So the Warhammer Online team is facing another round of staff layoffs. It's tempting to file this story under "another victim of the recession", but it's actually nothing of the kind. MMORPGs ought to do better in a recession than during a boom.
They are just about the cheapest form of entertainment there is. For £7.69, I play World of Warcraft for at least 100 hours a month. That's less than 8p an hour.
I literally cannot think of anything else even remotely enjoyable that I can do for that kind of money. It's cheaper than telly*, it's cheaper than reading a book** - heck I probably wear more than 8p/hour of leather from my shoes if I go for a walk***.
Even if you don't already have a computer, it would still be cheaper to buy a brand new 20-inch iMac, a broadband connection and a World of Warcraft account if it kept you home from the pub****. You can still see your mates, it will just be at Malygos the dragon, rather than the George and Dragon.
So playing an MMORPG can actually be cheaper than not playing one. The challenge then is simply to find one that you can bear to play for long enough periods of time and to the exclusion of all else. This, I submit, was always going to be Warhammer's weakness. I don't doubt that it is quite fun to play for a while. But you aren't going to play three, four, five hours a night, six nights a week, fifty weeks a year.
The same is true of City of Heroes/Villains, Asheron's Call, Runescape and just about everything else. And as long as you need to find other things to do with the rest of your spare time, these games become just another expense. Warcraft is the only game that saves you money.
I imagine that those recently redundant Warhammer developers may be forced to level Warcraft characters to 80 now, just to make ends meet.
* 1 year of WoW, £92.28. Colour TV licence, £139.50
** John Grisham novel, £7.99. Time to read, maybe 3 weeks, tops.
*** Timberland Plymouth Trails, £75. At 8p/hour, they would need to last for 938 hours. If I walk at 3 miles an hour, that's 2,814 miles. Which is more than the distance between New York and LA and I'm pretty sure that one pair of boots would not last me if I tried to walk coast to coast across the USA.
**** iMac + copy of WoW, £738. Broadband + WoW account £20/month. Over a year, that's £978 or an average of £81.50 per month. If you go to the pub three nights a week and spend just £10 each time, that will cost you £130 a month.
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neowarden
February 7th
1. There are a lot of hidden costs with playing an MMORPG. Energy bills aren't getting cheaper, using an energy meter my HDTV uses the same amount of electricity as my mid-range gaming PC, taking into account the router and widescreen monitor it actually uses more. Not forgetting the cost of subscribing to a decent anti-virus service. Buying a second or fourth account or using a goldfarming/powerlevelling service can also add to the cost.
Getting a book from the library is probably the cheapest form of entertainment (free!) and it doesn't have to be a fiction book, going for a walk or exercising is just as cheap. Spending time with your family or friends is also free. Keeping your job skills up to date or retraining can be done cheaply, it will cost more than playing MMORPG but the long term benefits will offset that especially if you get a certificate at the end of it.
There is also the mental and physical cost of playing World of Warcrfaft. Not everyone has the self control to only play a fixed number of hours per week, to not miss meals. Justify it all you want, but anyone spending 50+ hours a week playing World of Warcraft cannot be healthy. Watching people go "LOL" all the time and acting as though they were still in the school playground cannot be good for anyone either.
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