Quit World of Warcraft Today – Why spend the money where there are so many free alternatives?
So, I finally took the plunge and canceled my subscription to World of Warcraft. I feel great to be rid of this game once and for all!
Off an on I’ve probably played World of Warcraft for ~7 years (canceled three or four times along the way).
When I went to calculate out how much I’d spent on the game over the years I was pretty shocked. If you’re still paying for a subscription based game monthly – please read this article and consider quitting!!
Money Saving Breakdown – I Quit World of Warcraft
- Difficulty (Super Easy/Easy/Medium/Hard/Expert): Medium
- Average Savings per Year ($/year): 360
- Time Required (mins): 10
- Savings for your time ($/hr): 2,160
It Wasn’t Easy To Quit
I’ve always been a computer nerd at heart. I got World of Warcraft in the first week that it came out and I’ve been playing it off and on for the past roughly 7 years. I got my wife into it for a while during the Burning Crusade expansion and we both had level 70 characters. It was much fun – but also very expensive.
More recently, my son and I began to play using the free trial. We converted over to paying customers after we hit level 20. He loved the game, and we had fun with it. We have two accounts and would frequently play together for hours at a time. With school starting for my son and I (MBA classes) and my new energy to save money everywhere I can, it just made sense to cancel our accounts.
How Much Have I Spent on World of Warcraft?
Well, if I assume that I’ve played the game for ~7 years, the monthly subscriptions for have added up to $1,260. Now, assume that 3 of those 7 years were other folks playing with me (wife and son) and that’s another $540. Now, assume about $220 in the actual game software. The grade total comes up to be more than $2,000!
I don’t even want to try to calculate how much time I’ve spent playing this game because it would probably put me into a depressive state. I probably could have gotten at least two PhDs with the time spent, but I digress…
What Are the Alternatives?
I’m trying to be more productive with my time and encourage my kids to do the same. In the time that we do decide to relax and veg out, I’m planning for us to enjoy free to play games and abandonware. I have a ton of childhood games (especially adventure games) that I’d like to replay and introduce my son to. These include:
- Tribes Ascend – We both love to play this F2P game.
- Day of the Tentacle – One of my top-5 all time favorite games.
- Full Throttle – I enjoyed this game quite a bit when I was younger.
- Any Other Lucas Arts Adventure Game – come to think of it, I never met a LucasArts adventure game that I didn’t love. Why not replay them all?!?
- MAME arcade games – Ninja Turtles, Simpsons, Metal Slug, etc.
- Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past – Also in the top-5 all time favorite games.
- Quest for Glory Series – Sierra made some of the best adventure games, I’d love to replay all of these (Space Quest, Kings Quest, Police Quest, etc.)
Why Pay When There is So Much Free Content?
As you can see, there are literally hundreds of great old games to keep our family entertained. When I reflected on saving money and entertainment value / $, it really didn’t make sense to continue to pay $360 a year for World of Warcraft. When I stopped to think about it, there are enough free-to-play and abandonware games out there to keep me busy for probably the rest of my life.
What about you? Do you have an entertainment vice that you struggle to do without?
Let me be the first to say congratulations! I can only imagine how hard it could’ve been for you considering how long you’ve been playing. There are so many people out there who don’t realize how much they can save if they only hold fast and make the right decisions. Entertainment choices should be one of the many things we need to look at when analyzing our financial decisions. I’ll be noting that for future references. Great post!
Marissa@Financetriggers recently posted…Tools that make Personal Finance easy
Marissa, it wasn’t that hard, but I’m glad to be rid of it none the less!
I think the vice for lots of folks that prevent them from cutting cable is televised sports. I was never a real sports guy as my dad wasn’t into it. When you boil it down, there isn’t really all that much difference in any of these types of entertainments…
My brother used to pay for a monthly subscription to WoW. He and his friends were so addicted!
Lisa E. @ Lisa Vs. The Loans recently posted…Weekend Recap: Koinonia
Lisa,
Yeah, that game kinda develops into an addition for many folks. Best to stay away from that type of stuff!
