Why do we play?

Here is an interesting thought, stemming from some discussion in the commentaries of another post. Do we spend time in a MMORPG to gain a reward, or do we spend money and time on a MMORPG to be entertained? What is the value of time and money?

You often hear that time is the real currency of MMORPGs. You spend time, and you receive rewards for that time spent, be it levels, virtual gold, or the fabled sword of uberness. The time we spend is a cost, an effort, work, and for this time and effort and work we are rewarded with status symbols and in-game achievements. The money you spend on the MMORPG isn't important, because it is a constant, not related to your progress in the game.

But the opposite point of view is also possible. You come home from work, it is too early to go to bed, you have time in excess, and you want to be entertained, killing that spare time. Playing a MMORPG is one of many possible entertainment options. But all entertainment options cost money: To read you would need to buy a book or magazine. To play a MMORPG you need to buy a PC, the game, and pay for a monthly fee. To watch TV you need to buy the TV and pay a monthly fee to the cable company. To play golf you need to buy a set of clubs and pay a club membership. All these entertainment options have a different degree of entertainment value to different people, some enjoy more interactive activities, some more passive, some people like to be entertained outdoors, others prefer the comfort of their home. But in the end you pay for the entertainment value, which allows you to kill your spare time. There are some free options, starting from watching your paint dry, but often the options with more entertainment value are also costing more money.

Both points of view are viable, and sometimes they lead to interesting interactions. A gold farmer is certainly under the impression that he is spending his time working in World of Warcraft, gaining rewards in the form of gold, which he then sells for real world dollars. The gold buyer has the opposite problem, he isn't happy with the entertainment value of WoW at the moment, and he is willing to spend real dollars for virtual gold to increase the entertainment value. Maybe he doesn't find walking very entertaining, so he buys gold to buy a mount. Maybe he thinks he needs to buy the sword of uberness from the auction house, which would then enable him to beat the monster that he previously couldn't get past. Maybe he just wants to look as pretty as the other people running around in the game. Whatever it is, he certainly does not want to *lower* the entertainment value of the game by stupidly grinding gold for hours. He'd rather spend more money for the privilege to have more entertainment value in his spare time.

In other cases the different points of view totally clash, making it impossible to even discuss between the two sides. A typical example is the heated discussion about the upcoming high-level raid dungeon Naxxramas in World of Warcraft patch 1.11, which is raging since it was announced. If you think you spend time in WoW to gain virtual rewards, Naxxramas is a great place: It will be the absolute top end of the game for some time, the very best rewards given out to the people who spent the most time and dedication in raiding. A place full of wondrous treasures, made just the more valuable by the fact that so few people can attain them. But if you think you spend money on WoW to be entertained to kill your spare time, Naxxramas is a waste of developers time: For 99.9% of the players, the money they gave to Blizzard for being entertained has been spent on creating a big block of content which they are unable to reach. The entertainment value of Naxxramas for the average player is close to zero, because he doesn't have the power to play in there and can only observe the effects of the Scourge invasion outside. Raiding in general has a low entertainment value, because it is by nature repetitive. And Naxxramas is even worse, because you would first need to repetitively go to Molten Core, then repetitively go to Blackwing Lair, before you finally could go and repetitively see Naxxramas.

The discussion between the two sides on this issue is totally fruitless, because each side just thinks that the other side sees the game in the same light as they do. The "spend money for entertainment" crowd thinks that the "spend time on game rewards" crowd is just wanting to monopolize the entertainment value of World of Warcraft. And in the other way round, the "spend time on game rewards" crowd thinks the "spend money on entertainment" crowd only wants to get rewards without having spent effort on them.

For me personally, World of Warcraft is just entertainment. I spend money on it, it kills my spare time, and I get some entertainment value out of it. I don't see the point in having to do Molten Core a hundred times before being able to visit Blackwing Lair or Naxxramas. Just as I wouldn't see the point of having to read one page of a book several times before being able to advance to the next page, or having to watch one episode of a TV series several times before being allowed to watch the next one. Even in competitive sports like golf, while there are easier and harder golf courses, I could play on a hard golf course and at least see "the content" of it, even if I would score horribly. For me all content in World of Warcraft is on the same level, I feel that for the money I pay I should be able to see it all. There is content with more entertainment value, and there is content with less entertainment value, but for me it isn't necessarily the highest reward that has the most entertainment value. The important thing for me is to be able to interact with the content in a meaningful way. I'm totally happy with my Onyxia raid last weekend, because I got to experience all three phases of the combat several times, and I feel I now "have done" Onyxia. I don't give a damn that I didn't kill her, that I didn't get some epic item from her, and I'm not really interested in going there repeatedly to try it again and again until I do. I am also happy with places like Zul'Gurub, where I can *fight* any boss, even if I maybe am not able to win against them. But I am unhappy with quest chains in which I get stuck, or with linear dungeons like Molten Core, Ahn'Qiraj, or Blackwing Lair, where I can see only a part of the place. It is not about getting the rewards from the raid dungeons, it is about accessing the content, and being blocked from certain content makes me grumpy. I am standing in front of some closed doors in this game, and I'm not willing to batter my shoulder repeatedly against the door until I bash it in, because I think that I have already paid the entrance fee (in money). The day I think that I have seen all the accessible content in WoW, and only the repetitive way to Naxxramas and beyond remains, I just quit the game and buy myself some other form of entertainment.

Of course if your personal opinion is that money doesn't count and the only entrance fee in WoW is time, of which you need to spend X hours to open certain doors, you will never even understand what I am talking about.
- posted by Tobold @ 1:24 PM Permanent Link