I've been pre-ordering and day 1/week 1 buying quite a few games this year. But that's more because I recently acquired a decent paying job, not that I desperately need to pre-order. "Woah, I actually have some money, I'm going to buy video games with it!" I'll also pre-order maybe once or twice a year to be a part of the hype zeitgeist. The only thing I've been chagrin for going all in preemptively is Guild Wars 2. It's so boring, but that's my fault for not participating in the beta like a smart person would have done.
Before my better job, I'd pre-order nothing and play stuff late. I didn't play Mass Effect until the first one was $5 and the second one was $10 on Steam. I'm thinking I'll move back away from my recent rampant pre-ordering.
What have I pre-ordered/day 1/ week 1'd this year: Sleeping Dogs, Hitman: Absolution, Borderlands 2, Torchlight 2, FTL: Faster Than Light, Dishonored, Guild Wars 2, Hell Yeah: Wrath of the Dead Rabbit, Mark of the Ninja, Legend of Grimrock, The Walking Dead (I bought the whole thing blind when Ep. 1 & 2 were available) and probably a few others that I can't remember.
Something I found hilarious: Some people claiming on forums to have pre-ordered multiple copies of Borderlands 2 to get multiple golden keys. You really want guaranteed "good" loot that badly? In a game where hoping to find good loot serendipitously is a significant part of the fun? Okay, man, it's your money to burn. Of course, if simply putting a retractable 5 bucks down got you a code[footnote]I'm assuming you needed to fully pay off the game and wouldn't receive the code until you picked up the game[/footnote], the above is less retarded than it initially appeared.