Why is WoW so expensive compared to other games?

[Deleted]

i don't agree with this. You could argue that wow give you the gaming experience other games don't and thus is well worth the price and i would have no quarrel with that. But i can't let you saying that PC gaming is more expensive than MMO gaming.

A wow, you get what, between 20 to 60 hours a month of entertainment depending on your play time, for $15. Also given the fact that it is mostly repeating the same content, the same story, the same event.

Game like assassin's creed 2, sleeping dogs, the witcher 2, any mass effect cost $5 each on sale. Depending your completionist level, you get 20 to 60 hours worth of gaming time on one playthrough alone.

So yeah, MMO is more expensive than PC gaming, and almost never goes on sale, but it just might be worth it. When i go shopping for food, cloth, electronics, i don't always just go for the cheapest or the most value, sometimes, i goes with what i like or what i want.

When it comes to cost it's not fair to use potential sales for comparison. If you want to be objective then pre-order or release prices are the only way to go as that's what the developer is displaying as the games face value. Sales are often down to a developer-distributor deal.

[qwee]

Blizzard is keeping the prices since it works.
Look at all the f2p mmos that are out there... Do you know why they are f2p? Because they can't beat WoW in anything. Not in player base, amount of content and everything that there is about WoW.

[shadowmatrix]

Getting access to all content in WOW:
WOW Battlechest - $20
Mists of Pandaria - $20
Warlords of Dreanor - $50
Total of $90

Getting full access to all content in DC universe online as a premium character:
Note - Station Cash can no longer be used to buy DLC packs
War of the Light part 1 - $10
Lightning Strikes - $10
Origin Crisis - $10
Sons of Trigon - $10
Home Turf - $10
Hand of Fate - $10
The Last Laugh - $10
Battle for Earth - $10
Fight for the Light - $10

Total $90
Costs not include are extra character slots past 6, keys for lockboxes, replay badges to recieve instance rewards more then once per day.

[Vankrys]

When it comes to cost it's not fair to use potential sales for comparison. If you want to be objective then pre-order or release prices are the only way to go as that's what the developer is displaying as the games face value. Sales are often down to a developer-distributor deal.

maybe so, i get what you're saying.

But i am a consumer. I am not talking about value in a vacuum of space, i'm talking value right here, right now. I have $15 on my paypal. I can

a - buy a month sub (assuming i am up to date with expansion)
b - buy a game i see on sales at that moment on steam or gmg
c - play one of the numerous unplayed game on my steam library bough last sale for a handful of coin.

so i understand in all fair play, i should compare between both full prive of game and MMO but in the real world, textbook comparaison doesn't work. It comes down to how can i best spend my money i have right now.

If i find a very good 3 years old game i haven't play, let's say, skyrim, the monetary value might be $10, but it's like a brand new game to me, since i have never played it, as new as say a future witcher 3 or dragon age 3. So those new release get in competition with old one i haven't played. And the same goes for MMO.

So yes, i believe it's fair to oppose sales and devalued price of game to MMO sub, because that's what happen in the real world.

[Deleted]

maybe so, i get what you're saying.

But i am a consumer. I am not talking about value in a vacuum of space, i'm talking value right here, right now. I have $15 on my paypal. I can

a - buy a month sub (assuming i am up to date with expansion)
b - buy a game i see on sales at that moment on steam or gmg
c - play one of the numerous unplayed game on my steam library bough last sale for a handful of coin.

so i understand in all fair play, i should compare between both full prive of game and MMO but in the real world, textbook comparaison doesn't work. It comes down to how can i best spend my money i have right now.

If i find a very good 3 years old game i haven't play, let's say, skyrim, the monetary value might be $10, but it's like a brand new game to me, since i have never played it, as new as say a future witcher 3 or dragon age 3. So those new release get in competition with old one i haven't played. And the same goes for MMO.

So yes, i believe it's fair to oppose sales and devalued price of game to MMO sub, because that's what happen in the real world.

People also don't spend money in a vaccuum based on what can be accepted as a money/time spent ratio. There are a lot of contributing factors that can change the value of a product. Social encouragement, monetary status, enjoyment of genre etc etc.


Long story short, this topic is really difficult to have an objective view on what constitues value.

