Blizzard: World of Warcraft will do fine, global economic collapse be damned
by Samuel Axon 
Oct 17th 2008 at 1:00PM
Filed under: World of Warcraft, Fantasy, Interviews, MMO industry, News items
He said that WoW is immune to economic downturn because it offers an excellent bargain: "People might not want to go out to the movies and spend $100 for a couple of hours and then go to a restaurant. You can go home and pay $15 a month for 100 hours of entertainment if you're staying at home more." A comparable situation from history: during the Great Depression, movies in the United States were only a nickel -- far cheaper than competing, live forms of entertainment, so the movie industry thrived. In fact, some folks credit the Great Depression as a contributor to the rise of the Golden Age of Hollywood. Think the same'll happen to MMOs if this gets bad?
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Brian! said on 2:03PM 10-17-2008
I have to quote the article quote above:
He said that WoW is immune to economic downturn because it offers an excellent bargain: "People might not want to go out to the movies and spend $100 for a couple of hours and then go to a restaurant. You can go home and pay $15 a month for 100 hours of entertainment if you're staying at home more."
You know, I have no idea what movies Rob Pardo is going to see that cost $100 for a couple of hours - but this is clearly a sign that that guy makes WAY too much money. I wonder how much he spends on dinner?
Reply
Krystalle Voecks said on 2:14PM 10-17-2008
I'm taking that to mean that he's taking his family along. I know when I take my immediate family (2 adults, 2 kids over 12) we're looking at $45 in tickets just from the word go. Add in gas to/from, a trip to the concession stand, then dinner after? Yeah - $100 isn't unreasonable. (That's at my nearest Regal Cinema, nothing fancy.)
MightyIdle said on 2:20PM 10-17-2008
An evening out with my better half:
Movie: $30 (With popcorn and sodas)
Dinner: $30
Ice Cream: $15 (Coldstone, the good stuff)
$75 minimum. Pretty close, depending on where you go to eat.
If I take the kids, $100 won't even come close.
Considering how most WoW players have failed to mate within the confines of their mother's basement, the $75 is probably closer to the mark.
You could get by cheaper without the movie snacks, eating at McDonalds, and buying a tub of Ben and Jerry's for dessert but, again, that reduces your mating opportunities. You'd still be down for more than twice your monthly game sub for only a few hours of entertainment.
All in all, $15 a month for a MMO sub isn't a lot considering the number of hours you get out of it per month in entertainment. According to my calculations, based on my play time, I'm averaging $0.19 per hour in costs. Not too shabby when you're paying around $4 an hour for a movie.
Thrush said on 2:18PM 10-17-2008
You also have to consider the cost of an internet subscription. If a family ends up on hard times and is looking to cut corners they can save $40/month by dropping their internet and, consequently, and additional $15/month by dropping WoW. There's $65/month. So for a household that would never dream of going without the web then WoW is a great bargain, but if you consider the web a luxury then its a potential cost savings to cancel.
Reply
MightyIdle said on 2:24PM 10-17-2008
I feel safe in saying that most folks no longer consider Internet access a luxury item. I don't think Internet access will be on the short list of things to cut.
I'm basing this on the fact that most people I know scream very loudly when access is down for even a few minutes during inclimate weather.
Leshrac said on 2:21PM 10-17-2008
Yeah, I have 3 kids - after refreshments and goodies its quite expensive. Same thing with sporting events, even for cheap seats I spend well over $100 in gas, parking, food, tickets, some crappy souvenir made in China.
But I agree; MMOs are the best dollar-to-entertainment value you can find. Lunch costs me $10. But then again if you're paying for 5 subs, which I was for quite a while it does add up.
Reply
Leshrac said on 2:22PM 10-17-2008
Good point about the web costs, I didn't think of that - but today my family uses the web more then they watch TV. If you put a gun to my head and made me pick one; I would pick the internet.
Reply
Krystalle Voecks said on 2:26PM 10-17-2008
Yeah. I'd cancel a lot of things before I'd touch the 'net connection in my house. My whole family is wired, and we're a dual-telecommuter household.
Samuel Axon said on 2:23PM 10-17-2008
Also, if you live in a big, expensive city like New York or Chicago, you could definitely spend close to 100 for dinner and a movie just paying for yourself.
Cab: $6.50
Movie: $10.00
Movie snack/drink: $10.00
Cab: $3.00
Two glasses of wine: $16.00
Dinner: $25.00
Dessert: $8.00
Cab: $6.50
Tip: $7.50
Total: $92.50
It ain't quite 100, but bring a family or a date and it gets very expensive very quickly. And if you have a car, it ain't cheaper -- parking is just as expensive as a cab, maybe even more so.
Reply
JP said on 2:38PM 10-17-2008
2 things unaffected by a bad economy: video games and porn. I like your style, USA.
Reply
MightyIdle said on 3:38PM 10-17-2008
Hey, you gotta have your priorities right.
Brian! said on 1:05AM 10-18-2008
Ok... hold on.
First. In one example of spending $100 we have covering the whole family for movies and food. Makes sense - yes taking the family out for a movie and dinner is going to be a chunk of change.
