Cost Estimate

Are MMORPG expensive? Pretty much depends how you calculate it. This is what playing World of Warcraft costs me, personally, on a yearly basis:

First of all, to play I need a computer. In my household I'm buying a new computer every 2 years, in the $2000 price category. But that is to cover the needs of two people, me and my wife. I get the new computer, my wife gets the 2 year old computer because she plays less, and the 4 year old computer we give away. So for the computer cost I count $2000 for 4 years, or $500 per year. That is probably somewhere middle of the range, a friend is just buying a $1000 computer which will probably last him 4 years as well for half the cost, while I'm sure that other people spend twice as much as I do to always have the latest and greatest in hardware.

Second thing I need is broadband internet access, with a flat rate monthly fee. Don't play a MMORPG on any sort of internet connection which is paid by the minute / hour, that gets hellishly expensive rather fast. My 3 MBit ADSL connection plus ISP costs me $50 per month, or $600 per year.

Then I need to buy the MMORPG, World of Warcraft or any other, and pay it's monthly fee. The monthly fee for WoW is $14.99 if you pay month by month, but gets as low as $12.99 if you pay for six months in advance. If I want to annualize the cost, I also have to think about buying about one expansion per year. So lets summarize the game cost for the initial purchase, expansion sets, plus monthly fee, to an annual cost of about $200.

Summing it up, $500 for computer, $600 for internet, $200 for MMORPG, and I'm paying $1,300 per year for playing WoW.

Whether that is expensive, depends on what you compare it with. It is $1,300 more expensive than watching the paint dry, but it also is more entertaining, at least most of the time. If you want to have a computer anyway, want to have the internet to download porn and pirated music educational information and entertainment, and buy about 10 computer games per year, you end up paying about $300 more than if you just played one MMORPG. I consider WoW excellent value for my money, because it occupies me many more hours than an average single-player game.
- posted by Tobold @ 8:08 AM Permanent Link