Media Mammon
December 5, 2004 5:55 PM   Subscribe

Media Mammon is the latest edition of stock market simulation...with a very kind UI. Instead of 'buying' stocks, atheletes, celebrities, politicians or future events specifically you are 'buying' words and phrases that can cover anything...as long as its reported on Yahoo! News. By analyzing the content of news stories, the more frequently a word is used, the higher its value. Some people may just want to buy 4 shares of dumb and call it a night, or be the first to get Metafilter listed as a public share...hail Mammon ;¬) [via Waxy]
posted by gren (17 comments total)
 
Cool link. I'm in, and I've got a good feeling about my buys.
posted by Faint of Butt at 6:24 PM on December 5, 2004


I am so getting addicted to this.

Especially since I got a good buy on Superbowl. I really hope someone flashes the crowd again. And let's all root for Johnny Depp and another Oscar nomination!!
posted by aladfar at 7:06 PM on December 5, 2004


I am playing as Nico...beware the addictive nature, I was up to $892 with my picks, only to fall to $151 in an hour...

Cassini, Huygens and JPL are my current picks...going for the longterm when Huygens splashes down. Not the way to make a lot of money, but a satisfying way to not worry a whole lot about what goes on. Let everyone know what your mediamammon username is so we can bookmark each other! (this is my first MeFi post btw!)
posted by gren at 7:11 PM on December 5, 2004


Oh, so we're sharing our portfolios? I'm game. I'm playing as Faint of Butt (big surprise), and I've invested in Carrey (as in Jim, planning on a big upswing when A Series of Unfortunate Events opens) and, going for the long-term certainty, Batman.
posted by Faint of Butt at 7:45 PM on December 5, 2004


Once upon a time, a young Non Serviam bought an issue of Rainbow Magazine (no, not that rainbow) which included the BASIC program for a wonderful, *wonderful* game: Stock Ticker.


Since then, I've always been waiting for an economic simulation game. Is this it? Only time will tell...
posted by Non Serviam at 7:55 PM on December 5, 2004


I have a feeling I'm going to lose all my simulated money. Then I'll have to sell my virtual car to make my virtual mortgage payments.
posted by vodkadin at 7:59 PM on December 5, 2004


Faint: yeah, considering you can scope anyones portfolio, I figured sharing can't hurt...mind you, trying to emulate the top top players doesn't work as a friend found out...its too late to get in on the memes they are winning with, and he went into virtual bankruptcy.
posted by gren at 8:12 PM on December 5, 2004


Can you buy junk stock, such as Fark?
posted by Keyser Soze at 8:43 PM on December 5, 2004


I don't want to wait too long before seeing any change in my stocks, so I put all my money in Cousteau, which was selling for a paltry $1 a share. The Life Aquatic comes out next week; hopefully I can make a bit of a profit on that.
posted by painquale at 8:47 PM on December 5, 2004


painquale: Now it's $0 per share.
posted by Keyser Soze at 9:08 PM on December 5, 2004


Keyser: I misspoke. It was $0 per share when I bought it, but you're charged a minimum of a dollar per share, so I was able to get 240 zero dollar shares for 250 dollars (with the 10 dollar trading fee).
posted by painquale at 9:40 PM on December 5, 2004


Why did Google stop updating their zeitgeist? Perhaps they want a competitive edge in this market. (as if Nasdaq dominance weren't enough)

Good call on Cousteau... i'm in for a few.
posted by k7lim at 9:51 PM on December 5, 2004


The data for this could be used to drive an automated news site like Google News. The higher the price, the more important it is and the more coverage it should get.
posted by revgeorge at 6:13 AM on December 6, 2004


they just narrowed the definition of stocks to single words.

revgeorge: i'm not sure how google news works now. i bet they do some ranking of phrases already, doncha think? maybe you know more aobut G.N. than I do.
posted by k7lim at 10:19 AM on December 6, 2004


Hot damn! One day later, and Cousteau is already up to five dollars a share! I can only imagine it'll climb as the week progresses....
posted by painquale at 11:06 AM on December 6, 2004


whoa, why is the price of oil zero dollars?
posted by k7lim at 12:27 PM on December 7, 2004


wow. i guess randomly words will "IPO" at really low prices and you can get a pop out of them.

oil is up to 3300 ish
posted by k7lim at 1:22 PM on December 7, 2004


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