As recent events in south London have shown, this can involve seeking out real and fantasy models of uncaring aggression and dominance, with potentially fatal results.
Anheuser-Busch hired Goldman Sachs before the InBev bid was formally made, along with Citigroup, and both banks have been working overtime to build "fantasy" models that show the company is worth much more than InBev's offer.
Not long ago, a professional poker player I know e-mailed to say that he'd passed much of the previous month "trying to prepare a profitable daily fantasy model" for the upcoming baseball season.
When a tech entrepreneur is seeking funding, they need three things: an "elevator pitch" – the essence of the Big Idea in once sentence; a PowerPoint slide-deck; and a business plan which is basically a spreadsheet fantasy model outlining increasing sales, imaginary revenues, and that mythical "break-even" point.
While these "qualities" may be expected parts of the user experience in other industries, in 2010, the fantasy industry was still experiencing digital growing pains and relied on simple ports of the offline fantasy model into an online interface.
And in the middle of the room are two of Bodys Isek Kingelez's architectural-fantasy models, their colorful, eccentric structures forming a corrupted street-fair modernist retort to the pristine white towers seen in "Borom Sarret".
But the service was outsourced a couple of years ago, with some fantasy business model.
Sam is that ludicrous Hollywood fantasy, a model child who never gets sick, never loses his temper and loves everybody all the time.
Regardless, DraftMix's short form fantasy sports model is a sure win for fantasy fans, even if they only play for virtual dollars and keep the betting offline.
Ad funded now, HubDub could move into a fantasy league model, assuming people really are as passionate about news as about sport, which is debatable.
Funded by some seed angel capital right now, HubDub could well move into a real fantasy league model, assuming people really are as passionate about news as they are about sports, which is, well, debatable.
