DEFCON (stylised as DEFCOИ and sometimes subtitled Everybody Dies in the North American version and Global Thermonuclear War in the European version) is a real-time strategy game created by independent British game developer Introversion Software. The gameplay is a simulation of a global nuclear war, with the game's screen reminiscent of the "big boards" that visually represented thermonuclear war in films such as Dr. Strangelove, Fail-Safe, and especially WarGames. The game has been available by download since September 29, 2006 through Introversion's web store and Steam. On 5 April 2007, publisher Encore announced they would be publishing the game in the United States, and had ordered an initial 50,000 copies of the game for retail. In the UK it was released for retail on 15 June 2007 and for a limited period included the developer's first game Uplink. Gameplay Players are given a 1980s vector graphics computer-themed world map, a varied arsenal of nuclear and conventional weaponry, and a primary objective: destroy as much of the enemy's population as possible while having as little of one's own population destroyed as possible. A typical game will see civilian casualties numbering in the millions (megadeaths) while players try their hand at annihilating their opponents. In most games, all sides take heavy losses, but the player with the highest score wins. Players' scores are determined according to one of three schemes: Default (gain 2 points for 1 megadeath caused, lose 1 point for 1 megadeath suffered), Survivor (gain 1 point per million survivors in the player's territory) or Genocide (gain 1 point for each megadeath caused); though functionally identical in a one-on-one conflict, each scoring scheme suggests large differences in strategy in larger multiplayer conflicts. Gameplay time can be varied by configuring the speed at which events progress from real-time (1 second in-game:1 second out-of-game) to 20 times real-time. Most games last 30 to 40 minutes while real-time gameplay can last more than eight hours, depending on the mode of scoring. There is also an "Office" mode of play in which the game is permanently real-timed and can be minimised to run in the background of other computer activities, allowing the player to check in only when important events take place, and only for so long as it is necessary to modify the standing orders of each of the player's assets. The game offers six territories that may be selected by a player