Monopoly is the game of chance, the game of skill, and the game where the player who owns the most property usually wins. In real life, companies like Microsoft have their own monopolies, which in turn translates to owning the market. Isn’t it time these greedy, self-centered companies got what was coming to them?

Microsoft. We all recognize this company for developing the Windows operating system and the Office program package. In fact, practically everyone who owns a computer is involved with Microsoft in one way or another, unless you’re a Linux fan and don’t own any Microsoft programs at all.

I don’t know about you, but it seems as though Microsoft’s attempt at monopolizing the market is succeeding, and they’re getting greedier every minute that passes by. First it was Windows, then the Microsoft Office package with programs such as Access, Excel, Groove, InfoPath, OneNote, Outlook, PowerPoint, Publisher and Word. After that, it was Hotmail, a SQL database server and Visual Studio applications for creating and designing programs and games.

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But being a billion-dollar company wasn’t good enough for Microsoft. They wanted more money, more power and more control. Which is exactly why they found their way into the video gaming market. Nintendo and Sony had the market in their hands – Nintendo having casual games suited towards younger audiences, and Sony having hard-core games suited towards older audiences who prefer better graphics and hardware, hence why the PlayStation 3 is full of features such as Blu-Ray, DVD and 1080p screen resolution. But Microsoft got their foot in the door nonetheless, and now competes more on an equal level with Sony than it does with Nintendo, because of the age of audience that the majority of their games target.

Overall though, my biggest concern is how large of a company Microsoft is becoming. Don’t you think this monopoly is getting just a bit too greedy? It seems like they’re always looking for yet another market to get into. What’ll they start producing next? Televisions? A new video service like YouTube? Perhaps a new portable video gaming system to compete with the Nintendo DSi and the Sony PSP Lite?

In my opinion, Microsoft already has enough money, and shouldn’t try to control every aspect of the market. In fact, as it is, their products are becoming far too pricey for the average consumer. Take their new Vista operating system. Sure, its visual appearance is stunning, but $500? Give me a break. Try lowering it to about $30 and then I might consider buying it. Or what about Microsoft Office 2007? Nice layout, lots of features and an attractive appearance, but it’s definitely not worth that $399 price tag. I’m lucky though. I have friends in high places, and I got my copy of Office 2007 for free.

What are your thoughts? Don’t you think Microsoft already has enough money to last them the next several centuries, to say the least?