The gaming industry is going through some tough times. "We're not making as much money as before, and it's all because of the used-game economy!" cries all the big publishers. But as much of a taboo as it may be, the fact remains that I love buying pre-owned games.

As a consumer, I can't afford to buy a $60 game every time there's a big release. When I was a kid, I had to save up for weeks just to buy a $30 title to feed my Nintendo Game Boy. Even as I'm finally getting my first paycheck in the next few weeks, most of it will be going toward other things: food, rent, booze, and, you know, life.

A game isn't like a movie in that it's not something that has a set budget with a set duration. I can easily schedule in a film because I know it's going to cost me around $10 and around two to three hours.

Games, on the other hand, start anywhere from $30 to $60 (plus a potential monthly fee) and may very well take me twenty to fifty hours to complete (if I'm lucky). And while I wish I can say that I'm excited to dedicate fifty hours of my life leveling up or collecting all 100 feathers in Assassin's Creed 2, the same fifty hours can -- and sometimes have to -- be spent elsewhere, like buying groceries, going on dates, and again, as you know, living a life.

And then there is all the shit that game publishers do. Like rehashing the same game two to three times over the course of a year: Game of the Year Edition, Ultimate Edition, Arcade Edition, Off the Record Edition...whatever. No sane person is going to buy at full retail price for all of that. And by releasing all these different editions across so many games, publishers are pretty much telling me to hold off from buying on day one since there will always be better, if not more refined, versions of the games coming out just around the corner.

So where does buying pre-owned games come in? When I can get the same game for a cheaper price. They come in as a trial to see how the original Darksiders is before buying the upcoming Darksiders 2 at full retail price. They come in when I can sell my now-defunct regular version of the game in exchange for the now flashier, complete edition of the game.

If the pre-owned game economy ceased to exist, then consumers would be more wary of buying video games, period. Without used games, the $60 price tag would then be considered a hard cost. What might've been a "buy now, think later" mentality now becomes "well, let me sleep on it." It's also one less reason to buy Madden or Call of Duty this year as opposed to next year or the year after that.

Buying pre-owned games is also more environmentally friendly. It may be a silly point to some, but it's one of the main reasons why I continue to prefer buying used games. Instead of a title going by the wayside or left behind in the attic, I get to be active and give the product a second life.

I wrote about my feelings toward digital downloads before, and I'm still skeptical about it all even if it's inevitable. Game publishers seem to be banking on it as a way to kill off the used-games market, but I ultimately think it's more harm than good to limit a legal method for consumers to make a purchase.

Remember, while iTunes is a success story in combating piracy and physical media, even they had to succumb to getting rid of digital-rights management (DRM) that was already in place. Consumers want to own what they buy, not be limited by the content or be treated like criminals.

Maybe the problem isn't one of maximizing profits to please those finicky shareholders but of creating products that are appealing enough to be worth buying at full price. Maybe it's not so much as crying foul over the fact that people buy used games but learning why people do it in order to win that segment over.

Gamers are constantly growing up, so maybe it's time the game publishers do, too.