreso if you only buy from brick and mortar stores since those actually can run out of stock at times. 

On a side note, I preorder very rarely both for financial reasons and because not many companies, imo, meet a standard where I can be totally confident.  One time I did preoder was with Total War: Rome II.  In my experience, Creative Assembly had been pretty consistent, Empire not withstanding (which I still enjoyed) and had just come off Shogun 2.  All information on the game looked good, etc.  Suffice it to say that I got burned.  In situations like that, imo there's only one legitimate response:  don't preorder from them again until they have established a pattern of quality and consistency and transperency in pre-release promotion.  Which is exactly what I am doing. 

Thank you for the response. Ready for some abstract?

I am going to take a different route and extract a little Adorno. I believe some of this has to do with the idea of culture industry; being taught to buy and not to think. The idea that it feels good to be a consumer. Buy it now rather than later and you may get a little bonus. More than that, the idea that we things may not be this good later on (we might miss out on something!), so we'd better buy it right this instant. The idea of conformity; we want to be part of the elite group that owns the game before it is even released. The feeling that we were a part of it somehow. I wouldn't necessarily call it commodity fetishism, but becoming a pre-orderer is very attractive to the consumer.

probably because of all the buggy/bad games released

I preorder myself though mostly Nintendo games as I know what I'm putting my money on

I only peorder games that i want to have and know they will deliver, and only if they offer some kind of collectors/special/limited edition like a steelbook at least. If its just a standard edition box it feels like i can wait some weeks or months.

I went on a huge preorder spree last year. This year...not so much. In fact, I haven't preordered a single game so far. I think I'm only going to do it for games that I'm worried about the stock (Fatal Frame V) or ones that have limited editions or bonuses (maybe Yoshi's Woolly World and for sure Zelda U). Otherwise, I think I'll just wait until the day of launch.

Don't have anything against people who preorder often though. Unless you're someone that preorders from companies that release broken games and complain about said games being broken, yet still preorder again and again. That's just ridiculous.