Istaria: Chronicles of the Gifted Interview
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Jonric: Since it's the obvious first question, why you are changing the name of the game now? Are you trying to escape or sidestep any issues or questions related to Horizons' past?
Rick Simmons: Horizons has a long and illustrious history as the only game on the market with a website domain that doesn't match the game title AND a game name that sounds like a dating service - not to mention the confusion when you actually go to http://www.horizons.com. We felt that with the new ownership, "the game previously known as Horizons" would be best served with a name that was easier to remember, has a closer association to the actual game and doesn't cause confusion in general... you have no idea how stupid I've felt explaining that the game was called Horizons, but you had to go to www.istaria.com.
We're not trying to escape from any issues of the past; in fact, this change is in keeping with what we've been doing since Virtrium took ownership, which is to make the game a whole lot better. Some changes are about the gameworld, such as our recent expansion with the Confectioner update, while others are about support features, like our complete overhaul of the billing system.
And now, there's the name change. As far as I'm concerned, it has always been broken, and it's time to fix it. The new name is Istaria: Chronicles of the Gifted. Istaria is the main continent in the world; it's a unique name and people already know www.istaria.com as the game domain. Chronicles of the Gifted indicates our new and much stronger commitment to telling story within the world. Players are referred to as The Gifted because of how they can restore their life's energy through the Ritual of Everlasting Life. You can check out our most recent audio story and prose related to the ritual here: http://community.istaria.com/news/?id=263