Good job, Derek!
Congratulations!!!
I share my story here.
My passion for videogames started when my mom gave me as gift my first thing to run a game, its name was Commodore 64. It was the 1985. It was great!
Then it was the time of playing arcade videogames at bars and game rooms, remember?
I really loved Black Dragon, have you ever played it? Well, if you are old enough like me (35 years old), you should!
It was like a WoW at a very beginning, think about it. You need to farm gold to buy armor and weapons and you go through higher levels (the big different part is that Black Dragon has an end!).
I played at many other arcade games during 80’-90’, and I owned console like Nintendo, Sega Master System, and the recent Play Station.
It was with Play Station that I started playing Warcraft. I really loved it, since the beginning. Then arrived Warcraft 2 and after Warcraft 3, so it was the time to switch my gaming platform to a personal computer. I got my first one with a 56k modem connection at 18 years old, in 1996. And it was in 2002 then Warcraft 3 came out.
In November 2004 arrived World of Warcraft, so I had to make a big update to my computer (the first big money spent for WoW) and in January 2005 I was playing in this fantastic online world.
I have choosen Alliance at first. Sylvanas EU server.
I remember leveling up a Human Paladin with all grey items until level 22, when I discovered Stormwind. A simple mob killed me in front of the city, it was my first death and I thought : now I am dead, do I need to purchase again the game? Really funny, yeah.
So I arrived in the city and I discovered the auction house and all the other people playing.
Paladin at that time was a bit boring, so I changed to Horde.
I created a tauren druid, named “Toogood” (when I had chance I have spent 15k gold to purchase the Traveler’s Tundra Mammoth – great for the 2 vendors on it, so you could farm per hours without filling your bags).
Day by day the game was even more attractive and I arrived at level 60. Then I stopped playing. I was without guild. I remember to have nothing funny to do at maximum level. I could not do the big raids and dungeons. Then arrived the first expansion, so I purchased it : The Burning Crusade. I created another character, an orc shaman, named “Toobad” (I have the Deathcharger’s Reins with him –Baron Rivendare Mount – I remember farming daily to get it!).
Again, repeat everything.
Level up until 70, both characters and farm items, join quests, etc.
Then I stopped again playing. This time I quitted for good!
A friend of mine joined WoW and convinced me to play back again, purchasing the next expansion : Wrath of the Lich King.
I created another alt, for more fun. It was an orc rogue twink, level 29. A pretty powerful one.
Again, repeat everything.
Level up characters until 80, farm items, join quests, etc.
Then I stopped again playing. It was January 2010.
I saw the next expansions, Cataclysm and the last one of September 2012, Mists of Pandaria.
Of course I wanted to play, to try the new content but it just didn’t seem worth it, there were more important things in Real Life. Bigger priorities. And to tell you the truth, I was even quite bored with the game at that point. So I never joined back WoW again.
I am clean now.
I have also written an eBook, with the goal of helping people to quit World of Warcraft.
If I achieve to help just one player to quit his WoW addiction, then I have reached a great mission.
I try to do my best, always. And I know I do it well. I simply find out that playing World of Warcraft could not bring me anything positive in real life. WoW really drained my energy, during the time I played. All my free time. And this game did not helped me reaching my goals.
I do not want to see myself within 10 years from now, turn watching to my life and see everything I accomplished is a bunch of useless achievements points in WoW or a high gear score with Alt fake characters. I want to be successful in Real Life.
I want to follow my passions in my free time. And you can do it just without World of Warcraft. So stop playing right now. You won’t regret it!
You may want to check my eBook here :
http://www.howtoquitwow.com/how-to-quit-world-of-warcraft-ebook/
All the best !
Erik recently posted…How to Quit World of Warcraft eBook Released!
Erik,
You experience sounds very similar to mine. I have played many times off and on and had several high level characters. All things in moderation I guess 🙂 I’ll check out your site as it sounds pretty interesting.
Thanks for sharing your great story!