Commercial Server Opens New Opportunities for Corporations

COMMERCIAL SERVER OPENS NEW OPPORTUNITIES
FOR CORPORATIONS LOOKING TO LEVERAGE
AND EXPAND INTERNET PRESENCE
BEAVERTON, Ore., -- Dec. 11, 1996 -- Company officials for The Palace, Inc. (http://www.thepalace.com), the leading virtual world chat software on the Internet, have announced the release of a new commercial server designed to provide a scaleable solution for corporations interested in developing Palace communities as an extension of their web presence. This comes on the heels of another major developer announcement, made by The Palace and Macromedia at Fall COMDEX, that The Palace now supports multiuser Shockwave files. Collectively, these announcements signal an effort to move virtual world chat further into the corporate/commercial realm.

As more corporations look for ways to interact with customers on the Internet, The Palace approach is seen by many as the best solution to foster online communities. "This is really a response to corporate customer demand. A lot of time and resources have been spent developing web sites where users visit for brief moments without ever returning.

"Increasingly, we are being approached by companies looking to get more out of their web sites. Above and beyond just providing content, companies want to begin to form online communities and dialogue. This is really the next step on the Internet," commented Mike Maerz, president and CEO of The Palace.

With more than 350,000 client downloads and an excess of 1,000 existing server sites, The Palace produces the leading virtual world chat software for the World Wide Web -a product which enables people and organizations to participate in a virtual community to talk, interact and share experiences in a graphical world on the Internet.

More than 1,000 Palace servers have been set up by individuals and corporations around the world, including: Sony Pictures, Capitol Records, Fox Broadcasting Network, Intel, SonicNet, MTV, Next Generation Online, The NFL, and House of Blues.

The Palace Commercial UNIX Server replaces the beta version which is currently in use at several corporate sites. The final version represents a complete rewrite of the software and is fully documented and supported by The Palace in-house UNIX expert staff.

The commercial server includes:

Enhanced Scalability -- Using a single machine or by distributing the load over machines on a server farm, users have the ability to scale up the processing power by adding additional hardware to support the Palace server. This new feature gives server operators the ability to support more than 1,000 users at once.

Easy Web Site Integration and Authoring - the commercial server is designed to easily extend an existing web site by leveraging those assets into a Palace environment. This can be accomplished by customizing the Palace server or by putting up the pre-authored Palace server.

Remote Maintenance and Management - Since the server works as part of the client interface, a commercial server site can be easily authored and managed from a remote location through the use of a regular Internet connection.

Bot Creation - With the Palace-native language, Iptscrae, or with the SDK C language interface, Bots (avatars run by computers which interact with users), can be created to operate on the commercial palace server. Bots can be used to host gameshows, do technical support, online ads, and online sales.

Expert Support - The Palace has assembled a top-notch team of UNIX experts, available to assist commercial server users in the set up and maintenance of a Palace site.

Private Server Creation - Private protected Palace servers can be created which allow only designated clients to connect - a great solution for kids' servers or private associations.

Automatic Registration - A new feature built into this server allows the site to be automatically included on The Palace Directory of active Palace sites. This listing is located at The Palace web site.

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