[Vankrys]

People also don't spend money in a vaccuum based on what can be accepted as a money/time spent ratio. There are a lot of contributing factors that can change the value of a product. Social encouragement, monetary status, enjoyment of genre etc etc.


Long story short, this topic is really difficult to have an objective view on what constitues value.

i agree, i have said in my first post that people may spend more money on product thinking it's well worth it.
what's i'm trying to say is that MMO with sub is not the cheapest video gaming entertainment as some have suggested. It may very well be worth it for some, but in this day and age of sales, F2P, humble bundle or even xboxlive/PS+ and whatnot, video gaming is not that expensive, people can get hundreds of hours of gaming for less than $15.

it's all about what you want and what you value the most.

[Deleted]

i agree, i have said in my first post that people may spend more money on product thinking it's well worth it.
what's i'm trying to say is that MMO with sub is not the cheapest video gaming entertainment as some have suggested. It may very well be worth it for some, but in this day and age of sales, F2P, humble bundle or even xboxlive/PS+ and whatnot, video gaming is not that expensive, people can get hundreds of hours of gaming for less than $15.

it's all about what you want and what you value the most.

I agree that a sub based MMO is not cheap, but even if you only stick around for three months most purchasers buy it (hopefully) with the mindset that they are planning on making a long term investment into their hobby and getting the most out of the money that they put into it. Singleplayer games are normally bought with the mindset that this is a relatively short tem investment which has a definative start and end point.

[Vankrys]

I agree that a sub based MMO is not cheap, but even if you only stick around for three months most purchasers buy it (hopefully) with the mindset that they are planning on making a long term investment into their hobby and getting the most out of the money that they put into it. Singleplayer games are normally bought with the mindset that this is a relatively short tem investment which has a definative start and end point.

not all of them. not all of them.

i bought starcraft 2 with in mind knowledge that the ladder will keep me entertain for years. I bought skyrim knowing how freaking huge it was and knowing the modding scene. And i bought spec ops the line to finish it once and never play it again, but the story was well worth it.

so it really depend. My peoblem with MMO, all of them, not just wow, is that their content are highly repetitive. and i am so thirsty for new story, new landscape, new adventure.

[Deleted]

not all of them. not all of them.

i bought starcraft 2 with in mind knowledge that the ladder will keep me entertain for years. I bought skyrim knowing how freaking huge it was and knowing the modding scene. And i bought spec ops the line to finish it once and never play it again, but the story was well worth it.

so it really depend. My peoblem with MMO, all of them, not just wow, is that their content are highly repetitive. and i am so thirsty for new story, new landscape, new adventure.

That's just the nature of what an MMO is. If it doesn't appeal to you then there's nothing wrong with that, but it's difficult to change the fundementals of how content in an MMO works.

[Itisamuh]

It's one of the cheapest in the industry for the amount of hours you'll get out of it.

That money would get you about 20 hours of standard 60 dollar AAA games these days.

This is simply not true. Most good games these days are designed with longevity and replayability in mind, at least the multiplayer portion. This game is by far, easily, the most expensive game to play, at least in my experience. It is an utter ripoff. Other games churn out content at an equal or better rate, and are much cheaper, or free, with much smaller playerbases as well. So when they say all of those fees are necessary to keep the game going, it is simply a lie. As for why it is so expensive, the answer is pretty obvious. The rabid fanbase allows themselves to be milked, and refuse to give any other game the time of day. At least not games directly competing.

[Abysal]

I think it's silly to charge both to unlock the expansion and a subscription fee if for no other reason than it's an extra transaction we have to deal with. If subs cost an extra $3 a month, that'd actually come out to $72 over the 2 years it takes them on average to release an expansion. Of course, a good number of people aren't subbed without any break so it's possible they may save money.

I think the benefit is that this would eliminate the hefty start up costs to getting into the game or back to the game after missing an expansion or 2. It's much easier to justify $18 for 1 month to try the game out and get hooked, then it is to justify $15+$50+$20 (what someone who quit in cata would have to pay to try WoD out).

[Stonecloak]

Wow has saved me money being my primary interest in gaming. When I was a console gamer. I would waste lots of money for a tiny fraction of the playtime.

