Well, actually, thousands and thousands (and more thousands) of people pay $1,000 USD up front then $295/mo USD forever after for each 16-acre-square portion of virtual "land."

Now, personally, I think that's a tad steep, but it's how capitalism works. If you don't have competition you get to charge what the traffic will allow, and the idea is to make a profit. I'm all for profit because if they can make one so can I (or so can you) if I work hard at it.

Anyway, all these thousands of people continue to pay. So either they (we) are all certifiably insane in relation to someone who would never pay (such as yourself), or we all see value in it that you don't. We want to be in a creative and imaginative "place," not log into a "game" and kill, crash into, and explode things.

You, and many others who read Massively, would perhaps gain some enlightenment into "getting it" by reading this particular blog post.

http://www.cuppycake.org/?p=758