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Fewer problems on the Horizon?

Remember this? The one with the dragons? And the crafting? No? Nevermind.

Thought Horizons had coughed out its last, dying gasp? Not so, thanks to Virtrium LLC. Gamersinfo.net has the interview with Rick Simmons to give you all the details.

Indepth Interview With David Bowman at Skotos

Shannon Appelcline had a chance to sit down with CEO and Creative Director for Tulga Games, David Bowman.

Shannon Appelcline: Tell me a bit about your background in the online gaming industry.

David Bowman: I started with Bungie as a designer for Myth II. When Microsoft started conversations with Bungie about acquisition I went to Turbine. Asheron's Call had just launched and they were hiring designers. MMOs are the next great evolution in entertainment and I knew where I wanted to be working. I became the Vice President of Production at Turbine and led the AC live team until July of 2001. Artifact Entertainment hired me then and I've been with Horizons: Empire of Istaria through the launch and Tulga Games' acquisition of the project and team.

I'm now the CEO and Creative Director for Tulga Games. Because we have a small team focused on Horizons, I wear multiple hats in addition to those titles. I provide the Live team with world building, quest creation and data entry whenever it's needed. It can make for long weeks, but for a small company it's essential that the leader of the company understand the product, service and audience.

Read the rest of the interview at Skotos.

GameCloud Has an interview with famed author Peter S. Beagle up about his new gig over at Tulga Games.

Gamecloud - What exactly will you be doing with the Horizons team for the game?

PSB: I’m still figuring the details of that out. But basically I’ll be working on new text and dialog, I’ll be creating new quests, planning all the details of that out, collaborating with the Tulga team on new short-term and long-term events. I’ll even get to add in at least one new race — of sentient monsters! That ought to be fun.

I want to know where the unicorns were when I played! Can Beagle breathe some life into the floundering game? Read More to find out.

Here is some more information and news on Horizons

New interviews on the Horizons.
RPG Vault sits down with Peter Beagle, the renowned fantasy author recently hired to write for Horizons: Empire of Istaria, as well as David Bowman, Creative Director for Horizons, and Connor Cochran, Beagle's publishing editor and friend. While Beagle is new to the gaming industry, he's optimistic:

Peter Beagle: As I warned the first university class I ever taught - a screenwriting class at the University of Washington - 'You guys are my guinea pigs. I'm undoubtedly going to be learning on you, and making all my mistakes on you, and I can only ask your patience and your indulgence while I'm doing it.' I was immensely proud when a couple of students came up to me at the end of two quarters and assured me, 'Boy, did you learn!' I hope to earn the same reward with Horizons.

See the textual talent behind Horizons in Q&A form at RPG Vault.
Related links:

• Another set of interviews with David Bowman & Peter Beagle.

Raw meat and potatoes.

GamersInfo sits down with Rick Simmons, Chief Technology Officer for Horizons: Empire of Istaria. We learn that Rick prefers to eat "animal flesh whole" from teenage work experience in an abattoir (/shudder) and that Horizons might just find a competitive niche as a smaller MMO.

I think the current environment favors the smaller product. When raising money, your chances of success are higher to pitch a niche product with 10k to 20k subscribers that has a low-cost product development design and a marketing approach that builds upon a tight community. Compare that to making a pitch where you're trying to raise money to compete for the same customer as some of the bigger names. Besides requiring a great design and a big development budget, an ultra superb $$$$ marketing effort is also required. I do think that each unique product to the market attracts new players, but there is still some shifting of players between products - everyone wants to try what's new. All of the big players in the MMP space are not going to stand idle while some new-comer tries to corner in on their space.

Read more from Horizons CTO Rick Simmons interview.

Other links you might enjoy:

• Past Horizons: Empire of Istaria news.

Strangely, David Bowman doesn't play an archer.
GamersInfo.net has posted another great Horizons interview, featuring David Bowman. The interview focuses on Bowman's background. Legolas, who does play an archer in Horizons (Called Leegoolass) had this to say about that:

"Often mistaken as the "owner" of Horizons or Tulga Games, David Bowman, like most of the developers of the MMO wears many hats. When asked to describe his job in 5 sentences he does just that: "I coordinate the team. I create new opportunities for the company. I am head cheerleader for Horizons. I manage investor relations. I set the goals for the growth of Horizons." After 10 years with such giants (though not at the time) as Bungie and Turbine before Tulga, time, age, wisdom and personal integrity has made him into a person well-respected by those know him and even more so by those who work with him. " 

You can read the entire Horizons Interview at GamersInfo.net
Related Links:

• Other Horizons News

Dragon them in for interviews.
GamersInfo has posted another Horizons interview, this time featuring Jason "Amon Gwareth" Murdick. Sean Connery once played a dragon in the movie Dragonheart, which is funny when you consider he is a real-life knight. When pressed on this conundrum he gave us the finger, screamed, "There can be only one!" and then mumbled the following:

