My bro works at gamestop, my friend is the manager of best buy. I'm usually playing the game a day to 3 days before the release. I pay nothing.. they just let me borrow it or have it. I don't play much games though.
I usually pre-order games that I pretty much know I'm gonna like. So far I only have The Last Story pre-ordered but I'll place more orders later. Also I usually use Amazon because release date delivery at no extra cost is awesome.
Every time a game I know I'll like comes out, if there is a limited edition that I'm interested or there's a niche game that I know it won't come to the shop unless I pre-order it. Otherwise, I'll buy them later when they are cheap.
I don't really preorder unless there is a new fighter of interest or just another interesting game in general.
The last game I preordered was either Dark Souls or Skyrim, can't remember.
Record of Agarest War 2 LE
Lollipop Chainsaw
Phantom Breaker LE
Resident Evil 6 and Assassin Creed III. I know its a long time till release but nothing wrong wit doing it now.
I only pre-order if I get extra goodies for the game if I do so. Otherwise no, because I don't usually buy games on the first couple days they're realized.(excluding pokemon)
Last game I pre-order from Best Buy was FFXIII-2 Collector's Edition.
Want to preorder this new KH, but its not up in Gamestop/Amazon/Best Buy in Canada. D:
I only pre-order stuff I know I will get long-time value out of.
To this date I've pre-ordered:
WoTLK and BC (back when I still played WoW)
Diablo 3
Guild Wars 2
SSFIV AE PC
SFxT (just need it to get fixed)
DoWII Retribution
In the future I plan to pre-order:
Skullgirls PC
Dark Souls PC
Heart of the Swarm SC2 expansion.