I used to play on 15x servers, in other words it took about 1-3 months to get to a level advanced class 99 character. It was monotonous, so I can't really image how people stand a year of it and then pay for it. If you have only played on 10000x servers full of virii and trojans then you've obviously had a limited experience, I don't know where though because I've never heard of it.
On private servers customised content can be made that mades the game much more interesting, and because it runs through the Korean version of the game, it has all the new worlds unnavaliable on the American and European servers (in English). There isn't even a Ragnarok server in my country anyway.
This of course is all ofset by the fact that they come and go like wandering hobos leaving you depressed at your lost characters.
And I don't get lunch money. $12? Bourgeois capitalist