Pre orders send the wrong message to producers imo. If a game is great and incorporates a high standard of production values, the game will then get my money and not until. The money is better earning me interest in my account rather than theirs.
It's a hell of a leap of faith, handing over your hard earned to an industry that is now renouned for releasing unfinished products, then simply moving on to the next money making project, often largley renaiging on their support promisses.
as for piracy, i think it was Valve who suggested that Pirates are on the whole underserved customers, words to that effect anyway. I don't pirate my games, but i am definitely feeling underserved these past few years.
