This is something I found when browsing the net. I though it was pretty interesting and decided to share it.

It's some sort of social experiment.

http://www.minecraftforum.net/forums/servers/pc-servers/survival-servers/665978-closed-map-experiment

That would be a pretty interesting experiment,

:o It's so cool!

If Sney did this, i'd murder for resources <3

I dont exatly understand that seeing i wasnt bothered reading all the paragraphs. mind explaining for the lazy people like me? :3

Sure. At the end of the experiment. This is what the world looked like. 

Its a 350 Block x 350 Block world trapped in bedrock ( in other words. they have bedrock on everyside except for the top) 

There were finite resources. So, naturally. They get used up. One by one, the resources depleted. 

To keep everything fair the server was only running when everyone was available to play.

To make things more organized world chat use was discouraged unless you had a global message. Communication was to be minimal and done through third party programs. The limited/restricted communication made groups/clans/guilds possible.

After about a few weeks into the experiment, players banded together into smaller groups with the goal of working together to build stuff.

Four large clans emerged. “The Brotherhood”, “The Axe”, “The Dwarves” and the most successful “Merchant’s Guild”.

During this time they co-existed peacefully with minor fights over trees and saplings, most did well with their own tree farms. Strip mining began. Resources like iron were abundant and most got wasted into weapons and armor.

The Merchants Guild was efficient and used trade to strive in this harsh world. They would trade netherack/cobblestone/rare ores for usable materials such as saplings/wood/dirt/string/wool/sand/etc.

Due to a lack of diamond, the players resorted to war to find diamonds. The four clans raided each other bases and griefed each other. This war went on for a few days and The Axe had lost their castle completely. The Brotherhood had to rebuild a very broken town.

The Dwarves took minimal damage due to their underground sub-systems and the difficult nature to destroy caves.

The Merchant’s Guild took no damage because they won over their fights with complex trade agreements and treaties.

At this point The Axe had disbanded. Their members took to their own trying to make it on their own. This left a lot of griefing for trees and trade with the Merchant’s Guild abundant. Only two people were clearly ahead at this point, (aside from the merchant’s guild doing well too).

These two players had immediately realized what would happen to the map on day one and began to construct an easily defendable a base that was self-sufficient and renewable. They built there base on a giant dirt platform in the sky. They made it come off of a mountain so the grass would grow onto it. When the grass had grown onto their base (A few days in), they had already acquired the needed materials for sticky pistons and buckets. They created a water elevator that could be toggled with the pistons and began destroying the mountain. They dug all the earth out from around them and made their base impossible to reach without the use of the water elevator or towering up. From the first week in they began systematically depleting resources in a way that would set the other players behind.

Five weeks into the experiment a lot of players had lost the will to play.

That would be a summarised version. You're welcome ^_^