First, let me just say that I am going to make a few assumptions in this post, and that some of them you are not going to agree with. I gathered data for the most subjective of these values, the Entertainment Intensity figures. I just asked a few friends in-game, a few friends in real life, and a few family members, and took the approximate averages. So this is NOT my intensity table (my own EIntensity values are very different).
I went into this as objectively as possible, with the hypothesis that FFXIV, played in a mid-core style (10 hours / week) was going to be a very good value for the dollars spent. Subjectively, I was correct.
First, I assigned Entertainment Intensity Values to a few different categories of entertainment:
Next, I approximated the number of hours you could expect to be entertained by each of 9 activities that fit into those entertainment categories:Quote:
Video Game Stimulation: 4
Watching a movie/television: 2
Being with the opposite sex: 20
Physical Action (Sports): 12
Intoxication: 12
Again, that is how long I would expect your average participant in those activities to be entertained by same. This is a lot more of my own approximation than any actual data gathering.Quote:
FFXIV: 40 (expressed monthly, as will be cost)
"Hit" new video game: 50
Going to the movies: 2
Buying a new DVD: 14 (over its lifetime)
Going on a date: 2.5
Recreational Softall: 12 (.75 hours per game, 16 games in a season)
Gym membership: 16 (1hr per day 4 days per week, expressed monthly as will be cost)
Drinking: 5
Cannibus: 10
Then, I assigned a cost to each:
Pretty reasonable, I would hope.Quote:
FFXIV: $18.33 ($15/mo + $40/12 for the license purchase spread out over 1 year)
"Hit" new video game: $60
Going to the movies: $10
Buying a new DVD: $20
Dinner and a movie: $75
Recreational Softall: $118 (League fees with a sponsor)
Gym membership: $70 (per month, as stated)
Drinking: $20 (assuming you don't drink piss water AKA US domestic lagers)
Smoking Illicit materials: $20
Now, I made a unit value for each of this, which is the Entertainment Intensity Value multiplied by the hours you can expect to be entertained:
Now, the fun part.Quote:
FFXIV: 160
"Hit" new video game: 200
Going to the movies: 4
Buying a new DVD: 28
Dinner and a movie: 50
Recreational Softall: 144
Gym membership: 192
Drinking: 60
Smoking Illicit materials: 120
I calculated the cost per unit of these specific activities, I don't think you will be shocked:
My conclusion, even if you make adjustments to these numbers, FFXIV is a great value for the dollars, all things considered. Even if I make the following adjustments to FFXIV's metrics:Quote:
FFXIV: $0.11
"Hit" new video game: $0.30
Going to the movies: $2.50
Buying a new DVD: $0.71
Dinner and a movie: $1.50
Recreational Softall: $0.83
Gym membership: $0.36
Drinking: $0.33
Smoking Illicit materials: $0.17
I still get a Cost per unit of $0.22/unit, only our hypothetical pot head comes close to rivaling the dollars per entertainment unit. You can do your own calculations of cost per entertainment unit with the formula:Quote:
VoE: 3
Hours/Month: 28
Cost/Month: $18.33
Cost of Entertainment / (Intensity of Entertainment x Hours of Entertainment)
Just a fun little do-hicky. And something to think about when you complain about there not being enough content for you : D
As a post-script, if you wanted to draw a conclusion from this data, I guess you could say that based on the data gathered and assumptions, the group of people surveyed should spend more time playing FFXIV and less time going on dates!!! Cooties are gross!
The Economic Value of FFXIV: A study in utility
Printable View
-
10-30-2014, 01:21 AMEhayteThe Economic Value of FFXIV: A study in utility
-
10-30-2014, 01:24 AModie
i believe it. after playing this game i pretty much don't play or buy anything else... its great. :)
-
10-30-2014, 01:33 AMMorzy
MMOs keep you busy. I had the same thoughts after playing RuneScape for 6 years with the monthly fee only being $5.
-
10-30-2014, 01:33 AMEhayteRight?! You can probably replace FFXIV with any MMO that puts out a reasonable amount of content, but even with a mega-grindy game like Everquest, you were paying $30-$60 extra every 9 months for an expansion on top of your monthly subscription! When you look back at all the content included in 2.0-2.4 its quite a lot that have kept people playing consistently for a sustained period of time.Quote:
Originally Posted by odie
-
10-30-2014, 01:34 AMAmenian
I'm more surprised that you find being intoxicated that entertaining. Ah well, maybe I'm just a crotchety old man.
-
10-30-2014, 01:35 AMEhayteI don't, the intensity levels were a survey of about 15 people.Quote:
Originally Posted by Amenian
-
10-30-2014, 01:35 AMApolloGenX
Wait... 5 hours a month for drinking? That is like maybe one night....
There is also just hanging out with friends, having dinner, doing things you normally do... that doesn't really cost anything extra and is LOTS of fun.... -
10-30-2014, 01:40 AMMorzy
@ApolloGenX Or they[since this was a survey of people, not himself] save the 5 hours to have fun with friends a few nights out of the month.
