>he buys games in retail
Kek, retail is just basically the end stage of crowdfunding AKA a scam
Personally, I wait to have enough reviewer information online to conduct a meta review with adjusted scores, then wait another 1-4 years until I can see if the game is still talked about on the gulag. Only then will I go through the trouble of acquiring a copy on the secondary market that's still in shrink, thus giving no money directly to the scammers aka publishers, all without ever having had to lay eyes on the rulebook for a second. It's that easy, but you have to be man enough to not play by their rules.