I’ll admit I’m one of the players who solo a lot because I can’t find an intelligent group.

The start-up cost of WoW is certainly more expensive than regular gaming, although whenever I seriously get into WoW I tend not to buy other games, which saves me money at that point in time. When I’m not playing an MMO I tend to buy one or two games a month ($40-$120 depending on what systems they’re for). When I’m playing WoW I usually don’t buy other games unless it’s something I absolutely must have (therefore this system tends to break down in late fall/winter when many of the best titles tend to be released [Bioshock 2 anyone? Can't wait...]). So I often end up spending “only” $15 a month on games for my WoW subscription. When you take into account that I’ve been playing WoW fairly consistently since about 6 months after the game debuted, that averages out the costs of the games themselves to be almost negligible.

Now this is completely in my own experience and can’t be said to be the absolute truth for others, although anecdotally I have verified this to also be the case for some of my friends.

Ultimately I do agree with your point though (since you mention that it’s relative, it’s pretty hard not to). I just wanted to share my own experience with the costs of playing an MMO and how it CAN potentially actually save one money.

If I was to factor food, electricity, ISP bills, missing finding a wallet stuffed with cash in the street, not winning the lottery, scratching my ass it would be a lot more!

It is assumed that you have the kit to play a MMO, before buying one. You don’t buy a car, just because you have a can of gas lying around!

1) I don’t see the point in people arguing the definition of cost as that’s obviously going to be a relative number – based on income and priority. But personally, i’m a free lance designer,a pc gaming nerd and i have a couple computers, use my computers for work and play, and share a very high speed internet connection with an associate, and i still think that it’s valid to note the higher than average cost for MMO gaming. Specially vs. regular gaming. I don’t think anyone mentioned as well that WOW requires you to purchase it 3 times (game + BC and Lich king) Is it worth it? Sure, it’s alot of fun.

2) Male female ratios: Are people just not reading this article correctly? 60% women? who read that? I didn’t. This all seems like a completely plausible number – i’ve gamed with a number of women, including my sister and her girlfriend, but i would also agree that i still observe a slight male majority.

3) If you disagree with these findings there’s no sense in arguing against them unless you have some statistical information to back yourself up – otherwise you just sound childish. If you want to posit questions regarding HOW the Daedalus project collects it’s statistics, or point out a BIAS in the interpretation of the data collected, then you might not come across quite so moronic.

Thanks Cheryllryan – interesting article.

good comments as well, especially by cheryllryan. she states quite a few points i would have made myself if i wasn’t too lazy to type them all out =).

And a microphone? Really? Those are like $10. A one-time investment.

I couldn’t find where I said 60% female, but if I did say that (typos happen) then yes, I did mean 60% male.

I actually prefer PC games over consoles. I do own a console (PS3) but have a grand total of three games for it (Assassin’s Creed, FIFA 09, and Force Unleashed which sucked) and almost never play it. I use it more as a cool-looking-DVD-player-with-a-weird-remote than anything else. I did not mind the cost of the new console because it is a significant upgrade from the old PS2. Because I prefer PC games, I also build and upgrade my desktop computer based on my needs, which are, admittedly, related to whether or not I can run a given game without experiencing graphics related lag issues.

I would argue with your point that a “good” computer is a life essential. From my experience, the most intensive thing that a regular person’s computer will ever be subject to is gaming (even a ridiculous amount of multi-tasking doesn’t slow a computer down like a game with even low to mid-range graphics does). I have a 6-year old computer, a 4-year old computer, even a 2-year old computer that I would certainly not consider “good” and are completely incapable of running LOTRO or any relatively new game for that matter, but that are very useful for performing the “essentials,” such as typing up documents, web browsing, updating/managing websites, photo editing via Adobe Photoshop, etc. In general, it seems like, when people interested in gaming purchase a new computer, they do so with the intention of being able to play a given game and as such, it should be at least partially considered in the cost of an MMO. It is probably possible to calculate the cost for the necessary hardware requirements for the essentials and put some of the other cost towards the “cost of gaming” but I, personally, have no desire to spend time doing that.

About the mic issue, in the past, not having a microphone was not a problem, but now more and more guilds, even the more casual ones, are requiring that their members have a functioning microphone in order to participate in the end game content. This makes it an essential if someone wants to regularly do end game content in a semi-casual/semi-serious guild. Although it seems kind of silly, using a mic can really make a difference with some of the more difficult content. Most players during the difficult stuff are focused completely on what is occurring in front of them and do not have time or do not bother to look at the chat window, so using a mic ensures that everyone will get your message and, as Billius said, it might be the difference between success and failure. To further emphasize this, you would be surprised at the number of people who do not normally use their mic, but end up, by necessity, doing so during end game content since they just don’t have the time to type out the message (I’m one of these people)