During this tough economy, playing MMO’s actually makes a lot of sense–dollars and cents to be exact.

In a worst-case scenario you have a spouse, kids, a job that carries over into your free time, and approximately 6 hours per week to play your MMO of choice. Multiply that by 4 and you get 24 hours of precious game time per month. Since the average MMO costs around $14.99 per month, that means we spend $0.63 per hour to play the game.

In a best-case scenario you have all the time in the world and play an average of 25 hours per week (3-4 hours per day, every day). Let’s say you pay every three months to receive the discounted monthly price, thus paying $41.97. At 25 hours per week over 12 weeks, you’ve accumulated 300 hours of game time, yielding a cost of $0.14 per hour played.

Either way you look at it, the cost per hour is amazing for the entertainment.

In comparison, DVD’s cost around $20, more if they are Blu-Ray discs, and you may only watch them 2-3 times. So you spend $20 for about 5 hours of entertainment, paying an average of $4 per hour. It gets even worse if you actually go to a movie, which costs nearly 3 times that per person.

The only other thing I can think of that may be a better value are role playing games–real ones, ya know the ones that use pen and paper *gasp*–or perhaps the rare board game such as Risk or Axis and Allies.

So during this harsh economic time, think about your MMO and the actual value you are getting from it. Realize that even if downtime costs you 1 less day of play that month, know just how cheap it is to play these amazing social pixelated people (and taurens).

About the Author

Bloodragé is a single father of 2, a full time worker and a gamer–not necessarily in that order. He has been playing World of Warcraft since early Burning Crusade but has tried and failed many-a-MMO before that. He recently took a year break from the game, so no comments about his gear . He is sarcastic, witty and has a thing for cleft hoofed females. He is currently in the guild Illuminatus as a guildmate and on the guild council.

Are you interested in writing for irnub.com? Shoot an email over to contact@irnub.com and let’s get started!

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