[3504] in comp.os.os2.announce archive
GAME: Entrepreneur for OS/2 released!
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (Brad Wardell)
Mon Oct 20 21:17:15 1997
To: os2ann.DISCUSS@bloom-picayune.MIT.EDU
Date: 20 Oct 1997 19:07:00 -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]
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Stardock Releases Its Next Generation Strategy Game -- Entrepreneur!
Entrepreneur shows just how much a real-time corporate warfare game can be!
Monday, October 20, 1997
Contact: Alexander Antoniades
Stardock Systems, Inc.
(313) 762-0687 x228
Canton MI -- Stardock Systems released 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 only the CEOs at billion dollar companies get to play this game?
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 with other markets following after
release. The player begins with a single office =93campus=94 and a sales
executive. The sales executive makes sure your company is represented in the
region of the world it is in. As your company grows, new sales executives
will join your company.
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'll be creating all types of different marketing
campaigns ranging from TV campaigns all the way down to good 'ole FUD (Fear,
Uncertainty and Doubt). Marketing campaigns act as movable units on the map.
Players move those units to places they think they can do the most harm to
other players.
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 range from political to scientific. 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's
many dozens of cards in Entrepreneur to choose from and they really do stir
things up.
The game is won when the 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 (the part of the
program that controls the computer players' actions), 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 performing Internet performance of any game currently available. You 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, you 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 on it so you can get an idea of who is the best at
it. Imagine Quakeworld or Battle.net where you can keep track of number of
"frags" and thus be recognized for your...ruthlessness.
Entrepreneur will be generally available from many retailers starting October
24. It will also be available directly from Stardock at 1-888-STARDOCK.
Entrepreneur's 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's 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.
A listing of retailers and resellers that carry Entrepreneur is available at
Stardock's website.
# # #
Entrepreneur
$49.95
Runs on: Windows 95, Windows NT, OS/2 Warp
Real-Time Strategy Game
Trademark Notices:
All trademarks are held by their respective holders.
Entrepreneur is a trademark of Stardock Systems, inc.
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