-
10-30-2014, 01:43 AMEhayteThose are not monthly figures, they are hours per cost. Meaning, in my estimation its going to take about $20 to get you drunk for 5 hours. The gym membership and FFXIV are monthly as you pay monthly, everything else is the lifetime of that dollar amount of that activity.Quote:
Originally Posted by ApolloGenX
As per doing other things . . . Dinner costs you money to buy the food, and costs you time to prepare it. As for hanging out with friends, I suppose if you are treading water in international waters without any clothes on it costs you nothing. You would have to include things like electricity to have the lights on, taxes to pay for the park you are sitting in, etc. Of course I didn't include all of those minor costs or all activities. I'm not trying to see this is a legit study, just something fun to think about! -
10-30-2014, 01:46 AMApolloGenXAll those costs should be included in gaming then, along with internet connection.Quote:
Originally Posted by Ehayte
That's why the cost of watching TV seems to have been dropped. You can get entertainment out of that with your internet connection without the sub fee... so I'm not sure why it wasn't included. You can download movies as well.
I get where you are going, but I think the cost figures are a bit biased.
I wouldn't dispute it's cheap entertainment... but the quality is fairly low comparatively. Vacations can be relatively expensive, but the quality of entertainment is so much higher that the incremental cost is outweighed by the superior quality and satisfaction received.
There is also the issue of opportunity cost... the value of the savings is worth more or less depending on your income. I prefer to spend money going to Europe than on an MMO sub.... why? Because I have the money to spend, and spending it on mediocre entertainment seems like a waste. I would rather not spend 13 dollars on something mediocre, regardless of whether I have the money for it. -
10-30-2014, 02:02 AMEhayteYou are absolutely correct, but I excluded a number of costs from every activity and just expressed the explicit costs. I don't have 20 hours to spend on gathering pricing data averaged among countries and regions to make a silly post! This took me about 15 minutes and I thought it would be fun to share, and I DON'T think that the costs are relatively super out of whack.Quote:
Originally Posted by ApolloGenX
That's what the entertainment intensity figure is used for. Video games were assigned a 4, you would probably something much higher to a European vacation. This was accounted for.Quote:
Originally Posted by ApolloGenX
Opportunity cost is relative among activities, the most classic example is going to college after high school or starting to work. You can compare the cost of those because they are mutually exclusive, meaning you can only do one or the other. Its a little more muddle and difficult to quickly express with entertainment, as there are soooo many other things you could do with leisure time.Quote:
Originally Posted by ApolloGenX
Also, things aren't worth more a less depending on your income, they are just a less meaningful portion of your budget. Again, this circles back to the entertainment intensity figure. You also have to factor in resource limitations (like time and money). If you had unlimited resources then you would just do your higher entertainment intensity activity all day every day. It just identifies price discrepancies for activities you tend to take part in. It kind of helps you identify where you are getting the best bargain on your entertainment.
Let's look at your European vacation:
Cost: $15,000
Hours: 238 (2 weeks, sleeping 7 hours a day, assuming no travel at all, or that you enjoy the travel as much as the sight-seeing)
You would need to assign an intensity factor of 571.6 to have your vacation cost $0.11 per unit. Which is entirely feasible! Especially if you have 142.9 times as much fun in Europe as you do playing FFXIV!
Remember its all subjective and just a fun way to look at things! -
10-30-2014, 02:33 AMFyrebrand
I think this topic would be better off just focusing on the "cost per hour" aspect, and leave the psychology and pseudo-science out of it.
$15/month may be a reasonable cost for a hobby you greatly enjoy and gives you many hours of entertainment -- but for someone who isn't as interested and would rather do other things, this is not going to be convincing. -
10-30-2014, 05:28 AMApolloGenXI get that, but watching TV as an example would be "free" under your model... since all of those costs might be included with the gaming figure but weren't considered. Same with downloading movies.Quote:
Originally Posted by Ehayte
If you want to find the marginal increase of entertainment - then you should subtract the watching TV entertainment value from the gaming value. At least then you just get the marginal increase in entertainment for the marginal cost. -
10-30-2014, 05:45 AMEhayteTV costs you about $50/mo in a subscription, so I would price it that way. If you want to throw internet on top of FFXIV if you would need to add the cost of your internet subscription, but it would need to be prorated by the amount of time you are using the internet NOT for FFXIV.Quote:
Originally Posted by ApolloGenX
Total Internet Usage x (FFXIV Time / (All other internet usage time + FFXIV time))
Almost impossible to quantify without looking at a data usage layout, which I ain't got time for. Downloading movies would be "free" under my suppositions. If I had to assign a cost to it without the internet subscription I would probably do a "% chance that you would get caught x the fine for breaking that law / the number of days in your life" -
10-30-2014, 05:56 AMApolloGenXThat's not all necessary. That's my point. I have to get cable with my internet (and I have to have internet for working at home)... so the cable cost is negligible..... it's not optional. I could watch TV or Browse the net... or whatever.... add the sub on top of all that for the game. Now, the sub only gets me the marginal increase in entertainment over what I had before....Quote:
Originally Posted by Ehayte
That's why I said, just subtract the entertainment from the TV/Movies/Facebook from the game, and you get your marginal increase and marginal cost (sub). It's not an exact science, but that makes more sense. -
10-30-2014, 06:45 AMwhiskeybravo
Soo basically.. I've been doing it right for the last year :P
Nice work!