Yet, on the other hand, are we talking about the whole family playing WoW? Lets not say $15 for 100 hours, lets say $15 100 hours per person. That is $60 a month in subscription fees for a 4 person family, not to mention the cost of 4 computers spread out over their lifespan (say another $5 each a month, maybe $10 if you buy a more powerful computer and don't upgrade it at all for 2 years). You have your internet connection and the power costs for running those 4 computers - and gaming does ramp up the power consumption. You are STILL going to need food. So unless someone cooks in the kitchen and takes a bullet to miss out on the gaming fun, it probably means you are ordering food for delivery. Maybe your frugal and using an oven bake pizza or something. Regardless, you are paying for food if you go out or stay home. If it is delivery, your not saving that much.
Without a doubt, a family playing WoW and never going out to see movies will probably spend a good portion less. But it is not a $100/$15 ratio.
As for the single guy, Samuel, who takes a cab each way, has wine, eats a pretty nice meal ($25 for one person is a more upscale joint) has an expensive dessert (You know, an entire quart of ice cream can be got for $4.00 at Safeway!) and tips well... the same goes for you. If you choose to have that same fancy food delivered, break out a nice bottle of wine, eat your expensive dessert - all while playing WoW you will save money. But again, not the $100/$15 ratio.
The fact is, if your only entertainment is WoW - that is all you do - no movies, no TV, etc... then it is a great bargain. No doubt about it. Any MMO would be. But then, the same can be said about cable TV and pay channels. If you watch HBO as your sole entertainment, that is a great deal. And you even get more story variety with HBO!
As for immune to downturn. Well, who can say there. I don't think that the economy state should be taken lightly. Things are pretty f---ed up. The economic downturn is still in the beginning. Things are going to get worse for a while. I am willing to bet that Blizzard feels the pain of it - and in WoW's pockets.
Reply
Daelda said on 2:41PM 10-21-2008
I did some basic number crunching and came up with the following:
Budget Outing:
Gas ($3.50/gal - 30mpg - driving 15 miles total) = $1.75
Movie ($3.50/ticket x 2 people): $7.00
Movie Soda & popcorn: included in movie ticket cost
Buffett for two: $25.00
Total: $33.75
Time Spent Out: 5 hours = 6.75/hr
Times per month: 1
Total per month: $33.75
Moderate Outing:
Gas ($3.50/gal - 30mpg - driving 15 miles total) = $1.75
Movie ($8.00/ticket x 2 people): $16.00
Movie Snack: $8.00
Dinner for two: $30.00
Tip (15%): $4.50
Total: $60.25
Time Spent Out: 5 hours = $12.05/hr
Times per month: 2
Total per month: $120.50
Fine Dining
Cab = $30.00
Movie ($12.00/ticket x 2 people (IMax)): $24.00
Movie Snack: $16.00
Dinner for two: $40.00
Drinks: $12.00
Tip: $12.30 (cab and dinner tip at 15%)
Total: $134.30
Time Spent Out: 6 hours = $22.38/hr
Times per month: 2
Total per month: $268.60
WoW
Subscription: $15.00 x 2 people = $30.00
Internet Service: $50.00
Food: $5.00/person x 2 people = $10.00 x 2 meals per month (replacing the dining meals) = $20.00
Computer: $10.00/month
Total per month: $110.00
Time spent playing: 20 hours/week x 4 weeks = 80 hours = $1.38/hour
Budget Outing: $33.75 - $6.75/hr
Moderate Outing: $120.50 - $12.05/hr
Fine Dining: $268.60 - $22.38/hr
WoW: $110.00 - $1.38/hr
For WoW I added in the cost of two meals per person at what Food Stamps budgets you - to replace the two meals per month you would have had while dining out - assuming you went out twice a month. The prices I used are based on my local area (yes - we do have $3.50 movie theaters showing 2nd run movies which includes a small soda & small popcorn). I have used the $10/month cost of a computer for the heck of it and I based the average hours per week of WoW on the Daedalus Projects hours spent playing MMOs per week by gender and age - which ranged from 19.03 hours to 25.49 hours. My costs and standards may differ greatly from yours, but this is just my own workup. If you disagree - do your own. :-)
Yes, a person/family can save a good chunk of money by disconnecting the internet, dropping WoW and not going out at all. But, compared to going out, WoW is a pretty good bargain. Granted, going out gets you out of the house, which playing WoW doesn't. Does this mean WoW is economy-proof? Nope. Families that are really struggling will likely drop all extra spending. But, from an entertainment standpoint, WoW is pretty cheap for the fun you get.
Reply
Von Franko said on 5:49PM 10-21-2008
I see a lot of numbers crunching here but there are other factors. Most people already have a computer capable of playing WoW (it doesn't exactly require a super high end computer) and are already paying for internet. When they look to start saving some money for the month and look at what they can cut out, I'll bet the movie would go first. Sure if you add up the cost of the computer you bought into per month costs it may work out higher or close to the movie... but that money is already spent so it shouldn't be a factor. Also most people will not want to go without internet as they use it for much more then gaming. Staying home to save on gas and food (eat cheaper if you cook something yourself) will be much more appealing.
Plus WoW you can play as much as you have free time. Going to one movie is just entertainment for that one night. What are you going to do with your other nights? I know I'd rather be able to play WoW.
Reply