I agree, i wouldn't have bought it for 27$ either.

minecraft has some great gameplay, for the base game you're looking at;

1. creative building of anything you can imagin, a lot like lego. two modes, here 'creative' where you have unlimited everything from the game, instant distruction and then there is survival mode. You'll spend hours mining away trying not to die to find the materials need to convert into other blocks to build bigger and better things. Take a lot longer and you'll die along the way but as the game mode suggets, you have to survive. Having to make food to eat and armour and weapons as well as the tools you need to fig and build.

2. pvp, fighting others and not just limited to smacking them on the head. You can destroy their homes, their food supply.. you can even boobie trap their house, or even your own... the power of redstone :)

3. community. While the graphics aren't as great as something like World of warcraft, there are endless amounts of servers you can join, and join communities. Lots of servers out there offer great people to play with. Some hardcore pvp, some are more friendly.. some are end game, while others are more about building great things to show off.

4. if you don't like the graphics, you can change the look. it supports texture packs and you can have some really nice looking ones, using shaders and high res texture packs. You're always going to be limited to block placement in the game since thats what it is afterall.. but once you get past that, it's a really good game.

pirate it, play it single player for a while in survival and creative.... just remember if you're playing survival,, you best find a hole to live in before night fall :D

If you're wanting extra from the game, there is always advanced minecraft servers running things such as tekit.. it has lots of automated things, such as quarry machines, solar power.. well that's a lot of advanced stuff you really don't want to even think about yet, but lets just say you'll be hard pushed to find a game with as much creative fun as minecraft in a better looking game.

I guess the real question here, is where are you building these other 'virtual worlds' that are far superior to a game you've yet to lay hands on yourself? It's hard to say what you are 'missing' if we don't know what your base for comparison is. Minecraft may not be the first of its kind but it has proven rather powerful for the genre that it represents, and millions continues to craft worlds with little more than a keyboard and their imagination.

minecraft.net has an hour long demo, you should try that. and to (attempt) to answer your last question, for me it has been the sense of accomplishment to drive me through the game,you have to gather resources, craft everything, then build it. just the effort put into it is a big relief and sense of accomplishment at the end. not many other games give you that, just for your average gameplay. you may not understand this untill you play it go, so atleast try the demo

Well, the multiplayer is a big deal. If you can gather at least 1 or 2 friends you will enjoy it much more. Singleplayer is fun when you have objectives. Also, Minecraft is very unique in terms of mods. There has to be at least one mod that you might find interesting. Even if not and you have an idea for a mod, head to the forums, talk to the mod developers and if you manage to convince them that it is a good idea (not that hard), they will develop the mod. I could be here talking about the game all day but the game sells itself. Get hold of a cracked version, minecraftwiki (essential for newbies!) and (preferably) some friends and try it yourself. As soon as you set your own objectives you will be glued to the game.

Customers die to early to make good profit :/ Maybe I'm not doing it right...