Best Post Ever by an Eleven Year-Old Robber Baron
February 25th, 2007 by Benjamin Duranske
Virtually Blind Commentary
Borderline off-topic, but I’ve just got to link to this. I’ll file it under “virtual crime.” From the blog of eleven year-old Londoner “Ant,” here’s the set up:
On a day full of boredom, I decided to see if the same business strategies used the world today would be as efficient in World of Warcraft. So I tried to monopolize an entire market that was high in demand on my server, Haomarush.
Monopolization is an strategy what was formerly used by a dominant or wealthier competitor to wipe out the entire market. They would completely buy out the entire market, thus allowing them to reset the prices and, consequently, forcing buyers to accept there prices, which could be 200% higher, or in some cases I have come across, 850% higher.
This technique was made illegal in the US to entitle the smaller competitors to have a fair chance, and so the power was evenly distributed. Although banned, this law is often infringed.
The only consequence I predicted was hatred.
You’ll have to follow this link to Ant’s blog to find out what happened.
No hatred here — keep up the good work, Small Ant.
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