[Discussion]If you can try a game before buying, are you more likely to support the developers?

Supporting a developer is a very important thing to me. If I play a game from a developer and I love that game(Owlboy, Transistor, and Bastion come to mind), I am more likely to follow that developer and see their other content. Although the issue with this is, I cannot tell if I will like a game solely by trailers and gameplay videos. I need to actually immerse myself into the game and sit down for 4-5 hours and play it. This can be hard when there are multiple games on my wishlist and they are all $30-$60. I then have to prioritize what I like and hope one goes on sale.

One solution to this is pirating the game. Though if you pirate the game there can be little incentive to actually support the developer after you already have it and are actively playing it aside from if it is a multiplayer game. Pirating a game for me is one of the best ways to test a game. Almost every time I have gotten a game in this manner I have purchased the game shortly after or deleted it based on whether I liked it or not. This allows you to get a good grasp on it prior to sinking your hard earned money into it, but it bites into the moral and legal side of things when you start doing this.

Another solution is utilizing Steams 2-hour return window. I personally have never used it because by the time I get 2 hours into a game I'm only just getting started and I forget that it's been 2 hours. Then 4-5 hours into it I may get bored and hate it and then I'm SOL and just threw money down the drain on something I am not enjoying. If this 2-hour window was expanded to 3-4 hours then maybe it may help a bit, but that would cost Steam more money in the long run as it allows more times for the user to complete fairly short games and then return it immediately.

One thing I haven't seen lately in PC gaming is demo discs. I used to get a gaming magazine that had demo discs in it for multiple games at a time back when I had an original Xbox. Now I was younger back then and didn't have money for games, so I never ended up purchasing these games but I remember myself going back to these demos for hours on end for games like Flatout and Destroy all Humans wishing I had the money for the full game. Now that I have a job and can afford this I wish these demos were more common now as I see myself buying less and fewer games simply because I have no clue if I'll enjoy it and researching trailers and gameplay doesn't give me the same perspective as picking up the controller or keyboard/mouse and playing it myself and immersing myself into the game.

What is everyone else's opinions on trying games before you buy? Do you pirate and then purchase, play it on steam for a an hour or so and refund if you don't like it, or do you just bite the bullet and hope for the best? I'd like to see more demos of a side story or a tutorial of a game to gauge my interest before I toss my wallet to the wolves.