Horizons: Empire of Istaria Acquisition Interview

RPG Vault was able to corner Virtrium’s Rick Simmons and Jason Murdick for a three-page interview about their recent acquisition of Horizons: Empire of Istaria. You know, the MMORPG that changes hands on a seemingly daily basis:

Q: What are your plans for building the player base to a large enough size for the game to live on, and to support ongoing development?

A: Let me start by saying we’ve already seen many former players return, and more arrive every day to soar the skies in search of old foes, or continue to work on building Istaria. We’ve received encouragement from previous players who are coming back because they know the team now at the helm understands what makes Horizons special and unique among MMOs. We’re confident that our foundation of knowledge will allow us to move the game forward and encourage existing players to invite their friends to join them in it.

The Horizons community is our best tool for attracting like-minded gamers. Our current player base knows that we truly listen to their thoughts and opinions about the game, and respond to that feedback in a thoughtful and responsible way – we’re always trying to do what’s best for the game as a whole, not meet the needs of a squeaky wheel. For example, dragons worked together to provide strong feedback on how creating their lairs took too long. Their reasonable discussions about the lair shaping process showed us that it really was taking longer than we’d intended, and so, in our most recent patch, the creation of many chambers was made easier by reducing the quantity of resources required. Our developers are an involved part of the community; players who look at Horizons will see that in everything we do.