[3398] in comp.os.os2.announce archive
GAME: Entrepreneur!
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (Brad Wardell)
Fri Sep 19 12:09:25 1997
To: os2ann.DISCUSS@bloom-picayune.MIT.EDU
Date: 19 Sep 1997 10:07:00 -0400
From: bwardell@nospamme.stardock.com (Brad Wardell)
Reply-To: bwardell@nospamme.stardock.com (Brad Wardell)
Reply-to: bwardell@nospamme.stardock.com (Brad Wardell)
[Followups directed to comp.os.os2.games]
---------------------------------------------------------------------
Contact: Alexander Antoniades (313) 762-0687 x228
Stardock Announces Its Next Generation Strategy Game -- Entrepreneur!
Entrepreneur shows just how much fun a real-time corporate
warfare game can be!
Livonia MI -- Stardock Systems announced its new strategy game Entrepreneur
today. Entrepreneur is a real-time, multi-player, strategy game set in the
real world of business. It is not a business simulator. Nor is it a
shoot-em-up game. In essence, the idea behind Entrepreneur is that every day,
corporate CEOs as at companies like Microsoft, Apple, IBM, Time Warner, and
TCI are all waging all out war on each other.
"Why should the Bill Gates and Steve Jobs of the world get to do this sort of
cool stuff? Now everyone can try to crush their enemies in business too!"said
Brad Wardell, President, Stardock Systems, Inc.
In Entrepreneur, players start a company and choose a market to conquer. The
game ships with the computer market, other markets will become available later
on from Stardock and third parties.
The player begins with a single site and a sales executive. The site provides
a location to build the marketing, research, sales, manufacturing and
recreational buildings that make up the backbone of every corporate empire.
The sales executive makes sure your company is represented in the region of
the world it is in.
Moreover, each region has different desires and through research and
development, you must try to engineer your products to meet their demands.
However, different parts of the world have very different demands. For
example, one player may dominate North America through their leadership in
reliability while the buyers in Europe may demand performance and thus be a
minor player there to companies who are ahead of you in performance.
To offset this, Entrepreneur lets people see just how powerful marketing is.
As the player's company grows, they can build up their marketing
infrastructure. Soon, they=92ll be creating all types of different marketing
campaigns ranging from TV campaigns all the way down to good old FUD (Fear,
Uncertainty and Doubt). Marketing campaigns act as movable units on the map,
so players can move those units to places they think they can do the most
damage.
On top of all this, certain regions have special resources. If the player is
the market leader in a region with a special resource he or she gets access to
it. The resources types are political, scientific, labor, criminal, and
media. If the player has enough of these resources, Direct Action Cards that
are available will begin to light up. Players receive a random Direct Action
Card at the beginning of each game year.
Direct Action Cards are the great equalizer of Entrepreneur and their powers
can vary between insignificant to helping clinch the game. Have enough
political resources? Then use your clout with the government to shut out a
competitor from a target region. Hold enough labor resources? Lure away an
enemy sales executive or incite a labor strike at a target region. There are
many dozens of cards in Entrepreneur to choose from and they really do stir
things up.
The game is won when any player has achieved a basic monopoly share of the
market (you don't necessarily drive your opponents out of business but keep
them around for anti-trust purposes -- like say giving them $200 million to
keep them afloat...).
While many games that have multi-player support have poor AI, Stardock takes
its computer players seriously. The AI in Entrepreneur was developed by the
same team that created the AI for Galactic Civilizations (the 1995 game of the
year from the Internet Top 100). Each computer player has a unique
personality, so that one computer player that makes a mistake may not be found
in a different one.
Multi-player play is pretty much expected today and Entrepreneur may have the
best Internet performance of any game currently available. Players can play
people from around the world and Entrepreneur can handle latency times as
great as 5 seconds or more without missing a beat (most games can't handle
more than .5 seconds). With STARDOCK.NET, players can visit other players in
a chat forum right from within the game and join their games easily -- no
searching around for someone to play.
Another unique feature to STARDOCK.NET is its hall of fame. The top 100
scores are kept track of so players can get an idea of who is the best at it.
Imagine Quakeworld or Battle.net where players can keep track of number of
"frags" and thus be recognized for their...ruthlessness.
Entrepreneur will be generally available from select retailers starting
October 10. It will also be available directly from Stardock at
1-888-STARDOCK. Entrepreneur=92s list price is $49.95. Stardock Systems,
Inc. Can be reached at (313)762-0687 or via fax (313)762-0690. Its email
address is info@stardock.com. Stardock=92s web site is
http://www.stardock.com. The game requires a high end 486 PC or better
running Windows 95, Windows NT, or OS/2 Warp 3 or later, and a CD-ROM drive.
###
Entrepreneur
List Price: $49.95
Available: October 10, 1997
Part No. E1295ET
UPC code: 7-08192-01024-0
Published and developed by Stardock Systems
$45 PRE-ORDER PRICE when you order it before October 1st 1997. Call
1-888-STARDOCK or visit http://www.stardock.com for on-line ordering.
--------------------------
Brad Wardell, Stardock Systems, Inc.
Coming Soon: Entrepreneur
World Domination Through Corporate Warfare
http://www.stardock.com
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