"
Content and Systems Designer Jason "Amon Gwareth" Murdick is perhaps the second most well-known member of the Horizons development team. He is certainly the most active on the forums throughout the internet. A self-described "jack-of-all-trades", Jason has his hands in nearly every system of the game. He fixes, designs, upgrades and manages whatever is handed to him. " 

You can read the entire Horizons Interview at GamersInfo.
Related Links:

• Other Horizons News

Horizons, it's not just for dragons anymore.
RPGVault has posted a Horizons interview featuring CEO David Bowman. The decision to give military personnel a second account is the focus. We were visiting Dog River and hanging at the Ruby when we heard Lacey say:

" David Bowman tells us the thinking behind Tulga Games' new initiative offering a second CD key to military users "

You can read the entire Horizons Interview at RPGVault .
Related Links:

• Other Horizons News

Does Bowman always play an archer?
Stratics has posted a Horizons interview featuring CEO David Bowman. The interview discusses the decision by Tulga to give military personnel a second CD key for free. Hank from Corner Gas has scratched many a CD with his car key trying to unlock a game, but that didn't stop him from saying this:

" David Bowman - CEO & Creative Director of Tulga Games' Horizons: Empire of Istaria spoke with Stratics today about their Horizons Military Appreciation Program which recognizes and appreciates the efforts of the men and women who have volunteered to be part of the United States military, by providing all new and existing Horizons: Empire of Istaria accounts created using the .mil email address used by military personnel and families, a second CD key added to the account for free. "

You can read the entire Horizons Interview at Stratics.
Related Links:

• Other Horizons News

Dragon their butts to another interview.
GamersInfo has posted a Horizons interview featuring Roger Hantz. Hank of Corner Gas was once asked if enjoyed serving nachos to bingo mommas. His reply went nothing like this:

" Roger "Rawdge" Hantz joined the Tulga team last year and has had a hand in helping to stabilize the online world of Horizons and solidify the content since his first days on the job. As a Content and System Designer, Roger is responsible for breaking down each item/program to be placed in the game, planning its development cycle and then implementing that cycle. Without him, there would be no path to follow. A die-hard fan of the game, Roger is unique in that he brings to the team a player's perspective. Along with that, he has a talent for writing. Once certain areas of the game stabilize he can help flesh out the long-requested lore. "

You can read the entire Horizons Interview at GamersInfo.
Related Links:

• The Latest Horizons News
• Got Gas?

Questions? Answers.
GamersInfo has posted a Horizons interview featuring Roger Hantz. Anne McCaffrey refused to comment on the use of dragons, but did say this:

" Roger "Rawdge" Hantz joined the Tulga team last year and has had a hand in helping to stabilize the online world of Horizons and solidify the content since his first days on the job. As a Content and System Designer, Roger is responsible for breaking down each item/program to be placed in the game, planning its development cycle and then implementing that cycle. Without him, there would be no path to follow. A die-hard fan of the game, Roger is unique in that he brings to the team a player's perspective. Along with that, he has a talent for writing. Once certain areas of the game stabilize he can help flesh out the long-requested lore. "

You can read the entire Horizons Interview at GamersInfo.
Related Links

• Other Horizons News

There be dragons, and they be cool.
TenTonHammer.com interrogated Jason Murdick, a Tulga Games programmer who works on Horizons. The interrogation featured dragons, the past, present, and strangely, even the future. Reese Witherspoon declined to be interviewing, stating:

" Much like Colonel Klink of Hogan's Heroes we have ways of making people talk. Our victim today is Jason Murdick of Tulga Games, who will be splling the beans on Horizons. "

You can read the entire Horizons Interview at TenTonHammer.com.
Related Links

• Even More Horizons News

Is "Horizons" the industry's best kept secret?
The folks at Tulga Games have been hard at work on Horizons for the last two years. David Bowman sits down with RPG Vault to discuss why Horizons got off to a bit of a rought start, the many changes Tulga has implemented since launch, the game events that make Horizons different, and a glimpse at where the dev team is taking the game in the future.

Jonric: In what ways and to what extent have you addressed these problems and issues between then [launch] and now?

David Bowman: We are quickly approaching the end of the second year since launch. In that time, we've doubled the content available in the game and completed many new content systems. Our database has been streamlined, and the hardware reconfigured. We've created a completely new Dragon tutorial, and are in the process of creating a new one for the other races. The client has been optimized repeatedly to improve performance on a wide variety of machines. The combat systems have been completely replaced, and now perform well. I won't claim that we've fixed everything, but we've made great improvements, and will continue to work on all remaining issues.

See the Horizons "update" interview at RPGVault.

It's on the horizon... I can see it!
RPGVault has posted a Horizons interview featuring David Bowman of Tulga Games. Scotty Bowman, NHL coach and all-around nice guy would not return our calls. We are sure he would have said this:

"We quiz Tulga Games' David Bowman on how the online world project has evolved plus the team's future intentions
"

You can read the entire Horizons Interview at RPGVault.