Soapbox: About the Industry

TCG: The Total Cost of Gaming

by Sandy Antunes
Oct 10,2002

TCG: The Total Cost of Gaming

A long time ago, I did a per-hour comparison of RPGing with other forms of entertainment. I'd like to present a different approach to the same question, a "Total Cost of Gaming" (TCG).

Put simply, this is 'how much is a one-night gaming session going to cost me'. And it's about me-- as a parent and a writer, with my own peculiar structure. It also has a little blood, for those who are thinking 'boring!'*

Okay, let's look at basic start-up costs. Buying the game book-- $0. Why $0? Well, I'd have bought it anyway, even if I wasn't planning to game with it. Most RPG books are never run anyway, and are simply read by the purchaser. Time to accept that and just factor my game-buying into my monthly reading budget.

It's not like I bought (glances at shelf at random book) "the Dying Earth RPG" thinking "man, my players will love this, and I'd better get at least 6 game sessions out of it or my money is wasted!" It seemed neat, I figured I'd mine it for ideas. And, of course, "someday I'll run a game into it" [gaming false promise #7].

This is different from computer games. I don't buy "Unreal" thinking 'I may never play this, but I'll enjoy staring at the disk.' No, computer games must be played to be enjoyed-- anything else is frustrating. Not so with RPGs, they are (after all) _books_!

Okay, let's move to the adventure. This has a cost, a very real cost for me, because I have kids. Anything I want to do that doesn't involve the kids costs money-- as babysitter time, or as 'time spent at night doing X instead of Y, so that Y is behind schedule and I'll have to book a babysitter to finish Y, so it's pretty much a given that X is costing me defacto babysitter time'.

I get 6 hours of daytime each week, during which the girl next door watches my 1-year old (Max) so I can do stuff. Mostly graduate stuff. But if I use that time, for writing, it's $6/hour, right?

Well, umm... no. Writing costs me $0. This is because I'm a #$%&ing writer, and not by choice. I _have_ to write. It's on Maslow's Pyramid of Needs, right after food! Last week I cut a finger on some glass, sliced right across the tip. I had a bandage on it, did some serious writing that evening, realized I had to pause every 10 minutes or so to swab blood off the 'r','e','f','c', and 'd' keys** so it wouldn't leak into my keyboard and mess up the innards. I still wrote for 3 hours.

So I'm buying game books for reading and I write because it's my life. So right now, the only real 'cost' for gaming is actual game play. Playing is something that's a bitch to schedule and requires a lot of logistics. It's also (unlike reading and writing) a social activity, meaning it's not totally dictated by my whims and wishes and therefore, doesn't count as a compulsion like the other stuff.

So what are the costs? Let's see. First, I have to get snacks, so that's a $20 bill right there. Drinks, people usually bring lots, so that's covered. A babysitter, when available, helps out-- that's 3 hours at $6. Other than that, though, we're covered. So we're looking at $40 for entertainment. If my wife games too, we can split the cost and it's $20.

Now let's imagine going out to the movies. With 2 kids and graduate work to do, I really can only imagine this, it's not like I can actually _go_ to a movie. I think I get to the cinema twice a year, tops. LotR was worth it, though.

Anyway, a couple of movie tickets is around $15, three hours of sitting is again just under $20. So for a couple going to the movies, we're $5 cheaper than gaming.

Positive values for the movie include 'connection with culture' and 'escapism', plus 1-on-1 time with wifey. Positive values for gaming includes 'social interaction with friends' and 'escapism', plus 4-on-1 time with wifey... err, that last bit sounds a little more risque than it was intended. Let's move on.

How about a computer game? With a price point of $15-40, plus it sucking up at least 10 hours of play time, I don't even want to run the numbers on that. Add in sitting and it's a $100 experience.

So for an adult who is into gaming and writing, RPGing is tremendously cost-effective. And if you aren't a writer, you're likely less into GMing-- a totally baseless conclusion I'm postulating here as if it were fact. So you (like me, but for different reasons) don't have to worry about game-buying or adventure-creating costs, because you're 'just' showing up to play, and thus neatly exempt from the start-up activities required for a gaming session.

Just to wrap up, there is a potential fallacy in this article. I assign no cost to 'creative' activities like writing while assigning a (penalty) cost to 'immersive' activities like movie-watching or gaming, under the justification that creative activities are driven while immersive are, if not optional, fairly interchangeable with each other.

Then I screw up this delightful philosophical dichotomy by making 'reading' driven instead of immersive. My justification for this fallacy is that reading is a sacred act and therefore distinct from most forms of immersion.

If you were a car and had a different opinion on this, then, I could honestly use the following lame cliche with a straight face.

Your mileage, therefore, may vary.

Until next month,
Sandy

* You'll still think that at the end, but by then, it's too late.
** Bonus points to anyone who figures out which finger I cut.