📄 Terms of Use

Who this is

DSO Empire Simulator ("the game") is made and operated by Dental Strategy Institute ("DSI," "we," "us"), available at empire.dentalstrategyinstitute.com. By playing, you agree to these terms.

It's satire

This game pokes fun at dental-industry roll-up culture — EBITDA multiples, private equity term sheets, corporate jargon, and all of it. It's entertainment. Nothing in the game is real financial, legal, valuation, or business advice, and no real dental practice, DSO, company, or person is depicted or implicated. Any resemblance to your own consultant, board meeting, or acquisition offer is a coincidence we'll happily take credit for.

Using the game

• The game is free to play and intended for a general professional audience.
• Please don't use offensive, impersonating, or otherwise inappropriate names on the public leaderboard. We filter obvious profanity automatically, but we may also remove or reset an entry at our discretion.
• Please don't attempt to disrupt the game or its leaderboard (for example, automated/scripted submissions, or attempts to exploit the scoring system) — see our Privacy Policy for how leaderboard submissions are checked.
• We may update, change, or remove features, or take the game offline, at any time without notice.

Optional purchases

• The game is free to play. It also offers one optional real-money purchase, the Legendary Card Pack ($1.99), which grants 3 in-game desk cards. Payment is processed by Stripe; see our Privacy Policy for how that works.
• Each card in the pack is drawn independently from all 5 Legendary desk cards at equal odds (20% each). Duplicates are possible; a duplicate still adds its usual permanent bonus rather than being wasted.
• Desk cards give small permanent boosts to your in-game output — they speed up progress, but nothing in the game requires purchasing them, and no purchase is needed to see or complete the game's content.
• Purchased cards are added to the save in the browser you completed checkout in, the same way all other progress is stored (see "Your save data" below) — they don't carry over automatically to a different browser or device, and can't be restored if that save is lost.
• All charges are final. If you believe you were charged in error, contact us at the email below and we'll look into it.
• This purchase is intended for adults who can consent to a purchase in their jurisdiction. If you're buying on behalf of a minor or don't have authorization to use the payment method, please don't complete the purchase.

Your save data

Your gameplay progress is stored only in your own browser (see our Privacy Policy). We don't back it up, and we can't recover it if it's lost — that's simply how browser storage works. We make no guarantee that your progress will persist indefinitely.

Ownership

The game, its writing, art, and design belong to DSI. If you submit a display name to the leaderboard, you're not granting us any rights beyond displaying that name publicly as part of the leaderboard itself.

No warranty

The game is provided "as is," with no guarantee that it will be error-free, uninterrupted, or available at any particular time. We aren't liable for any loss connected to your use of the game, including lost save progress, to the fullest extent the law allows.

Changes to these terms

If these terms change in any meaningful way, we'll update the date at the top of this page. Continuing to play after a change means you accept the updated terms.

Governing law

These terms are governed by the laws of the State of North Carolina, without regard to its conflict-of-law rules.

Contact

Questions about these terms? Reach us at privacy@dentalstrategyinstitute.com.