[Aleksej89]

For the amount of fun i had in WoW over the years, i find it to be a dirt cheap entertainment

Personally i never had the "buyers remorse" when i bought a blizzard game or service.

[clevin]

For most people who play WoW, 3 months is probably excessive. You're mistaking the addicted players like yourself for the majority. If that were the case, WoW's subscribers would likely be more in the league of 50 million. Guess you don't know what you're talking about after all...

Troll. I'll take the infraction for speaking the truth there. The idea that the average wow player plays only 3 months is flatout stupid.

[Deleted]

Troll. I'll take the infraction for speaking the truth there. The idea that the average wow player plays only 3 months is flatout stupid.

What he's talking about is that the vast majority of people who have played WoW at some point no longer play WoW currently. The game has a high rate of turnover and within that majority that have played WoW they've most likely only played it for a short time. He's given three months as a plausable example.

He is not talking about the long term, stable playerbase, which is considerably less than the ~7 million people currently playing. WoW still has a relatively high turnover rate of people playing for short periods of time.

[Karnige]

WoW is from a different era of MMOs and stayed with that model for a decade causing costs to keep increasing.

what? no its because the model works and people are willing to pay for it. no other mmo today can support it because nothing comes as close to wow in terms of a polished mmo

[clevin]

What he's talking about is that the vast majority of people who have played WoW at some point no longer play WoW currently. The game has a high rate of turnover and within that majority that have played WoW they've most likely only played it for a short time. He's given three months as a plausable example.

He is not talking about the long term, stable playerbase, which is considerably less than the ~7 million people currently playing. WoW still has a relatively high turnover rate of people playing for short periods of time.

I know about turnover. But to claim most people play 3 months total, ever, is silly (I'm discounting trial accounts here since they're not paid and the entire topic is cost). And I love how you and he claim you know things like "WoW still has a relatively high turnover rate of people playing for short periods of time" because unless you work at Blizzard...

Here's a clue. Several million people are subbed now and likely have been for at least half of the last 2 years.

IN any event this entire topic is one huge troll that the mods should have closed. WoW is expensive if you only play a month or 3 and buy everything new for that. It's cheap if you play for 12 months or even more and that's likely what the price is predicated on - people playing consistently for a period of time (and I love how I'm called an addict when I didn't mention how many hours I played, just that I'd been subbed for a long time). Look, Blizzard gives people a trial. If you get to 20 on the FREE trial, buy the game then get bored a month later that's on you.

If someone doesn't find it has value for them, the blindingly obvious thing to do is *play something else*.

[Bladeface]

WoW isn't a console game, so it's not a very valid comparison as they are in different markets. For example, it would be pretty silly to compare WoW to Call of Duty.

Most of the MMO PC games I checked out were free-to-play. Since you exclude a sub fee and initial purchase costs, even a monthly budget for micro-transactions seem to fall below the cost of WoW.

Call of duty is also on pc.... so are more than 90% of console games...

[Deleted]

I know about turnover. But to claim most people play 3 months total, ever, is silly. And I love how you and he claim you know things like "WoW still has a relatively high turnover rate of people playing for short periods of time" because unless you work at Blizzard...

Here's a clue. Several million people are subbed now and likely have been for most of the last 2 years.

IN any event this entire topic is one huge troll that the mods should have closed. WoW is expensive if you only play a month or 3 and buy everything new for that. It's cheap if you play for 12 months or even more. If someone doesn't find it has value for them, the blindingly obvious thing to do is *play something else*.

Within the sub numbers you will have people who have played over a long period of time and form the stable backbone of sub numbers and you will also have a turbulent amount of people who buy the game recently and for whatever reason stop playing after a substantially shorter period of time than the stable members do. Both of these categories make up the current playerbase. I am not making a sweeping statement on why subs are gained or lost. I am merely stating that in the most likely case these are what the sub numbers are split into.

However, your hypocrisy in dismissing my statement on the basis that I do not work for Blizzard and then inserting your own assertions of a similar nature, despite you yourself not working for Blizzard, is pretty regrettable.

Please follow your own words carefully before making a rebuttal to this post.

[spinner981]

Because the game gets updates and runs on the companies servers. The only updates we have to pay more for are expansion packs.