Think of it more as 'renting'
People are really funny about money. After all there is no rational reason why people would consider money spent on a game an investment, and yet they do. As much as some people seem happy to argue that it isn’t a game but a ‘complex special society’, ultimately it is a game, and it is owned by a company with their own business goals and so on. I guess we will be seeing a lot more of this discussion as in-game/app/platform sales for digital goods becomes more mainsteam.