Marketing and sales strategies are excellent for this game. It unifies in game purchases focused on whales like with mobile games and selling early access to an alpha. There’s also an aspect of collectibles and exclusivity like with NFTs. It‘s also cult like in many aspects. An utopian perfectionist vision evangelized by a prophet.

I used to work with a guy who had thrown away upwards of $10,000 at this game. The last time it came up, he told me he had spent over $8,000, and that was several years ago and he didn’t seem to be showing any signs of slowing down. When I asked him what he got for that money, he showed me the one ship he has. He had one ship. The rest were still in development and wouldn’t even be released for years.

He spent more than some cars cost, for a handful of digital space ships, 90% of which aren’t even finished. I have no idea how to reason with people who do this sort of thing.